Ochsendrift (Jutian Peninsula)

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The ox drift across the Jutian Peninsula was a cattle drive over the ox path (Danish: Haervejen) in the late Middle Ages and early modern times . The more than 400-kilometer-long drift started in the north of the Jutland peninsula and aimed at the markets of Lübeck , Hamburg and Wedel .

European long-distance trade in ox

Long-distance trade in oxen was an important European economic factor from 1350 to around 1800; This trade was particularly important in the two hundred years between 1500 and 1700. Peasants, aristocratic and ecclesiastical landlords , traders and drovers were just as profitably involved as the toll-raising sovereigns, the market towns and the butcher's guilds. On the roads the farmers earned by selling hay, jugs offered drivers and merchants accommodation, and in the end hides, horns, bones and tallow provided other trades with work and earnings. Wherever one earns, one can also buy, and so the coveted and high-quality Rhenish cloths were negotiated in the opposite direction.

From Poland , Silesia and Hungary , cattle drives made their way to the urban and court centers of the German duchies of Bavaria , Swabia and Franconia . The local regional agricultural land had since 1475 mainly for the cultivation of crops of flax for Barchentproduktion been used and for their wool by sheep farming. So it came about that the meat consumption of the cities and princely courts, as far as it could not be covered by own production, had to be satisfied with imported goods. The same was true for Venice , which from 1450 on received 15,000 to 20,000 oxen from Hungary annually. The profitable trade for Hungary, Venice and Habsburg Austria had been severely disrupted by the campaigns of Sultan Suleyman I the Magnificent from 1526 to 1532, as a result of which part of Hungary was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire . This also had an impact on the trade in Hungarian oxen to the Middle Rhine: Frankfurt buyers were now looking for replacements on the North German and Danish markets.

Ox and ox drift in Jutland

Livestock production and road conditions

From 1450 to around 1750 Denmark exported only two goods: lean cattle and grain. Livestock production took up the greater part because livestock can also be transported over poor roads. Grain, on the other hand, required wagons as a means of transport, for which the Danish road network at that time was not at all suitable or only suitable for short distances. For this reason, growing cereals that went beyond their own or regionally marketable needs only made sense for the Danish farmer or landlord if a seaport was nearby. The enormous livestock production in Denmark in the early modern period was therefore not due to the agricultural fundamentals, but was dictated by the poor condition of the roads. Livestock production and ruinous road conditions stood in a functional context that could not be affected by further road deterioration. Everyone benefited from this, most of all the Danish king and the Gottorfer duke, who, at least in the area of ​​the Duchy of Schleswig , shared the customs income without having to invest in the transport routes.

Export figures

From around 1420 on, lean oxen were exported in autumn drifts, the number of which barely exceeded 2000 heads per year. However, towards the end of the century, the central and west German markets no longer accepted the poor quality of the skinny oxen, and so from 1480 the number of spring drifts increased steadily. In these drifts in March and April, fattened lean oxen could be driven to the markets in Lübeck and Hamburg, later also Wedel, as exportable and marketable staling oxen over the winter. In 1485 there were just 2491 Stallochsen passing the Gottorf customs office. In 1491 the number had almost tripled to 6698 oxen. In 1501 and 1508 there were 9,615 and 9,301 oxen respectively, and for 1519–1520 the steady growth of 13,612 oxen is confirmed. Unfortunately, the account books of the Schleswig customs office are missing for the next 20 years or more, but figures are available again for 1545 and 1547: With 39,221 and 33,778 Stallochsen, respectively, annual export volumes were reached, which reflect the increased market demand since the mid-1520s. The percentage of spring upwelling increased from 19% to 92% over the same period.

A few years later, the famous ox market was opened in Wedel, to which a large part of the Jutland ox lift was to flow for more than 200 years. The market owes its creation to the armed conflict between Denmark and the Netherlands in the years 1541–44. The Schaumburg dominion of Pinneberg , in which Rolandstadt was located, was a neutral area at that time, where Dutch buyers could meet Danish traders and ox drivers.

The peak of ox exports from Denmark was reached in the period 1610–1620 with 40–45,000 oxen annually, including 5–7,000 from the Duchy of Schleswig . During the Thirty Years' War and the Danish-Swedish Wars , exports fell to less than half of these numbers and only reached 25,000 animals again around 1695. Throughout the 18th century, due to Dutch tariff restrictions, there was a steady decline in exports to a few thousand animals per year, and only from 1790 to 1804 there were export figures of 20,000 to 25,000 oxen. As a result of the enormous changes that society, politics, agriculture and trade underwent during this period, the Danish export of oxen by land ended. The abolition of serfdom in the years 1800 (Denmark) and 1805 (duchies) may have played a role. Now it was no longer possible for the landlords to force their subservient farmers to stablish skinny oxen in winter, as had been the case for 300 years at the expense of the farmers.

Grass ox, "Fodernod" and Stallochsen

The young oxen grew up as grass oxen on the pastures for 4–5 years. In the winter months the oxen were stabled, kept under "Fodernod" and were also called that. According to a decree of King Frederik II from August 1550, the farmers were even "pligtige at holde fodernod". The animals kept in this way were unable to get to their feet in the spring without help. After the last year of grazing, the grass oxen or fodernod were sold to aristocratic estates, because only there were oxen allowed to be fattened for sale and transport during the fully developed Stallochsen economy (from around 1540). It was only after the winter fattening that the oxen were considered to be “Stallochsen” and came to the Ochsentrift as such. "The export of grass ox and salted meat was now banned (from 1550), the stable-fed refined product should be the only one on the market". This guaranteed the nobility an incessant, monopoly secured source of income.

Small cattle with an instep height of one meter

The Stallochsen fattened for transport cannot be compared with today's cattle. They weighed between 200 and 250 kg with instep heights of around one meter, and animal weights of 250 to 280 kg are only reported for the 18th century. Today, young bulls reach a weight of 400 kg within a year! Dairy cows have a weight of 650 kg with instep heights of around 1.45 m. The angler cattle of the old breeding direction , which stands between the Danish natural breed cattle of the early modern times and the modern types of cattle, today brings animal weights of around 400 kg to originally (around 1900) 300 kg. The old angler cattle hardly differed in size from the Jersey cattle . This old English cattle breed, known as extremely small, also brings animal weights of around 400 kg with instep heights of 1.2 m. The Galloway cattle finally, is widely used by museums to convey the appearance of old cattle types is used, bringing weights between 500 and 800 kilos at withers of m by 1.2. Galloway cattle are therefore rather unsuitable for museum purposes.

Only forms of the Illyrian cattle such as the Busha cattle or the blue Prespa cattle, which only exist in a few hundred specimens, give a realistic idea of ​​the appearance of late medieval and early modern cattle . These small cattle, native to Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, weigh 220 to 300 kg with instep heights of 1 to 1.15 m. According to a report by the World Health Organization FAO, the Busha cattle population was severely damaged during the Balkan War (1992–95). Only a few dozen specimens of Prespa cattle have survived. The closest to these cattle is the Irish Dexter cattle , which weighs around 300 kg and has instep heights of 1 to 1.1 m.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Poul Enemark: Dansk oksehandel 1450 - 1550. Fra efterårsmarkeder til forårsdrivning. Vol. 1 and 2 , Arhus 2003; Heinz Wiese: The cattle trade in the north-western European coastal area from the 15th century to the beginning of the 19th century (Göttingen Diss. Phil. 1963) . In: Heinz Wiese and Johann Bölts: Cattle trade and cattle husbandry in the north-western European coastal area. Sources and research on agricultural history 14 , Stuttgart 1966
  2. ^ Kai Fuhrmann: The knighthood as a political corporation in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from 1460 to 1721. Kiel 2002, 92-94
  3. ↑ Erling Ladewig Pedersen, Production and trade in Oxen 1450-1750: Denmark . In: International ox trade (1350–1750). Files of the 7th. International Economic History Congress Edinburgh 1978. Contributions to economic history (Ed. Ekkehard Westermann) Vol. 9, 1979, 147
  4. ^ Marianne Erath: Studies on the medieval bone carving trade. The development of a specialized craft in Constance. Dissertation Freiburg 1996
  5. ↑ Wolfgang von Stromer: On the organization of the transcontinental ox and textile trade in the late Middle Ages. The ox trade of the realm treasurer Konrad von Weinsberg in 1422. In: International ox trade (1350–1750). Files of the 7th. International Economic History Congress Edinburgh 1978. Contributions to economic history (Ed. Ekkehard Westermann) Vol. 9, 1979, 173–178, 185 f.
  6. ^ Ekkehard Westermann: Research tasks of the international ox trade from a Central European perspective. In: International ox trade (1350–1750). Files of the 7th. International Economic History Congress Edinburgh 1978. Contributions to economic history (Ed. Ekkehard Westermann) Vol. 9, 1979, 267
  7. ↑ Othmar Pickel: The cattle trade from Hungary to Northern Italy from the 14th to the 17th century . In: International ox trade (1350–1750)
  8. ↑ Othmar Pickl: The Effects of the Turkish Wars on Trade between Hungary and Italy in the 16th Century In: Grazer Forschungen zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Vol. 1, 1971, 87 u. Note 89
  9. ^ Franz Lerner: The importance of the international ox trade for the meat supply of German cities in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. In: International ox trade (1350–1750). Files of the 7th. International Economic History Congress Edinburgh 1978. Contributions to economic history (Ed. Ekkehard Westermann) Vol. 9, 1979, 210 u. Note 32
  10. ↑ Axel Nielsen: Danish Economic History , Jena 1933, 135f .; Thomas Hill: On the way to Denmark: On travel culture in premodern times. In: Medieval Spirituality in Scandinavia and Europe. A collection of Essays in Honor of Tore Nyberg Eds .: Lars Bisgaard, Carsten Selch Jensen, Kurt Villads Jensen and John Lind, Odense 2001, 33-50; Søren Toftgaard Poulsen: Fra markvej til motorvej . In: Dansk Vejtidsskrift 10,2006,48
  11. ↑ Pedersen, 137
  12. ^ Enemark, 2003, 243
  13. ↑ Enemark, Vol. 2, 349, Diagram 71 A, 1
  14. ↑ Enemark, Vol. 2, 349, Diagram 71 A, 2
  15. ↑ Ennemark, Vol. 2, 350, Diagram 71A ,, 3-4
  16. ↑ Enemark, Vol. 1, 83, Vol. 2, 354, Diagram 72.1
  17. ↑ Enemark, Vol. 2, 3459, Diagram 74, 1-2
  18. ↑ Enemark Vol. 1, 83, Vol. 2, 24
  19. ↑ Enemark Vol. 1, 251-254
  20. ↑ Pedersen, 145
  21. ↑ Pedersen, 145
  22. ↑ Pedersen 160
  23. ↑ Samuel Sugenheim: The history of the abolition of serfdom and bondage in Europe up to the middle of the nineteenth century . St. Petersburg 1861, 520-524
  24. ^ Gustav Ludvig Baden: Danmarks riget historie. Tredie Deel. Fra Frederik I. til Calmar - Krigen's end. Copenhagen 1830, 297
  25. ↑ Enemark Vol. 1, 295
  26. ^ Translation from: Enemark 295
  27. ↑ meadow 7f.
  28. ↑ Bölts 154; Wiese 89 f.
  29. ↑ Enemark Vol. I, 53
  30. ↑ Information according to: Association of German Red Cattle Breeders, Süderbrarup
  31. ↑ Information according to: Society for the Conservation of Old and Endangered Pet Breeds eV (GEH)
  32. ↑ The state of the worlds Animal genetic resources for food and agriculture. Commission on Genetic Food and Agriculture. FAO report 2007, 126: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a1250e/a1250e.pdf
  33. ↑ Hans-Peter Grünenfelder: The Prespa cattle in the Greek-Albanian border area . In: Save - Foundation Konstanz , SAVE eNews 4/2006; online: http://www.save-foundation.net/images/projekte/mittelmeer/prespa.pdf , accessed on February 22, 2016
  34. ^ AJS Gibson: The size and weight of cattle and sheep in early modern scotland. In: The Agricultural History Review 1988, 165.