Századok – 2001
TANULMÁNYOK - Pach Zsigmond Pál: A vidéki posztóipar az északkeleti országrészen a 15-17. században IV/793
A VIDÉKI POSZTÓIPAR A 15-17. SZÁZADBAN 817 occupé des tissus importés, de qualité grande et moyenne dans la Hongrie des XVe -XVIIe siècles -le troisième secteur, dit inférieur du marché de drap avait aussi un rôle important où furent mis en vente des produits de drap du pays, de qualité rude et moins chers. Ainsi, à part de l'industrie de draperie urbaine, bien limitée de l'importation, s'articulaient quelques formes de l'industrie de draperie rurale qui furent analysées et critiquées maintes fois par l'historiographie d'économie internationale depuis de la définition de la draperie urbainet et de la draperie rurale d'Henri Pirenne. Pourtant, dans la Hongrie contemporaine, les formes commerciales de l'artisanat rural se sont nées dans les secteurs spéciaux (et dans des circonstances économique particulières) qui ne pouvait pas fonder la base de la manufacture capitaliste et créer le terrain de la capitalisation de l'industrie textile. THE PROVINCIAL CLOTH-MAKING INDUSTRY IN NORTHEASTERN HUNGARY IN THE 15TH-17TH CENTURIES by Pál Zsigmond Pack (Summary) Provincial cloth-making industry is understood by the author as comprising those places of cloth-making which developed not in privileged free royal towns but in market towns (oppida) and villages (possessiones) under private lordship in the 15th to 17th centuries. His previous articles on the subject dealt with the Saxons in Transylvania and with the regions of Debrecen and Gyula. The present study is devoted to the north-eastern part of pre-Versailles Hungary, namely the counties of Bereg, Máramaros, Szatmár, Zemplén and Ung. The sources put to use include charters of settlement, seigneurial registers and comital regulations of prices. The first, primitive form of provincial cloth-making industry emerged when the peasant households began to furnish themselves not only with food but also with the material for clothing: they made simple homespun - the so-called grey cloth (pannus griseus) and similar materials for making clothes and blankets - for their own use. A vivid picture of this activity is reflected by the charters of settlement from the county of Bereg in the 15th and 16th centuries, which, alongside grain mills, indicate the existence of a great number of fulling mills. The increasing number of settlements and the development of seigneurial economy led to the second stage of provincial clothmaking industry: besides working for their own needs, the peasant households began to satisfy "the demands of the castle", that is, some of their cloth was given to the lord as a payment in kind. This transition is illustrated by the documents of the estates of Munkács (Bereg county) and Bocskó (Máramaros county) from the 16th and 17th centuries. However, charters concerning the oppidum of Nagymihály in the county of Zemplén report already in the middle of the 15th century not only the existence of "fulling mills fit for making grey cloth", but also that several among the burghers of the market town bear the name Csapó (in Latin Lanifex), which refers to the makers of grey cloth. It indicates that their engagement in cloth-making was more than a secondary activity and already became their main source of living. Thereby the provincial cloth-making industry arrived to the third stage of its development: it began to produce regularly for the market. That it was so is clearly proved by sources concerning the region of Nagymihály in the 17th century. Finally, the fourth stage of the development was reached when the cloth-making craftsmen of the market towns and villages, following the example of craftsmen living in the free royal towns, grouped into guilds themselves. The earliest cloth-making guilds were formed in the two central market towns of the county of Szatmár, Szatmár (1513) and Németi (1539). They were followed by Homonna (Zemplén county) in 1630 and Matolcs (Szatmár county) in 1717. The price-regulating decrees issued by the counties reveal that the most popular products came from Szatmár and Matolcs (and also from Nagykapos in the county of Ung): they were put to the market throughout the whole northeastern region. The study of Northeastern Hungary has thus confirmed and extended the conclusion previously articulated by the author in his other articles. Alongside the upper and middle level of the cloth market, characterised by the trade of first-class and medium-quality, mainly imported cloth in
