The economy of Pomerania in the ducal period (16th – early 17th century)

In the 16th and early 17th centuries, agriculture was the main branch of the Pomeranian economy, even though the region’s soils were not among the most fertile. Medium- and low-quality soils dominated, while the more fertile black earths and brown soils were concentrated mainly in the Pyrzyce and Gryfino areas, in the southern part of the Stargard lands, west of Szczecin, as well as between Anklam, Demmin, and Greifswald, around Stralsund, and on southern Rügen. Crop cultivation—primarily rye, oats, and barley, with wheat grown on the better soils—was the backbone of Pomeranian agriculture. Animal husbandry focused mainly on cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and poultry. These main branches of farming and animal breeding were complemented by the cultivation of buckwheat, spelt, peas, flax, and hemp.

In early modern Pomerania, fields were cultivated primarily using the three-field system, which divided village land into three parts: two under cultivation and one left fallow. One of the cultivated fields was sown in autumn with winter grain, the other in spring with spring grain, while the fallow land usually served as additional pasture. Each year the fields were rotated, helping to slow down soil exhaustion. Alongside the dominant three-field system, Pomerania also used the more primitive two-field system (one field cultivated, one left fallow) and, on better soils, the more intensive four-field system. In the latter, land was divided into four plots: two for winter crops, one for spring crops, and one left fallow. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, the yield from sowing averaged 3–4 grains harvested per grain sown. In addition to arable fields, every Pomeranian village also had larger or smaller pastures, and often woodland, ponds, or wasteland.

Looking at the Pomeranian countryside from the perspective of the first half of the 16th century, we must note the profound changes that occurred in land ownership. At the beginning of the century, one of the largest landholders in Pomerania was the Catholic Church. The bishops of Kamień controlled a compact territory stretching from Karlino, Koszalin, and Kołobrzeg in the north to Bobolice in the south. Large estates were also held by Pomeranian monasteries, the most significant being the monastery at Eldena near Greifswald and the Cistercian abbey in Kołbacz. The transition of Pomerania to Protestantism, decided by Dukes Barnim IX and Philip I at the diet in Trzebiatów on the Rega in December 1534, led to the confiscation of church lands. The greatest beneficiaries of the Protestant Reformation were the dukes, who seized most monastic estates and incorporated them into their own domain. In 1554 they also took over the lands of the bishops of Kamień, forming the separate Prince-Bishopric. Nobles, for their part, absorbed parochial lands into their own manorial farms. Some monastic properties—especially those of female convents—were set aside under noble pressure as endowments to support unmarried noblewomen, while others were allocated to the University of Greifswald or the newly established Ducal Pedagogium in Szczecin. Only the lands of the cathedral chapters of Kamień and Kołobrzeg remained intact. As a result of these changes, the Church ceased to be a major landowner in Pomerania. From that point on, noble ownership (about 60% of the country’s area), ducal ownership (about 30%), and municipal ownership (about 10%, since every Pomeranian town held land) clearly dominated. Peasants, meanwhile, whether working manorial lands belonging to nobles, dukes, or towns, or cultivating their own plots, had no legal rights to the land they farmed.

The internal structure of the Pomeranian village at that time was very complex. The wealthiest layer of the rural population consisted of full-holding farmers, usually possessing one łan of land, although there were also multi-holding farms, often belonging to village headmen (sołtys). In Pomerania in the 16th and early 17th century, three parallel systems of holdings existed: the small łan (Hackenhufe), about 10 hectares, common on very fertile and fertile soils, the medium łan (Landhufen), about 20 hectares, dominant on medium or poorer soils, the large łan (Hagenhufen), ranging from 30 up to even 40 hectares, characteristic of the sandy and less fertile soils of the Pomeranian Lake District. Apart from the above-mentioned full-holding farms, there were also numerous half-holding and quarter-holding farms, especially on fertile soils, with areas of ½ or ¼ łan respectively. A significant part of the rural population were smallholders (zagrodnicy) with a house and a small plot of land, usually around 1 hectare, as well as lodgers (komornicy) who lived with their families in the homes of wealthier farmers. The social structure of the village was complemented by rural craftsmen. First and foremost were the millers, followed by blacksmiths, tailors, and shoemakers. Villages often had a tavern managed by an innkeeper, frequently also a brewer, who typically had an additional half-holding of land. There was also a parish or filial church, with more or less substantial land endowments. In many Pomeranian villages (though not all) there were also manorial farms, ranging from a few to a dozen or so holdings, with their own though usually small staff. The farming system described above, as well as the very structure of the village, was not unique to early modern Pomerania, but also characteristic of neighboring regions, including Poland.

