Economic violence or the law of war? Swedish contributions from the period of the Great Northern War as an example of extraordinary provisions imposed on the residents of the cities within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Abstract

The literature on the subject mentions three kinds of levies imposed in the early modern era. The first was a regular tax for the benefit of the army, irrespective of whether it was an occupying, neutral or friendly force; its amount depended on the property of the individual in question. The second type, called Brandschatzung in German, was usually a one-off payment aimed at securing the area seized by the occupier against looting or destruction. The third type, the so-called Kontribution, was imposed by the occupier depending on the needs of the army. Its payment deadline was short, so it was often paid in instalments and its collection was entrusted to an official designated by the municipal authorities. This last form was the most popular levy imposed by the Swedish troops on the regions they occupied, also on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the so-called Deluge and the Great Northern War. The aim of the article is to provide answers to questions about the practice and legitimacy of the imposition of the Kontribution on cities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Swedish troops, and to determine its place in the general system of levies. The last question concerns research possibilities offered to us by Kontribution registers. The article is divided into three parts: the first is devoted to the classification of levies making it possible to determine what type of levies were imposed on the people of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth during the two occupations. The second part focuses on the system of organising and collecting levies in the cities of the Polish Crown as well as criticism of this unique kind of source. Part three contains examples of the use of Kontribution registers — using registers from Warsaw and Lviv from 1702 as examples — to carry out research into residents of early modern cities.