The Network of Cities and Towns in the GDL
As in many European countries, the situation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was such that the most far-reaching cultural achievements from the city were passed on to the lower and far more numerous social class, that being the peasants, through the manor estates, churches and towns. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the most eastern European country where there were numerous towns (especially in the territory of what is present-day Lithuania and western Belarus).
What is the difference between a city and a town?
The legalisation of a settlement turning into a town occurred in the following way: the owner or governor of a settlement would ask the ruler to allow him to establish a town. The ruler would most often issue a privilege (from the middle of the 17th century, the privileges of founding a town usually served as privileges for markets and fairs), though there were a number of towns that did not receive such privileges, as the Third Lithuanian Statute allowed owners to establish towns, as long as the necessary 3 mile distance between the towns was heeded.
In order for a town to become a city, one had to get a privilege from the ruler that would give the city the right to deal with all of its issues itself (self-rule). There were exceptions, for example the owner provided self-rule to Skuodas, which was approved much later by the ruler. The inhabitants of towns and cities at the end of the 16th century in the GDL, it seems, could have been 10 % of all inhabitants, while in Poland it reached up to 20 %, from 20 to 25 % in Bohemia, 15 % in Hungary, about 50 % in Northern Italy, and from 46 to 54 % in the Netherlands (according to data given by historian Piotr Wandycz).
There were approximately 100 self-ruling cities that had Magdeburg rights or other laws of self-rule in the GDL, which until the middle of the 17th century was a country battered by war and plague. There were 22 cities in present-day Lithuanian territory and 77 cities in Slavic lands. There were also about 750 towns that had (or did not have) privileges for markets or fairs. Around 65 % of these towns and cities were in western (Lithuanian) voivodeships, including those of Vilnius, Trakai, and in Samogitia, as well as of Navahrudak and Brest. Each city or town in these voivodes had around 260 km2 at their disposal, while in eastern voivodeships they had around 580 km2 at their disposal.
One hundred years of decline
In the middle of the 17th century, the country was devastated by occupations of Swedes and Muscovites and a plague epidemic. The country was not able to recover before a catastrophe that struck the country at the beginning of the 18th century. It was ravaged by the Great Northern War and a fierce plague epidemic. From these disasters, it was the cities and towns of the GDL that suffered the most – their inhabitants were killed, died from disease and plague, were deported (artisans were transported to Russia in the middle of the 17th century), and plundered. Life in the towns and cities died out, and the number of inhabitants failed to grow. The stagnation of the state continued more than 100 years until the 1770s.
Though the growth of towns and cities stopped in the country from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century, the development of their network did not.
A number of cities fell to the status of a town, while a part of the towns disappeared or barely survived as villages.
However the government tried their best to bring them out of decline at least formally (by giving them various privileges) and even established new towns and cities. From the middle of the 17th century until 1795 around 110 towns from approximately 360 that existed at the end of the 18th century appeared just in the present-day territory of Lithuania alone. This was a quantitative jump – though many towns received various privileges, only 7 of them received self-rule between 1654 and 1790. Only 21 cities received self-rule in the remaining part of the Grand Duchy. This number does not show how many cities in reality implemented this self-rule (for example, Šventoji and Šiauliai failed to do this).
They went along a path of increasing the number of towns, but not a path of strengthening them or the cities. Jews flooded these emptying towns and cities starting from the 18th century, who found favourable conditions to live and work. At the end of the 18th century, the number of inhabitants in the GDL’s towns and cities were close to that it had in the middle of the 18th century. The cities and towns were a market for peasants and artisans for realising their production, a market that was encouraged by either the owners or governors of towns who asked for privileges, as well as rulers that issued them. The expansion of towns and cities fit the aim and needs of the state.
Quantity vs. quality
Do You Know?
The inhabitants of towns and cities at the end of the 16th century in the GDL may have been 10 % of all inhabitants, while in Poland it reached up to 20 %, from 20 to 25 % in Bohemia, 15 % in Hungary, about 50 % in Northern Italy, and from 46 to 54 % in the Netherlands (according to data given by historian Piotr Wandycz).
The state recovered in the second half of the 18th century, and the cities and towns of the GDL began to grow at a faster pace. Their overall number on the eve of the collapse of the state may have reached approximately 1,100 (including the lands lost during the two partitions). Within the present-day territory of Lithuania alone (excluding the region of Klaipėda, which was not part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) there were about 360 towns and cities. Around 1650 the total number of inhabitants of the towns and cities in the entire GDL was from approximately 400,000 to 470,000 people, which comprised about 14.3 % of all GDL inhabitants. However, around 1790, the number of inhabitants of the GDL’s cities and towns (excluding lands lost after the first partition) was from 375,000 to 400,000, which was about 13.9 % of all inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At the end of the 18th century in present-day Lithuanian territory, one city or town had about 180 km², while in the remaining part of the GDL a city or town had about 330 km², however they were mostly located in the western, or “Lithuanian,” part of the GDL.
The greatest number of towns and cities was in the western part of the GDL.
A rather curious situation arose: the trade by peasants which dominated in the western part (especially in Samogitia) was supposed to encourage the quicker growth of cities, but it was the network of towns that grew, and not that of the cities. There were a few reasons for this. First of all, even the towns with privileges were controlled by feudal lords: in reality privileges were not issued to the towns, but rather to their owners or governors, which is why towns did not receive political or almost any economic freedoms (just the freedom to have a market or fair and the chance for city inhabitants to buy things first and easier at them). Second of all, due to the closed nature of the feudal economy and poorly-arranged monetary system, it was retail trade that occurred most often in town markets, while wholesale trade took place in foreign seaside ports, which is why the city inhabitants received only a small income. There was also no encouragement to expand their trades. Third of all, privileges were often issued to settlements that had poor future prospects, which led to a greater density of the networks of towns and cities that was done in a poorly planned out way. This also led to the narrowing of their zones of influence, and the lessening of the chance for competition among towns. They grew, but weakly, and hindered growth for others.
Literature: E. Meilus, Žemaitijos kunigaikštystės miesteliai XVII amžiaus II pusėje – XVIII amžiuje (Raida, gyventojai, amatai, prekyba), Vilnius, 1997.
Elmantas Meilus
