Raffelstetten customs regulations


Raffelstetten customs regulations is a rare example of a legal regulation of customs in Early Medieval Europe, the text of which has been preserved until modern times. The regulation is only known from a single copy, a manuscript dated to the 1250s, which was preserved in a church at Passau. The critical edition of the manuscript was published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in 1897 by Alfred Boretius and Victor Krause. The incipit reads: "Noverit omnium fidelium orthodoxorum...".

Contents and examination

Overview

The text has been given the scholarly name Inquisitio de theloneis Raffelstettensis after Raffelstetten, a toll-bar on the Danube, a few kilometres downstream from Linz. The regulation has been dated to somewhere 903 and 905/906. At the time, Raffelstetten was part of East Francia, under the nominal reign of the Carolingian king Louis the Child, who was about 9 years old when the incident occurred. The background of the regulation was that Bavarian bishops, abbots and counts, "whose path led them to eastern territories", had complained to the child-king about being "disturbed by unauthorised customs duties and tolls". Therefore, a royal order was issued to the Margrave of the Bavarian Ostmark Aribo, together with "judges from the eastern territories", to investigate and redefine the existing, traditional customs law. Then, a total of 41 named secular and church officials including bishops and counts reviewed the investigation, and the Inquisitio de theloneis Raffelstettensis summarises the results of their findings.

Identification of toponyms

Several toponyms and demonyms are mentioned in the text. Scholars have been able to identify most of them to modern-day locations, but there are some unresolved questions.Bawari. "Bavaria".Patavi; silva Patavica. "Passau"; "Passau woods".Arboni marchioni. "of Arbo the margrave." Indirectly refers to the March of Pannonia or Eastern March, governed by margrave Aribo or Arbo.Raffoltestetun. "Raffelstetten."Rosdorf. Nowadays named Aschach an der Donau.ad Lintzam. "to Linz".ad silvam Boemicam. "to the Bohemian Forest".Anesim fluvium. "the river Enns".ad Urulam. "to the."Trungowe. "Traungau", a pagus of the Duchy of Bavaria that later became part of Upper Austria.Sclavi. "Slavs". To be distinguished from enslaved people, who are identified as mancipia, see res mancipi.de Rugis. Uncertain; it could refer to the Rugii, or to the Rus'.iuxta ripam Danubii. "on the banks of the Danube".in Rotalariis vel in Reodariis. "at the of Rodel or those of Ried".Eperaespurch. Understood to render Ebersburg in modern German, although its location is unknown. Boretius & Krause argued it was a "vicus at the present site of Mautern (an der Donau)."ad Mutarun. "to Mautern (an der Donau)".ad mercatum Marahorum. "to the market of the Moravians".

Assessment

The customs regulations are very valuable for scholarly research on trade in Eastern Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries. As the 41 officials claimed to list the customs places and rates that were supposedly in force during the reigns of Louis the German and Carloman of Bavaria, some inferences can be made about the period between the 840s and 906, although extrapolating beyond 906 is much riskier. The text makes it clear that Raffelstetten was a place where various traders met between the mid-9th century and the beginning of the 10th.
The regulation mentions "skoti", a currency otherwise not attested in Carolingian Europe. It appears that both the name and weight of the "skoti" were borrowed from Rus' people.

Primary sources

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Literature

  • George Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy pp. 131–2 of English edition
  • Renée Doehaerd, Le Haut Moyen Âge occidental : économies et sociétés, 3e éd. 1990, Paris, PUF, 1971, pp. 257–8 and p. 289.
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