Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T16:44:14.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reforming Interregional Commerce: The Leipzig Trade Fairs and Saxony's Recovery from the Thirty Years' War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Robert Beachy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Wares are consigned to the Leipzig merchants year round from all corners of Europe and then sold during the trade fairs. Leipzig has three fairs: the first begins the Monday after New Year's and lasts two weeks counting the last week for the settling of accounts (Zahlwoche); the spring fair (Jubilate) begins the third Sunday after Easter and runs a total of three weeks; while the autumn fair (Michaelis), likewise three weeks long, begins the fourth Sunday of September. An indescribable wealth of goods is on offer at the fairs. With the foreign merchants and royal personages, the throngs of visitors are so great that it is usually difficult to find lodging in the city. The conflux of sellers and buyers is very advantageous, and during peacetime virtually every order is filled. Many thousands have never even considered provisioning their trade or selling their products other than in Leipzig, though the source of their purchases might lie closer to home. This is because of the commercial services and security provided by such a large fair, including the selection and quality of goods, the strong credit, a reliable circle of customers, a ready supply of bullion, and the efficient Exchange.

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 1999 , pp. 431 - 452
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, Gesammelte Werke, ed. Paul, Rilla, 10 vols. (Berlin, 1954—58), 9:10.Google Scholar

2. Marperger, Paul Jacob, Beschreibung der Messen und Jahr-Märkte (Leipzig, 1711), 63–69.Google Scholar

3. See Lipsia Septicollis… (Leipzig, 1690), Das Preiβ-Würdige Leipzig (Leipzig, 1708), Das in gantz EUROPA berühmte, galante und sehens-würdige königliche Leipzig… (Leipzig, 1725), Verbessertes Leipzig, oder die vornehmsten Dinge, so von Anno 1698 an bey der Stadt Leipzig verbessert worden (Leipzig, 1728).

4. Schwartzen, Heinrich Engelbert, Etwas altes und Neues bestehende in kurzer Vergleichung … zwo Städte Jericho und Leipzig … (Leipzig, 1748), 40.Google Scholar

5. For a general overview see Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Modern World-System, vol. 2, Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy, 1600–1750 (New York, 1984)Google Scholar. See also Braudel, Fernand, Civilization and Capitalism, vol. 2, The Wheels of Commerce, transl. Reynolds, Siân (New York, 1982), 93–99Google Scholar, and Schneider, Jürgen, “The Significance of Large Fairs, Money Markets and Precious Metals in the Evolution of a World Market from the Middle Ages to the First Half of the Nineteenth Century,” in The Emergence of a World Economy 1500–1914, ed., idem, et al. (Wiesbaden, 1986), 15–37, esp. 18–23.Google Scholar

6. Van der Wee, Herman, The Growth of the Antwerp Market and The European Economy (fourteenth-sixteenth centuries), 3 vols. (Louvain, 1963), 2:315–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Kellenbenz, Hermann, The Rise of the European Economy (New York, 1977), 301–2.Google Scholar

8. Consider the practices of the Silesian linen merchants described in Marperger's, Paul JacobDer Schlesische Kaufmann (Leipzig, 1707), 23–27, 45–46Google Scholar; also Netta, Gheron, “Die Handelsbeziehungen zwischen Leipzig und Ost- und Südosteuropa bis zum Verfall der Warenmessen” (Ph.D. diss., University of Zurich, 1920), 37–44, 64–72, 96–100Google Scholar; and Reindel, Ernst, “Die Handelsbeziehungen der österreichischen Erbländer zu Leipzig im 18. Jahrhundert” (Ph.D. diss., University of Leipzig, 1921), 32–33.Google Scholar

9. Ludovici's, From HeinrichEröffnete Akademie der kaufleure, oder voliständiges Kaufmannslexikon, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1752–1756)Google Scholar, see the articles “Commission” and “Commissionswaaren,” 2:467–82, and the article “Spediren,” 4:2086–89.

