Entrepreneurial Eve. The economic activity of townswomen in Sieradz during the 16th century

In Sieradz, a city of medium size, we know the statutes of six fraternities in the years 1547–1593 (collective, drapers, tailors, merchants, linen-drapers and brewers). Statutes of four corporations craft mention of the circumstances, in which women took over temporary management of craft workshops. Women in Sieradz performed typical occupations: trade practices, crafts (spinning, shoemaking, tailoring, drapery, furriery, coppersmithing, baking, pottery, brewing), the services (washing, keeping food in the homes of the nobility living in the city and wealthier craftsmen). Few were engaged in usury. They allocated money on home furnishings, charity, worthy burial. Their economic condition was undoubtedly worse than townswomen of Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw, Warsaw and Lviv.