NEUE ANGABEN ZUR GESCHICHTE DER FÜRSTLICHEN SCHATZKAMMER UND DER FINANZVERWALTUNG GÁBOR BETHLENS
New Data on the History of the Princely Treasury and Gábor Bethlen's Financial Administration

Summary/Abstract: If we want to count the revenues and expenses of the princely treasury during Gábor Bethlen’s reign, we have no easy task. According to currently known estimates, the annual income of the princely treasury can be put at a maximum of 600-720 thousand Hungarian forints. From the financial reports published in the study, the author concludes that the income of Bethlen's princely treasury in the second half of the 1620s could reach 0,8-0,96 million Hungarian forints, which is equal to 1-1.2 million Rhine forints (Rheinische Gulden). Based on new sources, the author outlines the official structure and operating procedure of the princely treasury. According to this, the concept of the princely treasury in the broadest sense includes all ordinary (regale) incomes and the taxes due to the prince, i.e. the state, the totality of the state's assets. In addition, the smaller warehouses located in different cities of the country can also be called treasury. During Bethlen's reign, the treasury sub-unit that managed princely revenues was established, which can be called „pay office” (Lat. aerarium). The head of this sub-unit of the treasury was the so called generalis perceptor Kristóf Bálintffy, who held this function between 1621–1630.

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