Full Cups, Full Coffers: Tax Strategies and Consumer Culture in the Early Modern German Cities

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the excise taxes (Ungeld) paid by town residents on the consumption of beer, wine, mead and brandy represented the single most important source of civic revenue for many German cities. In a crisis, these taxes could spike to 70-80% of civic income. This paper examines civic budgets and 'behind-the-scenes' deliberations in a sample of towns in southern Germany in order to illuminate how decisions affecting consumer taxes were made. Even during the sobriety movements of the Reformation and post-Reformation period, tax income from drinkers remained attractive to city leaders because the bulk of the excise tax burden could easily be shifted away from privileged members of society and placed on the population at large. At the same time, governments had to maintain a careful balance between what they needed in order to govern and what the consumer market could bear, for high taxes on drinks were also targeted in many popular revolts. This led to nimble politicking by those responsible for tax decisions. Drink taxes were introduced, raised, lowered and otherwise manipulated based not only on shifting fashions and tastes but also on the degree of economic stress faced by the community. Where civic rulers were successful in striking the right balance, the rewards were considerable. The income from drink sales was a major factor in how the cities of the Empire survived the wars and other crises of the early modern period without going into so much debt that they lost their independence.

Full Cups, Full Coffers: Tax Strategies and Consumer Culture in the Early Modern German Cities

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the excise taxes (Ungeld) paid by town residents on the consumption of beer, wine, mead and brandy represented the single most important source of civic revenue for many German cities. In a crisis, these taxes could spike to 70–80% of civic income. This paper examines civic budgets and ‘behind-the-scenes’ deliberations in a sample of towns in southern Germany in order to illuminate how decisions affecting consumer taxes were made. Even during the sobriety movements of the Reformation and post-Reformation period, tax income from drinkers remained attractive to city leaders because the bulk of the excise tax burden could easily be shifted away from privileged members of society and placed on the population at large. At the same time, governments had to maintain a careful balance between what they needed in order to govern and what the consumer market could bear, for high taxes on drinks were also targeted in many popular revolts. This led to nimble politicking by those responsible for tax decisions. Drink taxes were introduced, raised, lowered and otherwise manipulated based not only on shifting fashions and tastes but also on the degree of economic stress faced by the community. Where civic rulers were successful in striking the right balance, the rewards were considerable. The income from drink sales was a major factor in how the cities of the Empire survived the wars and other crises of the early modern period without going into so much debt that they lost their independence.

Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany / Bacchus und die bürgerliche Ordnung. Die Kultur des Trinkens im frühneuzeitlichen Augsburg

Lining the streets inside the city's gates, clustered in its center, and thinly scattered among its back quarters were Augsburg's taverns and drinking rooms. These institutions ranged from the poorly lit rooms of backstreet wine sellers to the elaborate marble halls frequented by society's most privileged members. Urban drinking rooms provided more than food, drink, and lodging for their guests. They also conferred upon their visitors a sense of social identity commensurate with their status. Like all German cities, Augsburg during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had a history shaped by the political events attending the Reformation, the post-Reformation, and the Thirty Years' War; its social and political character was also reflected and supported by its public and private drinking rooms. In Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany, Ann Tlusty examines the social and cultural functions served by drinking and tavern life in Germany between 1500 and 1700, and challenges existing theories about urban identity, sociability, and power. Through her reconstruction of the social history of Augsburg, from beggars to council members, Tlusty also sheds light on such diverse topics as social ritual, gender and household relations, medical practice, and the concerns of civic leaders with public health and poverty. Drunkenness, dueling, and other forms of tavern comportment that may appear "disorderly" to us today turn out to be the inevitable, even desirable result of a society functioning according to its own rules.

The Modern Urban Cartography of Present-day Bratislava.

Following an extensive survey of sources on urban development and comparative analyses of Bratislava and other major Central European cities and Slovak regional centres, Divinsky completed a detailed study of Bratislava's spatial structure using the most recent approaches of the so-called Belgian school. He also produced an intraurban regionalisation of Bratislava as a multi-structural interactive model, mapped and characterised by the cardinal parameters, processes, trends and inequalities of population and housing in each spatial element of the model. The field survey entailed a seven-month physical investigation of the territory using a "street by street, block by block, house by house and locality by locality" system to ensure that no areas were missed. A second field survey was carried out two years later to check on transformations. An important feature of the research was the concept of the morphological city, which was defined as "a continuously built-up area of all urban functions (i.e. excluding agricultural lands and forests lying outside the city which serve for half-day recreation) made up of spatial-structural units fulfilling certain criteria". The most important criteria was a minimum population density per unit of no less than 650 persons per square kilometre, except in the case of units totally surrounded by units of higher densities, where it could be lower. The morphological city as defined here includes only 36% of the territory of the administrative city, but 95% of the popula tion, giving a much higher population density which better reflects the urban reality of Bratislava.

