Patterns of guild migration in the early modern period: Lessons from a comparative study of young artisans ’ migration and university peregrination

Guild migration in Hungary in the 16 th to 18 th centuries can be best captured by exploring the migration of young artisans. Peregrination and the migration of young artisans were a process of learning and making contacts in a foreign environment over several years. We will be looking at the life, tasks, objectives and, not least, knowledge acquisition and career strategy of one age group, young men roughly between the ages of 16 – 20, who in the early modern period were the main depositories of local economic and political power in Europe, including the territories of the former Kingdom of Hungary – especially in the towns – and who were entering local economic and political power after half a decade or so of studying. This highly mobile way of acquiring knowledge abroad through university and guild migration provided an experience of leaving the familiar home base. What these young men had in common was that their learning process took place in a foreign territory, far away from their home, in the unfamiliar environment of another country, using a different language. In the case of both groups of learners, the existence of a network of family ties, which can be traversed in several directions, proved to be a key organising factor. This link between the – mainly German-speaking – urban and rural citizens in Western Europe and the Hungarian (and Transylvanian) citizens in the early modern period was always evident in the guild organisation, both economically and culturally.

are talking about the fate, tasks, objectives and not least the knowledge acquisition and career strategies of the same age group.These 16 to 20-year-olds were in the early modern period the cadre of the local economic and political power in Europe, including the territories of the former Kingdom of Hungarymainly in the citieswho entered the arena of local economic and political power after half a decade or so of their studies.They were the future leaders of the communities; in city magistracies and in internal and external councils were made up of partly of former Peregrines, partly of guild masters who had formerly been student artisans.The key concept that links them is social mobility. 6owever, to talk about the common features of emigration and peregrination, we need to move away from the hierarchy of education and training that had developed by the 19 th century. 7Peregrination led to higher education in some theoretical field, while the emigration of artisans crowned the learning process of a practical craftsmanship.The end of both was the practice of a profession: a position in the bureaucracy, in an ecclesiastical or secular administration or, after passing a masters' examination, opening a guild workshop.Once the training was completed, the task was to start a career immediately afterwards, regardless of the training received.In modern times, our definitions have changedhigher education degrees have become valorised, expressing higher knowledge, and contributing greatly to social mobility, while craft skills have been established at the level of secondary education and have become a means of social belonging.
However, this was not necessarily the case in the previous centuries, particularly in the 16 th and 18 th centuries, especially for the latter group.After all, how can one separate skills and knowledge when looking at the acquisition of the position of town mayor, for example, in the case of Kristóf Lackner, a goldsmith from Sopron, and Kristóf Lackner, a doctor of law and mayor of Sopron? 8 And what is the reason why, for example, among the city councillors of Cluj (in Hungarian: Kolozsvár) we find a mixture of university educated councillors with legal knowledge and guild masters who had not participated in this form of education, in the same positions and in the same councillor's duties in the early modern period? 9The answer may be that they obviously had something in common in their education which provided the foundation for them to be able to do their jobs, whether they were former university students or former guild travellers.This paper thus goes on to highlight some common elements that developed similar competencies in the two types of training structures.Then, drawing on theoretical lessons, it tries to review through some examples the most important migration patterns associated with early modern Hungarian artisans.
Research on European guild migration began in the 1970's, and the results of this research have been published over the last one and a half to two decades as part of a comparative 6 The topic of early modern social mobility in Hungary is very extensive, and has recently focused mainly on the 18th century, the nobility, their career opportunities, and how to get into the non-middle classes.This is exemplified by the recent literature on the subject, see e.g.: Nagy (2019); Khavanova (2019); Gőzsy (2019); Szijártó (2019); Mátyás-Rausch (2020); Borbély (2020); Szabó-Turákné Póka (2021).On serfdom, see most recently: Tompa (2022).On the links between education and mobility, see: Federmayer (2018).Finally, on cities, see: H. Németh (2018), especially: 177-188, where the author also focuses on the nobility.
