102 JOGALIA
those numerous noble families, whose names first appear in the documents and
land grants of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, have a continu-
ous history into modern times. Among them, a small number of noblemen,
begin to accumulate fortunes and influence of disproportionate size. Although
the Teczyriski, Tarnowski, Odrowaz, Gorka, Firlej, Szamotulski, and
Melsztynski families were small fry compared to the magnates of a later age,
their power relative to the rest of society was considerable. If in the Piast period,
the cities had stood apart from the landed interest, and were able to act as
arbiters or even as princemakers in the internecine feuds of the barons, they
were now to be subordinated to the universal pretensions of the szlachta. The
new situation was dramatically illustrated by an incident in Cracow in 1462.. In
that year, Andrzej Teczynski, brother of the royal Castellan, had given a suit of
armour to be repaired by a craftsman called Klemens. When Klemens protested
at the payment of 18 groszy against the bill of 2. ducats, Teczyriski decided to
teach him a lesson by beating him with his stick. During the brawl, a body of
townsmen intervened, and the Castellan's noble brother was lynched.
Retribution was swift. As the city Corporation could not deliver the unidentified
murderers to justice, six of the city aldermen were seized by the Castellan and
summarily beheaded. The moral was fairly clear. Even so, the patricians of
Cracow, Lwow, and Danzig included some of the most influential men in the
land. Figures like Baltazar Behem (1460-1508), the lawyer, whose illuminated
codex of Cracovian legislation provides perhaps the richest source of urban his-
tory of the period, or Johann Boner (c. 1450-1523), an immigrant banker, who
founded a noble dynasty, could deal with any nobleman without the least sense
of inferiority. Their lofty detachment from the problems of the pullulating
urban plebs was even greater than that of a nobleman from the life of his serfs.
Economic progress continued apace both on the land and in the town. The
recovery of Danzig, and the unification of the Vistula basin opened up the Polish
interior to the grain trade. The steady improvement of agriculture over the pre-
ceding period now paid dividends. Large-scale manorial farming and the pro-
duction of cereals for sale became a very profitable business. What in 1400 was
no more than a trickle, by 1500 was turning into a stream, and by 1565 into a
flood. But agricultural improvement was no isolated phenomenon. Technical
advances and specialization were noted in almost all trades. Water power,
known since the thirteenth century, was now harnessed to a multiplicity of
enterprises, from flour-milling and wood-cutting to paper- and wire-making.
Transport was made more efficient both by the repair of roads, facilitating
wheeled traffic instead of pack horses, and by the systematic use of rivers and
dykes. Obstructive practices, such as that at Thorn, where, until 1537, all goods
on the Vistula could be held up by the local right of storage, were reduced.
Mining was markedly intensified. By 1563, salt production at Wieliczka had tre-
bled since the turn of the century. Over one hundred forges, sixty in the
Staropolskie Basin alone, were producing iron in quantity. Banking and credit
operations proliferated, resulting in the creation of joint-stock companies. In