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# Developments in Mining and Industry

The political crisis and its consequences caused heavy damage to Transylvania's industry. Gold- and silversmiths lost most of their custom; the flourishing garment industry lost access to its most important market, the market-towns of the Great Hungarian Plain; makers of rough cloth were overwhelmed by competitive products from the Balkans; and further development of one of the key centres of guild crafts, Kolozsvár, was constrained when that town replaced Várad as a border fortress. The apparently insatiable demand for labour in seigniorial farming left mines as well as the village-based wood and tile industry short of manpower. Such changes would have undermined the economy of even more developed countries. As Gabriel Bethlen recognized, Transylvania's industry needed direct assistance and the importation of qualified, western artisans.

The industries based on Transylvania's precious metal and iron deposits retained their importance, as did those of the Anabaptist communities that moved after 1621 from Moravia to Transylvania. The demand was growing, both in Transylvania and in the neighbouring countries, for iron implements and lumber, as well as for lead, copper, ceramic, and glass vessels. The reconstruction {2-283.} of industrial plants proceeded apace. Those who traded with the Levant — mainly the merchants in Szeben and Brassó, as well as some Greeks (Macedo-Romanians) — acquired considerable economic power. Domestic economic growth was also helped by the prince's support of industrial development. Apafi was acquainted with contemporary theories of government, and his entourage included enterprising landowners as well as business-minded people of more modest social origins. However, the promotion of industrial development was inspired more by dire necessity than by economic theories.

The salt mines were among the country's most important sources of wealth; their income had trebled in twenty years. The instructions for revitalizing this industry, issued in 1664–65, indicate that it gave employment to a wide range of craftsmen. The mine buildings that had been damaged during the war needed repair; barns had to be built for storing the blocks of salt. Mine supervisors were ordered to open new shafts, notably at Szék, where the salt mine had difficulties with flooding. This task required iron tools, ladders, wooden fencing and props, ropes, and leather. Mining generated an ongoing demand for tallow, candles, leather, wood, and iron tools. Leather bags filled with salt were brought to the surface in horse-drawn vehicles (gépely and gerbely), then taken by barrow men, carters, and rafters to warehouses. The salt was then transported by hired carriers to riverside salt-markets (portus), from which it was shipped on rafts to the Great Hungarian Plan and Turkish territories.

In Transylvania, as in Hungary, the mining and processing of iron formed an integrated industry. The iron foundry established 'in the throat of the alps', at Csíkmadaras, drew its raw material from mines at Madaras and neighbouring villages; its installations included wood, charcoal, and iron-ore barns, ore-roasters and furnaces, a stable, and a saw mill. The villages belonged to the foundry, as did the hay fields that supplied fodder for the draught {2-284.} horses. A well-maintained water-wheel installation in the small officina powered the sledgehammers of the 'iron-ore riddler' and the bellows stoking the 'iron-roaster', the two 'iron furnaces', and the forges; the wheel of the 85-kilogram 'iron hammer' was also driven by water. The output of Csíkmadaras was considerably lower than that of the iron foundries in Hunyad County, which were equipped with 'German' and 'Wlach' furnaces. Productivity was hampered by weather, and the foundry only operated for twenty-five weeks in a year; when the rivers froze over, the supervisor was expected to stock up on timber and iron ore, and to have the equipment repaired.

Manpower problems were an even more serious impediment to sustained production. The labour force consisted mainly of villeins from the villages on the mines' domain. The villeins in the nine villages belonging to the Csíkmadaras enterprise did their best to avoid working at the foundry. Some of them still did this work in fulfilment of socage obligations. However, registers from the second half of the 17th century indicate that workers with specialized skills were remunerated, mostly in the cash equivalent of a certain amount of iron. At Csíkmadaras, the villeins who riddled, poured, and hammered the iron were paid in this fashion, while the 'iron-seekers' and 'stone cutters' were paid by piece rate. The foundries attached to the five mines of Hunyad County would stop operating in mid-summer to allow the villeins — mainly Romanians, along with some Hungarians — to look after the harvest.

