CÂTEVA INFORMAŢII DESPRE VĂMILE DIN BANAT ÎN EVUL MEDIU
A FEW DATA ON THE BANAT LOCATIONS OF THIRTIETH COLLECTIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGE

Summary/Abstract: The issue presents the general aspects of the locations of thirtieth collections functioning in the medieval Banat. The specific terminology is analyzed, the significances of the notion of thirtieth (tricesima), mainly. There are presented data on evolution of the locations of thirtieth collections (locis tricesimarum) in Caransebeș, Lipova, Lugoj, and Timișoara and Zeicani in the 15th–17th centuries. Biographical aspects concerning the customs collectors noted down in papers are also presented. They look like well-to-do individuals, weighty and enterprising persons finding the sovereigns ‘credence, who serve the interests of the state but also bear their own prosperity in mind. The papers show the variety of tasks and competences of the customs collectors; the evocation covers other aspects of the trading life too: presence of the merchants of the Balkans in the local markets, precautions the Diets took against those “Greek” merchants, advantages of commercial staple right privilege for the town of Caransebeș, etc. There are also put in light the abuses the customs collectors commit and the way such behaviors are punished. In the light of available data we can reconstitute the main methods the fisc valorized those locations, by leasing and/ or direct administrating, each one with its own advantages and limits. But then, the lack of customs registers obstructs us knowing both the flux and variety of wares passing through those locations, and the commercial routes. However, the sporadic information allows us knowing the ratio of revenues and the destination of the confiscated goods and of the revenues. The historic evolution of the customs in the Banat is rounded off by showing their fate in the modern age.

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