10. For a recent overview, see Stier, Bernhard and Hippel, Wolfgang von, “War, Economy and Society,” in Germany: A New Social and Economic History, vol. 2: 1630–1800, ed. Sheilagh, Ogilvie (London, 1996), 233–62.Google Scholar

11. Rabb, Theodore, “The Effects of the Thirty Years' War on the German Economy,” Journal of Modern History 26 (1962): 40–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Steinberg, Sigfrid Heinrich, The “Thirty Years' War” and the Conflict for European Heyemony 1600–1660 (London, 1966), 107.Google Scholar

13. Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. 1, Vom Feudalismus des Alten Reiches his zur defensiven Modernisierung der Reformära, 1700–1815 (Munich, 1987), 54.Google Scholar

14. For recent surveys of demographic history, see Pfister, Christian, Bevölkerungsgeschichte und historische Demographie 1500–1800 (Munich, 1994), 10Google Scholar; Dipper, Christoph, Deutsche Geschichte 1618–1789 (Frankfurt am Main, 1991), 44Google Scholar. Valuable historiographic reviews of the demography of the Thirty Years' War include Ogilvie, Sheilagh, “Germany and the Seventeenth-Century Crisis,” The Historical Journal 35, no. 2 (1992): 417‐41CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Theibault, John,” The Demography of the Thirty Years' War Revisited: Günther Franz and his Critics,” German History 15, no. 1 (1997): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15. For example, Friedrichs, Christopher R., Urban Society in an Age of War: Nördlingen, 1580–1720 (Princeton, 1979)Google Scholar; Robisheaux, Thomas, Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany (New York, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roeck, Bernd, Eine Stadt in Krieg und Frieden (Göttingen, 1989)Google Scholar; Theibault, John, German Villages in Crisis: Rural Ljfe and the Thirty Years' War in Hesse-Kassel, 1580–1720 (Atlantic Highlands, 1995).Google Scholar

16. McIntosh, Terence, Urban Decline in Early Modern Germany: Schwäbisch Hall and Its Region, 1650–1750 (Chapel Hill, 1997), 1–10.Google Scholar

17. See Stier and Hippel, “War, Economy and Society,” 233–62, esp. 241–43, and Peter Kriedte, “Trade,” 100–33, both in Germany: A New Social and Economic History, vol. 2, ed. Ogilvie.

18. For Leipzig's population figures, see Knapp, G. F., ed., Mittheilungen des Seatistischen Bureaus der Stadt Leipzig, vol. 6: Aeltere Nachrichten über Leipzigs Bevölkerung 1595–1849 (Leipzig, 1872)Google Scholar; Füssier, Heinz, “Leipzig im Zeitalter des Barocks und Rokokos,” in Leipziger Bautradition (Leipzig, 1955), 105–6.Google Scholar

19. Kroker, Ernst, Handelsgeschichte der Stadt Leipzig (Leipzig, 1925), 125–30.Google Scholar

20. Blaschke, Karlheinz, Bevölkerungsgeschichte von Sachsen his zur industrielle Revolution (Weimar, 1967), 88–89, 92–96Google Scholar; Wuttke, Robert, Sächsische Volkskunde, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1903), 193–98.Google Scholar

21. Blaschke, Bevölkerungsgeschichte, 78, 91.

22. Kauthold, Karl-Heinrich, “Gewerbelandschaft in der frühen Neuzeit (1650–1800),” in Gewerbe- und Industrielandschaften corn Spätmittelalter his ins 20.Jahrhundert, ed. Hans, Pohl (Stuttgart, 1986), 112–202, here, 124–31.Google Scholar

23. See Dietrich, Richard, “Merkantihsmus und Städtewesen in Kursachsen,” in Städtewesen und Merkantilismus in Mitteleuropa, ed.Volker, Press (Cologne, 1983), 222–77, esp. 224Google Scholar; Forberger, Rudolf, Die Manufaktur in Sachsen (Berlin [East], 1957), 298–300Google Scholar; and Kriedte, “Trade,” 123.

24. On Krafft's activity in Saxony, see Forberger, Die Manufaktur, 84, 122–24. Krafft's, 1670 proposal for a more restrictive tariff regime is reprinted in Leipziger Sammlungen von wirtschafftlichen Policey-Cammer- und Finantz Sachen 23 (Leipzig, 1745), 939–42, 1009–22.Google Scholar

25. Bräuer, Helmut, “Das zünftige Handwerk in Sachsen und die ‘Landes-Oeconomie-, Manufactur- und Commercien-Deputation’ im 18. Jahrhundert,” in Sitzungsberichte der Sächsischen Akadermie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig 130, no. 6, Studien zur älteren sächsischen Handwerksgeschichte (Berlin, 1990).Google Scholar

