Salt shelf

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The salt shelf is the sovereign right of salt production . In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, it belonged to the first royal and later princely regalia . In the historical context, its development was similar to that of the Bergregal . Today the term is still used in Switzerland.

Historical development

The historical development of the salt shelf in the time before the Roman-German emperors from the Staufer line is still largely unclear. The salt production was historic evidence suggests that, at least from the time after the Völkerwanderung understood by property owners as a form of land use and sources of brine were thus as part of the base ( pars fundi viewed). The first beginnings of the salt shelf can be seen in the so-called “ salt tenth ”, a levy levied or awarded by the king on salt extraction. The change from this mere taxation right to an authorization right in the form of a shelf took place in the course of the royal right to mineral resources, which emerged from the 11th century , whereby the salt was also separated from property and thus became ownerless, so that a permit was now required to obtain it needed. In 1158 the salt shelf is included in the Ronkal laws .

In the medieval Holy Roman Empire , the salt production, which was initially privately operated, changed first to a royal and from the 13th century to an increasingly territorial princely regal , when the salt regal was passed on to the sovereigns through lending or usurpation. Kings or princes initially mostly assigned the production rights to cooperative associations, the so-called pancake , before the sovereigns began to take control of production at the end of the Middle Ages, where it was usually of decisive economic importance. Members of the salt production associated with regalia rose relatively often to the patriciate (for example the Erbsälzer in Werl ) of medieval cities.

Gradually, the sovereign control of salt production led to extensive state supervision and in some cases even to state monopolies such as the fiscal salt production law in Bavaria and Austria or the salt trade monopoly in Prussia ( e.g. salt monopoly of the city of Lüneburg from the 12th to the 15th century for Northern Germany and the countries bordering the Baltic Sea). In Austria-Hungary there were separate salt offices for the administration of the monopoly .

When the possibility of drilling salt deposits existed in the 19th century, the new mining laws abolished the salt trade monopoly in favor of freedom from mining for salts and free salt trade, for example in Austria in 1829, in Luxembourg in 1867 and in Prussia and Bavaria in 1868 In the 20th century, a state reservation about the salt water springs and salt stores was reintroduced, but the salt trade remained free.

Today's regulation

Derrick near Rheinfelden

The salt trade is free in the Federal Republic of Germany . For salt production, however, the provisions of the Federal Mining Act that came into force in 1982 apply , which is implemented by the federal states with the help of their state mining authorities.

The salt trade is free in Austria. However, there is a state monopoly for the search for and extraction of rock salt , which belongs to the federal government.

In Switzerland the salt shelf still exists; The owners are the cantons . According to § 1 of the Salt Act of the Canton of Zurich, for example, "[t] he import and sale of salt and salt mixtures with a sodium chloride and brine content of 30% or more are [...] cantons". All cantons have ceded the salt shelf to the Swiss salt works as part of a concordat . In March 2005 there were political efforts to abolish the salt monopoly, but they failed. The federal government could achieve an abolition by reformulating Article 94 of the Federal Constitution ; however, the cantons could voluntarily waive the monopoly.

See also

literature

  • Rudolf Palme: Salt shelf . In: Carol D. Litchfield, Rudolf Palme, Peter Piasecki (eds.): Le Monde du Sel. Mélanges offerts à Jean-Claude Hocquet . Berenkamp, ​​Hall in Tirol 2001, ISBN 3-85093-023-8 , p. 55-72 .
  • Salt shelf . In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 14 . Altenburg 1862, p. 827 ( zeno.org ).
  • P. Putzer: Salt shelf . In: Concise dictionary on German legal history . tape 4 . Schmidt, Berlin 1990, Sp. 1291-1293 .
  • Jakob Vogel: A shimmering crystal. A history of knowledge of salt between early modern times and modern times . Cologne 2008.
  • Intercantonal agreement on the sale of salt in Switzerland . November 22, 1973 ( Rechtsbuch.tg.ch [accessed December 13, 2015]).
  • Josef Wysocki: The state salt monopoly in the German customs union. On the question of the treatment of financial monopolies in a common market (legal and economic dissertation, University of Mainz) Mainz 1966.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Putzer: Salt shelf . Sp. 1292 .
  2. ^ A b Wilhelm Volkert: Mining . In: Wilhelm Volkert (ed.): Nobility to guild. A lexicon of the Middle Ages . Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-35499-8 , pp. 27 .
  3. ^ Wilhelm Volkert: Bourgeoisie . In: Wilhelm Volkert (ed.): Nobility to guild. A lexicon of the Middle Ages . Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-35499-8 , pp. 41 .
  4. ↑ Jules Klensch: The former salt monopoly in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg . In: Jules Klensch (Ed.): Luxemburger Illustrierte . No. 11 . Luxembourg June 10, 1930, p. 162 ( luxemburgensia.bnl.lu ).
  5. ↑ Putzer: Salt shelf . Sp. 1292 f .
  6. ↑ Putzer: Salt shelf . Sp. 1293 .
  7. ↑ Zurich Law on the Salt Shelf and on the Accession of the Canton of Zurich to the Intercantonal Agreement on the Sale of Salt in Switzerland (Salt Law) of September 22, 1974.
  8. ↑ Otto Ineichen: 05.3033 - Interpellation: Salzregal. Deviation from the principle of economic freedom? In: Vista Curia - Business Database. March 2, 2005, accessed May 24, 2009 .