| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: a1_This essay addresses an established research field from a new perspective: first, Bohemia was a “metropolitan province” (Huw Bowen, Andrew Mac- Killop) of the Habsburg monarchy. Second, by reflecting on current research subsumed by the term “fiscal-military state” ( John Brewer), although my focus does not rest on the conventionally favoured elites and central authorities, but rather on the effects of their actions outside Vienna and Prague. Third, to gain new insights into the dynamics of domination, taxation, and state transformation, it is essential to examine the application of bureaucratic know-how in everyday administration “on the ground” in the regional offices and individual lordships. Based on the fiscal records of the Eggenberg possessions in southern Bohemia, located in the Bechin and Prachin regions, I investigate the intersections of local/central and social/political power differentials. Moving beyond existing research, I (re)connect diet resolutions and fiscal documents to identify the variety of state and non-state actors involved in the dynamics commonly referred to as “taxation”. Thus emerges a reconstruction of the points of contact between public and sovereign administrative apparatuses, which reveals a wealth of new insights into the functioning of the tax system, its diversity, and its spatial as well as temporal characteristics. This investigation is embedded in the “larger” contexts of current work on the complex of topics of war, taxation, and state-building, whereby the results also offer food for thought about the role of Bohemia within the Habsburg monarchy. |
