Szőcs Péter Levente (szerk.): Ecsed. Ghid cultural şi istoric (Satu Mare, 2009)

Dismantling the castle, the long "freedom" lawsuit and the swamp draining

especially by the Jewish community, while the traditional handicrafts were divided into two sectors: the processing of the wattle, the spinning yarn or thread with a spindle, and the weaving remained in the frame of the households, while forgery, tannery, and peltry get industrial characters, though remaining outside of the guild system. The economic progress was accelerated by the infrastructural developments (building of the roads and railways), and by draining the Swamp of Ecsed.

The idea to drain the swamp emerged already at the end of the 18th century. The ditches dug by the Károlyi family at this time, increased tough the surface of the swamp. The cultivable lands became soon a major necessity in the settlements surrounding the swamp. The situation was the same at Nagyecsed, where the gained 4684 acre lands, became insufficient in a short time. Thus, the Association of Draining of the Swamp of Ecsed and of the Regularization of Floods and Water Infiltration on the Left Bank of Szamos River was founded on the 9th of August 1894, under the chairmanship of Count Tibor Károlyi. The association aimed to drain 162.465 acre terrain. The financial resources, which were necessary to accomplish the work, were provided by grants from the state funds, loans, and the tax for flood prevention (1,5-9 crowns / acre). During this period,: the Main Eastern Canal (41 km), the Main Canal ofTyukod (11.5 km), the Main Swamp Canal (36 km) and the Main Northern Canal (29 km) were dug. The last two were separated on the hill of the fortress by a dam that still

Ecedea şi împrejurimile la mijlocul sec. XIX

Ecsed és környéke a 19. sz. közepén

Ecsed and its surroundings at the middle of the 19th c.

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