[ \ TOWNS, TOWNSPEOPLE AND MONEY: ATTITUDES,

ACTIVITIES, INSTITUTIONS, IMPLICATIONS (XVITH XXTH CENTURIES)

Abstracts

The Price of Sin: deed and punishment in Transylvanian towns in the XVIth century

Maria Crciun

Based on guild regulations written in Transylvanian towns during the sixteenth century, the present study is an attempt to explore attitudes to transgression and sin in the world of Saxon artisans with the help of the price attached to various categories of misbehavior. The study analyzes the quantum of the fines paid for actions which disturbed order and disregarded the norms of civility, affecting social harmony. This analysis allows one to establish a hierarchy of transgressions and to explore the social and cultural construction of sin. Since the study is focused on the 16th century, when the Saxon community adopted the Reform, it takes into account the break caused by the new theological ideas and their impact on the definition of sin. It also assesses the distribution of authority and responsibility for social disciplining between the guilds and the town council. The study highlights the stability of the artisans attitude to misdeeds and the centrality of honor and respectability in their world view. The exploration of the punitive system developed by the guilds suggests the importance of social criteria such as status, hierarchy and responsibility, the centrality of the psychological consequences of punishment, in the case of deliberate actions to ruin the reputation of artisans, a bureaucratization of the process and concern for the speed of communication. The study also

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emphasizes the active involvement of the guilds in the disciplining process, despite the attempt of the town governance to assume a leading role. Finally, the analysis of the social and cultural construction of sin suggests that the artisans appropriated Protestant discourse, redefining lapses in behavior according to the new tenets of faith and their ramifications in the realm of good conduct.

Monetary liquidities in the townspeople wills in the pre-modern Transylvania

Enik Rsz-Fogarasi

The present study aims at undertaking an approach relating to the

presence of monetary liquidities in the heritage mechanisms in the pre-modern Transylvania. We focused on three towns, each with particular heritage mechanisms, with different urbanization levels and various economic and social structures: Trgu-Mure in the Szeklers land, Bistria a Saxon town, Cluj a free royal town, lying in the comital territory, all of them providing a diverse image on the pre-modern Transylvanian realities. From the analysis of the town wills, based on the three examples, one may ascertain that financial liquidities occurred firstly in relation with the unpaid or uncollected debts; secondly, they appear in favor of certain public or church institutions, and only after that the fortune is divided among the family members. The fortune of the town dweller in Transylvania relied prevalently on tangible and intangible assets and then on monetary liquidities.

The bishop and the creditors. New information about the debts of a bishop from Roman from the second half of the 18th century

Petronel Zahariuc

At the end of the winter and beginning of spring of the year 1786,

after the death of the metropolitan bishop Gavril Calimachi, the greatest confrontation between Romanians and Greeks took place, having as a goal the taking over of the metropolitan seat in Iai. In order to control the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia, the Greek princes from Phanar wanted to make sure that three conditions are met: finding a powerful candidate, the winning over of the Constantinople patriarch and the

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motivating of the countrys prince. To reach the first goal, they looked for a candidate among the abbots of the monasteries led by Greeks in Moldavia, finding the archimandrite Iacov, the abbot of the Barnovschi monastery (which was subordinated to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem). To accomplish their ambitions, the Greek monks, either from the south or from the north of the Danube, did not hesitate to put at stake great amounts of money, while the archimandrite Iacov showed to all, Romanians and Greeks alike, how far he had got by using the money unscrupulously. This study presents the methods used by the archimandrite after leaving the monasterys lead and occupying the second bishop's seat (the bishopric of Roman) in the country (he was not elected metropolitan due to the opposition of the countrys boyars). In order to reach his objectives, Iacov borrowed money, becoming a faithful customer of the times usurers. In this paper, we try to identify the bishops creditors, to analyze their relationships and to present the destination of the borrowed sums (the prince, the boyars and others).

