ОБМІН ЯК ФОРМА ЗБУТУ ГЛИНЯНИХ ВИРОБІВ ГОНЧАРІВ ЛІВОБЕРЕЖНОЇ УКРАЇНИ В ДРУГІЙ ПОЛОВИНІ ХІХ – НА ПОЧАТКУ ХХ СТОЛІТТЯ

Abstract

The proposed article summarizes scattered material on exchange as one of the forms of selling clay products, used by potters of the Left Bank of Ukraine in the second half of the 19th – and early 20th centuries. Territorially, the study covers the Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Poltava provinces, where the exchange has become the most widespread. The written sources of the outlined period and contemporary ceramologists were studied to identify the necessary information. The analysis of the literature made it possible to draw a conclusion about the dispersion and certain fragmentation of the materials on the researched problem, which determined the purpose of the proposed research. It was found that the dishes were most often exchanged for grain, eggs, vegetables, other foodstuffs, and flax and yarn. The exchange equivalence was influenced by the type of grain for which products were exchanged. It has been proved that the exchange became more widespread in the territories where the land was unproductive or unsuitable for agricultural cultivation, where the potters had little land. It was found out that watered and terracotta products had different terms of exchange. On the basis of the studied sources, it was established that the profitability had a special influence on the exchange equivalence: the lower it was, the less valued earthenware was. The author traced that the exchange became more active after the end of the harvest and before major religious holidays, when the obligatory custom dictated the use of new dishes. It was found out that not only manufacturers resort to exchange as a form of sale, but also intermediaries – buyers. Earthenware was exchanged not only during the delivery of goods in the surrounding territories, but also at fairs and bazaars, in particular at the sub-market. On the basis of studied sources, it was established that potters and buyers actively used the exchange of pottery products in parallel with their sale for cash until the 1880s, and by the beginning of the 20th century, it had almost fallen out of use as a form of sales.