U izbore radi novca, ili financijsko poslovanje uprave vojnog komuniteta Brod na Savi 1753-1787
Elections for the sake of money, or financial activities of the military community administration in Brod na Savi, 1753-1787

Summary/Abstract: Although we have witnessed the publishing of several works on the free military communities (slobodni Vojni komuniteti), the issue of the role and position of citizenry within them has largely remained unresolved. In this paper the author discloses some data on the community's financial activities thereby intending his analysis to show the extent to which the fact that civil servant positions were extremely well paid steered the need for public action. It is precisely in such military communities that for the first time in the Slavonian part of the Croatian Military Border (the so called Vojna krajina), money started to play a key social role. While the most highly treasured values in the militarized part of the Croatian Military Border were courage and skill, it was wealth in the military community. The wealthiest in the community chose among themselves members of the magistrate, i.e. the town's governing body. In other words, they chose people who would govern the city and be well compensated for that service. One cannot simply claim that there had been some kind of segregation between the rich and the poor, or between the citizenry and the people filling the budget, still, it could not go unnoticed that there had been a pronounced desire on the side of non-citizens to become members of the class. While on the one hand the rich had exclusive decision-making capacity with regard to any matters concerning Brod na Savi in the period between 1753 and 1787 and cashed in significant amounts due to their activities in the magistrate, the proventual treasury, on the other hand, was largely filled precisely by those who never found themselves in the position to share in the money earned, i.e. farmers.

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