Inny tytuł:

Merchants, Leaseholders, and Craftsmen. Professional Diversity of Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century

Współtwórca:

Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla

Wydawca:

Instytut Historii PAN

Miejsce wydania:

Warszawa

Opis:

Bibliografia na stronach 281-307. Indeksy ; Wydanie I. ; 323 strony ; 21 cm ; Streszczenie angielskie.

Abstrakt:

The book is an analysis of the internal diversity of Jews living in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, seen from the economic perspective. I describe their professional diversification and present economic differences between people practising various professions. I am also interested in what way Jewish leaseholders, merchants, and craftsmen organized their everyday work. The source basis of the book is made up of documents issued by the central authorities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, private estates, and protocols of the Lithuanian Waad. Economic activity of Jews was influenced by legal regulations imposed both on the national level, and on the local one, that is in cities and towns. Resolutions of the Lithuanian Waad and religious laws of Judaism were also of high importance. A thorough analysis of the development of economic privileges in Wilno (today’s Vilnius) and Słuck (today’s Sluck in Belarus) reveals that limitations on Jewish economic activity were different depending on commercial centre. In most of the cases, the Jewish position was determined by the strength of the burgher class. Regulations introduced by the Jewish authorities were mainly aimed at protecting the Jewish community against Christian attacks and eliminating an internal competition between Jews. A statistical analysis of professional diversity of Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania shows that the largest group of Jews earned their bread as revenue leaseholders. Their number increased significantly in the second half of the seventeenth and in the eighteenth century. In this area Christians were significantly outnumbered by Jews. Revenue leaseholders collaborated with the nobility, the State Treasury, and religious communities. What was characteristic of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the weak involvement of Jews in full land lease of estates and their close cooperation with the State Treasury, still frequent as late as the second half of the seventeenth century. Most often, the object of lease were payments related to the production and retail sale of alcoholic drinks, revenues from towns and cities, mills, and fishponds. Usually, in their cooperation with the State Treasury, Jews were in charge of the collection of duties (tolls), and taxes on the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. They also took to trade, and habitually they dominated in local markets. The majority of Jewish merchants was especially felt in private towns, less important was their role in big royal cities. A group of Jews were engaged in international trade. Most often, commercial trips were organised to Prussian ports, and in this context the most important was Königsberg; they reached also to Breslau, Leipzig, Russia, and many cities of the Crown. The main export article of the Grand Duchy traded by Jews were hides and pelts, less common were agricultural produce or wood. To the Grand Duchy Jews imported in the first place cloth of various kind, spices, colonial goods, wine, and salt in smaller quantities. In local markets Jewish merchants played the part of agents selling exported goods to local population. Less important in the professional structure of Lithuanian Jews was craftsmanship. The analysed statistical data reveal that in the majority of towns and cities there was only a small number of Jewish craftsmen, practising the most basic professions. A comparison of Jews and Christians from the same settlements shows that the religious (ethnic) division was almost equal to the economic division. This means that Jews were earning their living in other professions than Christians. [...]

Szczegółowy typ zasobu:

Książka

Identyfikator zasobu:

oai:rcin.org.pl:139924 ; 978-83-65880-38-3

Źródło:

IH PAN, sygn. I.10863 ; IH PAN, sygn. I.10862 Podr. ; kliknij tutaj, żeby przejść

Język:

pol

Język streszczenia:

eng

Prawa:

Licencja Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Bez utworów zależnych 4.0

Zasady wykorzystania:

Zasób chroniony prawem autorskim. [CC BY-ND 4.0 Międzynarodowe] Korzystanie dozwolone zgodnie z licencją Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Bez utworów zależnych 4.0, której pełne postanowienia dostępne są pod adresem: ; -

Digitalizacja:

Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Lokalizacja oryginału:

Biblioteka Instytutu Historii PAN

Dostęp:

Otwarty