26. Hasse, Ernst, Geschichte der Leipziger Messen, (Leipzig, 1885), 5–15Google Scholar; Kroker, Ernst, Leipzier Handelsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1926), 12–15Google Scholar; Brübach, Nils, Die Reichsmessen von Frankfurt am Main, Leipzi mid Braunschweig (14.–18. Jahrhundert) (Stuttgart, 1994), 190–91, 563–66.Google Scholar

27. See Straube, Manfred, “Mitteldeutsche Städte und der Osthandel zu Beginn der frühen Neuzeit,” in Stadt und Handel, ed. Bernhard, Kirchgässner (Sigmaringen, 1995), 83–106.Google Scholar The imperial privileges were confirmed in 1507 with the added provision of a staple and retail right requiring merchants traveling within a (Ca.) 110 km radius of Leipzig to bring their wares to the city center for a period of three days. This measure prevented hinterland towns and cities from establishing competing markets. The privileges are reprinted in Müller, Ernst, Die Privilegien der Leipziger Reichsmessen (Leipzig, 1941), 28, 32.Google Scholar

28. See Krebs, Kurt, Das kursächsische Postwesen zur Zeit der Oberpostmeister Johann Jakob Kees I und II (Leipzig, 1914), 7–23Google Scholar; and the essays in “Sachsen nach dem Dreissigjährigen Kriege,” a special issue of Dresdner Hefte 33 (1993).

29. See Brübach, Die Reichsmessen, 464–69; Netta, Gheron, “Die Handelsbeziehungen zwischen Leipzig und Ost- und Südosteuropa” (Ph.D. diss., University of Zürich, 1920), 37–44Google Scholar; and Reindel, Ernst, “Die Handelsbeziehungen der österreichischen Erbländer zu Leipzig im 18.Jahrhundert” (Ph.D. diss., University of Leipzig, 1921), 30–33.Google Scholar

30. Correspondence between the Frankfurt and Leipzig City Councils is reprinted in Hasse, Geschichte, 474–77. See also Beyer, Peter, “Leipzig und Frankfurt am Main: Leipzigs Aufstieg zur ersten deutschen Messestadt,” in Jahrbuch für Regionalgeschichte 2 (1967): 62–86Google Scholar, and Brübach, Die Reichsmessen, 136–42.

31. For accounts of the first Leipzig Wholesalers' Association, see Silberschmidt, W., Die Entstehung des deutschen Handelsgerichts (Leipzig, 1894)Google Scholar, and Moltke, Siegfried, Urkunden zur Entstehungsgeschichte der ersten Leipziger Grosshandelsvertretung (Leipzig, 1904).Google Scholar However, both accounts are incomplete since Silberschmidt used only sources in Dresden, while Moltke relied exclusively on sources in Leipzig.

32. See Protocollbuch der Handelsdeputierten (abbreviated as Protocollbuch), 1:2, Ha VI 1a, in StadtA Leipzig.

33. Ibid., 1:12–17; see also Commissions Acta, fols. 19r–v, XLVG.6b, StadtA Leipzig.

34. See Protocollbuch, 1:603, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

35. See the draft of the Elector's letter dated 21 February 1681, Commissions Acta, fols. 17r–19v, XLV.G.6b, StadtA Leipzig.

36. See the wholesalers' report from 26 March 1681, in ibid., fols. 36r–136v.

37. The following January, delegates of the wholesalers presented these statistics at the Wettin Court in Dresden and to the Saxon Diet. See Moltke, Urkunden, 41.

38. See the Saxon statutes-book Codex Augusteus oder neu vermehrte Corpus juris Saxonici … 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1724), 2:2013.

39. Ibid., 1:290, and 2:2017.

40. See Protocollbuch, 1:104–5, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

41. Ibid., 1:106.

42. Ibid., 1:133–34.

43. Ibid., 1:107.

44. Ibid., 1:110–11.

45. Ibid., 1:121.

46. Ibid., 1:113–14.

47. Though the oldest guild book dates from 1477, the retailers argued that their privileges stemmed from the first city charters in the twelfth century. See Biedermann, Karl, Geschichte der Leipziger Kramer-Innung 1477–1880 (Leipzig, 1881)Google Scholar; also Moltke, Siegfried, Die Leipziger KramerInnung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1905).Google Scholar

48. The 34-article retailers' ordinance from 1672 is reproduced in Biedermann, Geschichte, 16–26, and is also found in Die Stadt Leipzig Ordnungen mit auch Privilegia und Statuta (Leipzig, 1701), 175–211.