Correlating the Ancient Maya and Modern European Calendars with High-Precision AMS 14C Dating

The reasons for the development and collapse of Maya civilization remain controversial and historical events carved on stone monuments throughout this region provide a remarkable source of data about the rise and fall of these complex polities. Use of these records depends on correlating the Maya and European calendars so that they can be compared with climate and environmental datasets. Correlation constants can vary up to 1000 years and remain controversial. We report a series of high-resolution AMS C-14 dates on a wooden lintel collected from the Classic Period city of Tikal bearing Maya calendar dates. The radiocarbon dates were calibrated using a Bayesian statistical model and indicate that the dates were carved on the lintel between AD 658-696. This strongly supports the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation and the hypothesis that climate change played an important role in the development and demise of this complex civilization.

Trading Values in Early Modern Antwerp

In his Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi of 1567, the Italian merchant and humanist Ludovico Guicciardini described Antwerp as the warehouse of the world where all kinds of commodities were traded and displayed. Early modern Antwerp’s pre-eminent position depended upon links between material trade and exchange and the circulation of information, knowledge and beliefs. In this multidisciplinary volume of the NKJ, articles by leading scholars in the fields of art and material culture, literature and history explore ways in which value was propagated in the city from its so-called golden age, before the Revolt of the Netherlands, far into the seventeenth century.

A Forgotten Original or an Original Copy? On MS. Douce 387 in the Bodleian Library: Collecting Early Modern Festival Books

Focusing on one manuscript, today in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, this chapter deals with the question how early modern objects became collectable items. The manuscript is categorized as MS. Douce 387 and its name indicates that it came from the collection of Francis Douce (1757–1834), who was keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum from 1799 until 1811. MS. Douce 387 is described in the catalogue of the Douce’ian collection as the “presentation copy with coloured designs by Marten de Vos and others” of the 1595 printed festival book Descriptio publicae gratulationis … in adventu … Ernesti archiducis Austriae. This festival book, printed in Antwerp’s Plantin-Moretus press, was commissioned by the magistrate of the city of Antwerp to commemorate the Joyous Entry of Archduke Ernest of Austria from June 1594; that an “archducal copy” bound in red velvet was commissioned as well and was owned by the Archduke is know as well. However, first research showed that Oxford copy cannot be this “archducal copy” or Marten de Vos’s artist’s copy even though it is the only know version with a handwritten text and hand-drawn illustrations. It rather should be examined as something totally different altogether. The main question remains why someone then commissioned a hand made version of this festival book, something unknown for other books of this genre? Why would someone between 1600 and 1800 sit down and copy texts and prints from a collectable book? Why was there such an on-going interest in early modern festival books? Could this manuscript be the only later made copy of the “archducal volume” or is it rather a forgery made for the European collectors’ market?

(Table 2) Oxygen, carbon, and strontium isotopic composition of carbonate-brucite material from the Lost City hydrothermal field

The isotopic (dD, d18O, d13C, and 87Sr/86Sr) and geochemical characteristics of hydrothermal solutions from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the material of brucite-carbonate chimneys at the Lost City hydrothermal field at 30°N, MAR, were examined to assay the role of the major factors controlling the genesis of the fluid and hydrothermal chimneys of the Lost City field. The values of dD and d18O in fluid samples indicates that solutions at the Lost City field were produced during the serpentinization of basement ultramafic rocks at temperatures higher than 200°C and at relatively low fluid/rock ratios (<1). The active role of serpentinization processes in the genesis of the Lost City fluid also follows from the results of the electron-microscopic studying of the material of hydrothermal chimneys at this field. The isotopic (d18O, d13C, and 87Sr/86Sr) and geochemical (Sr/Ca and REE) signatures indicate that, before its submarine discharging at the Lost City field, the fluid filtered through already cold altered outer zones of the Atlantis Massif and cooled via conductive heat loss. During this stage, the fluid could partly dissolve previously deposited carbonates in veins cutting serpentinite at the upper levels of the Atlantis Massif and the carbonate cement of sedimentary breccias underlying the hydrothermal chimneys. Because of this, the age of modern hydrothermal activity at the Lost City field can be much younger than 25 ka.