perspective within local research.The phenomenon of migration has also been a core research topic in Western European historiography for five decades, from the 15 th century to the present day.Nor is it new that a significant proportion of European migration from the 1500's onwards was made up of migration movements related to reasons of nationality, which essentially drew the map of European migration in each period. 10Among relevant Hungarian researchers we may mention the name of Ottó Domonkos whose results have become incorporated into the international literature of the subject and who created the basis for the research of artisans' migration.He identified the main migration routes of Hungarian artisans and pointed out the impact of artisans' immigration on technological development. 11Franz Lerner also studied Hungarian artisans in Frankfurt, 12 whilst Hedvig Szabolcsi's work focussed on carpenters in Veszprém. 13In Vienna, Harald Grundner explored the migration of Hungarians, showing that in the 18 th and 19 th centuries painters, potters, masons and hatters came to Salzburg from Buda, Pest, Bratislava (in Hungarian: Pozsony), Timisoara (in Hungarian: Temesvár) and Sopron. 14hile the history of early modern guild migration is one of the most continuously and intensively researched topics in the West, research in Hungary, which started in the mid-1980's, stopped at the end of the 1990's and only started again in 2012/2013, partly by using the results of the Hungarian Guild Database (HGD). 15We ourselves, on the basis of the sources we have been researching for about a decade in the framework of the HGD programme, have beenand still areinterested primarily in the motivations for acquiring knowledge, the environment supporting the student, their family relationships and other relationships, the conditions, possibilities and pathways of studying, as well as topics such as their mother tongue and linguistic background.The idea for an overview of similar motives for peregrination and emigration was provided by an excellent study by Zoltán Csepregi, which examined what kind of network of contacts and capital of contacts that university candidates arriving in Wittenberg brought with them from home helped them to succeed. 16According to Zoltán Csepregi, if we want to compare the dependency and contact relations of the Peregrinas to a network, the following are the most important points of contact: 1. education (including, in his opinion, long-term secondary education rather than shorter-term university studies); 2. mother tongue and 10 For a summary, with literature, see: Crossik (1997).Hungarian research was also represented in this volume: Bácskai  (1997), 200-217.For a new perspective on Hungarian research, see: Bácskai (2002); King-Winter (2016), 285-308.The main point of the research on guild migration in Hungary was the international symposium on handicrafts in 1986, where the issue was given special attention.The literature of this (together with that of earlier occasions) was summarised in: Szulovszky (2002), 184-187.The latest summary of the history of research, with a mention of guild bibliographies: Kincses-Tuza (2015).
15 Faragó (2003).The culmination of domestic research on guild migration was the International Crafts Symposium in 1986, where the issue was given special attention.The literature of this (together with that of the earlier ones) was summarised: Szulovszky (2002), 184-187.The MCA programme was implemented in the framework of an OTKA research project (2012-2015): the Hungarian Guild Database 1526-1761 (Call ID: 101 669.)For a revival of research, see: Kincses-Tuza (2014c); Ead., 2014a; Ead., 2014b.ethnolinguistic relations; 3. family and kinship relations.Zoltán Csepregi interprets all this as a very complex multi-factorial system that was ultimately able to function effectively.In a word, the same points of reference that emerged in the context of peregrination are also highlighted here.As such, we may fairly ask whether these points could not also mark out the methodology of research when examining mappable patterns of migration that can be detected and mapped based on the emigration of artisans.

PEREGRINATION AND ARTISANS' MIGRATION -ANALOGIES
The first analogy is that migration, the mobile way of acquiring knowledge abroad, as represented by university-related and artisans' migration, was an alternative to sticking to the familiar.What these travellers had in common was that they were studying in a distant land, a foreign country far away from home, in an unfamiliar environment and a different language, as there were no universities in Hungary and for artisans, too, travelling usually meant a journey abroad.Those who had been educated abroadeither in a guild or at a universitywere later able to function in any community, economically and politically, both within and outside their original community, because of the experience they had acquired, their professional and linguistic skills, their network of contacts, their ability to see the larger picture and their ability to assert themselves.Indeed, this was their main motivation: to acquire knowledge for their own well-being and that of the community.
