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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
The prominent position of Jews in various aspects of the production, distribution and vending of beer, vodka and other grain-based intoxicants in late-eighteenth-century Poland was noted by contemporaries and registers in the meager socio-demographic data available for the period. The Jewish innkeeper, particularly in the Eastern regions of Poland, was an important representative of the Dvorf Yid — the provincial Jew as recorded in memoirs, chronicles and travellers' accounts. In the middle of the eighteenth century, 20 to 30 percent of the Jewish population of Poland was estimated to be involved in some aspect of alcohol production and distribution — what came to be called the Propinacja.
1 The Krechme, as it was called by the Jews themselves, was a general store, a hostel for travellers and their horses as well as a tavern and inn where food and drink could be procured. See, for example, Solomon Maimon's account in Sefer ha-yai Shlomo Maimon, transl. by Baruch, Y. L. (Tel Aviv, 1953), pp. 79–82.Google Scholar For a description of a Jewish inn during the early nineteenth century, see Stephens, J. L., Incidents of Travel in Greece, Russia and Poland (2 vols; New York, 1838), II, p. 189.Google Scholar The character of the Jewish innkeeper has been immortalized in Bialik's, H. N. famous poem “Avi””;, in Kol shirei Bialik (Tel Aviv, 1953), p.347.Google Scholar I would also like to add the following description of Polish peasants, Polish Jews and their relations in the Polish territory annexed to the Austrian Empire, which is found in Demian, J. A., Darstellung der Oesterreichischen Monarchie (4 vols; Vienna, 1804)Google Scholar, quoted in The Habsburg and Hohenzollern Dynasties in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, ed. by Macartney, C. A. (New York, 1970), pp. 195–97:Google Scholar “When the peasant drives to market, he calls in on the way there at several Jewish taverns, leaves the payment till the return journey, then on that repeats all his visits and drinks away half, sometimes all, the money he has made at the market. He swills down twenty to thirty glasses at a sitting. His wife is not a hairsbreadth behind him. On Sundays and holidays they walk to the church in their best clothes, but barefoot, carrying their boots under their arms. At the entrance to the village in which the parish church stands they put on their boots; after Divine Service they take them off again in the same place and then go into the taverns with their husbands or kinsfolk. There they drink brandy till sundown, without eating so much as a morsel of bread; then they start off, singing, for their villages, which are often a couple of leagues away, and often spend the whole night lying in heaps on the road. […] At their frequent meetings the Jew enters into intimate conversation with him, listens to his complaints and often gives him sound advice. In these frequent conversations he learns what each peasant possesses, what he has to sell, what he is short of and what he can do without. Now the Jew is already master of the poor helot's property. Very soon the peasant drinks himself into indebtedness to the Jew, and this does not worry the creditor. […] The peasant feels only his immediate need, and immediate relief of it is all he wants. So his household remains eternally in the same state of wretchedness, and the peasant's continued habit of regarding the Jew as his friend gradually engenders an unlimited confidence in the Jew which is infinitely advantageous to the latter. To remedy this evil the Austrian Government has prohibited Jews from leasing the taverns in the country and the towns, and in 1780 ordered that Jews might reside in villages only as agriculturalists or craftsmen, because they had so corrupted the peasants as tavern-keepers. But this wise measure was relaxed. A decree of 1792 permitted Jewish distillers of brandy and all persons gaining their livelihoods from permitted trades, whether Jews or Christians, to continue to reside in the villages. The Jews have therefore gone on living in the villages, calling themselves distillers, while putting in a Christian as nominal licensee of the inn, but in reality continuing to practice the forbidden trade, and continuing to constitute a great danger for the population.” While the political and economic conditions in Austria were different from those of Russia (described in this paper), the realia of the two areas, and the basic social relations between Jews and peasants there, were similar.
