The king's new tax. Practices of Prussian organization of governance exemplified by Westphalian "Akzisestädte" in the first half of the eighteenth century (c. 1700-1756)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Werner Freitag
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 434361975

Taxes were the nervus rerum of early modern statehood. Commercial, administrative and fiscal activities would ideally go hand in hand. This link has already been highlighted by early modern legal scholars when they spoke about cameralism or “Gute Policey“.Likewise, older research drew a connection between cameralistic ideas and the expansion of pre-modern statehood: In particular, the “tax state” established forms of communication with numerous entities and with taxpayers. While older research described the tax-based emergence of premodern territorial states as a linear process, current research focusses on the fact that governance and, thus, the actions of the administration regarding questions of taxes must be viewed as a social and communicative process. Not only the “rulers”, but also the “ruled” had a share in this.Nevertheless, there are hardly any studies which question those general reflections concerning the concrete actions of the administration and the relation between administration and taxpayer. At this point, the research project sets in by addressing the so called “Akzisestädte” in Prussian Westphalia. These towns were the main objects of Prussian reform endeavours in the first half of the eighteenth century because of their high concentration of population and trade. The protoindustrial, locally condensed linen industry in the counties of Lingen, Ravensberg and Tecklenburg, as well as the principality of Minden were detected to be vital sources of tax money that was meant to be collected. In consequence, the Prussian state uplifted some former villages and settlements to towns to be able to introduce the excise as a form of indirect tax. The goal was to increase state income as well as to expand administrative structures. Thus, the “Akzisestädte” manifest themselves as an attempt of the Prussian territorial sovereigns to implement cameralistic ideas in a concentrated way. The industrial settlements that were declared as towns can be considered as a showcase project of premodern statehood.By analysing the town and excise reforms, a contribution to Westphalian regional history and the typology of early modern towns will be made. A priority of this project is to ensure findings regarding early modern governance and administration history are made useful for comparison as well as being empirically recordable. Practices and activities of the Prussian authorities in interaction with the local actors are the main focus of this project. Using the example of the “Akzisestädte”, processes of communication and structures of the exercise of authority will be examined. Older assumptions of an absolutistic functioning of the Prussian state will therefore be put into question.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants