Ze studiów nad dochodami i wydatkami na studnie i wodociągi Krakowa w XIV–XVI w.

• Authors: Urszula Sowina

Title variants

EN

FROM STUDIES ON REVENUES AND EXPENSES CONNECTED WITH WELLS AND THE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM IN CRACOW FROM THE FOURTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

• Conference: Materiały z konferencji naukowej „Budżety i księgowość miejska w Polsce na tle Europy Środkowej od późnego średniowiecza do schyłku okresu nowożytnego (XIV – początek XIX w.)”
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The source foundation of the presented studies are Cracovian accounts, from the oldest preserved ones dating 1390 to those from 1538, supplemented by a wilkierz (an official set of records of laws) from 1375 as well as records in the books of the council and municipal bench from the end of the fourteenth century. The oldest extant accounts from 1390–1414 made it possible to, i.a. 1) identify the recorded fontes as public wells and establish their minimal number and distribution intra muros (during the middle of the second decade of the fifteenth century there were at least 25 such wells, of which a considerable part had been dug in front of the houses of the patricians), 2) discover symptoms of a growing need for good quality water in the town during the last quarter of the fourteenth century, i.a. a period directly preceding the building of a town water supply system, mentioned since 1399 as under construction; 3) introduce new findings pertaining to payments made for the water supply system and their role in the system of town taxes. It was possible to identify the up to now mysterious pecunia fontalia/foncium/de fontibus as rurne, i.e. a payment made by all inhabitants in return for the opportunity to use the city water reservoirs. On the other hand, later accounts – from 1487–1538 – demonstrate the exceptional significance of two other payments: braxatura alias rorgeld and venditio cannalium de rorhaws, testifying to the development of a network of private attachments to the Cracow water supply system, which increased the town revenues. Calculations show that in 1487–1538 the number of such attachments to houses possessing the right to brew beer grew fivefold, which produced an almost fourfold rise of the braxaturae obtained by the town, equalling to one of the highest annual revenues and in 1537 – to the highest level, amounting to about 10% of the town’s general income. The instalment of attachments to those houses which earlier used water from their own wells or/and public water reservoirs for brewing beer (in return for rurne – much lower than the braxaturae) signified that they were compelled to pay the braxaturae tax, more profitable for the town.

Keywords

EN

TAX; MEDIAEVAL TOWN

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Roczniki Dziejów Społecznych i Gospodarczych
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 70
• Pages: 79-88

Contributors

author

Urszula Sowina

• Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii PAN