Manuscript Contract in Russian. An agreement between the Jews of Vinnitsa (Ukraine) and the Town Magistrate concerning the right to produce and market various liquors

(RUSSIA)

9th March

Vinnitsa (Ukraine)

1802

Formal Russian translation from Yiddish. Imperial Russian stamp at top

According to the terms of this document, a 7,000 ruble licence was paid for authority to sell liquor for a period of three years. The contract also makes mention of wine, beer and "honey" (mead?). Signed on the document are recorded in Russian the sixty members of the Jewish community of Vinnitsa engaged in the wine-trade. The Yiddish translator's name is given on the final page of text as Arie Markovitch. Vinnitsa was a major Jewish center in Podolia, Western Ukraine. There is documentary mention of a Jewish presence in Vinnitsa as early as 1532. Based on the information provided by the census of 1878, we read: "Most of the important distilleries (an ancient industry, to which the town owes its name) were owned by Jews." JE, Vol. XII, p.440.