An Outline of Livestock Production and Cattle Trade from Hungary to Western Europe in late Middle Ages and early Modern Period (XIVth-XVIth centuries)

Agriculture – particularly of grain and wine – was an important sector in the economic structure of the Kingdom of Hungary since the twelfth century. Nevertheless, it was the livestock breeding to maintain a central economic role. The Hungarian lands produced and exported mainly raw materials, as mentioned agricultural products and livestock, but also minerals and metals such as iron, copper, salt, gold and silver. Goods of great importation were instead the luxury ones: textiles, jewels and fine crafts from the West; hides, wool, textiles, wax and spices from the East. Part of the imported goods merely transited in the Hungarian lands to reach eastern or western Europe. Between late Middle Ages and early Modern Period, the general characteristics of the production and exchange structures of the Kingdom remained almost unchanged. Although the Hungarian products had a slow but steady increase in prices, these prices remained lower in respect of those of similar goods from western Europe: so the exchange between the Hungarian raw materials and Western products remained very profitable. In this context, in spite of wars and general rise in prices, breeding and cattle trade offered great economic opportunities both in investment and profit for many operators, local and otherwise.