Another analogy may be that the phenomenon of guild migration patterns in Hungary may at first sight remind us of the traditional model of the centre and the periphery, with the developed guilds of Western Europeincluding Vienna due to its geographical proximityat the centre, and the cities of the 15 th -18 th century Kingdom of Hungary and Transylvania at the periphery. 17This is also mentioned in the context of peregrination, with researchers highlighting the central role of Vienna and possibly Krakow in the early modern period.In the age of Reformation this centralperipheral orientation became modified, with new centres emerging which became the nodes of an extensive network. 18Such a model can also be applied to guild life: the guild-related migration pattern, which is mostly related to economic and occupational reasons, is basically aligned with this centre-periphery pattern.However, to nuance the picture, sources also show that the place named as the centre does not play an exclusive role in the network.It is therefore more accurate and useful, in our opinion, to understand guild relations as a very extensive network in space, extending practically from the French, German and Swiss territories to the eastern border of the Polish territories, with a few prominent nodes, depending on the craft, and with 'branches' extending from London to St Petersburg.The best illustration of this is the classic example of the early modern guilds of Debrecen, whose sphere of influence was not only directly outside the city limits, but sometimes hundreds of kilometres away.19 17 Naturally, the study of the question does not only include the migration impact of the free royal municipal guilds, but also the rural and countryside guilds, as well as those belonging to secular and ecclesiastical estates.In the absence of systematic, comprehensive research on the guilds of the latter, our study focuses primarily on the guilds of the free royal towns.For the guilds of the rural towns and villages, see: Eperjessy (1963); Id., 1967.18 Szabó-Szögi (1998); Kiss (2000); Szögi (2003); Kissné Bognár (2004); Fata-Kurucz-Schindling (2006); Tüskés (2008); Szabó-Kelényi-Szögi (2016).
The migration of artisans and university attendance was a self-evidently accepted task for both the guild artisans and the Peregrines, and for the guild artisans or universities that employed, trained, and employed them.The main question was where the craft in question could or should be learnt abroad, i.e., where the individual craft centres were located.Criteria to consider included where the most renowned and knowledgeable craftsmen to learn from were located, which were the guilds where it was worthwhile to acquire knowledge and contacts in order to learn the skills of the craft and to build up an effective network for the future, and to do this, to travel long distances over several years, which was serious undertaking in early modern Europe.It should be noted here that the statement that Hungary was represented as an important centre 20 of a particular craft among the territories now known as France, England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Austria, and Venice only in the 18 th century and only by the butchers, coppersmiths and brass workers of Pozsony and Buda, is no longer correct, according to the data of the research programme of the HGD.The first data of systematic research already disprove this: for example, the same can be said of the jewellers' and goldsmiths' guilds in Kolozsvár and the carpenters' guilds in Kolozsvár, the former clearly having intensive contacts with Germany, the latter mostly with Switzerland in the 16 th and 17 th centuries. 21he advocacy capacity of the city can also be analysed.It was in the fundamental interest of the city and the local community, to ensure and to some extent finance the supply of professionals.This does not only mean university graduates in law, medicine, or theology.It was from the guildsmen that the future guild masters, who were later to be settled, emerged, on whom the city's economic strength, the internal political life, the independence, and the ability to assert interests would depend some one and a half decade later. 22The guild was not only an economic community where people practising the same craft came together to assert their interests, but also a form of local organisation of contemporary society, where guild membersand their entire familiesrelated to each other, to the politics of the city, to their trading partners etc., in line with the existing social, moral and religious principles, which were also laid down in (guild) rules. 23ommunities, ranging from towns to families, followed a conscious staffing strategy, sending their sons to distant countries with the aim of cultivating not only the guild's traditional business and professional but also commercial and personal contacts, making new ties, learning about the life, tastes, customs, religion and, not least, the political system of the people of the distant lands.No studies have yet been carried out into which cities made more intensive use of this opportunity or had the possibility of supporting their travelling guildsmen (directly from the "guild horde" and in the form of foundations).However, it is fair to assume that those free royal cities which were wealthier and politically more autonomous were more successful, where self-government was stronger, citizens and guilds were more affluent, traditions were more deeply rooted and, as a 20 Ibid., 17.

22
There is an enormous literature on urban development in Hungary in the 16 th and 17 th centuries.Among the monographs presenting a comprehensive economic, social, and political history, which are fundamentally new in terms of methodology, see (without claiming completeness): H. Németh (2004).result, career opportunities were more likely to be secured for returnees.In any case, the economic development of the city (also) indirectly led to the valorisation of studies.
