Šiauliai of the 18th Century in the Vortex of the Great City Reforms – History of Šiauliai

Šiauliai Becomes the City with Full Rights

Šiaulių TIC — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 19:51:47 +0000

In 1791-1795, the inhabitants of Šiauliai city became important in solving the issue of the city’s self-governance. As the centre of economy and rural district, in which all major state institutions were concentrated, the city stated that it was willing to get the full rights of the city and the coat of arms; and the townspeople, to have more freedom for themselves, which would make them more equal with the nobles, although the latter strongly opposed to this. The privilege of the Magdeburg Law to Šiauliai was granted in 1713, but unfortunately, it was not implemented. This acquired right turned into reality almost after 80 years: in 1791, the city succeeds in achieving its aim. The ruler Stanislovas Augustas confirms the right of a free city and it finally becomes independent, self-governed, and the status of townspeople begins to equal with the one of local nobility, common social unions start developing.

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Šiaulių miesto herbas.

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Augusto privilegijos spalvota.

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Lenkijos karaliaus ir Lietuvos didžiojo kunigaikščio Stanislovo Augusto Poniatovskio suteikta savivaldos privilegija Šiauliams su miesto herbu.

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The Origins of the Jewish Community Development in the City

Šiaulių TIC — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 19:37:01 +0000

Initially, the city that has always been known as standing in the localities exclusively inhabited by Lithuanians, reluctantly let in the representatives of other peoples. The city let in the first Jewish merchants, who decided to settle in Šiauliai, because they had to obey the privileges granted by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jonas Sobieskis. This was not because the local people were hostile to other nations but more because they feared, by the way, reasonably, the economic competition that would increase, for since the old times, everywhere the Jews were known as excellent merchants and manufacturers of various goods. At the beginning of the 18^th century, the plague that followed the Northern War, which destroyed the local community of Šiauliai, in 1736, led to abolition of the prohibition for the Jews to settle in Šiauliai, which until then was in force with certain reservations. In the beginning, townspeople protested against this decision but in the long run, people not only became reconciled to this, but the city became one of the Jewish cultural centres both in Lithuania and in all Eastern Europe.

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Žydai mieste.

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Išrašas iš Šiaulių miesto teismo aktų knygos dėl bylos tarp žydų.

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Šiaulių kahalo atstovų skolos raštas.

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Šiaulių kahalo atstovų skolos raštas.

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Šiaulių kahalo kvitas.

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Išrašas iš Šiaulių miesto teismo aktų knygos dėl bylos tarp Šiaulių žydų kahalo ir grafų Zubovų bei kitų asmenų.

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The City in the Times of Antanas Tyzenhauzas’s Administration

Šiaulių TIC — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 19:28:27 +0000

Not all coercive reforms bring merely bad consequences and offer no beneficial innovations that the country was lacking until then. Also, not all tyrants can only be narcissists thirsty for power with no innovative and progressive thinking. The increasingly rapid rise of Šiauliai city was prompted by a strict reformer.

In 1764, Stanislaw Poniatowski, the king of the Republic of Both Nations redeems the lands of Šiauliai economy and together with other lands transfers the administration of the economies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Antanas Tyzenhauzas. The rise of Šiauliai is to be related to this man. In order to make Šiauliai economy, like others too, as prosperous as possible, so that it could give more money to the ruler, A. Tyzenhauzas set the main aims: to establish as many so-called palivarkai (farm and administrative complexes of the manor) as possible, where corvee workers could forcibly work with the most modern agricultural machinery of that time; establish manufactories (manual work-based workshops), using free labour force; create favourable conditions for trade by repairing roads and waterways as well as developing and expanding crafts. During the first three years, a new brickyard, a wind mill were built in the city, the townsmen were equated with peasants, except plot-holders and Jews, and had to perform corvee duties (forced labour) in the manor, to pay the pecuniary rent, the so-called činšas (taxes). Taxes were growing and new ones were emerging, soon causing the dissatisfaction of most of the city inhabitants with such Tyzenhauzas’s decisions and novelties in ruling the economy. This dissatisfaction grew to the peasants’ uprising of 1769, in which townspeople also took part. The latter did not manage to remain united, split into different groups, so the uprising was quickly suppressed, the rebels failed to achieve their aims and demands, and the reforms that triggered this uprising not only did not disappear but remained even after A. Tyzenhauzas was suspended from his duties in 1780. Whatever the situation, the significance and importance of Šiauliai as the centre of the economy was growing: the city was expanding, new institutions emerged. In 1775, the noblemen’s Pilies and Žemės Courts and the treasury of the county were transferred to Šiauliai, later taxes were brought from the territories of all economy, the noblemen’s so-called seimeliai (local authorities), which could elect and send their representative to the Seimas of the state, began to function. During A. Tyznhauzas’s governance period, from a wooden settlement Šiauliai turned into a city, where one after another durable and more luxurious brick buildings began to appear, new straight streets were laid.

All of it became possible thanks to the successfully developed Tyzenhauzas’s programme, one of the most important tasks of which was the establishment of industrial enterprises, crafts and manufactures. Šiauliai enters the stage of an industrial town. In addition to the brickyard, founded in 1767, a linen fabric manufactory under the leadership of a weaver from Switzerland who brought a dozen employees from his country was founded. Thus, it is not by accident that the place where the manufactory was built, is called Switzerland. In the end of the 18^th century, Šiauliai had various craftsmen: brick workers, carpenters, glaziers, nail makers, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, metal workers, turners, wheelwrights, coopers and the like.

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Antanas Tyzenhauzas.

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