Bohemian Chamber

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The Bohemian Chamber was an authority responsible for managing the royal finances in the Kingdom of Bohemia . It was established in 1527 and lasted until an administrative reform in 1745 .

Emergence

When the Habsburg Ferdinand I was elected King of Bohemia in 1526 , the income of the crown was bad. Most of the royal domains were mortgaged. The right to mint was partly in the hands of individual noble families, and the state parliaments barely approved taxes. When they approved levies, most of these were withheld by the estates and used to pay off debts. Ferdinand was aware that he would only be able to strengthen royal power if he brought order to the financial system , opened up new sources of income and reduced the influence of the estates on the financial management of the crown. One of his first acts of government (even before the coronation ) was the establishment of the Bohemian Chamber. The new authority was solely subordinate to the ruler and worked as a collegial authority under the leadership of the chamber president. In addition to this, it initially included four councils as senior officials and about a dozen subordinate clerks. The first chamber rules were issued by the king in 1527 when he was in Prague for the coronation . The order laid down the structure and tasks of the new authority.

tasks

The Bohemian Chamber was responsible for the income and debts of all royal goods within the Bohemian Crown . In addition, the king's income from regalia , customs duties , ungeld , various fees, etc. should flow to her. Your officials should first get an overview of what actually belonged to the king in Bohemia and, if necessary, assert claims on alienated crown property. Then the chamber councils should begin to collect debts consistently. On the one hand, you should redeem pledged goods and, on the other hand, make suggestions on which property you could still borrow money. The area of ​​responsibility of the chamber extended to all Bohemian crown lands until 1564 , then a separate Silesian Chamber was formed.

Further development

After the bohemian uprising of 1546/47 , which Ferdinand I was able to put down, the perpetual beer money was introduced as an important new tax. Their elevation concerned only the royal cities and was independent of the approval of the state parliaments. Therefore, the perpetual beer money flowed directly into the Bohemian Chamber. In 1564 , the royal finances in Silesia were transferred to the newly established Silesian Chamber in Wroclaw and separated from the area of ​​responsibility of the Bohemian Chamber.

When Ferdinand I died, the Bohemian Chamber was already heavily in debt. Even under the emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II , their finances could not be restructured, and the debt level continued to rise inexorably. After 1575 the authority threatened to become insolvent several times . When the rebels' goods were confiscated after the repression of the Bohemian estates in 1621-23, the proceeds from the sale of some of these goods went to the Bohemian Chamber.

Due to the administrative reforms of Empress Maria Theresa , the Bohemian Chamber was abolished in 1745 .

literature

  • Václav Pešák: Dejiny královské ceské komory od roku 1527 . Ministerstvo vnitra republiky československé, Prague 1930, ( Sborník Archivu ministerstva vnitra republiky československé 3).
  • Antonín Rezek : History of the Government of Ferdinand I in Bohemia . J. Otto, Prague 1878.