The urban component of the domain of the Cotroceni monastery (XVIIth XIXth centuries)

Mariana Lazr

By the end of the Middle Ages, the Romanian principalities were

among the main owners of land, shops and pubs in towns. The biggest monasteries also owned inns, which were real medieval establishments, acting both as hotels and commercial units and bringing significant profits. The Cotroceni monastery, founded by erban Cantacuzino, the prince of Wallachia (built between 1679-1682), had in its patrimony, apart from a great number of land domains, possessions in Bucharest, plots, houses and shops, most of them obtained through donations. Still, the most important building was the erban Vod inn, built by erban Cantacuzino and donated to his monastery. Over the time, these urban possessions brought him significant income, provided by the rents paid by those who sublet the inn rooms and the shops. Belonging to the state after the secularization of the monastery possessions, the erban Vod inn was demolished in 1883, at a time when its economic function did not correspond anymore to the societys needs. In its place the headquarters of the National Bank of Romania was constructed.

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Socio-economic aspects reflected in two inventories of the Church Madona Dudu in Craiova

Gheorghe Lazr

Founded in the middle of the 18th century by merchant Hagi

Gheorghe Ioan and clucer Constantin Fotescu, the church Madona Dudu became in short time one of the most famous and richest religious places in the town of Craiova and in the surroundings. Without any doubt, this was due to the (tangible and intangible) assets offered by its founders as well as to the prestige given by the miracle working icon of Virgin Mary which was found, according to the legend, on the spot where the church was later built. Given this situation, the management of the church incomes often represented a reason of conflict between the heirs of the two founders, with negative consequences on the material condition of the religious place. Things will be different in the second decade of the 19th century, when the trusteeship of the church Madona Dudu was taken over by the merchant Ioan Blu (collateral relative of one of the founder) who, besides the recovery of the patrimony, set up the custom to draw out inventories (catagrafii) where all the church incomes and expenditures should be minutely registered. In the present study, starting from the information offered by two of these documents identified in the archives until now (entirely published in the annex), a series of observations and comments are done regarding the income sources and the current expenses of this important religious establishment in the Oltenia region; reference is also made to the church involvement in various charitable, fashionable and urban actions in the beginning of the 19th century.

Greek merchants and usurers in Cmpulung-Muscel (XVIth century first part of the XIXth century)

Claudiu Neagoe

The consolidation of the Turkish domination over Wallachia,

starting with the second half of the 16th century, had important long term consequences on the economic and social evolution of the big towns in this Romanian principality. Gradually, the markets in Bucharest, Trgovite, Craiova, Trgu-Jiu, Arge and Cmpulung came under the control of the foreign merchants coming from South of the Danube, from the Turkish Empire, most of them of Greek origin. Using the capital

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gained from their trading activities and the profits acquired from the usury, some of them purchased through various ways (marriages, purchases, donations from the princes) lands, houses, shops and stalls in the urban environment and domain parts, gardens, vineyards and mills in the rural area. Some others even succeeded in naturalizing here, using their relationships with the members of some vernacular families. The town of Cmpulung enjoyed a particular, privileged status, from the central authority. Its inhabitants enjoyed certain fiscal privileges, especially the right of self-administration. Moreover, foreigners were forbidden to settle down or to buy houses and plots of land in town. In the present study, we attempt to analyze the ways in which some of the Greek merchants and usurers arrived in Cmpulung (during 16th 17th centuries) rapidly adjusted to the local commercial and economic activities, as well as their degree of involvement (during the 18th century and in the first part of the 19th century) not only in the economic activities of the town of Cmpulung but also in the local administrative and social structures.