From the first decades of the 16th century, rising demand for food in Western Europe—especially for grain—placed Pomerania within the economic zone of Central and Eastern Europe that was undergoing processes of refeudalization. In Pomeranian villages, manorial farms based on serfdom (folwarki pańszczyźniane) began to take shape. These were large estates specializing in grain production and relying on the forced labor of peasants. The obligation to work on the lord’s land, known as serf labor (pańszczyzna), was not precisely defined in Pomerania during the 16th and early 17th centuries. Most often the requirement was “as much as necessary,” which in practice meant 2–3 days a week of plow work with draft animals (sprzężajna pańszczyzna) from full- or half-holding farms, or manual labor from smallholders and landless peasants. Only in 1616 did the dukes introduce a Peasant Ordinance, which imposed unlimited serf labor on the rural population. Most likely, its scope reached 5–6 days per week. In addition, peasants were burdened with transport duties, sometimes over long distances, as well as auxiliary labor in brickworks, lime kilns, sawmills, on construction projects, or even during hunts. It is also worth noting that alongside the grain-oriented manorial farms, there were estates focused on livestock breeding, especially sheep, due to the strong demand for wool—essential for cloth production.

Economic exploitation led to resistance among the peasantry, and the most common way to ease their plight was flight from the estate. This phenomenon resulted in the tightening of serfdom in the Pomeranian countryside. As a consequence of peasant flight, numerous agreements were concluded—preserved in historical sources—between Pomerania and Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, and Poland, concerning the extradition of runaway peasants. In practice, however, these agreements were often only partially respected.

During the 16th and early 17th centuries, we can also observe a clear process of the territorial expansion of manorial farms (folwarks). Initially, this expansion took place at the expense of wastelands and partial forest clearings. Later, large village headmen’s farms (sołtys estates) began to disappear, and eventually, peasant land was reduced through evictions (peasant expulsions). The development of folwarks was particularly intense on very fertile and fertile soils. As a result, they came to dominate the more fertile western part of Pomerania, i.e. in the Duchy of Wolgast and the western part of the Duchy of Szczecin. By contrast, the serf-based manorial system developed most slowly on the poorer soils of the Pomeranian Lake District.

An important branch of the economy practiced in the Pomeranian countryside was fishing. This naturally concerned settlements located along the seashore, as well as by the waters of the Szczecin Lagoon, its straits (Peenestrom, Świna, and Dziwna), and the estuarine section of the Oder River (Domiąża). It was on these waters that Pomeranian fishing was concentrated during the 16th and early 17th centuries. In villages located by the mentioned waters, known as “water villages,” a significant part of the population owned their own boats and supplied the Pomeranian market with live, smoked, and dried fish. Fishing, alongside agriculture, was an important source of income here. It is also worth adding that these boats were used for transport purposes (they carried grain and food to Pomeranian port towns), and the so-called peasant navigation is clearly traceable in the sources from this period.

The serf-based manor farm (folwark) and peasant holdings, including those located in the so-called “water villages”, produced grain, primarily rye and wheat, for export, mainly to Western Europe and Scandinavia. In addition, a variety of food products were exported abroad and supplied to Pomeranian towns, such as: flour, butter, lard, cheese, milk, meat, live animals (poultry, pigs, cattle), hides, sheep’s wool, and a wide assortment of marine and inland fish. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, agriculture, together with fishing, formed the foundation of the Pomeranian economy.

A different world was represented by the Pomeranian towns. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, there were a total of 64 towns in Pomerania, of which 21 could be classified as port towns. The vast majority, as many as 42 towns, were ducal towns. Two centers (Kołobrzeg and Koszalin) remained under ecclesiastical authority until the victory of Protestantism, after which they too were included among ducal towns. Meanwhile, 20 towns, mostly smaller ones, were held by the nobility (e.g., Nowogard, Dobra Nowogardzka, Łobez, Maszewo) or by other towns (such as Police). From an economic perspective, towns focused on non-agricultural activities such as crafts and trade, although every Pomeranian town possessed smaller or larger land holdings cultivated by guilds of farmers. It is worth noting that the smaller and economically weaker a town was, the greater role agriculture played in its economy – such towns were sometimes referred to as “small agricultural towns”.