Pollen assemblages of modern soil samples from the Old Botanical Garden of the University of Göttingen

The importance of pollen analytical data for the reconstruction of the natural conditions and their changes caused by human impact in prehistorical and historical times is beyond all doubt. Pollen analysis can, however, be hampered by poor pollen preservation and low pollen concentrations. As an example pollen assemblages from excavation areas near Pompeii (see doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.777531) and from the Old Botanical Garden of the University of Göttingen are discussed. A pollen diagram (see doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.820590) from the site Höllerer See in Austria (N of the city of Salzburg) demonstrates the intensive agricultural influence on the vegetation of the area during Roman and Medieval times. Human influence was much weaker during the Iron and the Bronze ages. There is no indication of human impact on the vegetation during the Migration period.

Chapter 7 Clusters of Modern and Local Industries in Vietnam

Since the introduction of the Doi Moi ('renovation') economic reform in 1986, Vietnam has experienced a transformation of its economic management, from a central planning economy to a market-oriented economy. High economic growth, created by the liberalization of activities in all sectors of the economy, has changed the economic structure of the country, and the once agriculture-based and poverty-stricken land now generates a midlevel income and possesses many industrial bases. Economic growth has also changed the landscape of the country. Business complexes have been built in metropolises like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and rice fields have been converted into industrial zones. As the number of enterprises increased, areas began to emerge where many enterprises agglomerated. Some of these 'clusters' were groups of cottage industry households, while many others were large-scale industrial clusters. As Porter [1998] argues, industrial clusters are the source of a nation's 'competitive advantage'. McCarty et al. [2005] indicate that in some key industries in Vietnam, some clusters of enterprises have been created, although the degree of agglomeration differs from one industry to another. Using industry census data from 2001, they include dot density maps for the 12 leading manufacturing industries in Vietnam. They show that most of the industries analyzed are clustered either in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City (or both). Among these 12 industries, the garments industry has the greatest tendency to cluster, followed by textile, rice, seafood, and paper industries. The fact that industrial clusters have begun to form in some areas could be a positive sign for Vietnam's future economic development. What is lacking in McCarty et al. [2005], however, is the identification of the participants in the industrial clusters. Some argue for the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam's economic development (e.g. Nguyen Tri Thanh [2007], Tran Tien Cuong et al. [2008]), while others stress the impact of foreign direct investments (FDI) (for example, Tuan Bui [2009]). Adding information about the participants in the above cluster study (and in other studies of spatial patterns of location of enterprises) may broaden the scope for analysis of economic development in Vietnam. This study aims to reveal the characteristics of industrial clusters in terms of their participants and locations. The findings of the study may provide basic information for evaluating the effects of agglomeration and the robustness of the effects in the industrial clusters in Vietnam. Section 1 describes the characteristics of economic entities in Vietnam such as ownership, size of enterprise, and location. Section 2 examines qualitative aspects of industrial clusters identified in McCarty et al. [2005] and uses information on the size and ownership of clusters. Three key industries (garments, consumer electronics, and motor vehicle) are selected for the study. Section 3 identifies another type of cluster commonly seen in Vietnam, composed of local industries and called 'craft villages'. Many such villages have been developed since the early 1990s. The study points out that some of these villages have become industrialized (or are becoming industrialized) by introducing modern modes of production and by employing thousands of laborers.

Urban Archaeology in Madrid. Experiences and Opportunities to Understand Historical City

In 2015, it will be thirty years since Spanish Historic Heritage Law from 1985 was approved. The results after three decades under this law are necessarily positive and witness how the complex autonomous regional legislation has been promoted, guided and organized in this Heritage field. In addition, the law enforcement has brought into the scene how the numerous public and private initiatives involved in caring, managing, protecting and restoring our cultural heritage have been channeled and regulated, as well as monitoring the impact these initiatives produce on urban archaeology. During this long period of Spanish recent history, cultural heritage -understood as an important development tool, especially when related to cultural tourism- has succeeded in channeling resources for developing the historical research projects, both documental and archaeological, that the Spanish monumental urban ensembles were requiring. In this context, the case of the city of Madrid is a clear example of the significant development that urban Historical Archaeology has experienced in Spain over the last thirty years, especially when dealing with the study of the Middle Ages (8th to 15th centuries) and the Modern Age (16th to 18th centuries). Given the number of interventions and the important results obtained by many of them, Madrid urban archaeology is an extraordinary example of the consequences of implementing new management models, changing criteria and operating procedures, and also, of course, of the conflicts and debates raised regarding heritage, as well as the importance these interventions have implied, which is the main aim of this work.