Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 36/1-2. - Ajánlva a hetven éves Dr. Domonkos Ottónak (Győr, 1998)

Summary

We are introducing the remainings of a soap-workshop from the 18th century, which can be found next to Előkapu (Frontgate) in the lower part of the area between the walls of the tower and the city. The workshop was found during the excavation of the citywalls. Thick white crustation can be found on the inner surface of the wooden tubs dented into the clayey floor. Presumably, the soap precipitating from the skimmed off lye has settled to the staves of the barrel. They also found a pool built of bricks and a sinkhole of a brick lye-drain next to the two tubs. The lye-drain led to the moat while breaking through the outer city-wall. 30 Kreutzer-coppers of Emperor Francis I, which were coined in Vienna in 1807, have been found in a filled-in tub deepened into floor-level. Conclusively, it is assumed that the workshop was built in the second part of the 1 8th century and was still in use in the first part of the 1 900's. On the excavating site there was also the central building of the soap and candlemaking guilds of Sopron, which had been formed by 10 craftsmen. The chest of the soapmaker guild can still be found in the folk collection of the Sopron Museum. In the city archives there are a lot of documents connected to the soapmakers. Based on them Csatkai Endre drafted the history of the soap and candlemakers of Sopron in 1941. The area of the houses 41-43 in Várkerület were still a "real soap producing district" in the 1 870's. There, next to Előkapu, in the area of the previous washinghouse of the city there was the shop of the soapmaking guild, in the lower part of the pass between the city and tower walls there were several soapworks which led their lye into the moat. Furthermore the grease piled up for soapmaking gave off an unbearable smell so in 1 804 the contract of sale forbade the moving of soapmakers into the house on the corner of Várkerület and Színház Street. The information on the exact situation and furnishing of the soapworks next to the townwalls of Sopron has been given according to the datas of our excavations in 1986. HORVÁTH József: The study of trade regulations of Győr in the 1 7th century Since the previous works on the history of the industry in Győr did not mention the opportunities of studying trade-testaments at all, this essay tries to refer to those examining the trade-testaments from the first half of the 1 7th century. It can be stated that out of the 528 local testaments - known from this area - almost 200 are from a craftsman, from his wife or from his widow. This ratio of almost 40 percent is relatively high in comparison to other Hungarian towns. Especially the number of tailor-testaments is high (about 60) which can be due to the fact that there were several tailors throughout the towns. The following ones in order are the butchers with 20-20, the furriers and shoemakers with 16-16, the bootmakers with 12 testaments. The next one and half dozen trades have only provided from 1 to 6 testaments. The second part of the study mentions a few ideas for further investigation- in the field of quantitative analysis of the sources; such as the nationality of trade-testators, their provenance, their financial condition, connections with traders in and out of the town, and finally the roles of testaments in the life of the city. ARRABONA Kf| 36/1-2.