THE NOBLEMAN'S PARADISE 165was open to the absolute control over the population of their estates. In com-
merce, the Nobility was freed from duty on goods for their own use. In the
dietines, they controlled the multifarious systems of weights and measures, and
regulated prices. From 1573, the Nobility possessed the exclusive right to exploit
the timber, potash and minerals deriving from their land. They had always
bought salt at preferential rates. Although they themselves were not expected to
engage in commerce - and constitutions of 1633 and 1677 specifically forbade
them to do so - the entire economic life of society was organized in their inter-
est.
To this end, the Nobility cultivated a special relationship with the numerous
Jewish community. Particularly in the eastern provinces, the Jews proved
eminently useful to noblemen who wished to avoid the troublesome regulations
surrounding economic life in the towns. They were employed as craftsmen and
tradesmen, earning the epithet of fuszer or 'bungler' from the guilds whose
rights they circumvented. They plied their traditional trades of money-lender,
innkeeper, fence, and broker - as evidenced by the constant stream of municipal
decrees forbidding them to do so. They obtained favourable rates of interest
approved by the dietines, and flourished in the service of the great estates.
Although the pullulating masses of the ghetto saw little benefit from the activ-
ities of their most prosperous confreres, they all shared in the common oppro-
brium. In the Ukraine, they were widely denounced as the chosen instrument of
'the Polish lords'. The richer Jews openly aspired to a noble life-style. An edict
of Sigismund-August forbade them from wearing swords and gold chains.
Despite the law, they often owned land, took out tenancies, or held the deeds in
mortgage from the noble owners. Not a few were formally ennobled. They even
affected the noble habit of not paying their taxes.
The pretext on which the Nobility's privileges were based is to be found in
their obligation to provide unpaid military service. Throughout the Middle
Ages, the possession of land was justified by the need to support a military caste,
whose expenses were great and whose services were in constant demand. In
fifteenth-century Poland and Lithuania, this ancient convention still made good
sense, and the Nobility had customarily confirmed or extended their privileges
in their armed camp before proceeding to battle with the enemy. In the course
of time, however, the noble pospolite ruszenie or levee-en-masse lost its effec-
tiveness. The commanders and the Noblemen themselves both preferred per-
manent forces supported by taxation. The levee-en-masse remained as a
defensive reserve of last resort. It was only called out in desperate situations, and
the okazowanie or 'annual review', to which the noblemen of each province
were required to report, was onerous to no one. The idea that the growth of
noble privilege was balanced by a corresponding growth of responsibilities in
the military sphere was, by the sixteenth century, quite anachronistic.
There is also the problem of Feudalism. In present-day Poland, it is taken for
granted that the Nobility were a 'feudal class' in whose interest the old Kingdom
and Republic were organized. Little attention is paid to the fact that the concept