104 JOGALIA
was equivalent to one red zloty, or to eight 'silver zloties', and was divided into
5 orti. On this scale, one dollar or ducat was worth 240 groszy or 4,320 pence.
The patent simplicity of these details eloquently evokes the complexity of the
preceding chaos.
The growth of towns and trade favoured the further expansion of the Jewish
community. The Jagiellonian Kings regularly confirmed the basic Jewish
Charter of 1264. As from 1515, Sigismund I encouraged Jewish immigration,
especially from Austria. The large number of exclusionary charters, De non
tolerandis Judeis, extended by the King to particular cities, served only to under-
line the fact that the Jews were permitted to settle in all other parts of the realm.
The foundations of Jewish autonomy were laid under royal patronage. Earlier
attempts to place the Jews under the care of Chief Rabbis, appointed separately
by the King in Poland and Lithuania, were abandoned. Instead, the principle
was accepted that the elected Elders of the kahal or 'Jewish Commune' should
administer their affairs themselves. In each locality, they were to be supervised,
and protected, by the royal Wojewoda or Starosta. In 1530, they were granted
leave to create a Jewish Tribunal at Lublin. In 1549, they were empowered both
to assess and to collect their contribution to the pogiowne or 'poll-tax'. In this
way, they gradually assumed the attributes of a separate and legal Estate. In
financial matters, they established the enviable practice whereby they could bar-
gain freely with the royal officials. As shown by the report of the commissioners
who interviewed the Elders of the Cracow kahal in 1564, each side adopted an
uncompromising negotiating position:
The Jewish Elders, - by name Salmon Krasnik, Joseph Lyblich, Alexander the doctor,
and Salmon Landa - stood before the commissioners. Examined under the threat of tak-
ing the oath, they declared that ever since the settlement of their forefathers in Cracow,
their custom was to pay 200 gold ducats each year directly into the royal Treasury on St.
Martin's Day: but that at present they handed the money over in a different way, paying
100 ducats to Mr Grabowiecki, and another 100 to Mr Lukasz.
Asked by the commissioners what in addition they might offer to the Royal Treasury,
by way of payments from the income of their abattoirs and other businesses, and from
the trade which they pursue on the Market in Cracow, they replied that their exemption
from such payments had been confirmed by His Majesty, our present King. But they pro-
duced no documents to prove it.
These same Jews declared that in many places they were charged excessive tolls, even
for individual persons or for empty carts, which was contrary to custom and to their
rights and privileges. They begged that they be freed from these impositions.^5At the end of these bargaining sessions, the annual rate of the poll-tax would be
agreed, and the Elders would be left to raise it. From the Crown's point of view,
the outcome was not entirely satisfactory. As was the case with the nobles' land-
tax, which was similarly assessed by the tax-payers themselves, the royal
officials could never be sure that they were always receiving their due. As
Sigismund-August is reported to have remarked to the Bishop of Cracow: 'Tell
me, my Lord Bishop, since you do not believe in sorcery, how is it that only