Takács Péter (szerk.): A jobbágylét dokumentumai az úrbérrendezés kori Szatmár vármegye Nyíri járásából - A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 66. (Nyíregyháza, 2010)

A jobbágylét dokumentumai az úrbérrendezés kori Szatmár vármegye Nyíri járásából

the 1770’s, the inhabitants of the Nyir district already cultivated maize generally in the plots or in the fields in areas separated for the purpose. It was used for human consumption and, in lack of forests with acorn, it was fed to pigs.

In a few villages there were forest-like orchards, and regarding their profits, there were barely any villain households without a few plum, apple or pear trees. The wild fruits were also used. Vinegar was made from field pear and crab-apple, marmalade was cooked from cornel and juice from bramble. A part of the goods necessary fur subsistence was seized in the natural surroundings. Mushroom was collected for consumption and drying. Walnuts and hazel were collected where it grew for consumptions and selling. Bramble, strawberry, raspberry, sweet-root, garden sorrel were used, and medicinal herbs were applied for healing ailments and diseases. Vegetables that gave taste to the food and cabbage the winter vitamin supply were grown in nearly every household either in a garden next to the house or in a separate area in the fields.

In Nyír, the pastures were poor. Sheep were rarely or not at all kept in the swamps because of the danger of fluke-worm. So every household in every village grew hemp or flax or both every year. Their harvesting, retting, drying and often also swingling were done by males. Hackling, spinning and weaving were the women’s task. The sewing of the clothing of the family from the weaves and the cloths was also done by the women.

Men built the houses and the outhouses. They made the fences, cared for the draught animals and yoked them. They cultivated the lands, mowed the meadows, carver the tools, cut the trees, yoked the draught animals, transported in carts and carried loads. They collected fruits together with their wives and children. Women cooked the marmalades, while always men distilled the spirits.

Whatever the family could not produce or prepare or obtain from the fields, the neighbouring forests, waters and meadows by collecting, fishing, hunting, poaching or fowling, they exchanged with itinerant traders or bought in the markets, where they could also sell their surplus.

Nagykároly was the most important market place for the inhabitants of the Nyír district. This market town was the seat of Szatmár county, it was the ancient home of the Károlyi family, the centre of the Nagykároly and Ecsed estate. A special profit for Nagykároly was secured by the salt deposit. The marketers could obtain the physiologically indispensable salt quantity for themselves and their animals. They could also undertake manual and carting work for the day. They could by pottery vessels for the household, finer cloths, fabrics and boots. They could also purchase here metal tools: iron pots, cauldrons, stills, ploughshares, axes, saws, shovels, hatchets, hoes, strike-a-lights, etc. They could find shops, and masters of a guild or self-standing ones as it fit their demands and financial potentials. They could sell their surplus animals, the yams and cloths made by the women, and the baskets, the doormats, the egg-cups and the canvases made from the bulrush cut in the Ecsed marsh. They could find good markets for wheat, rye, oat, any kind of cereals (spelt, buckwheat, millet) and legumes (peas, lentils, beans).

Beside Nagykároly, the national fairs of Mada were also popular in Nyír, the pig fairs in Mátészalka and the pig and cattle fairs in Kisvárda. Traders and masters of handicrafts drove their carts packed with reed, shingles, rushwork, yams and homespun canvases,

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