Marturina

The marturina, or marten's fur, was a tax collected in the lands to the south of the Drava River in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.

The coat-of-arms of Slavonia, depicting a marten

Origins

The name of the marturina indicates that it was originally an in-kind tax, collected in marten's fur.[1] Similar taxes—payable in the form of an animal's fur—also existed in other territories.[1] These taxes were typically paid by the Slavic inhabitants of the densely forested regions of Eastern Europe to the rulers of the neighboring nomadic peoples.[1] Historian Pál Engel proposes that the marturina was also "originally a special tax that the Slavs of Slavonia had to pay to their Hungarian overlord".[1] The tax was also collected in other territories to the south of the Drava (in Baranya, Požega and Valkó Counties).[2]

Collection

A document recorded in 1300 that those who were obliged to pay the marturina used to give one marten's fur to their lords in each year.[2] During or before the reign of Coloman the Learned, King of Hungary (r. 1095–1116), the marturina was converted into a money tax.[1][3] Initially, each mansio (or peasant household) was to pay 12 Freisach denars, but it was gradually raised during the 13th century before it was returned to its original rate around 1300.[3] Those who were to pay marturina were also obliged to pay another tax, known as pondus.[3] On the other hand, commoners paying the marturina were exempt of the chamber's profit (a tax collected in Hungary).[4]

From royal to seignorial tax

The marturina was initially a royal revenue, collected for the monarch, or for the duke who ruled Slavonia in the monarch's name.[3] However, when parcels of the royal domain were given away, the grantee typically also seized the right to collect the royal taxes in his new estate.[3] The marturina (and the pondus) collected in royal estates was attached to the honor of the Bans (or governors) of Slavonia in the 14th century.[3] Revenues from the marturina made up around 8,000 florins in 1427.[4]

gollark: Hyperbolic geometry: very cool.

gollark: They might actually have less, since the government is bound by laws to provide loans or whatever subject to some fixed constraints, and people will probably complain if the government says "no, we're not paying for this thing".

gollark: They don't seem to actually use it much.

gollark: Arguably governments subsidizing it worsen the problem, since the government is even *less* sensitive to how much money they're burning than individual people spending money on this stuff.

gollark: This cannot possibly go well.

References

Engel 2001, p. 34.
Weisz 2018, p. 263.
Weisz 2018, p. 264.
Engel 2001, p. 226.

Sources

Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526. I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1-86064-061-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Weisz, Boglárka (2018). "Royal Revenues in the Árpádian Age". In Laszlovszky, József; Nagy, Balázs; Szabó, Péter; Vadas, András (eds.). The Economy of Medieval Hungary. BRILL. pp. 255–264. ISBN 978-90-04-31015-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)