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Information Text: Krakow - Renaissance - Trade

The ornamented chest of the Kraków Merchant Congregation, Kraków 1791. The Historical Museum of the City of Kraków, 1172/Dep.

In the 16th century, Kraków was a trade centre with numerous trade routes intersecting there. The city had close trade contacts and good relationships with Hanseatic cities.

Gdańsk was one of the more important trade partners of Kraków. Along the trade route between the two cities, such commodities such as sulphur (brimstone), dried plums, tanned and curried (prepared for use, as by soaking or colouring http://www.thefreedictionary.com/curry) hides, wax, linen, small amounts of Hungarian wine (węgrzyn), herrings, western wines, spices such as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, exotic fruit, sugars and textiles were transported. Through Lwów, merchants from Kraków brought Turkish textiles, sweet Greek wines and wax. “Kramny” goods, also called Nurembergian, which was a jumbled assortment of merchandise sold from market stalls, and woollen cloth dominated the goods export to the East (yet not beyond Lwów).

Kraków became the export and import centre of books. It played a similar role in the territories south of the Oder as Frankfurt on Main for the whole of Western Europe.

Moreover, Kraków was called “The Copper House” (Kupferhaus). Jan Thurzo from Levoča founded a copper trading house in Kraków and monopolized Hungarian mining. Together with the Fugger family, the mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, he established an internationally renowned company. The Thurzo and Fugger families were businessmen and entrepreneurs trading extensively with copper and other metals, which brought them enormous profits. Lead was yet another important trading commodity. In the 16th century, “Kraków lead” was exported to Riga, Tallinn, Stockholm, Denmark, Mecklenburg, Germany, and further to the Western Europe regions. Till the middle of the 16th century, a few to several centners (one centner is equal to 50 kilograms) were transported yearly. Woollen cloth, salt, herrings and “kramny” goods became the basic commodity in Kraków’s trade with Hungary. In turn, wine and plums were exported from there.

The turnover with Silesia and Germany constituted 35 percent of Kraków’s exchange. Woollen cloth, “kramny” goods and Świdnica beer came from behind the western border. In the 16th century, the contacts with Nuremberg were consolidated, manifested by the high number of Nuremberg products in Kraków’s museums and church treasuries. The import of skins made up approximately 83 percent of the whole turnover of the city. Kraków merchants reached cities such Halle, Hamburg and Leipzig.

Furthermore, the contacts between Kraków, Czech and Moravia, and through them with Austrian counties and Northern Italy, intensified. In Prague, skins and fur coats from Kraków were in high demand. The merchants from Kraków imported woollen cloth and the so called “Jewish goods” from over the Vlatva. Olomouc in Moravia was the regular recipient of salt and skins, exporting, in turn, wine and spices from Venice.

Austria (Vienna, Krems, Linz) exported metal goods such as scythes, knives and weapons. Furs and skins, including the most precious sables, were exported from Kraków to Austria. The Italian countries exported substantial amounts of silk clothing textiles to Kraków.

Tucci, Bianchi and Montelupi were the most famous trading houses in Kraków importing luxurious glass goods and spicy goods. Also, expensive and luxurious textiles from Florence, Genoa, Padua, Lucca and Venice were sold on the inner Polish market, which, thanks to the wealth of the nobility, was very absorptive.

 

Import: goods that are bought from one country into another so that they can be sold; or business of doing so.

Export: selling and sending good to other countries.