The next factor is the question of the mother tongue and ethnic language relations.In terms of the target area, it goes without saying that everyone probably preferred an environment close to their mother tongue.However, it was very fortunate for guild relations that both Hungary and Transylvania, as well as the other provinces of the Habsburg Empire such as Silesia, Moravia and the provinces and principalities of the Empire, as well as the cantons of neighbouring Switzerland, were for the most part ethnically heterogeneous areas.Whether we consider travellers from German, Hungarian or Slavic linguistic backgrounds, they all originated from multi-ethnic, multilingual regions and migrated in the same regions.Not only regions and provinces, but even cities were multilingual.It was therefore not a problem to find one's way around the complex linguistic landscape of guild migration, since not only the destination, but the starting point itself, i.e., the city from which the guild migration started, was already a diverse and multilingual community.
Finally, there is the issue of family and kinship relations, to which social, cultural and, not least, moral and lifestyle factors contributed significantly.On the one hand, this was based on the traditional kinship relations of the settled population of the Hungarian towns, mainly of German origin, and on the other hand, on the kinship, communal and godparent relations based on the ancestors,24 i.e., the former guild relations, which were fundamentally decisive in the guild framework.These, in turn, were based on the same system of traditions and cultural norms; mostly the same religious structures and, not least, on social structures of roughly the same quality and standard.

MIGRATION AND MOBILITY
Parallel study is a useful method in the field of guild migration and social mobility.Guild economic mobility has been a two-way migration process in Europe and, within that, also in Hungary.It can be seen as a kind of exchange process which is not only started from Hungary but also targets Hungary.Until at least 30-40% of the written guild sources in Hungary become processed, we can only estimate the ratio of the two processes, using representative samples.Based on the results of the HGD programme so far, we believe that a conservative estimate suggests that guild migration in Hungaryi.e., migration for economic purposes beyond the national bordersinvolved at least 50-60% of future guild masters in Hungary.Most migrant guild artisans, around 75-80%, returned to the mainland after their apprenticeship.The rest married into foreign guild families, settled abroad, and created an own livelihood.In the guilds in Hungary, the ratio of men from foreign countries compared to those from domestic guilds was estimated to be 1:3-1:5.One in four to one in six of the men working in Hungarian guilds in the early modern period were from abroad.How many of the foreigners stayed here and what proportion of them settled in Hungary has not yet been estimated.This depended heavily on the area and the guild, and after the expulsion of the Turks, the number of settler craftsmen from foreign lands obviously increased due to the settlements.Based on research to date, an estimate is available from the 18 th century (although this does not document emigration but only settlement), which shows that in the larger Hungarian towns the average proportion of foreign, mainly German, settlers was between 13 and 26%, while in smaller towns and, for example, in the eastern regions, the proportion of foreign settlers was around 5%. 25 However, the 18 th century data should be treated with caution: they should not be projected back to earlier centuries, partly because of the deliberate, organised settlements created in the century after the expulsion of the Ottomans. 26he issue of guild mobility goes beyond the urban context.It is a regional and even national phenomenon, not least transnational, because cities did not function as autonomous, isolated economic and political entities.On the one hand, they usually formed associations of towns, such as the mining towns, "five-town" units, and the association of towns in Northern Hungary.The mother guilds and their daughter guilds also formed a system of economic and personal contacts that extended across national boundariesa classic example in our period is the close economic ties and intermarriage between the merchant guilds of Kassa, Pest and Szeged, which controlled the wine exports of the Srem-district wine region, and which were not broken up by the Ottoman occupation. 27The medieval system of contacts of the Cracow and Kassa merchant guilds is a fundamental example of a system of contacts across national borders, which is also essential for mobility. 28These levels of relations thus also meant a two-way exchange of professionals not only between cities, but also between regions, between Hungary and the neighbouring Länder (Moravia, Silesia, Austria, Poland), as well as between the more distant Länder of Western Europe, mainly Germany. 29

