Transportation of ripened curd cheese
Olomouc markets and Olomouc traders most probably participated materially in cheese trade from the very beginning. The carters became the first hauliers of higher curd cheese quantities at greater distances; they sold the curd cheese on the way up to the place of destination. This tradition has disappeared, as reported, at the beginning of the 20th century, and new opportunities for the curd cheese were opened by rapid construction of railways in the last decades of the 19th century. Wicked basket was the universal helper for minor producers.
A number of other means of transport (besides carters) is reported. From Topolany near Olomouc to Brno the ripened curd cheese was transported on wheelbarrows, as documented around 1840; from Hněvotín to Ostrava the curd cheese producer transported his products in the same way. Wheelbarrow is preserved as a popular means of transport even later, when the cheese is transported to the railway station, or it is used for distribution by minor retailers in the environs. When bicycle appeared and became more price accessible, it began to be used frequently by the curd cheese producers. Minor traders used bikes, when taking goods from the curd cheese factories. Motorcycle with sidecar is mentioned as well, and for transportation to shorter distances the handmade rack wagon was used; it was sometimes driven - butchers or milk retailers alike – by a dog. For deliveries to a wider distance own or rented horse team was used continuously. A specific distinctive sphere is represented by minor dealers, who transported the cheese in back baskets - to smaller villages as a rule and shouted … and ripened curd cheese, cheese breaks, small cheese pieces … „. Small retailers used to go to the markets in big cities, mainly in Olomouc and sometimes - especially from Loštice – they rented and shared ride. Food gourmets, but especially the poor, “preferred” the broken ripened curd cheese pieces, bulk packed in most cases, sometimes sold in paper cones and usually approximately, at a rough guess ( “…for a twenty-heller piece we received a small pile of broken cheese pieces…”, confirmed by witnesses).
Railway, post office and also buses became soon popular methods of transportation. Cars intervened significantly into the traditional distribution of traffic; cars were used by large producers, thus pushing the minor ones to apply the same method of transportation, though purchase of the cars was beyond possibilities of minor cheese producers. The cars had a number of other advantages - transportation of purchased curd as well as for transportation of other necessary things (blanks for boxes). Car was also a symbol of modern times and the social attribute.
