# {95.} Entrepreneurs

The dealers of various articles did not for the most part belong to the peasant community of the village in terms of origin and culture; they mostly settled into the local community from somewhere else. Socially, they ranked just below the intelligentsia. However, they generally did not take part in the leadership of the village and in its collective activities. They tried to establish good relationships with everybody, because in selling and buying they depended on the rural population, as did the people of the villages on them.

The livestock dealer (kupec) gathered animals and dispatched them to market, or perhaps sold them to a butcher or sausage maker. He usually extended his operation beyond a single village, and kept an eye on price fluctuations between certain areas. Because the grain merchant (gabonakereskedő) possessed storage room for larger quantities of grain, he was more tied to one locality. From early spring he would lend grain and money at a considerable interest, and in this way tied down the following year’s yield for a set price. Generally he bought up all kinds of grain and tried to hold them back until spring, when he could sell it for a large profit either locally, or to the wholesale merchants. He often owned the mill too, or the miller expanded his operation to buying up grain, so that the grain merchant could increase his income considerably in either case.

There was a shopkeeper (boltos) even in the smallest village. The local shop would be in the centre of the settlement, so that it could be easily approached from all directions. Most village groceries were general stores, where it was possible to buy salt, spices, vinegar, petroleum, and any other goods that were needed daily in peasant housekeeping. Articles of clothing, farm tools, etc., were rarely stocked, because the peasants purchased these at fairs. At the store they could pay not only with money but also with produce, mostly eggs, flour, and the like. The grocer always credited them less than the current rate, so that he could profit doubly from them. In areas where part of the population got its pay in one sum (e.g. share labourers, seasonal workers, agricultural labourers, etc.), he advanced money on a promissory note, but charged interest.

The tavern keeper (korcsmáros) was an important personage in every Hungarian village. Even in the smaller villages there was often more than one tavern. The tavern keeper’s house was built along the main road to catch the traffic. The tavern usually consisted of a larger taproom, with a railed-off counter made of planks, where the bottles remained safe if fighting broke out. It was rarely possible to eat a meal at the village taverns, because they were primarily set up for drinking. Wine and brandy were sold, beer only much later. The tavern keeper, like the grocer, would also sell on credit, which he collected with interest. The sons of the farmers brought bags full of wheat, often stolen from their own father, if they did not have enough cash to pay for a drink. The tavern was the meeting place of men; a woman would step in only to try to call her husband home. Bowling alleys were attached to taverns from the second half of the last century, and in these men gathered together on Sunday afternoons for conversation and play.