THE IMPACT OF MIGRATION ON GUILD LIFE
Since the Middle Ages, the guilds in both Europe and Hungary have always been fundamentally concerned with the strict protection of their interests.This included setting a fixed number of masters.This applies as much to the guilds of the 14 th and 15 th centuries as to the later, early modern guilds.Depending on the population and marketability of the towns, which numbered a few thousand, relatively small guilds were set up, employing 3 or 4, or at most 4 or 5 craftsmen, within the coordinates defined by the town and its surrounding area.The number of bachelors and footmen depended on the number of masters, and in most European guilds (except the giant guilds) a master could employ one to three bachelors and footmen (the number of which was also recorded in the guilds' charter of privileges).Let us not forget that artisans and children could not work independently, and guild work also functioned as a practical training and education systemsomething the guild master had to do himself in addition to his work.An urban guild in the medieval and early modern period would have been the equivalent of a small enterprise of around 25-50 people, which in the demographic context of the early 25 So far, only a statistical survey has been made of the number of immigrants from the German-speaking area to the Kingdom of Hungary from the beginning of the 18 th century, and of the number of craftsmen who settled there: Spiesz  (1989).Analytical presentation: Domonkos (2002), 15-16.26 Rúzsás (1971), 221-234.27 Draskóczy (1999); Szakály (1999), 117.28   See: Kincses-Tuza (2015); Tuza (2018), 23.   29 Ehmer (2002).modern period was a much larger economic unit than today. 30This system, and the number of staff, worked smoothly until the end of the 16 th century.However, with the economic and commercial development of the 17 th century, industrialisation and, not least, the growing population, this limited number of workers became an obstacle to competition between industries, the quest for quality and the expansion of their area of appeal.The aim was always to secure the income of the workers in the guilds.This practice, which could ensure maximum protection of interests, but which hindered industrial development, was only relaxed in Hungary towards the end of the 18 th century, and even then, only because of external state intervention, and the phenomenon was finally ended only when the guilds were finally closed down in the 19 th century. 31n this situation, there were two options.The first was, or would have been, to increase staff numbers.Although the guilds expanded, no giant guilds were formed in Hungary.Instead, branch guilds or daughter guilds were formed, as well as guild chains. 32The expansion of the guilds could be delayed, but only temporarily, by the compulsory emigration of bachelors.It should be noted here that the emigration of artisans from the families of the craftsmen was usually one or two years shorter, but they, too, were obliged to emigrate. 33The reason for this was very simple: someone who had grown up in a guild workshop from an early age could learn the craft much more intensively, over a longer period of time and therefore to a higher standard, in his father's workshop than someone who came from a different family and therefore joined a guild as a butler years later.This thorough training was necessary because, as a guild master, he had to take part in the political life of the city, in the magistrate's office and in the external council. 34nother way to develop the guilds in the 17 th and 18 th centuries was to take advantage of guild migration: young craftsmen and artisans who did not qualify for a guild master status used to emigrate.The earliest examples of collective emigration in Hungarian literature are those of the Sopron cadres in 1605 and the Győr strap makers, cutters, and saddlers in 1614. 35The process was a two-way street.Foreigners also settled in Hungary in large numbers.After the expulsion of the Turks, the labour shortage was temporarily solved by the mass emigration of foreign artisans in a slowly expanding economic environment.Religious wars in the German provinces and overpopulation led to large-scale, wave-like expulsions in the 17 th century, mainly to Poland, the Baltic states and even Russia and Ukraine.However, we cannot agree with the claim that Hungary and Transylvania benefited to a lesser extent from this because Turkish rule discouraged entrepreneurs, and those who came here on their migratory journeys only made it 30 For an example of our research, see: Kincses (2016), 535-552. 31 For a summary of the most recent literature on European guilds in the 17 th and 18 th centuries (including their background), see: Tuza (2018), 19-23.
