Subsidies
Subsidies (the singular subsidium is almost never used; Latin subsidium , plural subsidia "auxiliary means") are support services that are intended to fulfill a specific purpose, e.g. B. that the beneficiary behaves according to the wishes of the supporter. The term subsidies is now out of date and is mostly used as a synonym for subsidies or financial contributions .
Antiquity
Subsidien originally referred to the third meeting of the ancient Roman battle line , which only intervened in the fight in an emergency ( see meeting tactics ). Later, the term was used in a figurative sense for support, aids or funds, with the Romans trying, especially in late antiquity , to reinterpret tributes they paid to Teutons , Huns or Persians as voluntary subsidies.
middle Ages
In the Middle Ages , various taxes were also called subsidies.
The Popes paid the first major subsidies to Charles of Anjou to support the conquests of the Kingdom of Sicily . Although subsidies are associated with a specific purpose (e.g. to ward off the Turks ), they were also used for purposes other than those intended . Unlike the tribute, they were not a sign of submission, but were usually contractually agreed. In 1751, for example, the subsidy agreement between Germany and France was renewed and brought the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order , Clemens August I of Bavaria , a noticeable increase in wealth and reputation.
Modern times
In modern times, subsidies have become an important means of diplomacy . England in particular repeatedly used subsidy payments to avoid its own troop interventions. In the Seven Years' War Prussia was supported by English subsidies in its struggle against Austria, France and Russia. In the same war France reinforced its troops through Württemberg subsidiary regiments .
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation)
A number of princes set up subsidiary regiments in the old German Empire ( Holy Roman Empire ), particularly the princes of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel . The last German Subsidienregiment was from 1787 to 1808 the Württemberg Cape Regiment in the service of the Dutch East India Company .
Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel
The landgraves of Hessen-Kassel achieved the highest income from subsidies in the 17th and 18th centuries. As a rule, Great Britain paid subsidies to the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel. To do this, he recruited soldiers or, since the end of the 18th century, called subjects for military service , equipped them, trained them and made these contingents available to the King of Great Britain for his wars. This large-scale soldier trade began under Landgrave Karl (1654–1730) at the end of the 17th century, for example in 1687 with the loan of troops to the Republic of Venice for use against the Ottomans and continued under his successors. The subsidies soon became the main source of income for the Landgraviate and made the Landgraves Wilhelm VIII (1682–1760), Frederick II (1720–1785), and Wilhelm IX. (1743–1821) one of the wealthiest princes in Germany. During the War of the Austrian Succession, Landgrave Wilhelm VIII rented troops to England as well as to her opponent, Emperor Karl VII. He "rented" nearly 17,000 soldiers for 1.254 million pounds sterling.
In the period from the middle of the 17th to the end of the 18th century, a number of representative buildings were constructed in and around Kassel; among other things the installation of the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe with the Hercules , the baroque park Karlsaue with the marble bath and the orangery , the construction of Schloss Wilhelmsthal and the Löwenburg (see also blood dollars ).
literature
- Conversations Lexicon. AF Macklot, Stuttgart 1818, p. 516 ( digitized in the Google book search).
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Philippi: Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel, 1654-1730 . 1980, ISBN 978-3-87822-079-4 , pp. 12 .