Hauswirtschaft und Hofherrschaft im spätmittelalterlichen Straßburg (13. und 14. Jahrhundert)

Abstract

Summary Aristotle assumed that all forms of acquiring wealth were part of the household economy whose only goal was to offer human beings the foundations for a good life. Generations of medieval scholars followed Aristotle's assumption. Whether economy was seen as subordinate to the household management or vice versa may be debatable. Yet it is clear that the household management played a central role in the late medieval annuities and real property market. This article closely considers emphyteutic leases in late medieval Strasbourg because this particular form of purchasing real property renders visible the feudal structures of late medieval urban economy. The feudal dimension of the medieval economy has, in Germany as well as in France, Italy or Spain, often been neglected in urban historiography, as it contradicts the current notion influenced by Max Weber and other scholars that depicted the “occidental city” as an island of political and social autonomy.