Silva Rerum | 07.09.2015 Bottom of a barrel with a relief showing the transport of goods (16th century), illustration from 19th century, discovered by Aleksander Brückner; author’s collection.
In the first half of the 17th century, Krosno and its prosperity was associated with one man. Robert Gilbert Porteous was born in 1601 in Langside (Lanxeth) near Dalkeith (Country Midlothian, south-west of Edingurgh). He was one of thousands of Scottish emigrants, who were scattered throughout Europe due to the poverty and persecutions that begun after the ascension of James I to the throne. They were searching for their place on Earth, working in trade, medicine or as soldiers of fortune in foreign armies.
Porteous arrived to Krosno in the early 17th century already as a prosperous man, but he became truly wealthy after getting involved in Hungarian wine trade. In 1626, along with his brother Thomas, he purchased the largest residential building in the Krosno main square. A year later, he married the daughter of a local potentate, the widow Anna Mamrowiczowa, née Hesner. He traded in tokaji wines in Eastern European markets, supplying them, among others, exclusively to the tables of King Sigismund III (he had access to the wine cellars of the Rákóczi family). People speculated about the source of the fortune of the King’s protégé: “They say that when he imported the wine from Hungary, he found gold instead of wine in one of the barrels. Surprised, he sent the barrel back to the owner in Hungary, thinking that it was sent to him by mistake, demanding wine and not gold. The owner did not want to accept the barrel, saying that he sold what was in the barrels, and send the gold-filled barrel back to Krosno. Then Porteous used the gold to renovate and decorate a church and build the clock tower, which stands untouched to this day,” this is not a regional story, but a quote from a report that Mieczysław Potocki, the Conservator of Buildings and Monuments of Eastern Galicia, gave to his learned colleagues.
In 1632, the king appreciated Porteous’ involvement and gave him the status of a servitor (an exclusive royal supplied under city rights). He also enjoyed the tryst of Władysław IV (the king named him his factor in 1633) and John III Casimir (confirmation of the privileges in 1649). The king named Porteous the Commander of Krosno, and Porteous not only enlarged the circumference of the city walls, but also financed half the expansion of the fortifications. The walls were of use in the spring of 1657, when the city managed to repel an attack by Swedish and Transylvanian troops. Also in his will (1658), he remembered about his responsibilities, leaving significant funds for increasing the height of the guard tower and conservation of the defensive walls. In return, he was ennobled (1658). The foundation for the parish church mentioned by Potocki (rebuilt in 1637–1646) resulted in the construction of the family chapel of St Peter and Paul, the chapel of St Adalbert and a bell tower. Porteous also financed three bells (Jan, Marian and Urban). He was no stranger to even the smallest gestures towards the Krosno community, such as increasing the wage of the local schoolteacher. On the one hand a philanthropist, on the other hand a hard merchant, he was an impetuous man, sure of the strength of his wealth and royal protection. Other Krosno merchants were not pleased, complaining in a supplication from 1659: “only P. Porteous himself as the main merchant remains, to whom even factors of his wines from Hungary give more”.
The szlachta did not like the career of this “foreigner”: “A great distress is borne by the szlachta through the raising of wine prices per plebeias and what is more, extraneas personas […]. And since voce publica of Porteous is by all primum et principalem authorem put on such monopolies, omnino pp. the deputies dabunt operam, so that iugum is lifted from the szlachta, so that not only Porteous but any extraneus [foreigner] etiam ius civitatis habens […] would not trade in wine sub paena conficationis of wine and bonorum, excepting from this, however, the Hungarians exporting wine, unless small barrels are found, smaller than four barrels in volume, since the law states that those are to be confiscated”.
Porteous died in 1661, and thus he missed out on the opportunity to shrug over the once more furious szlachta: “Scots, both those living in Hungary as well as here in the Crown, who dared to go over the ordination of the law and travel to Hungary for passum [aszú] wine and through this ad corruptionem but also brought it from there for an enormous price, unheard of before […], so that no one should date from this day forth to go to Hungary for wine, but that the Hungarians should themselves supply it to the stores sub paean infamiae, when a nobleman and when plebeius sub paena colli et confiscatione bonorum; for his own household needs the nobleman cannot be forbidden by law preiudicare”. The helplessness of the sejmik wiseacres could amuse only Thomas Porteous, Robert’s brother and partner, who died in 1676.
Translation: Lingua Lab
