Taxation and the Maintenance of the Army;
The Policies of the Treasury

With the restoration of peace in 1711, it might have been expected that Transylvania's tax obligations would once again be determined by the Diploma Leopoldinum, which had set a figure of 50 thousand imperial thalers. That amount was smaller than the tribute exacted by the Turks during the reign of Apafi, but far greater than the tax paid to the Porte over the first half of the 17th century. However, there was no question of applying this benchmark. The tax did fall below the level that had prevailed between 1690 and 1703, but it amounted in 1714 to 700,000 forints (excluding the surtax); {2-567.} that level was maintained in 1716, and increased to 940,000 forints in 1717. At a time when the country was debilitated by the plague, cattle disease, and famine, the Peace of Požarevac induced some welcome attenuation of the tax burden, to 540,000 forints in 1720, and 600,000 in 1730. The annual levy remained in the range of 600,000–800,000 forints until the early 1750s, when a new tax regime was introduced. That level was, by conservative estimate, ten times higher than the national taxes, including the tribute to the Porte, raised at the time of Gabriel Bethlen and György Rákóczi I; to be sure, the country's population had increased, but the economy registered only modest growth.

This heavy tax burden was distributed unevenly among Transylvania's 'nations'. Taxation by 'gates' (kapuadó) had already become unrealistic in the final decades principality, when as many as ten nominally taxable families might be covered by a single gate, and the practice was discontinued in the 1710s and 1720s. How-ever, the basic distribution of the tax burden remained as before. The Székelys were levied one-sixth of the total; the Hungarian and Székely towns, together with the foreigners enjoying special legal status, paid under 10 percent; of the remainder, the Saxons paid slightly over, and the counties slightly under half. With a slight adjustment in favour of the Saxons, this distribution was confirmed in 1730: the Hungarian 'nation' paid 37 percent, the Saxons 38 percent, the Székelys 17 percent, and the towns and special groups 8 percent. This pattern remained in force, with minor adjustments, until the 1750s, when a new tax regime came into force.

These taxes were paid partly in cash, and partly in the form of supplies for the imperial regiments stationed in Transylvania. From the outset, the supplying of troops was supervised, on the civil side, by a national commission (dominated for the most part by the Kornis family). Relations between the mercenary troops and the civil population were similar to those in other parts of the empire. In the more peaceful periods of the principality, the border guards {2-568.} would acquire property in towns, and their relations with the citizenry were basically lawful, if not free of the occasional dispute; in some districts, the border guards acquired the status of free peasants. Now the situation changed: the mercenaries temporarily stationed in Transylvania did not become socially integrated and tended to disregard local laws. From the start, some of the troops at Kolozsvár were quartered in the Fellegvár (Citadel) barracks, but there was much friction between them and the local citizenry.

At first, the Habsburg government did not require Transylvanians to participate in the defence of the empire. The attempts to raise troops against Rákóczi proved largely unsuccessful; after 1711, the imperial high command refrained from imposing conscription, and it went so far as to disarm the Székelys. Only in 1742 did the government, faced by the pressing needs of the War of Austrian Succession, resort to raising some Transylvanian regiments.

Transylvania's contribution to the empire included not only taxes and troops, but also the income from Treasury estates. The sovereign considered these to be crown revenues, outside the jurisdiction of the estates. Nor did the administration of the Treasury follow the model outlined in the Diploma Leopoldinum. When, after 1711, the Gubernium was restored, the post of treasurer was left vacant. Instead, the Treasury was managed by officials dispatched from the hereditary provinces, and bearing a variety of titles, such as Oberprouiandtcommissarius, cameralis repraesentans, and cameralis director. The Hofkammer mistrusted Transylvanians, and hence did not draw on the services of such treasury experts as Sámuel Köleséri, the best natural scientist of the period in Transylvania. Over the first twenty years of the period, most Treasury properties and revenue sources were put out on lease. Apart from those who leased the right to collect tithes, the leaseholders were former or serving Treasury officials, of high as well as lower rank.

{2-569.} Only with the onset of the War of Austrian Succession did the central government feel impelled to appoint loyal aristocrats from Transylvania to the post of treasurer. Even then, the effective head of the Treasury was not the aristocrat-treasurer but the central government's representative. At first, the latter function was assumed by the agent of the Universalbankalität, a body that governed the empire's financial agencies; later, a councillor of the Hofkammer was assigned to serve as coadjutor to the treasurer.

Taxation and the Maintenance of the Army; The Policies of the Treasury

Taxation and the Maintenance of the Army;
The Policies of the Treasury