On Turkish money lenders from the Moldavian towns and their practices (second half of the XVIIth century second half

of the XVIIIth century)

Laureniu Rdvan Among those who practice usury in late Medieval and pre-modern

Moldavia we found many Turks and this study is an attempt to show how great the Turkish merchants involvement was in lending money to local princes, boyars or townspeople. We looked at for what and to whom the Turks borrowed money and how high the interest rates were. We also tried to answer the question why the Turks had gained extensive control over money lending in Moldavian towns in the first half of the 18th century? On the one hand, the Romanian Principalities were deprived of the right to coinage. After 1711, the Ottomans preferred to appoint rulers from a restricted group of families, who had close ties with Greek circles in the Phanar district of Istanbul. They also placed these rulers into permanent rotation, without any chance of consolidating their rule. The princes were also engaged in competition, since the price paid for appointment by the sultan was always on the rise. Whereas the money for buying off the throne was usually lent by major creditors in Istanbul, the amounts needed to confirm the instatement were derived from in-country taxation. As they were often not enough, because of the chronic lack of coin, the contenders resorted

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to loans from Ottoman creditors. This was compounded by the townspeople demand for cash, who were affected by this shortage, and by that of the boyars, who also had to answer to various requests by the rulers. The Turkish merchants in the Empire were quick to seize the opportunity and filled this need in the Romanian Principalities. Many of them settled north of the Danube. The effects are noticeable in the size and strength of local urban economy, where foreign merchants, with easier access to foreign money, had an important say.

Coste Papafil: a merchant in the 18th century

Marius Chelcu Based on certain published sources and on some unknown

documents from the National Archives in Iasi, this study presents several moments from the life of a merchant living in Iasi in the 18th century. We used this case study in order to describe a part of the changes that occurred in the economy of the Romanian Principalities under the influence of the Western economy. The sign of those changes was represented by the orientation of some merchants, such as Coste Papafil, towards a new type of trade. If in the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, many merchants (among which we can found the predecessors of Coste Papafils wife) specialized in the trade with Oriental goods, towards the half of the 18th century, under new circumstances, more and more merchants will redirect towards the trade with goods brought from the markets in Leipzig. The entrepreneurial spirit, the matrimonial alliance with important merchant families and the prosperity acquired from the trade with luxury products, pushed Coste Papafil to the top of the Moldavian social hierarchy, from where, due to unclear reasons, he will fall down abruptly during the last years of his life.

Jewish money lenders, bankers and merchants in Oradea and Bihor in the Romanian newspapers published in Oradea

(Gazeta de Vest and Noua Gazet de Vest, 1929-1933)

Gabriel Moisa The Jews from Oradea and Bihor County (mostly money lenders,

bankers and merchants) had been carefully monitored by the Romanian press from Oradea during the two world wars. The theme related to Jews, as it is found in the Western Gazette (Gazeta de Vest), aims mainly

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at aspects of the Jewish community life of Oradea and the inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relationships between the three main communities of Oradea city: Hungarians, Jews and Romanians. The Western Gazette offered the inhabitants of Oradea, among others, ample images on the existing divergences between the Hungarian and Jewish communities in Oradea and other cities in Transylvania, although the local Jews were mostly attached to the Hungarian culture.

Romanian Urbanism (the extraCarpathian regions) in the XIXth century between tradition and modernity.

Several case studies

Teodor Octavian Gheorghiu Within the history of Romanian towns lying outside the

Carpathian Mountains, the transition period between the Middle Ages and the modernization process imposed starting with the 3rd decade of the 19th century represents a complex period, with complicated events, vacillating between tradition and modernity. The capitalism and the modern banking system start to enter these territories and, throughout the 19th century, the local urbanism, although preserving some traditional structures, gradually stands out from the Eastern-influenced atmosphere and attaches to the Western concepts. In the general urban chronology (between the beginning of the 19th century and 1989), the last stage may be called the modern and post-modern stage (1831-1989), comprising several sub-stages:

1. The sub-stage of the preparation and debut of the urban modernization: 1831 - end of the 19th century;

2. The sub-stage of synchronous modernization with the European urbanism: end of the 19th century 1952;

3. The first socialist sub-stage (synchronous with the East Europe and partially with the Western countries): 1950-1977;

4. The second socialist sub-stage (of complete de-synchronization): 1977-1989.

This study refers only to the first sub-stage, assessing at first the prerequisites of this transition, for which three types of urban networks are detected: Romanian (those preserved within the two principalities, Wallachia and Moldavia), Turkish (those incorporated, under various forms, directly to the Ottoman Empire) and those belonging to other states (The Habsburg and the Russian Empires). It

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continues with the context in which this urban phenomenon occurs, with the evaluation of general urbanism processes (continuity, restructuring, modernization, revival, new appearances) and with some case studies that cover all types of situations and evolutions: Iai, Cmpulung, Buzu, Galai, Brila, Clrai, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Suceava, Cernui, Chilia.

