Page 104 - UNESCO_Zatec_2021_A4

2.b3 DEVELOPMENT OF HOP GROWING
IN THE 19 CENTURY
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The end of the 18 century and the whole of the 19 century
are significant periods in the development of hop growing Hop tokens
methods in the Czech lands. The foundations of future
hop technology started to form, as well as an expansion In Žatec, the engraving and stamping enterprise of
in production. Technological progress had arrived in hop Rudolf Lässig was active in hop tokens production.
growing and replaced the old empirical customs. These hop tokens were circular, most often small
brass plates with a diameter of around 32 mm. On
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At the beginning of the 19 century, the trade in hops the front, the name of the farmer, village, and street
was in the hands of a significant number of both Czech number were stamped. On the back of the small
and foreign merchants. Apart from large merchants, who plate, its nominal value was stamped. This value
bought from 700 to 1,000 "strych" of hops (490–700 acres), usually represented a specific hop growing unit
the registries also document some small merchants that of volume, a "věrtel" (one-quarter of a "strych").
bought 10 to 50 "strych" (7–35 acres) annually, so that they Czech hop tokens are unique material evidence that
could speculatively wait for an increase in prices and re-sell
the hops for a profit. Up until 1843, hops were not weighed, tells the story about a vanished human activity, the
but measured according to units called a "strych" or also manual harvesting of hops. The historic documentary
a "korec". This was both a surface and solid measure: quality of an extensive collection of hop tokens
2. Description An important milestone in the future development of Czech historical events on a regional history from the end of
is undebatable. They reflect the impact of world-
1 strych = 1 korec = 93 litres.
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the 19 century to the 2 half of the 20 century. Such
hop growing was the absolute abolishment of corvée,
an extensive collection can be seen in the Regional
forced labour exacted in lieu of taxes, in 1848, and thereby
also of the bond of serfdom and patrimonial authority
zone, south of component part 02), where a unique
over serfs. This way, the serfs became lawful citizens, could Museum of K. A. Polanek (located in the buffer
permanent exhibition of hop tokens, which currently
become landowners, and they were able to grow hops on consists of almost 1,000 items, was opened in 2001.
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The "věrtel" is an old unit of measurement for
bulk materials, and sometimes also a surface
measurement. Its size was deduced from the size
of a surface sown with seeds that would fit into one
"věrtel". The Czech word "věrtel" comes from the
German Viertel – which means "one fourth" since
it was a fourth of the larger unit called "strych"
or "korec" in Czech. The oldest "věrtel" was a unit
with a capacity of 25 litres. Preserved hop tokens
document this historical data with the values of ¼
or ½ and also by measuring wooden containers that
were used for weighing picked hops in the hop field.
Later, a transition took place from the twenty-five-
litre "věrtel" to a thirty-litre one (the exact date is not
known).

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Pulling out hop poles from the ground during the hop harvest, 18 century