VILNIAUS MIESTO PAJAMOS: SVARSTYKLĖS IR SAIKAVIMAS XV–XVIII A.

Abstract

The article analyses Vilnius City revenues from scales and meterage in the 15th-18th century. The right of the city of Vilnius to acquire scales and thus receive income was for the first time documented in the Privilege of Grand Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis (Žygimantas Kęstutaitis) of 23 September 1432. The city retained such right until the very end of the 18th century. The regulatory aspects of scales operations were for the first time laid down in the sovereign’s entail of 1536: the magistrate and the merchants’ community would assign a treasury steward each to monitor it. Disagreements between the magistrate and the merchants’ community were accountable for the fact that in the 1640s the issue was readdressed and on 5 August 1647 an instruction for treasury stewards used throughout the 18th century was issued. The weighing house employed two treasury stewards, a scales clerk, and loaders. On average they worked 23–25 days a month, though at times it was required to work with no days off. City revenues from the scales before the occupation of 1655–1701 could have amounted to 3,000 threescores of groschen (or 35 percent of the total annual revenue). In 1662–1701 the average of scales income was 2,784 Lithuanian auksinas (or 32 percent of the total annual revenue), in 1712–1755 it plummeted to 723 auksinas (19 percent), and in 1757–1792 soared again to 2,529 auksinas (12 percent). Starting with 1757, the amount received from scales revenues in the city treasury doubled, though in general the proportion of this type of income decreased as a new gates tax was introduced in the city and other tariffs were increased. Expenses of the city related to scales maintenance were rather small and usually confined to a dozen or so auksinas for minor repairs of the weighing house, scales maintenance, firewood, etc. Additional expenses included paper required by the scales clerk and his salary (100–300 auksinas). The scales were always directly supervised by the city’s officials and there were no possibilities to rent them. It has not been established exactly when the city was granted the right of corn and other bulk product meterage, though income of this type had been documented since the 1620s. In 1662–1701 the average of such revenues amounted to 780 auksinas (or 8.9 percent of the total annual income), in 1712–1748 it decreased to 115 auksinas (4 percent), in 1749–1767 – to 6 auksinas (1.6 percent), and at least starting with 1772 the city did not receive this type of income whatsoever. As of the 1720s, merchants started keeping barrels at their places and paying taxes. Revenues from privately kept barrels were received in 1727–1779, on average amounting to 78 auksinas. Starting with 1781, due to unknown reasons, this type of income was no longer received at the city treasury. In the second half of the 17th-18th century, expenses related to the purchase of new barrels and iron binding of old ones were episodic though could account for up to 99 auksinas and even exceed the meterage income.