Port Suburb in Toruń – A Contribution to Research on the Fishing and Rafting Population from the 13th to the 18th Centuries in the Light of the Preserved Sources from the State Archives in Toruń

Abstract

The development of the port of the Vistula in Toruń from the first years of existence city has created a settlement on the waterfront, which has evolved over time in a suburb of the port inhabited by a loose population rafter and fishing (mainly Polish origin), but also skippers and helmsmen associations in organizations guild. The existence of the port resulted in the creation of numerous devices and port facilities as marinas, shipyards or crane notified by the numerous references in archival sources preserved in the records of the city of Toruń. Numerous records in court records, files and documents of Kamlaria allow the reconstruction of the topography of the suburbs of the port and its transformation from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century. This article also points to changes in the social structure of inhabitants serving Vistula rafting and river navigation, especially in times of economic crisis after the Great Northern War. The work is a contribution to further research on population rafting and fishing, as encouraged by the large number of archival materials in the resource Toruń archive.