Horváth Attila – Bánkuti Imre – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 3. Historia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1975)

Petri E.: A kecskeméti görög kereskedők története a XVIII. században

EDIT PETRI THE GREEK MERCHANTS AT KECSKEMÉT IN THE I8TH CENTURY In the second half of the 17th century a new element of merchants began to gain ground in Hungarian economy — it was the Greek merchants. It is not quite exact to call them „Greek" referring to the nationality, in sources it occurs as a collective term. This is because in that period the religious status was dominating in the judgement of immigrants and thus any Turkish subject was called „Greek from the Turkish Empire" tough only part of them was really a Turk. In the history of the Balkan nations an important role was played by a migration to Europe moving through Turkish domination. The southern territories of West-Macedonia were inhabited by Greeks and „Cincars": Macedoromans. Their leading stratum, the merchants, adopted the culture of the Greeks living with them and tradesmen themselves, who above all learnt Greek, the international language of trade on the Balkans. Soon after the Turkish invasion the towns situated on the plain and beside the roads lost their population and the inhabitants ran away to the mountains from the Turkish-Albanian devastations and founded new towns there. With the passing of time a number of such macedon towns were founded, their inhabitants living by animal husbandry. Later, as the number of inhabitants went increasing, they could no more make their living in the poor mountainous areas, it became essential for them to find connection with European trade. The Greek merchants formed caravans. Between 1650 and 1850 this way of trade kept one and a half million people moving. The starting point of the caravans was generally Janina, Koznai, Moss-hopolye and Siatista which was called the "golden town" because or its richness. From Kozani several merchants came to Hungary as early as in 1662 and the best part of the Greeks at Kecskemét named this town as place of birth. The Turkish authorities endavoured to levy more and more tax on the very profitable commerce, and this kept bitterness increasing. The war of the Holy Ligue against the Turkish Empire gave rise to antiTurkish movements in 1688 on the territory of Serbia and Macedonia. Several thousand families had to escape — among other countries — to Hungary from the Turkish massacres which followed the miserable série of Austrian defeats. In 1737 nations of the Balkans uprose again. When the Turks retook Belgrade, another mass of refugees flooded into Hungary. The reason why the majority of Greeks preferred to come to Hungary was that most settlements in Macedonia and Thrace had long ago taken part in the bartering of the Eastern countries on the route of the Levantine trade. Also in case of repatriation — this hope was never given up by the first generation — it was from here that they could easily get back to their mother country. The main cause of the Greeks' gaining ground in Hungary was their trade policy enabling them to trade without competitors — though with certain limitations. As early as in the 17th century there were attempts to regulate their trade of increasing output. In this respect a final step was the Austro-Turkish trade and naval agreement concluded after the Passarovici peace treaty signed on July 21, 1718, according to which the merchants of both countries paid 3% customs fee for their imported goods. The more practical ones of the Greek merchants quickly took advantage of the duty concession and they „interpreted" the contract so as if they were allowed to trade also 73