The iron mines belonged variously to the treasury and private landowners. In 1662, the treasury leased half of the Csíkmadaras mine to János Daczó, the captain of Csíkszék, for an annual thousand thalers. In 1680-1681, the merchant János Péter, president of the Greek Company, leased the entire iron works for 500 forints, 180 quintals of iron, and 200 planks. The iron was shipped fashioned into bars, rods, plates, and cannon balls, or into horseshoes, hobnails, and common nails. The prince's fortresses had first call {2-285.} on the output, but there was plenty left over for the domestic market as well as for the Moldavian and Wallachian markets.

'Torockó iron' retained its high reputation and market, but the mining and smelting works at Torockó encountered serious problems arising from its distinctive form of social organization. The ore-rich land lying northwest of the village of Torockó was communal property. One of the freedoms of Torockó's villein 'citizens' was to 'open' and 'operate' a mine. Smelting and forging were conducted according to communal rules, with a certain division of labour, but always as an individual enterprise. The level of technology was adequate: bellows and hammers at the many foundries were driven by water power. Problems arose because the community lost its access to cheap foraging and charcoal-burning. The neighbouring fields and woods belonged to landowners, and the villeins came to challenge the town's privileges.

Among the paper mills operating in this period, the private ones at Brassó, Szeben, and Kolozsvár had been founded in the preceding century. In 1638, György Rákóczi I established a paper mill near his princely seat, 'in the neighbourhood of Lámkerék, on the little river Sebes, which flows into the Maros', to 'serve the needs of the collegium academicum of Gyulafehérvár and the court's printer'.[52]52. Zs. Jakó, Papírmalmok, p. 73. The mill was destroyed some time before 1658. A paper mill established on György Rákóczi II's treasury estate at Görgényszentimre suffered great damage, probably in 1655-56. In summer 1662, Prince Mihály Apafi initiated repairs and informed the town of Beszterce: 'Wishing to rebuild our paper mill at Görgény and put it back in operation, the paper-maker is looking to acquire the necessary equipment.'[53]53. Jakó, Papírmalmok, p. 74. The reconstruction was later taken in hand by Princess Anna Bornemissza, and production began in 1663. The plant consisted of a crushing hall, a heating house, a vat-hall, and a two-storey drying hall; it had three water wheels and twenty sledgehammers. Leased to Miklós Sáfár, the Görgényszentimre mill, together with the paper mill of Gyulafehérvár, met the needs of the {2-286.} government and also supplied the principality's printers and schools. The paper they produced was of rough quality, and the court looked abroad for the finer paper needed for documents and certain printing jobs; in 1687, a large amount of paper was imported from Poland.

Small glassworks had been operating in the principality since the 16th century. When Miklós Bethlen visited Venice in the fall of 1664, he casually referred to the famous glass factory at Murano as a 'glass barn' (üvegcsűr). That term, which first appeared in the early 1600s and came into common use in the second half of the century, was probably coined in Transylvania and denoted a cluster of workshops.

The most famous of Transylvania's glassworks, at Porumbák, supplied the princely court as well as the broader market. The 'glass barn' that was built in 1637 to replace an older one produced as many as 14,660 glass plates a year. The main building, built of pine planks, had a shingled rood and three plate glass windows; the similarly shingled 'barn house' (csűrház) held kilns for drying wood and for melting and drying glass. The glassworks complex, or officina vitraria, included a quartz-grinding mill, a caustic soda cooker, and a storehouse.

Records show that, in 1649, there passed through the glassworks' warehouse 4780 common bottles, 2980 'transparent' bottles, and 7900 'glass plates' designed to be used in windows. The Porumbák works was probably the main source of the glass plates and sheet glass used for glazing in Transylvanian houses and of the various bottles earmarked for 'medicine', 'lictarium', 'rosewater', and 'wine-cellars'. Little is known about working conditions at Porumbák, but there is little doubt that haulage, firewood, and wood cutting was performed by the estate's villeins as part of their feudal services. The villeins' register identifies glass-blowers and other craftsmen, including Germans and Romanians, who were exempt from taxation. Records survive showing the balance sheet {2-287.} of the glassworks from 1667 onwards. Its equipment included various glass moulds, some made of brass, as well 'glass-cutting shears', 'glass-trimming files', and other tools.

In most places, such simple works were the precursors of a manufacturing industry. In Transylvania, as in Hungary and other neighbouring countries, these works were part of a feudal economy and relied to a great extent on socage services. Most of them were owned and put out on lease by the Treasury.