The foundation of urban occupations was craft production, and crafts at that time were organized into specialized guilds. These were associations bringing together craftsmen of one or several related trades. Their primary purpose was to protect the economic interests of their members. Guilds also performed religious, cultural, and social functions, in effect creating a closed social circle that included masters, their families, as well as journeymen and apprentices. The basic production unit of a guild was the workshop, headed by a master craftsman. He was assisted by one or more journeymen and apprentices, who learned the skills of the trade. The operation of the guild—both in its economic and social-religious dimensions—was governed by guild statutes. These regulations, among other things, determined the volume of production, usually calculated weekly, that each workshop could supply to the market. The purpose of this was to equalize the incomes of all workshops within the guild. The number of guilds depended on the size of the town. A clear pattern can be observed: the larger the town, the more guilds operated there, since a larger market and broader trade connections allowed for the sale of more diverse craft products. In Pomeranian towns, there were food-related guilds: bakers, butchers, sausage-makers, brewers; leather guilds: shoemakers, tanners, saddlers; textile guilds: tailors, cloth-makers, dyers, linen-weavers, furriers; woodworking guilds: carpenters, joiners, shipwrights, wheelwrights, coopers; ceramic and construction guilds: potters, bricklayers; and metal guilds: blacksmiths, locksmiths, nail-makers, pewterers, bell-founders. In the largest Pomeranian centers—Stralsund, Szczecin, Greifswald, Kołobrzeg, Słupsk, Stargard, Anklam, and Koszalin—there were also craftsmen of rarer, luxury professions: bookbinders, gunsmiths, armorers, sword-makers, clockmakers, goldsmiths, corset-makers, musical instrument makers, as well as apothecaries, surgeons, physicians, and artists.

When we take a general look at the structure of crafts in Pomeranian towns, it becomes clear that in terms of the number of guilds and masters, trades meeting local needs clearly dominated: brewers, bakers, butchers, shoemakers, tailors, potters, carpenters, joiners, and blacksmiths. This shows that Pomeranian crafts primarily served the local, regional market. Relatively few workshops exported their products beyond Pomerania. The main exceptions were cloth-makers and linen-weavers, and especially coopers, who exported not only complete barrels but also semi-finished products such as staves. In addition, Pomeranian beer and bread (particularly from Kołobrzeg) were exported abroad, mainly to Sweden. Craft products were distributed within Pomerania in several ways. They could be purchased directly in the workshop where they were made, or sold at weekly markets held in town squares—although some goods, such as bread, meat, and beer, were available continuously. Products were also distributed by petty traders and peddlers, often organized into guilds of small merchants, whose area of activity usually extended 1 to 3 miles (7–21 km) around the town. This radius corresponded to the economic zone of influence of a given center, confirmed by privileges. Finally, a wider distribution of craft products took place through the system of fairs held in Pomeranian towns.

Village crafts represented significant competition for the guild-based crafts concentrated in Pomeranian towns. Noble landowners sought to make their manorial estates as self-sufficient as possible. A similar policy, with the consent of the dukes, was pursued by the administrators of ducal domains. As a result, the nobility and dukes often brought craftsmen into their estates who could not find a place within the guild system. Their role was to meet the basic needs of the dependent population. Sometimes, peasants were even obliged to purchase goods from village craftsmen, which increased the income of estate owners (since craftsmen paid rent to them). The most common professions in Pomeranian villages included millers, blacksmiths, and brewers (the latter often also ran taverns). Other village-based crafts included weavers, shoemakers, tailors, wheelwrights, carpenters, and masons. The settlement of craftsmen in villages, by both the dukes and the nobility, detached the peasantry from contact with urban markets, which in turn limited the ability of guild-based urban crafts to sell their products in the countryside. In consequence, these practices weakened the economy of Pomeranian towns.

An equally important part of the urban economy in Pomerania as crafts was trade, conducted both overland and maritime. Overland trade of a supra-local character was carried out through the system of fairs already mentioned above. Most Pomeranian towns, in accordance with the privileges granted by the dukes, had the right to organize one or several fairs per year. There were both general fairs, where all kinds of goods were traded, and specialized fairs, for example in horses, cattle, or wool. The fairs were organized in time and space (from town to town) so that merchants could conveniently travel from one fair to the next. They usually lasted several days, during which the town was transformed into a vast marketplace. At general fairs, everything was sold: local craft products, food, grain, overseas goods, as well as Western European manufactures. At specialized fairs, a single type of product—such as cattle, horses, or wool—dominated, though food and craft goods were still traded. The fairs of small and medium-sized towns usually had a regional (all-Pomeranian) character, while in larger centers, such as Stralsund, Szczecin, Greifswald, Kołobrzeg, and Stargard, they acquired an international dimension. Merchants came from Poland, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, and Saxony, as well as from Scandinavia (mainly Swedes and Danes) and, less frequently, from the Low Countries. Overland trade thus played a key role in Pomerania’s exchange with neighboring countries, and for towns without seaports, it was the primary form of contact with the outside world. Of course, one should add that international and regional trade centered on Pomeranian fairs was supplemented by everyday local exchange between towns and their immediate hinterlands.

