The Internal Relationship of a Late Medieval Trading Company and the Expansion of Internal Conflicts – Hans Arzt and Company, Anton Paumgartner and the Imperial City Nuremberg (1447–1471)

Abstract

The study deals with late medieval legislation on commercial company law as an introduction to the topic and focuses then on internal conflicts within a family company, using the example of the mid-fifteenth century Nuremberg-Augsburg Arzt Company. The violent internal disputes and their extensions to the outside are exceptionally well documented in terms of archival sources. The conflicts arose in 1447 out of a dispute over belied profit expectations and fraud allegations amongst the partners and attained a scale and characteristic making an internal private-order solution impossible. In connection with the authoritatively imposed conflict resolution dating from 1453, the Nuremberg merchant Anton Paumgartner was made liable by the City Council for claims resulting from the company’s liquidation, in fact on the grounds of his wife Clara (née Arzt) being a partner and shareholder. When Paumgartner went bankrupt in 1465 he sued the Council before the Imperial Chamber Court for refund of the sums he had to pay. Political powers involved in this case were: the Nuremberg City Council as the immediate political authority (as well as an civil and criminal law court); the Augsburg City Council; the Swabian League of Cities; the two Dukes of Bavaria; the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, as well as the Emperor, Frederick III.