Public money and towns. A case study: Cmpulung at the end of the XIXth century the beginning of the XXth century

Carmen Oprescu

This study focuses on three loans granted and spent by the

Cmpulung City Council during 1880-1930, having as a goal the modernization of this town. The loans, analyzed together with the manner in which they contributed to the towns modernization, consist of:

1. 200 000 lei, borrowed from the National Savings Bank (Casa de Depuneri i Consemnaiuni) for the period 1st of July 1893 1st of July 1908 in view of the expropriation of land in order to build streets, a primary school for girls and the commercial market;

2. A loan for the budget supplementation, having as a goal the pavement of some streets and the making of some paved sidewalks on the main streets of the town;

3. 250 000 lei, borrowed from the County and Communal Credit (Creditul judeean i comunal) for the period 1st of May 1906 1st of May 1946, for the construction of a new Town hall, the Fire house, for the pavement and extension of some streets, for the making of fountains and for the electric lighting project.

Timioara between the two World Wars. Urbanism or Modernity between utopia and progress

Anca Brtuleanu

This paper is the outcome of a research developed in several stages,

throughout several years. It started as a study within a collective project and continued referring to the architecture of three towns during the period between the two World Wars Szeged, Subotica, Timioara which were part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire before the first

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World War. The study shows that the force and coherence of Timioaras image is due to the consistent assumption of a certain way of seeing the town, which has its source in some projects conceived before 1900. Several generations of architects and specialists in urbanism put into practice with certain changes and details referring to their own perspective in the field the general lines already drawn by the existing development plans. We may say that there was continuity in the way the town development was thought, which manifested both at decisional level and in the area of urbanism and architecture practice. A profound urban management completed the series of actions that made Timioara an example of balanced development and determined the persistence over the years of a local community which kept its specific identity; an identity that modeled for a long time an urban civilization, which also influenced the newcomers.

Grigore Alexandru Ghica and the National Bank of Moldavia

Codrin Murariu

During the 19th century, the need for the creation of a Bank of

Moldavia signified a major goal in the development and the modernization of the principality, as well as in putting an end to the financial chaos generated by the lack of currency, which in turn led to the progressive ruin of the landowners class. Using an analytical method based on a diachronic approach and on a variety of sources, this study attempts to concisely describe Grigore Alexandru Ghicas ideas and actions related to this problem, both before and after his nomination as prince.

Coordinates of the insurance activity in Romania in the XIXth century

Bogdan Frescu

The insurance of goods, persons and liability in Romania

conducted by specialized insurance companies started relatively late, in the 19th century. Early forms of insurance were present in this country before, without an appropriate institutional framework. The activity of financial and banking institutions or social processes involving economic

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and financial aids were widely met during that period. Even though relations focusing on reciprocity and mutual aid were crystallized since the 14th century by establishing guilds in Transylvania, genuine relations of insurance were carried on late, in the 19th century by Austrian, English, Italian or Hungarian representatives or agents of insurance companies. Later on, some insurance companies were founded with local capital. The insurance activity in Romania in the 19th century was influenced by the efforts of the Romanian specialists to establish insurance companies with domestic capital, amid the existence of local branches of foreign insurance companies and the interdependence between banking and insurance.