In terms of the volume of goods exported and imported, maritime trade clearly dominated in early modern Pomerania. It was concentrated in 21 port towns, though with varying intensity. In the smaller ports, such as Wkryujście, Nowe Warpno, Inoujście (Goleniów’s port), Wolin, Kamień Pomorski, Regoujście (Trzebiatów’s port), or Łeba, trade was primarily local exchange (cabotage shipping), carried out mainly with other Pomeranian ports and, less frequently, with ports along the southern Baltic coast. The medium-sized ports—Anklam, Wolgast, Kołobrzeg, Darłowo, Ustka/Słupsk—engaged in trade mostly within the Baltic Sea basin, connecting not only with the southern Baltic but also with Scandinavian ports, especially those in Denmark (Copenhagen, Landskrona) and Sweden (Stockholm, Kalmar, Söderköping). Only the largest Pomeranian ports—Stralsund, Szczecin, and Greifswald—maintained regular long-distance navigation, covering both the Baltic and the North Sea. In the latter case, they visited especially the Netherlands (Amsterdam), England (London, Hull), Scotland (Edinburgh), and Norway (Christiania/Oslo and Bergen). Voyages beyond the North Sea, to French or Spanish ports, were much rarer. From Pomerania to Western Europe and Scandinavia—just like from the wider East-Central European zone—the main exports were grain (rye, wheat, barley), foodstuffs (flour, cheese, butter, bacon, meat, tallow, beer, malt), and raw materials (timber, potash, tar, flax, hemp, wax, hides, furs, wool). Exports also included linen, cloth, barrels and staves, and to a lesser extent, metal products. Imports into Pomeranian ports included, from the North Sea area, marine fish (mainly herring), Bay salt, Western European manufactures (notably high-quality English and Dutch cloth), and overseas goods such as coffee, tea, sugar, spices (especially pepper), exotic timber, fruits, wine, zinc, and lead. From Scandinavia, Pomerania imported primarily iron, copper, timber, hides, furs, tallow (Sweden), as well as craft products and overseas goods (Denmark).

The shipping connections of Pomeranian ports with both the Baltic Sea and the North Sea were initially maintained by municipal fleets. In the first decades of the 16th century, when the Hanseatic tradition was still alive, the largest Pomeranian port towns possessed fleets numbering several dozen seagoing vessels. Medium-sized towns owned a dozen or so ships capable of sailing to the North Sea, while smaller ones had just a few seagoing vessels. Of course, the maritime fleets of large, medium, and small ports were complemented by numerous larger and smaller boats engaged in cabotage trade. Over the following decades, however, the situation gradually changed. Shipping between Pomeranian ports and Western Europe as well as Scandinavia increasingly came to be handled by foreign ships, especially those from the Netherlands. By the early 17th century, most of the goods exported from and imported into Pomerania were carried on Dutch vessels. This situation was typical for other Baltic ports as well, including Gdańsk. The only exception was Stralsund, the largest Pomeranian port. Because it lacked a wide economic hinterland, Stralsund’s merchant community resisted the decline of its municipal fleet. Like the Dutch, Stralsund skippers provided transport services not only for Pomeranian merchants but also for Scandinavian clients, particularly the Swedes.

If we were to summarize the economy of Pomerania in the 16th and early 17th centuries, it should be emphasized that its foundation was agricultural production carried out within the manorial (serfdom-based) system. Grain and foodstuffs, along with timber, were the main goods exported from Pomerania at that time. Non-agricultural production, organized primarily in Pomeranian towns, complemented agriculture. It was in the towns (apart from agriculture) that crafts and trade, including maritime trade, were pursued. Looking at the production structure of Pomeranian crafts, however, it must be noted that they mainly satisfied local and regional needs. Few crafts produced for export beyond Pomerania. Land trade was conducted at fairs held in individual towns, while maritime trade took place in the ports of coastal cities. It should also be added that over time, Pomerania’s maritime trade was gradually taken over by foreign carriers, especially the Dutch.

More:

B. Wachowiak, Pomorze Zachodnie w schyłkowej epoce feudalizmu (1464-1815), w: Historia Pomorza, tom II do 1815 roku, red. G. Labuda, cz.1 (1464/66-1648/57), Poznań 1976.

B. Wachowiak, Zjednoczone Księstwo Pomorskie (do 1648 roku), w: Pomorze Zachodnie poprzez wieki, red. J. Piskorski, Szczecin 1999.

Radosław Gaziński