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According to the census of Jews in 1764–1765, about 80 percent of the Jews living in villages and about 14 percent of those living in towns and cities were involved in these activities. In Podlasie, Podolia, and Mazovia, innkeepers made up some 55 percent of the total Jewish population.

Jews’ profits were based on their increasing turnover in the taverns, enabling them to earn not only the necessary funds to pay the rent but also additional income. In order to do this, they often had to give peasants beer and vodka on credit. If the latter defaulted, the estate’s administration would not hesitate to collect these debts for the Jewish tavernkeeper. This method of debt collection sometimes brought peasant farms to ruin, a source of conflict between peasants and Jews. Conflicts were also prompted by the fact that tavernkeepers were often provided with agricultural allotments and a certain amount of the corvée labor owed by peasants to their lord (pańszczyzna). Peasants often complained that Jewish tavernkeepers forced them to work on Sundays and Christian holidays. On the other hand, many taverns employed non-Jewish servants, with good relations often the rule. Cases of female Christian servants being made pregnant by their Jewish employers also occurred.

In the eighteenth century, the nobility began to oppose the leasing of taverns to Jews, arguing that Jews were bringing the peasant farms to ruin. At that time, however, there were only a few isolated cases of Jewish tavernkeepers being driven out. This was because no one else was willing to assume the leases, and the landowners had no intention of giving up income from these sources. In the second half of the century, participants in debates over the future of the Polish state often argued that Jews’ rights to lease taverns and breweries should be rescinded since Jewish tavernkeepers were responsible for peasants’ excessive drinking. At the Four-Year Sejm (1788–1792), this idea was even incorporated into draft legislation for social and cultural reform of the Jews.

https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/tavernkeeping