Communities of Habanic, 'neo-Christian' artisans enjoyed the backing of Transylvania's princes. In the course of the Tartar invasion of 1661, they were decimated and dispersed, and their workshops were wrecked. Apafi's protection and support helped to revive these productive communities, and their crafts once again began to flourish. There is some slight evidence of qualitative improvements in cloth-making. In 1667, one of the cloth-makers of Vinc, i.e. Alvinc, petitioned the princely government to grant him the privilege of buying up cloth as well as the use of the state's mail-wagons for transporting his goods. He offered, in exchange, to sell part of his output at preferential price to the Treasury. Anna Bornemissza's experiments were characteristic of the Verlag system. Apart from her initiative to set up a manufacture, she concluded a notable agreement with the artisan from Vinc who made cloth — fulled once or twice — from Wallachian as well as Transylvanian, manor-produced wool. The princely court purchased a modest amount, no more than 21 rolls in 1686, but it is significant that a local producer could meet its criteria; the dyed cloth went into uniforms for the soldiers at court. There is no evidence that the neo-Christian clothmakers competed actively with the city guilds, the Greek merchants who imported fine English cloths as well as cheaper aba cloth, or the peasant craftsmen who made blankets and other coarse cloths. They were probably in a sellers' market; the demand for Brassó cloth remained strong, and the prince had even prohibited exports of Transylvanian cloth (along with boots and shoes).

{2-288.} Whereas the various cloth-making groups shared the market in some harmony, the Habán and Saxon potters engaged in fierce competition. The output of the neo-Christian potter communities grew rapidly in the 1670s, and the country was flooded with their attractive and inexpensive products. Their superior white and simpler blue glazed earthenware pitchers, plates, and flower pots became commonplace in Transylvanian households. The flourishing tile industry used a pressing technique to produce vast numbers of blue and green glazed ovens and bokályos tile stoves. The frequent references in contemporary sources to bokályos, i.e. tile-decorated houses and rooms similarly testify to the Habán potters' craftsmanship. Having received the prince's permission to freely market their products, the Habáns competed with native potters by developing a 'blue ware' of good quality.

The characteristic stove tiles of peasant potters at Kalotaszeg are noted in the archives of the Sebesvár Castle as well as in the urbarium of the Bánffy estate at Zentelk, and they were found as far as Hunyad (1689). Pottery from Csík was known for its variety of forms and 'outstanding excellence', as seen in the 65-centimetre high baroque steeple ornament of the church at Csíkszenttamás. The influence of Habán pottery is visible in the product of Saxon and various peasant potters. The growing link between professional and peasant craftsmen is well illustrated by the fact that cloth produced by villeins on the prince's estates was shipped for bleaching and finishing to Brassó, where the drapers had a long tradition of quality work.

Among Transylvania's guild craftsmen, goldsmiths preserved their reputation for excellence. Moldavia's ruler had his silver vessels made in Brassó; Mihály Teleki's silver dishes with gilded rims came from Fehérvár; and Princess Anna Bornemissza bought jewels and vessels made in Kolozsvár. The Churches were also good customers of Transylvanian goldsmiths; they received many orders for devotional objects from church patrons and testators. The collection {2-289.} of engravings found in the goldsmith's diaries of Mihály Gyergyai testify to close contacts between the goldsmiths of Kolozsvár and their counterparts in Hungarian centres. Meanwhile, lead and copperware were progressively gaining ground on pottery and glassware.

Building construction in the period 1660–70 shows an upswing in the art of woodworking and testifies to the skills of carpenters and joiners. The finest relic is the inner staircase at the Szentbenedek castle of Gáspár Kornis, who had been raised by Miklós Zrínyi and was captain-general of Marosszék; dating from 1673, the staircase was made of oak and had ornate columns. Brickmaking was less developed. Miklós Bethlen recorded that of the 180,000 double bricks ordered by his father for a castle at Szentmiklós, only a few hundred survived the firing process, and even those eventually disintegrated.

Even in countries enjoying more favourable conditions, thirty years is too short a time for significant progress in the modes of production. In Transylvania's feudal world, the iron- and glassworks, paper mills and sawmills were established on private and Treasury estates, and the labour came mainly in the form of socage. It is therefore significant that in the second half of the 17th century — at a time of growing demand for socage and of determined efforts by landowners to impose perpetual serfdom — Prince Apafi ordered his court marshal to have the more skilful and gifted sons of villeins trained for manufacturing work.