Mercantile Magistrate

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The Bozen mercantile building, seat of the former mercantile magistrate
Justice and peace connect Italy and Germany through trade (1698) - Allegorical painting by Alessandro Marchesini (1663–1783)

The Mercantile Magistrate was a bilateral German-Italian special court in commercial matters . It existed in Bolzano from 1635 to 1851.

prehistory

Bolzano was founded around 1170/80 by the bishops of Trento as an urban market settlement. This was designed from the beginning as a supra-regional trading center along the transalpine Brenner route . Periodic markets, to which traders from the north and south came to Bolzano, are first mentioned in documents in 1202.

Thanks to its favorable traffic situation, Bolzano developed into the most important trading center in Tyrol .

The construction of the Kuntersweg (1307) through the Eisack Gorge strengthened Bolzano even more and meant a great loss of trade for the old regional capital Merano , because the route over the Jaufenpass to Sterzing had become secondary. In 1357 the Andreasmarkt, built by Count Otto von Tirol in Gries as a competitor, was relocated to Bozen, so that there were now three large markets there. Despite fierce protests from the Merans, their Corpus Christi market was transferred to Bolzano, preferred by long-distance traders, in 1501.

The four Bolzano annual markets were called Mittfastenmarkt , Corpus Christi market , Bartholomäusmarkt and Andreasmarkt. They each lasted two weeks.

Almost without exception, the traders were not from Bolzano, but came from Verona , Augsburg , Nuremberg and other trading cities in northern Italy and Germany.

In addition to these international fairs, there was still the organization of domestic trade, which was exclusively German, as it was a citizen's privilege. In principle, Italians were not granted citizenship.

founding

Seal and motto of the mercantile magistrate : Ex merce pulchrior (Through trade to higher prosperity)

The lingua franca on the international Bolzano markets was often Italian. If disputes were not resolved by an arbitration tribunal, the city and district judge was responsible. Only German was the official language in front of the court, but the city accommodated the Italians by stipulating that the future judge had to be " proficient and knowledgeable in speaking Latin, German and Welsh " as a condition for this office .

On September 15, 1635, the Tyrolean duchess Archduchess Claudia von Medici established the mercantile magistrate. In doing so, she destroyed Venice's attempt to outdo the Bolzano markets by creating a similar institution in Verona (1630).

functionality

The new special court had two instances, each of which consisted of a consul and two assessors. If the consul of first instance was a German " counterpart ", that is, a market visitor registered in a special register , his assessors were two Italians. The second instance then had an Italian consul and two Germans as assessors.

The correspondence of the mercantile magistrate was mostly in Italian in order to prevent the Italian market visitors from migrating to the trade fair city of Verona, which in turn was privileged by Venice.

This led to a particularly business-friendly legal system in Bolzano. There was a ban on lawyers, exemption from court fees and the disregard of superfluous formalities. The notary , later called Chancellor, was, however, legally trained and had to take over the safekeeping of the court documents.

Mercantile building

The mercantile building in Bozen's Silbergasse was built between 1708 and 1716 according to plans by the Veronese architect Francesco Perotto. It is the only Renaissance building in Bolzano. While the auction room on the ground floor is very simple, the courtroom on the floor above has been superbly equipped.

Decline

Diploma of the Bozen trade fair privileges from Maria Theresa (1744)

The Bozen trade fair privilege was confirmed by Empress Maria Theresia in 1744. At the beginning of the 19th century, however, the famous Bolzano fairs had sunk to provincial markets, as the list of dealers from 1817 shows. In 1849 there were no longer large long-distance traders but only small country merchants who haggled for horse whips, saw blades, nails and pocket knives. In the light of this commercial waning, the mercantile magistrate was transformed into a chamber of commerce and industry on March 10, 1851. The powers of jurisdiction were transferred to the newly established Regional Court of Bolzano.

Mercantile Museum

A publicly accessible permanent exhibition has been set up in the Mercantile Magistrate building since 1998. The medieval cellar rooms have also been open to the public since 2012.

archive

The extensive historical archive of the Bolzano mercantile magistrate covers the period from 1415 to 1851. Most of it is kept by the South Tyrolean Provincial Archives ; only a few remains are still in the municipal building itself and are used here for exhibition purposes.

See also

literature

  • Bozen Chamber of Commerce and Industry: The Mercantile Building in Bozen , Art Publishing House Anton Schroll, Vienna 1908
  • Franz Huter : The sources of Archduchess Claudia's privilege to judge the masses for the Bozen markets (1635) , in: Bozner Yearbook for History, Culture and Art, Vogelweider Publishing House, Bozen 1927
  • Hans Heiss : The economic shadow government of Tyrol. On the role of the Bolzano mercantile magistrate from the 17th to the early 19th century. In: Geschichte und Region / Storia e regione 1, 1992, pp. 66–85
  • Bozen Chamber of Commerce: Mercantile Museum Bozen , catalog, Bozen 1998
  • Bozen Chamber of Commerce: The Menz family and the city of Bozen , catalog, Bozen 2009

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hannes Obermair : Bolzano documents of the Middle Ages and the establishment of the urban settlement Bolzano. In: Bolzano from the beginning to the demolition of the city wall. Reports of the international study conference in Maretsch Castle . Publishing house Athesia, Bozen 1991, ISBN 88-7014-559-X , p. 159–190, reference p. 172 ff .
  2. ↑ Bruno Mahlknecht : Bozen through the centuries . tape 1 . Athesia Spectrum, Bozen 2005, ISBN 88-6011-020-3 , From the episcopal market to the city magistrate, p. 40-48 .
  3. ^ Josef Riedmann : History of Tyrol . Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Oldenburg 2001, p. 43 .
  4. ↑ Helmut Rizzolli: Bozen: the city of markets , in: Merkantilmuseum Bozen, catalog, Bozen 1998, p. 10
  5. ↑ Bruno Mahlknecht: Bozen through the centuries. Volume 2, Athesia Spectrum, Bozen 2006, p. 36
  6. ↑ Rizzolli: op. Cit. , P. 17
  7. ↑ Rizzolli: op. Cit. , P. 17
  8. ↑ Rizzolli: op. Cit. , P. 16
  9. ↑ Franz Huter: The sources of archduchess Claudia's privilege to judge for the Bozner markets (1635) , in: Bozner Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kultur und Kunst, Verlaganstalt Vogelweider, Bozen 1927, p. 43
  10. ↑ Rizzolli: op. Cit. , P. 24
  11. ↑ Helmut Stampfer : The Mercantile Building , in: Merkantilmuseum Bozen, catalog, Bozen 1998, p. 77
  12. ↑ Rizzolli: op. Cit. , P. 39
  13. ^ Hannes Obermair: The archive of the mercantile magistrate Bozen. Ms. Bozen: South Tyrolean Provincial Archives 2002.

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