Borza Tibor (szerk.): A Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum évkönyve 1982 (Budapest, Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum, 1982)

H. Szűcs Gitta: A pesti szatócsok

Gitta H. Szűcs THE "GROCERS" (SZATÓCSOK) OF PEST The Hungarian word, "szatócs" (in English, grocer, owner of general store) is of Turkish origin, meaning: shopkeeper, salesman. Its present sense developed in the course of specialization in the shopkeeper's trade. Gradually various types of shops cropped up, those which engaged well-dressed assistants, even footmen, and others, such as general stores, with one man in charge. The latter could not satisfy the main requirements of the old guild (training apprentices, even joureyemen) and thus they were relegated to the outskirts of the municipal shopping life. In Pest, this process evolved in the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the city became the centre of the commercial life of the country. The merchant corporation of the guilds excluded from their circle the "grocer", ruling that they were to attend to the "poorer population". The council only issued licences to such individuals who had been municipal attendents and became disabled. This statute gave rise to the struggle in which the grocers were engaged, on the one hand to achieve a wider range of goods to be allowed on sale in their shops, and on the other, to be permitted guildlike activities. Among the grocers the number of those had gradually risen who had no municipal rights. It was evident that only a full-right citized could become the member of a guild, so without it no man could form any guild. According to contemporary sources, it seems that a general store did not differ much from any municipal grocery. Spices and colonial goods — were equally sold by the grocers. To the controverses around these goods was added the 1825 ruling, reflecting the organization of the grocers of Pest, well establishing the situation still current at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They belonged to a group which functioned under municipal jurisdiction, representing a transition from the organization of the guilds to the non-guilds, although their corporate life had been organized in imitation of the guilds. The majority of the grocers were still city residents without civic rights, with most of their shops still in the suburbs. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Hungarian guild system survived in the last phase of its development. An imperial patent issued in 1851 provided for freedom in trading rights, as an obvious requirement of the economic development, although the commercial organization still adhered to the spirit of the old guild system. A grocer's licence only provided for the retail sale of certain well defined goods. A full freedom in trade relations did not exist before the provisions of the 1859 statute. Guilds had to stop their activities and related trades were obliged to form affiliations. The Trading Society of Pest from then onwards 84