2 Economic History of the Jews, ed. by Gross, N. (New York, 1975), pp. 132–40.For an assessment of the census data upon which this estimate is basedGoogle Scholar, see Tartakower, A., “Polish Jewry in the Eighteenth Century”, in: Jewish Journal of Sociology, II (1959–1960), pp. 110–14Google Scholar
3 Poles referred to the economic position of West European Jews, and contrasted it with that of Polish Jews; the contrast became a basis for criticizing the latter, as illustrated in this remark from a Polish memoir: “For us who are accustomed to our Itziks and Moskes who sit in the stores and get the masses drunk, it is a wonder to see people from that nation and faith in other lands who are so useful and educated.” Quoted in Ringelblum, E., “Hasidus un Haskoloh in Varshah in l8-Yahrhundert”, in: Wachstein-Bukh (Vilna, 1939), p. 130.Google Scholar
4 Jews had condemned the Jewish involvement in the Propinacja some years before. In 1759, two Frankists addressed a petition to the King of Poland and the Archbishop of Lvov, requesting land on which to settle (and protection from the Jews they were seperating from); they thought it necessary to assure their sponsors that they would seek honorable means of support: “For we do not suppose that one of our own will ever settle in a tavern to seek his sustenance by facilitating intoxication and by the use of Christian blood which the Talmudists are accustomed to do.” Quoted in Balaban, M., Le-toldot te-nu-'ah ha-Frankit (Tel Aviv, 1934), p. 205.Google Scholar The association between the Propinacja and the blood libel calls for further investigation. See Levine, H., “Gentry, Jews and Serfs: The Rise of Polish Vodka”, in: Review: A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations, IV (1980–1981), pp. 223–50.Google Scholar The Maggid of Kremnic, Jacob Israel Halevi, called the Propinacja “a profession of robbers”. See “Yitron ha-'or”, Agudat ei'-zov (Zolkiev, 1782), p. 23Google Scholar, cc. 2–4, quoted in Piekaz, M., Bi-yemei Ṣemiḥat ha-Ḥasidut (Jerusalem, 1978), p. 71.Google Scholar For the attitudes of some Maskilim during the Four-Year Sejm, see below, pp. 75f., and also Levin, M., Erkhei hevrah ve-kalkalah beidiyologiyah shel te-kufat ha-Haskalah (Jerusalem, 1975), pp. 104–08.Google Scholar Even recent Jewish historians have treated the subject apologetically. Simon Dubnov, for example, emphasizes the impoverishment of Polish Jewry; lacking other vocational opportunities, they took over this demeaning task from the corrupt and indolent gentry. See his History of the Jews, transl. by Spiegel, M. (S. Brunswick, N.J., 1967–1973), IV, p. 83.Google Scholar Even the economic historian Ignacy Schipper fails to point to the economic functions of the Propinacja. He calls it “an old sickness which became more serious in the days of Stanislav August”. He explains that the “enlightened” people of the generation — those who could transcend their own interests — condemned it as part of the exploitation of the peasantry. The riots of 1768 in the Ukraine moved the gentry to give up the part of their income that was derived from this harmful source. Jews were therefore eliminated from these occupations and the Jewish population of the small towns in the East dwindled. Schipper praises “Polish statesmanship” in discussing the efforts to promote reform among the Jews. See his “An Economic History of Polish and Lithuanian Jewry from the Earliest Period until the Partitions” (in Hebrew), in: Beit Yisra'el be-Polin, ed. by Halperin, I. (2 vols; Jerusalem, 1948), I, p. 197Google Scholar. Jewish historians take opposing positions concerning the Polish reformers' intentions and capacity to bring about any change in Poland in general, and to positively affect the Jewish situation in particular. A contemporary Polish historian, Jerzy Jedlicki, presents a more balanced view of the reform movement. See his article, “Social Ideas and Economic Attitudes of Polish EighteenthCentury Nobility: Their Approach to Industrial Policy”, in: Fifth International Congress of Economic History, Leningrad, 08 10–14, 1970, I: History of Economic Thought, pp. 89–103.Google Scholar
