Page 120 - UNESCO_Zatec_2021_A4

Certificate of origin for Saaz hops, issued by the Public Hops Certification Centre, Žatec, 1892

2. Description

120 In 1837, the hop growing villages of the Žatec district were introduction of the railway (see below in more detail), the
united for the first time, and hop categories were divided number of hop merchants in Žatec that used horse and
into the municipal, district, and regional. All the mentioned wagons decreased significantly. "Hops magnates" was
measures were supposed to protect the quality and the name given to this kind of Czech hop merchants in
reputation of Saaz hops. Alpine countries. The introduction of the telephone and
telegraph also enabled better and faster availability of
When the Public Hop Certification Center of Žatec (No. 290) information.
was founded in 1884, which was also supposed to be a crops
stock market, most growers hoped for an improvement in In the 1860s, the "hop growing commercial law"
the circumstances of hop growing. was instituted, which may never have been officially
confirmed, but was rigorously observed. It divided
The main task of the Certification Centre was to certify hops the merchants into three groups: locals, commission
as "Saaz hops" for only those hops that were cultivated in merchants and exporters. The locals specialised in buying
the Žatec district. Hops were inspected and assessed with hops from the growers and the commission merchants
the participation of both growers and merchants. The mediated in hop sales for a commission.
Certification Centre used the basic terminology from the
original hop growing market. Its duty was to inform the At this time, the sales technique used also had a definite
trading public on current prices of Saaz hops, but larger shape. Gradually, a transition was made from the
groups of growers were still preferred. The certification of original door-to-door way of trading to trade that was
hops was, in reality, still based on the goodwill of the growers, "purely capitalistic," taken from the trade customs of
and this resulted in adulteration through the mixing of hop the Bavarian Trade Chamber. In this way, the number of
varieties. The falsification of official certificates of the Žatec local merchants decreased, and the trade was left in the
Certification Centre was discovered, which led to a dispute hands of an increasingly narrower circle of merchants
between the producers and the founding of the so-called and exporters.
"peasant certification centre" in 1869. From that time, two
parallel certification centres operated in the town’s territory. In the 1860s and 1890s, six large companies specialising
in the hop trade originated in Žatec. The company
Trading in hops in the 19 century "Martin Holly" (Holý) was the first of them. In 1889,
th
In the mid-19 century, a pervasive change took the brothers Adolf Holý (1853–1905) and August Holý
th
place in the hop trade. In connection with the gradual (1859–1906) founded a company for trading hops called