Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
RESETTLEMENT AND THE AGE OF THE GREAT CONSTRUCTIONS - THE 18TH CENTURY 117 THE TOWN OF SERFS, HANDICRAFTSMEN ANDTRADESMEN How did the inhabitants of Vác earn their living after the Ottoman occupation? Their income came from several sources. Due to the narrow fields only a few serfs owned a whole plot in the middle of the century. Also, the hilly countryside made the area suitable mainly for viticulture and the wine of Vác became famous. Crops were less significant and animal husbandry even less so. In Püspökvác serf-plots did not include ploughland. An area that was the size of 50 serf-plots was (re-)distributed among those serfs who owned draught animals every year. Wheat, barley, millet and rye were grown on the ploughlands. Some of the landless cotters went to the Great Hungarian Plain to earn their living as reapers and they were paid in kind. Grape-growing had pivotal importance on the gentle slopes of Naszály Hill. Viticulture had been significant as early as the Middle Ages, and it was considered the main source of income in the 18th century as well. After the Muslim era, by 1720 the area of vineyards had grown eightfold, while by the end of the century it was seventy times bigger than before. The planting of new vineyards was encouraged by the landlords as they did not levy any tax on wine-growing for the first 5-6 years. Only a single geographical name (Öreg-pince-völgy: “Old Cellar Valley") indicates that there might have been wine-cellars on Naszály Hill in the Middle Ages, but some of the wine produced in the 18th century was stored in the cellars below the town houses dating back to The cellar of the Curia the Middle Ages. Some medieval cellars are open to the public even today. Animal husbandry - cattle, sheep, pig, bees - was more significant in the first half of the 18th century, but even at that time it was below the national average. In the second half of the century the town could not rent the pastures of Szód and Göd any longer. Therefore new but much smaller pastures were found in the remote areas of Szór and Süd. However, the area of grazing-land was on the decrease all around. New areas - meadows or Farmers in the 18th century forests - could not be used, which resulted in the decline of animal husbandry. Intensive stock raising had not become widespread yet. Handicraft industry, on the other hand, played a much bigger part in the economic life of the town. All handicraftsmen worked in Püspök- and Káptalanvác (Bishop's and Chapter's Vác), the inhabitants of Kisvác were engaged only in agriculture. Some of the guilds had been reorganized as early as the 1690s, and by the end of the 18th century their