5 For example, a study of the manufacture and consumption of whiskey in the areas west of the Appalachian Mountains in the early nineteenth century presents an interesting parallel. Before the Erie Canal was built, farmers found it considerably more profitable to transport their grain crops to the Eastern regions of the American Republic in the form of alcohol. See Rorabaugh, W. J., The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (New York, 1979), pp. 77–92Google Scholar, and Park, P., “Industrialization and Alcoholism: Toward a Structural Explanation”, a paper read at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, “The Social Production of Drug and Alcohol Problems”, Boston, 26 08 1979.Google Scholar
6 Here I follow Witold Kula's analysis, as set forth in An Economic Theory of the Feudal System: Towards a Model of the Polish Economy 1500–1800, transl. by Garner, L. (London, 1976).Google Scholar In this work, Kula does not mention Jewish involvement in the Propinacja. But see his Problemy i Metody Historii Gospodarczej (Warsaw, 1963), pp. 76–77Google Scholar, where he does call for an examination of the economic activities of Jews as an integral part of the economic history of Poland in particular. For a more detailed economic analysis of the Jewish position in the Propinacja, see Levine, , “Gentry, Jews, and Serfs”, loc. cit., pp. 223–41.Google Scholar For a discussion of Kula's model of Polish feudalism, see Makkaj, L., “Neo-Serfdom: Its Origin and Nature in East Central Europe”, in: Slavic Review, XXXIV (1975), pp. 225–38,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Kamiński, A., “Neo-Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania”Google Scholar, ibid., pp. 253–68.
7 Quoted in Kula, , An Economic Theory of the Feudal System, op. cit., p. 141.Google Scholar
8 Ibid., p. 137.
9 Gieysztor, A. et al. , History of Poland (Warsaw, 1968), p. 300.Google Scholar
10 Ringelblum, E., Kapitelen geshikhte fun amoliken yiddishen leben in Polin (Buenos Aires, 1953), pp. 122–24.Google Scholar Israel Halperin claims that the lower and middle gently generally opposed the magnates' efforts to grant leases and concessions to Jews. See his collection of essays, Ye-hudim ve-Yahadut be-Mizraḥ Eiropah (Jerusalem, 1969), pp. 285–86.Google Scholar
11 Slutsky, J. and Buba, M., “The History of the Jews in Russia in the Eighteenth Century” (in Hebrew). in: He-'Avar, XIX (1971), PP. 74–78.Google Scholar For an analysis of the factors influencing Russian policies toward Jews in the late eighteenth century, see Sh.Ettinger, “The Foundations and Purposes in the Formation of the Russian Government's Jewish Policy during the Partitions of Poland” (in Hebrew), ibid., pp. 20–34. The different approaches of Russian and Polish officials to Jewish communal affairs are examined in Nadav, M., “Rabbi Avigdor ben Hayim and His Battle against Ḥasidism in Pinsk and Lithuania” (in Hebrew), in: Ṣion, XXXVI (1971), pp. 200–19.Google Scholar
12 Collected in Eisenbach, A. et al. , Materiaty z Historii Sejmu Czteroletniego (6 vols; Wroclaw, 1969), VI, pp. 78–93.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., pp. 118–28.
14 Ibid., pp. 98–105.
15 Gelber, N., “Żydzi i zagadmenie reformy Żyd⋯w na Sejmie Czteroletnim”, in: Miesiçcznik Żydowski, X (1931), p. 332;Google ScholarShmeruk, Kh., “Moshe Markuze fun Slonim un der Mokor fun zayn Bukh Ezer Yisrael”, in: Sefer Dov Sadan, ed. by Verses, Sh., Rotenstreich, N. and Shmeruk, Kh. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 361–82.Google Scholar
16 Materialy z Historii Sejmu Czteroletniego, op. cit., VI, pp. 421–33;Google ScholarGelber, , “Żydzi i zagadnienie reformy Żydów”, p. 340.Google Scholar
17 Gelber, N., “Mendel Lefin Satanow” (in Hebrew), in: Abraham Weiss Jubilee (New York, 1964), pp. 271–301.Google Scholar