32 Kincses-Tuza (2015), 280.as far as the west and turned back from there. 36It is enough to think of the masses of people arriving in Hungary from Bohemia, the Austrian provinces, or those fleeing the wars of reconquest in the second half of the 17 th century.But before that, we can also refer, for example, to the settlement of Habanians in Western Transdanubia, Eastern Hungary and Transylvania. 37e should also be cautious about the topos-like horror of Turkish rule. 38Those who wanted to settle during the period of the Turkish occupation certainly did not seek to settle in areas under Turkish rule, but it is not true that they avoided them.The situation changed after the expulsion of the Turks at the end of the 17 th century.Migration to these areas became very significant.The state strongly encouraged the mass immigration of skilled craftsmen into the liberated areas. 39uild-based economic migration in the early modern era was not a casual, self-serving venture to satisfy a youthful sense of adventure or to make a better living elsewhere.The aim was to gain wide-ranging experience which guildsmen were expected to document: the data were entered in the travellers' books. 40Another concrete goal was to expand further the guild's network of contacts by exploring new sources of raw materials, discovering new markets, getting to know important European market centres and fairs and involving new partners. 41The knowledge acquired during the migration was put to good use by the whole community: the returning members brought back new processes, patterns, tools and technologies.
The emigration of the artisans is not only important for learning a trade.At least as important is the fact that the employment of the young artisans in the guild has always been a means of providing the masters with sufficient labour.It was therefore necessary to regulate the work of young artisans and the conditions and framework for their employment.
The first guilds were established in the free royal towns of the former Royal Hungary (including Transylvania and Croatia) and in the Transylvanian Saxon Union in the 14 th and 15 th centuries.According to our present information, the earliest guilds were the guilds regulated by royal decree in 1376 in Sibiu, according to a royal charter regulating the operation of 19 such guilds. 42A very early example is the regulation issued in 1411 for barchent makers to settle in Košice (in Hungarian: Kassa), although the city issued a separate guild statute for them in 1461, in which one of the guild statutes sets out the obligations of the men who join the guild. 43he earliest surviving charter of privilege is that of the Weavers of Kassa from 1419, which was supplemented in 1583 by a charter of young artisans. 44Finally, the earliest known guild statute containing the regulations for the guild's airing of ironmongers dates from 1477 and it is preserved in the guild book of the blacksmiths of Kolozsvár. 45here was no state-regulated guild system in Hungary in the 16 th and 17 th centuries.The establishment of guilds was authorised by the town or the landowner (in some cases we know of guilds founded by bishops).The economic policy of the 16 th and 17 th centuries was primarily determined by the Turkish wars, the provisioning of the army and the need to collect and secure chamber revenues as accurately as possible.In this situation, there was no question of "industrial development" in the modern sense. 46-This should be underlined to make it clear that guild migration did not take place within the framework of a centrally controlled system but was a completely spontaneous process.The institution of migration in Hungary, which had originated in the Middle Ages, was already established in the 15 th century, as evidenced by the proliferation of young artisans' regulations and artisans' codes from the beginning of the 16 th century.Whereas previously individual points of the letters of privilege dealt with the working hours, duties, and obligations of the leges, from the 16 th century onwards, there were separate documents, divided into several points, which regulated the tasks, duties, pay, accommodation conditions and, finally, the conditions of their way of life and their customs (both on working days and holidays). 47owever, this process was a two-way street.As mentioned earlier, it was not only Hungarians who went abroad, but foreigners also arrived in the Carpathian Basin.In the same period, the Pozsony goldsmiths-imposed requirements on the men who came to them during their migrations; the previous accommodation of those who arrived here included Augsburg and Altenburg in Saxony, Vienna, Hall in Württenberg, Hainburg in Lower Austria or Riegewall in Pomerania etc.The guild of glove-makers from Bratislava also included men from Brno, Brunswick, Neustadt, Laibach, etc. 48A spectacular example of the dimensions of guild migration from Hungary in the early modern period is the migration of 17th century carpenters from Győr to Europe. 49As regards migration to Győr, those who did not come from the close vicinity (from the Trans-Danubian cities or Vienna) or from the cities in the Highlands, were from the Austrian and German provinces and the Swiss cantons.Most of them came from the Danube headwaters, the area around the Black Forest (roughly the area bounded by Freiburg-Nuremberg-Mainz-Strasbourg) and its more distant surroundings, including a radius of some 200-250 km.This was a multicultural region, and a region where guild development flourishedthe triangle where Switzerland, France and Germany meet today.This covered the area along the Rhine from Strasbourg and Cologne in the west; along the Elbe from Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Hamburg; from Schleswig in the north and even Denmark (Copenhagen).An area that stands out along the Oder is Wrocław, Poland along with its surroundingssimilarly to the Alps, this was traditionally a region rich in wood, a crucial raw material for carpenters.As regards the Baltics, artisans would arrive in the carpenter's guild in Győr from the largest cities on the coast such as Lübeck and Rostock; as well as from Danzig in the east, from Königsberg even further north and even from today's Riga (which is more than 1100 km from Győr as the crow flies).From the east, migrant artisans mostly arrived from two Transylvanian towns: Aiud (in Hungarian: Nagyenyed) and Sighișoara (in Hungarian: Segesvár).
