Károly István Novák:
The Mills of Cluj Mirrored by the City-accounts
at the End of the 16th Century
The present study is trying to grasp a less known aspect of the Cluj economical history of the 16th century, by presenting the mills, based on the city-accounts. The city of Cluj, situated in the center of Transylvania, was a free-royal city in the 16th century, having important privileges. In spite of its disadvantageous geographical position, Cluj had a fairly developed system of guilds, a significant craftsmanship and an intensive international commerce. The city-books of Cluj (one of the first ones of such in Transylvania) constitute one of the most important source materials for researches of these times. In these books we can find the accounts which contain entries regarding the type, structure, the production capacity and the mode of functioning of the mills, as well as other economical and financial notes. We can also find there the administrative-financial reports of the mills with the city of Cluj. The analysis of these data makes an important contribution to a more outlined image regarding the technology of that age, the relationships between the professions, as well as the local effects of the “revolution of the prices” in Europe.
