Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 52. (2007)
LINDQUIST, Thea: Clement von Radolt (1593–1670): A Multifarious Career in the seventeenth-century Imperial Service
Thea Lindquist generate ancillary income by virtue of their status and activity as crown officials as a way of rewarding them at no cost to the crown.59 Another way Radolt could profit as an officeholder was through manipulation of the system of court quartering (Hofquartierung), which Ferdinand I instituted in Vienna and his successors carried on. Under this system, the Imperial government secured accommodation for its servants, officials, and their horses in a chronically overcrowded city by billeting them in the homes of the Viennese populace. By the seventeenth century, court quartering effectively provided rent-controlled housing for underpaid crown servants. Although the occupant of the court quarter had to pay a fee to the landlord, whom the court had compelled to extend his hospitality, this biennial contribution amounted to much less than the landlord could have obtained on the open market. Still, this fee compensated him in some way - when he could extract it - for the unsolicited invasion of his home and occupation of space he could have rented out for more money.60 It was common for the government to take over one-third of a landlord’s house and the majority of his horse stalls for court quarter.61 While court quartering was a financial imposition on most landlords, Imperial officials like Radolt could use this system to reap tidy profits by investing in Viennese real estate. A property-owning official who was eligible for court quarter had the option of requesting quarter in his own house. The court often granted these requests as an additional means of rewarding its servants without further burdening the emperor’s purse. An official who received quarter in his own home had at his disposal not only the best rooms in the house (plus any rooms not subject to court quarter) as the owner, but also the second-best suite of rooms as the recipient of court quarter. He could then rent out these rooms at artificially high market rates due to the shortage of available housing in the city, a state of affairs to which the system of court quartering itself contributed. The higher an official stood in the government hierarchy, the more spacious his grant of quarter and - if he were granted quarter in his own house - the more rooms he had to let for extra income if he so chose. Thus an owner of a large house, particularly if he were an upper-level official who held the privilege of a substantial court quarter in his own home, could make a decent living simply by managing his own property.62 Property ownership apparently proved a worthwhile investment for Radolt. He owned two houses in the heart of Vienna, both of which he possessed until his death in 1670 and passed on to his heirs. The first was located “am St. Petersfreythof” at 59 S p i elm an : The City & The Crown, pp. 71-72. 60 Ibidem: pp. 75-77. 61 Ibidem: pp. 78-79. 62 Spi elman : The City & The Crown, pp. 88, 90. According to Spielman, a secretary or councilor like Radolt could expect a large three to five-room apartment as his assigned quarters. When he became Hofkammer director, the number of rooms would have been even greater. 22
