Propination
The right of propination ( Latin ius propinationis to propinare = to administer) was a privilege of the Polish land nobility ( szlachta ). It granted landowners a monopoly on the production and serving of alcoholic beverages, especially beer and schnapps, on their estate. In many cases the profits from propination have exceeded those from agricultural production.
Propination was a pillar of the Polish economy and at the same time a reason for the anti-Semitism of the rural population. In contrast to the serf peasants, the propination rights were almost exclusively leased by Jews , who were excluded from most other professions and were allowed to burn and sell the locally grown grain for alcohol . In the inns run by Jewish tenants, many guests drank on credit and thus got into debt in addition to the taxes owed to their landlords, which were also collected by Jewish landlords.
As a rule, the propination comprised the following provisions:
- Dependent farmers were prohibited from procuring alcohol that had not been produced in the distillery of the large landowner.
- Alternatively, they could be allowed to produce alcohol themselves and pay a fee based on the amount produced.
- The farmers had to buy a fixed minimum amount of vodka or okovita from the landowner on certain occasions such as family celebrations, church fairs or on Sundays and public holidays . If they failed to do so, the missing amount was destroyed in front of their house and charged to them.
Corresponding laws first emerged in the 16th century and were widespread in the 17th century. After the partitions of Poland in 1795, they were in effect in the Prussian part until 1845, in Galicia until 1889 and in the Russian part until 1898. The compulsion to consume led to widespread alcoholism , which in the 19th century led to the abolition of the propination regulations.
literature
- Roger Battaglia : Rzecz o propinacyi (About Propination) . Lviv, 1905
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ludwig von Mises : The Development of the Landlord-Peasant Relationship in Galicia (1772-1848) Vienna and Leipzig, 1902. § 4. The rural constitution of Galicia in the 18th century. (Continued.) II. Land authority.
- ↑ Svjatoslav Pacholkiv: The Eastern Jews as a term in the history of Jews in Central Europe 2011, pp. 2–12, p. 10
- ^ Judith Kalik: Village Jews in the 19th Century Minsk Gubernya through a Genealogical Lens Introduction, 2014 (English)
- ↑ Werner Jacob Cahnman, Judith T. Marcus, Zoltan Tarr (ed.): Jews and Gentiles: A Historical Sociology of Their Relations. Google Books 2004, p. 78/79 (English)
- ↑ Patryk Zakrzewski: Polish Peasant Food for Beginners 2016 (English)