49. See Steinmüller, Kurt, “Die Gesellschaft der Kaufleute in Leipzig im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert,” in Forschungen aus mitteldeutschen Archiven: Zum 60. Geburtstag von Helmut Kretzschmar (Berlin, 1953), 127–42.Google Scholar

50. See Protocollbuch, 1:253–65, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig; and Commissions Acta, fols. 174r–79r, XLV G 6b, StadtA Leipzig.

51. See Protocollbuch, 1:254–55, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

52. Ibid., 1:261–62.

53. Ibid., 1:262–63.

54. The retailers' reaction was so negative that the commission refused to communicate the report to the wholesalers, claiming it might create “Missverstand” between the two groups. See Commissions Acta, fol. 389v, XLV G 6b, StadtA Leipzig.

55. See the Retailers' letter from 9 May 1681 in ibid., fol. 171r.

56. Ibid., fol. 195r.

57. The meeting forcing guild members to choose is entered in the protocol of 19 April 1681, but the names of those excluded—Hans Heinrich Zipfel, Hans Ryssel, Heinrich Winckler, Jr. and Heinrich Meyenberg—are only listed later, in 1688, when the guild negotiated a settlement with the wholesalers. See Memorial 1666–1692, fols. 326v–327r, 411r–v, Kra II 6, StadtA Leipzig.

58. On the division between retail and wholesale commerce in Germany, see Sombart, Werner, Der moderne Kapitalismus, vol. 2, Das europäisches Wirtschaftsleben im Zeitalter des Frühkapitalismus, vornehmlich im 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Munich and Leipzig, 1928), 534–36.Google Scholar

59. For this guild profile see Protocollbuch, 2: fols. 31r–32r, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

60. Sixty-eight wholesalers signed the protocol from the first organizational meeting, see Protocollbuch, 1: 5–6, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

61. See the letter from Guild seniors to the Saxon Elector dated 13 July 1681, Commissions Acta, fol. 194r, XLV G 6b, StadtA Leipzig.

62. For a published list of Leipzig councilors identifying profession, offices, and dates of accession and death, see Vollbert, Johann, Summarische Nachricht von dem Raths-Collegio (Leipzig, 1783).Google Scholar

63. The Guild seniors listed the councilors Göring, Carpzov, and the two Wincklers as guild members, and the remaining merchants Lorenz, Beck, Bose, Ryssel, and Conrad as nonguild wholesale merchants and likely supporters of the Wholesalers' Association. See Moltke, Urkunden, 33.

64. Compare the signatures of the wholesalers in Protocollbuch, 1:5–6, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig, with those of the retailers in Commissions Acta, fols. 143r—v, XLV G 6b, StadtA Leipzig.

65. See the collection of geneological charts in Sammlung Ernst Müller: Leipziger Ratsgeschlechter (hereafter SEM), no. 148., fols. 1, 11, 12, StadtA Leipzig.

66. SEM, no. 129, fol. 67, StadtA Leipzig.

67. Ibid., no. 127, fol. 14.

68. lbid., no. 141, fols. 16, 17.

69. Gold- und Silber-Manufactur zu Leipzig 1619–1701, Loc. 33462, no. 52, SächsHStA Dresden.

70. See the published membership list for the Guild, Goldsmiths', Schröder, Albert, “Leipziger Goldschmiede aus fünf Jahrhunderten (1350–1850),” Schriften des Vereins für die Geschichte Leipzigs 18 (1935): 55–56, 181.Google Scholar

71. SEM, no. 127, fol. 44, StadtA Leipzig; see also Fischer, Aus zwei Jahrhunderten, 185, 292, 304.

72. SEM, no. 125, fol. 80, StadtA Leipzig; and Fischer Aus zwei Jahrhunderten, 300, 472f.

73. SEM, no. 135, fol. 165, StadtA Leipzig; and Fischer Aus zwei Jahrhunderten, 173, 301.

74. See the entries for Georg and Caspar Bose in the author's prosopography of Councilors, Leipzig from “The Soul of Commerce: Credit and the Politics of Public Debt in Leipzig, 1680–1830,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1998)Google Scholar, Appendix A, nos. 7, 9.

