Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 12. (1957)

Nagy Lajos: Mezőgazdaság Pesten a XVIII. században = Agriculture in the town of Pest during the 18th century 133-196

• • • • develop their capacities to the full. Since craftsmen and merchants as a result of the backwardness of market conditions were not able to consolidate and develop their existence solely by their profession, they turned towards the fields, meadows, gardens, farmsteads, and vineyards distributed to owners of town houses, not considering the occupation with these merely as a sideline and making serious efforts to increase their income from these sources. Prom the examination of various conscriptions we may draw the conclusion that about half of the population of the town of Pest owned at the middle of the century Ararious agricultural properties, and at least a half ot the craftsmen and merchants is found among these proprietors. Parm hands and day-labourers, whose ever increasing number augmented the population of the suburbs, — though they themselves owned some landed property, especially small vineyard plots in Kőbánya — found abundant opportunity for work in agriculture and particularly in the cultivation of the vineyards. At the middle of the century not only the development of animal husbandry was checked, but the further expansion of agriculture and the cultivation of vineyards became impossible too. The arable area of the surroundings of the town were mostly distributed by the middle of the 18th century. Everything was regulated: the territory of fields, meadows, farmsteads, gardens, vineyards and pastures became permanent. This stability was meticulously guarded by the town council. The population, on the other hand, increased rapidly. While in 1746 the population could be estimated at about 5—6000, in 1792 the town had 26 684 inhabitants. The development of the town received a powerful impulse from the prosperity which took its origin from the wars of succession. As a result of the increased production and exchange of goods the importance of Pest as a centre of commerce increased. Under these conditions the significance of agriculture in the life of the town fell more and more into the background. An ever thinner stratum of the population was occupied with agriculture. The cultivation of the vineyards however retained its importance and the problems connected with it often took the attention of the town council in the course of the century. Citizens of this town, called by Márton Schwartner as early as at the end of the 18th century the first commercial town of Hungary, comparing its development to that of I^ondon, were still engaged in the cultivation of vineyards — in great numbers and with considerable intensity — for a long time to come. Caption of the figures Fig. 1. Plough-lands under cultivation around the city in the years of 1720 — p. 158. Fig. 2. Plough-lands of Törökőr (Turkish watch-posts) — p. 149. Fig. 3. Division-scheme of vineyard-units of Kőbánya — p. 167. 196