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Inn-Keeping
Running a pub, inn, or restaurant. In inns,
beer was sold, and sometimes brewed; mead was also produced,
and,
beginning in the sixteenth century, vodka was also
distilled. Some pubs
situated on important roads provided accommodation and
stables (inns).
Inns were a place for dancing and entertainment, and
sometimes sessions
of the village court would also meet there. Groceries and
clothes could
also be sold there.
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Until the sixteenth century, running an inn was
passed down from father to son; then the szlachta (nobility)
tried to
change this by introducing leases for them, which were
increasingly
given to Jews. Beer and spirits made on the noble estates
were produced
there, this being one of the szlachta's main sources of
income. In the
first half of the seventeenth century, leased inns were in
25% of the
szlachta-owned villages in Wielkopolska and Malopolska.
There were fewer
of them in areas having very large landed estates. In the
eighteenth
century, when the number of inns grew significantly and were
usually
found in most of the szlachta villages, inn-keeping became
one of the
main occupations for Jews in small towns and villages.
(H.W./CM)
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