THE VICISSITUDES OF URBAN LIFE 241After each successive disaster, the city's population shrank alarmingly. From
18,000 in 1655, it fell to 6,000 in 1659, and, after the Third Partition, from
150,000 in 1795 to 70,000 in 1806.
Even so, Warsaw's progress contrasted sharply with that of the Republic's
other cities. Despite the setbacks, Warsaw was generally growing and expand-
ing throughout an era when most of its competitors experienced a catastrophic
decline.
The ruin of the cities of Poland-Lithuania, like that of the Republic's economy
as a whole, can more easily be described than explained. As from 1648, colossal
havoc was wreaked by invading armies, particularly in the Swedish Wars of
1655-60, and in the Great Northern War of 1700-21. Those few cities which
escaped destruction on the first occasion were invariably visited on the second.
The smaller centres, which lacked the means for adequate defence, were spe-
cially vulnerable. The Lustracje (Surveys of Royal estates) conducted after each
of the wars provide a glimpse of deteriorating conditions. In 1661, for just one
small example, the city of Jaworow in Ruthenia, at that time in lease to Colonel
John Sobieski, could not even produce its records; and the commissioners dis-
covered a very serious deterioration in the city's income since the previous sur-
vey in 1627:
Jaworow City
The burghers of Jaworow, called on to present their rights, liberties, and privileges,
replied that they had lost them during the recent enemy incursions, and for that reason
could not produce the original copies. Instead, they produced a list of such rights drawn
up in 1606... and confirmed by our present gracious soveriegn, Jan Kazimierz, in
Warsaw on 8 October, 1649, together with the signature of the King's Secretary, General
Piotr Slawienski, over the great seal of the Chancery of the Korona. In this confirmation,
the following is contained:
Firstly, a confirmation on 2 July, 1569 by Sigismund-August, King of Poland, of letters
issued on the sixth Sunday after the feast of St. Matthew in 1510 to the noble Lukasz de
Gorka, Castellan of Poznan, hitherto the hereditary Lord of Jaworow, ... by which
confirmation, His Majesty also granted the incorporation of the city and its two suburbs,
according to the German Law of Magdeburg...
Next, a charter issued by King Stephen at Lwow on 22 May, 1578 and confirmed by
King Sigismund III in Lublin on 7 November 1588, whereby the petition of several sena-
tors for the city of Jaworow to exploit saline deposits commonly called madrepore was
conceded. .. :
The first privilege of Wladyslaw IV, dated at Cracow on 15 March 1633, which con-
cerned the construction of the bridge.. .:
The second privilege of Wladyslaw IV, dated at Cracow on 13 March 1633, which
approved all previous charters granted by his royal predecessors... together with the
Survey of the city undertaken by the inspectors of the Wojewodztwo of Ruthenia in 1629