Lukács László (szerk.): Märkte und Warenaustausch im Pannonischen Raum - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 28. (Székesfehérvár, 1988)

Lubica Falt'anová: The Main Directions of Trade from Slovakia

in several places in Slovakia, also in non-craft forms. For instance, the potters from uivetice (Gemer), in spite of the fact that their main regions for supplies were individual parts of Slovakia, Eastern Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Sedmohrad, Bukovina and Ukraine, sometimes also visited County Vas, the Transdanubian regions and fairs in Austrian towns. (31)

A normal part of the wandering Slovak vendros* history was represented by oilmen-herbalists, saffron-vendors, tinkers, glass-products' vendors, limeburners, axle -grease producers and similar figures, who found their reflections in Hungarian, Polish and Russian folklore. Neither for oilmen and saffron-vendors nor for tinkers did the regions situated south of Slovakia represent the main regions of their activity. We have in mind the type of trading according to which saffron-vendors in Poland and Russia founded their own shops and tinkers their own workshops in many European and non-European countries. Oilmen kept contacts with Vienna; through this city they went on their travels to Bohemia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, France and England. Later, at the end of the 18th century after the decline of their trade, the oilmen turned to trading with saffron and consumer goods; they used to buy these goods in Vienna.(32) From the point of view of tinkers' employment it is interesting that under European conditions the professional peak was reach in the workshop in Vienna; this workshop employed 200 itinerant tinkers. The products of this workshop were distributed by itinerant tinkers in Vienna, Hungary, the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, even in northern Africa, Austria, France, Belgium and Denmark.(33)

The district division of the window-pane fixers was based on the village principle. In Pannonia they visited Pest, Szombathely, Zalaegerszeg, Veszprém, Sopron, Budin, Esztergom, Szolnok.(34)

All these contacts survived up to 1918. The migration of Slovakian folk-vendors influenced not only the export of goods, but also the import. After the sale of goods and largely as a result of the exchange trade, there was imported to the individual p-arts of Slovakia from the lower part of Hungary goods such as cereals, and red pepper, and from Vienna also pastry and southern fruits, etc. To the village of Sivetice came by exchange of goods in due season about 20-23 loads of maisé. We could also mention various everyday products and dress-parts. Various kinds of goods were selected for home consumption, as gifts for family members, and for trade. It is necessary to stress that folk trading is not only a matter of economics, but also influences the other parts of the culture of the people, their way of the life, and even their knowledge’of language. The extent of trading, allied with the migration of folk vendors, is well illustrated by the old Slovak proverb: "Who wants to eat, must crawl".

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