The foundation of the National Bank of Romania and the economic development of the country in the last part of the

XIXth century

Bogdan Cpraru In this study we analyze the circumstances and consequences of

the foundation of the National Bank of Romania. After numerous projects and foundation initiatives of a national bank throughout the 19th century, in April 1880 the National Bank of Romania was founded as a discount and circulation bank. The foundation of the National Bank of Romania represented a turning point in the Romanian history and the main benefits that came along were: the organization of a modern monetary circulation, adjusted to the economys needs; the development of financial and banking operations and techniques; the increase in the importance of domestic capital in the development of the Romanian economy branches. Thus, the appearance of this institution laid the foundations of the organization of capitalist production relations in the Romanian economy and of the consolidation and development of the domestic banking system.

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The credit unions and the development of the national economy during the 19th century

Ovidiu Stoica

This study aims to highlight the difficult beginnings of the

Romanian banking system and, in this context, of the lack of financial capital as well as the important role that the credit unions (the so-called popular banks) had in the economic development. Organized on cooperative principles, on mutual help, the credit unions were not profit-driven; they were instead a real support for the under-privileged segments of the population, especially in the 19th century.

The Society for Urban Real Estate Credit in Iai

Valeriu Dornescu

The first urban real estate credit societies in Romania were created in Bucharest (December 1874) and Iai (June 1881). At that time, the new legal framework was given by the land credit Law from 1873, modified in 1882 and then in 1926, concerning the long-term loans and credits to urban property owners and the emission of long-term obligations. This paper presents aspects that concern the evolution of this institutions activity from the moment it was created until it was disbanded. The importance of this institutions activity is also underlined, whereas it had a major role in sustaining and developing the real estate market in Romania during its six decades of activity. The Society for Urban Real Estate Credit in Iai (Societatea creditului funciar urban din Iai) proved its utility especially during the times when the need for credits was high, thus contributing to the development of Romanias general economic life. For example, during and after the 1929-1933 crisis, when the general economic situation in Romania affected the incomes and payment ability of mortgage debtors, the Society granted a series of temporary facilities and actively participated in creating the Law for debt clearance in 1934 (the law granted important benefits to mortgage debtors). The main individuals who had led the Society were exponents of the intellectual elite from Iasi, as well as political figures, business people, city mayors etc. The last part presents the historical importance of the building in which the Society activated, currently part of the national patrimony, housing the Union Museum in Iai.

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Romanias modernization. Failure or success?

Gheorghe Iacob The process of modernization represents one of the main topics

covered by the social sciences in Romania in the last decades. The description and interpretation of a century of evolution of the Romanian society motivated the approaches of numerous historians (of which we mention Gheorghe Platon, Ion Bulei sau Ioan Scurtu), sociologists, psychologists etc., eager to understand some structures and limits of the present by means of the establishment of a pattern of the past. The approaches were diverse in method and interpretation, some of them ideologically motivated, some others empirical or assuming fashions and idealizing or, on the contrary, entirely dismissing this historical process. The interpretation line of modernization which seems to gain territory in the last years is that of failure, through the negative reading of economic, social, cultural or psychological changes that occurred in the Romanian society after 1829. Victor Axenciuc, Liviu Antonesei and especially, Bogdan Murgescu are the most authorized representatives of this trend. In our opinion, the approach of modernization should be performed in a balanced manner and methodology. The contexts explaining the modernization process of Romania hold a special importance. A series of questions appear as necessary, structuring the present approach. Therefore, when we speak about gaps, do we compare with ourselves, with the evolution stages of the Romanian society in the modernization era? Do we compare with the states from the same geo-economic space? Do we undertake a quantitative or/and a qualitative analysis? To which kind of modernization do we finally refer, only to the economic one, to the bureaucratic, political one as well, etc? Do we highlight the accomplishments or just the limitations of these modernizations? The questions may go on, on the background of the attempt to eliminate any ideological inherited or contemporary pressure. On this ground, we propose a balanced approach of Romanias modernization during 1859-1939. The debate about this field of research in these decades has as a starting point a possible definition of the process taken into account, which cannot exclude industrialization, rationalization, secularization and bureaucratization.