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The Price of Koprivnica’s Royal Charter (Free Royal Borough) Issued in 1536
Emil Čokonaj
; Koprivnica Secondary School, Koprivnica, Croatia
Abstract
Around the year 1350, Koprivnica had had some 1500 inhabitants, living on 7,58 acres of civic area. These inhabitants were paying 8000 denari of regular annual dues to the king. So the annual royal tax was about 5 denari per one citizen, which in truth was not a huge burden (especially if we take into account the fact, that serfs of that time earned as much as half a denari wages for a day’s work; or, that a Krapina citizen wih land exceeding 3 acres, had to pay 50 denari23 annual tax to the king). If we want (or dare!) compare this tax with today’s prices, maybe the best example would be the price of then Krapina’s “Easter” sheep - 60 denari. Based on today’s price of 500 - 600 kuna for a sheep, we end up with an approximation of 70.000 kuna annual tax to the king. Therefore, divided among the population of 1500 citizens, we get an annual tax of 47 kuna per citizen! Naturally, these figures might not be useful for scientific puposes, but could be well used as additional information for curious students in schools. In any case, new data on prices of that era could provide a more accurate calculation of this charter’s worth and price.
Keywords
free royal borough; charter; Koprivnica; exchange rate; denari
Hrčak ID:
79096
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2003.
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