18 Materialy z Historii Sejmu Czteroletniego, VI, pp. 491–97.
19 Ibid., pp. 499.
20 Czacki, T., Rosprawa o Żydach (Vilna, 1807), p. 220.Google Scholar See also Gelber, , “The Program for a Jewish State” (in Hebrew) in: Keneset, III (1939), pp. 291–320;Google Scholaribid., “The Jewish Question in Poland in the Years 1815–1830” (in Hebrew), in: Ṣion, XIII (1948), pp. 106–43,Google Scholar and M. Verte, “Polish Plans for a Territorial Settlement of the Jewish Question” (in Hebrew), ibid., V (1941), pp. 148–55, 203–13.
21 Springer, A., “Gavriil Derzhavin's Jewish Reform Project of 1800”, in: Canadian-American Slavic Studies, X (1976), p. 21.Google Scholar
22 Ibid., pp. 1–3. For a survey of other proposals formulated by Russian officials at this time, see Ettinger, , “Foundations and Purposes”, loc. cit., pp. 20–34;Google Scholar also id., “The Reform Proposal of 1804” (in Hebrew), in: He-'Avar, XII (1956), pp. 87–110. Other historians emphasize the differences in tone and substance between Derzhavin's and Frizel's proposals. Frizel, the Governor of Lithuania, is supposed to have conveyed more of the spirit of “Enlightened Absolutism” and to have argued for the integration of Jews into Russian society. Ettinger, however, in “The Reform Proposal”, pp. 90–110, stresses the similanty of their ideas and plans.
23 For an analysis of the history of this phrase, see Katz, J., “A State Within a State: The History of anAnti-Semitic Slogan”, in: Proceedings of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, IV (1971), pp. 29–58.Google Scholar
24 Springer, , “Derzhavin's Jewish Reform Project”, loc. cit., p. 3; Ettinger, “Foundations and Purposes”, pp. 29–33.Google Scholar
25 Springer, , “Derzhavin's Jewish Reform Project”, p. 23.Google Scholar
26 “Doklad o Evreiakh Imperatoru AleksandruPavlovichu, 1812”, in Russkii Arkhiv, XLI (1903) Pt 1, pp. 253–74.Google Scholar I thank Mr L. J. van Rossum for underscoring the importance of this source and sharing a copy of it with me. Greenberg, L., The Jews in Russia (2 vols; New York, 1976), 1, pp. 29–30Google Scholar, following Dubnov, refers to the Popov Report, but concludes that after the War of 1812 the policy to evict one half a million Jews was renewed and the task completed. Ettinger, , “The Reform Proposal”, p. 102 states that “the only actual result of the Edict of 1804 was the beginning of the expulsion of the Jews from the villages.”Google Scholar
27 Gay, P., The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (2 vols; New York, 1966–1969), II, p. 31. Gay points to common contradictions in Enlightenment humanitarianism. For example, zealous opponents of slavery often tolerated child labor in the mines.Google Scholar
28 Ettinger, , “Foundations and Purposes”, p. 22.Google Scholar
29 In his recent study, Immanuel Wallerstein places Russia outside of the European world economy, presenting evidence that Russia did not export grain to the industrializing West, but rather sold wheat on its expanded domestic markets. The Modem World System (New York, 1974), pp. 305–07.Google Scholar For the significance of this domestic wheat trade in the eighteenth century, see Crummey, R., The Old Believers and the World of Antichrist (Madison, 1970), pp. 135–38.Google Scholar
30 Technical innovations in stills that had been made at this time in the West might have reduced the capital outlay necessary to manufacture grain alcohol. (For a description of the new still technologies and of their social and economic effects, see Rorabaugh, , The Alcoholic Republic, op. cit., pp. 69–76.) This might have made it possible for more of the lower gentry and the burghers to contemplate entering this field, and would have encouraged them to try to reduce competition by eliminating the Jews. This seems to have been the case in Lithuania and Belorussia, where the attacks against Jewish involvement in the Propinacja were most vociferous.Google Scholar
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