75. See the entry for Heinrich Winckler, Jr., ibid., no. 27.

76. See the article “Grossirer” in Heinrich Ludovici, Eröffnete Akademie, 5:2277–82.

77. Commissions Acta, fol. 196r, XLV G 6b, StadtA Leipzig.

78. Ibid., fol. 197r.

79. Ibid., fol. 198v.

80. Ibid., fol. 140v.

81. A draft of the Council's letter is reproduced in Moltke, Urkunden, 10–12, and the final version submitted to Dresden 3 March 1681 is in Commercien-Wesen 1681–1699, fols. 3r–4r, specifically fol. 3v, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden.

82. Commercien-Wesen betreffend 1681–1699, fols. 13r–v, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden.

83. See the order to the council from the Saxon Elector to participate in the review work of the commission in Commissions Acta, fols. 25r–26r, XLV G 6b, StadtA Leipzig.

84. A draft of the City Council's appraisal is reprinted in Moltke, Urkunden, 64–69, taken from Commissions Acta, fols. 248r–252r, XLV C 6b, StadtA Leipzig. For the final version dated 18 October 1681 and submitted to Dresden see Commercien-Wesen 1681–1699, fols. 8r–15v, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden.

85. Commercien-Wesen 1681–1699, fol. 9r, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden.

86. Ibid. fol. 9v.

87. See minutes from the commission's meetings in Commissions Acta, 384v ff. XLV G 6h. StadtA Leipzig.

88. See the report from the commission's conference from 30 November 1681, in ibid., fols. 265r ff.

89. Nearly identical versions of the Diet's report are included in the Saxon Diet papers in Landtags Acta vom Jahre 1681, fols. 595–608, Kra IX 1 5, StadtA Leipzig; and in Commercien-Wesen 1681–1699, fols. 150r–154r, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden.

90. Commercien-Wesen 1681–1699, fol. 150r, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden.

91. See Protocollbuch, 1:634–36, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

92. See the 6 April 1681 letter entered in the wholesalers' records in ibid., 1:62–64.

93. Ibid., 1:57–60, 82–83, 196–200,

94. See Commercien-Wesen 1681–1699, fols. 168–170v, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden; and Protocollbuch, 2: fols. 55v–57v, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

95. See Protocollbuch, 2: fols. 60v–61v, 69r–v, 75r–76 Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

96. See Codex Asgusteus (Leipzig, 1724), 2:2023–45, 2111–34.

97. Quoted from Der Stadt Leipzig Ordnungen, Privilegia, und Statuten (Leipzig, 1701), 34.

98. Neu-eröffnetes Handels-Gericht (Hamburg, 1709), 40.

99. Rössig, Carl Gottlob, Kurze systematische Darstellung der Leipziger Handelsgerichtsordnung… (Leipzig, 1796), 2–3, 7–11.Google Scholar

100. The Bozen Court, established in 1635, drew from Florentine and Veronese practices, which entailed the inclusion of nonlocal merchants as adjudicators. A published copy of the Botzner Marckts Privilegia, 1635, 1681 is bound with the document, Commercien-Wesen 1681–99, Loc. 9881, SächsHStA Dresden. Brunswick created its court just before Leipzig in 1681. See Silberschmidt, Die Entstehung, 99, 120.

101. Silberschmidt, Die Entstehung, 92–96, 136.

102. For the first round of negotiations in the summer of 1681, see Protocollbuch, 1:413–20, Ha VI 1a, StadtA Leipzig. See the correspondence and conference protocols from the second set of negotiations in November 1683, Protocollbuch, 2: fols. 126r–142v, HaVI 1a, StadtA Leipzig.

103. The initial meeting between two Handelsdeputierten and two Kramermeister at the Leipzig Exchange is recounted in the protocol book of the Retailers' Guild. See Memorial 1666–1692, fol. 409v, Kra II 6, StadtA Leipzig.

104. See the guild protocol from the meeting of 6 April 1688, Memorial 1666–1692, fols. 411r–v, Kra II 6, StadtA Leipzig.

105. See minutes from the meeting of 6 April 1688 held in the guildhouse, Memorial 1666–1692 fols. 411r–412r, Kra II 6, StadtA Leipzig.

106. Of the 177 new members recruited into the Leipzig Council between 1681 and 1800, 75 were merchants. Senior retailers and wholesalers together provided the pool of merchant candidates for city office. Only eight of these merchant councilors were drawn from the guild, however. The remaining 67 were selected from the Wholesalers' Association. See the prosopography of Leipzig Councilors in the dissertation of Beachy, “The Soul of Commerce,” Appendix A.