The Great Immigration: Scots in Cracow and Little Poland, circa 1500-1660 (Studies in Central European Histories, 63)

Book info: The Great Immigration: Scots in Cracow and Little Poland, circa 1500-1660 (Studies in Central European Histories, 63) (Hardcover, 330 pages) – Brill, 2015. Language: English.

In the second half of the sixteenth century, Scottish immigrants to Little Poland became a visible ethnic minority in numerous towns of that province and particularly in its capital, Cracow. This is the first study to examine this urbanized immigration in the period until the 1660s, when Poland–Lithuania, devastated by the mid-century Swedish invasion, was no longer an attractive migrant destination. From around the 1570s, affluent Scottish merchants developed intense commercial relations in central Europe, while peddlers of that nationality distributed so-called ‘Scotch goods’ at local markets. The majority of Scots participated in the life of local Evangelical congregations and suffered religious persecutions together with their co-religionists. This prompted their collaboration with the Swedish occupants against their Catholic neighbors. Editorial Reviews About the Author Waldemar Kowalski, PhD. (1988), is Professor in History at the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland. He has published extensively on early modern Scottish immigration to Poland, Jewish–Christian relations, and popular religiosity ca. 1500–1750.