Establishing data is more difficult in the case of those who emigrated from Hungary because the relevant sources are not located in the country of origin, but in the collections of archives or museums in the country of destination.In the meantime, until international research in this field becomes co-ordinated and unified in order to provide us with a more detailed and nuanced picture, 50 we can rely on research by Ottó Domonkos who discovered earlier migration routes, as far back as the 18 th century.Based on his research, it is already clear that a single bachelor used to travel considerable distances to dozens of guild centres.The itineraries in the travellers' books were well targeted and documented, covering hundreds of kilometres. 51Returning to the large number of travellers arriving in Hungary, if we take the bookbinding guild of Sopron as an examplea guild with a small number of membersaccording to the accommodation books, a total of 254 men were employed over the more than half century between 1645 and 1700, usually meaning five or six men each year.Of these, no more than 8-10 were Hungarians, amounting to just over 5% of the total number, while foreign artisans outnumbered locals by an enormous margin of 94-95%. 52The guild had enough manpower for 4 or 5 masters, most of whom came from foreign countries via migration.Sopron's guild largely owed its labour supply to migration.Another example is the carpenters' guild in Sopron, which employed a total of 440 young artisans between 1674 and 1700.Of these, 78 were of Hungarian origin and 372 of came from other countries, i.e., about 85% of the total number were of non-Hungarian origin.Here, too, a large proportion of the workforce came from abroad. 53ased on the data we know so far, we can say that in the early modern period the guilds in Western Hungary employed a very large number of bachelors, mainly from Western Europe.We may fairly assume that the same applies to the Highlands (today's Southern Slovakia), 54 and this was perhaps also a common practice in Transylvania, even if not to the same extent (Due to the Turkish conquest, figures are different for the cities of the lowlands and beyond the Tisza.)In other words, in more than one case the guild labour force was replaced by migration on a massive scale.The background to all of this is that in the cities of the German provinces, in the 17 th century, and especially in the second half of the century, the crafts industry, which worked in a broad division of labour, had a considerable surplus of labour due to the emergence and growth of manufactoriesa process which came to a head in the 17 th century, after the period under study.5550 Kincses-Tuza (2014b), 282-284.51 Domonkos (2002).99.

CONCLUSION
Based on the research conducted thus far, guild migration in Hungary in the 16 th and 18 th centuries can be best and most clearly captured through exploring the emigration of young artisans and shows a similar picture to peregrination patterns characteristic in Hungary at that time. 56n both cases, what proved to be a fundamental organising factor was the interpenetrating network of kinship relations between urban and rural, mostly German speaking citizens of Western Europe and Hungarian (as well as Transylvanian) citizensa network which had been traced from the beginnings of guild organisation in the Middle Ages in both the economic and the cultural spheres, and which became even stronger from the Reformation onwards. 57In terms of guild mobility, late medieval and early modern sources reveal a continuous pattern of behaviour, whether it be preacher-candidates seeking to study in Protestant intellectual centres, university students or itinerant guildsmen learning their trade, whatever their denomination.It was a generally accepted even required practice and condition for artisans, which accounted for a significant proportion of contemporary migration.This practice was essentially based on common cultural, religious, and intellectual values, and the kind of urban coexistence which tolerated linguistic diversity.It is not a case of forced migration (e.g., lack of livelihood, religious persecution, or flight from war), in other words not a type of cataclysmic economic and/or religious-political migration, but one motivated by economic factors and accompanied by positive social expectations, capable of sustaining the economic system of the time.Guild migration from Hungary and to Hungary both belong to this context.

52
The data on which I have based the calculation are presented in tabular form: Ibid., 77.53Ibid., 76.54Ibid., 82.