Káldy–Nagy Gyula: A budai szandzsák 1546–1590. évi összeírásai. Demográfiai és gazdaságtörténeti adatok - Pest Megye Múltjából 6. (Budapest, 1985)
Introduction
measurements of fertál or véka in mind (the volume of these also varied from location to location). The census taker registered not only the volume of the yield of grain, but its value as well. At the 1546 census, they priced wheat at 10 akches per kile ; in 1559 and in 1562 at 12 akches, then in 1580 at 14 akches and in 1590 at 15 akches. The per kile price of mixed (i.e. barley or rye) was established at 5 akches in 1546, and at 6 akches in 1562, then at 8 akches in 1580, and at 9 akches in 1590. However, these were the official prices established for purposes of taxation only; when they dispensed wh3at to the Turkish garrison in Buda in 1560, for example, they priced the wheat at 20 akches and the barley at 9 akches per kile. 10 We do not, however, know any data as to the actual market prices of grain. They always registered the volume of the must tenth using Hungarian cubic measures, mostly the pint (1.6 liters) or less frequently the 8 pint volume köböl, indicating also its akche value. At the 1546 and 1559 censuses they priced cider at 2 akches per pint, in 1562 at 2% akches, then in 1580 at 4 akches and in 1590 at 5 akches. At the time of the first two censuses, they levied hay tenths on the yield of hay, valuing a wagon of hay at 10 akches. Then, later, they registered smaller of larger akche amounts as hay and firewood tax, and even as sales tax on straw. Next to these entries we often came across the expression „treasury meadow" (or „Sultanate meadow" — in Turkish „hassa cayir") which clearly indicates that they formerly were the property of landlords who hid either fled from Turkish rule or had died in the interim; hence they reverted to the Sultanate instead of becoming part of the village common. For other produce (cabbages, onions, flax, hemp, etc.) the census takers did not indicate the quantities, but registered only the akche values of the tenths. Yet they often registered the number of head in a sheep tenth (pricing one sheep at 10 akches in 1546 and in 1559, at 15 akches in 1562 and in 1580, then at 20 akches in 1590). For the beehive tenth they registered 2 akches per hive, and for the hog tenth 2 akches per head, therefore their numbers can easily be established. The akche value given for the „stray animal's price" makes no reference to the numbers of head: still, this data indicates that larger-scale cattle breeding was probably going on there. In the censuses they also took into account the mill-mail (without indicating the types of mills), the garden taxes, at some locations the bride tax due following a marriage, and the barrel tax levied on the sale of wine. They put down the fish tenths imposed on the fishing villages, and registered the likely amounts of what a person could be fined for various offenses (half the fine always went to the sanjakbeg) ; much more rarely, there was the „sickle money" due from the people making their livelihood by gathering someone else's grain, and the income from properties reverting to the state in the absence of an heir. On the basis of earlier treasury reports, they registered the taxes and dues on markets and national fairs, the bridge tolls 10. L. Fekete and Gy. Káldy-Nagy, Rechnungsbücher türkischer Finanzstellen in Buda (Ofen) 1550-1580, Budapest, 1962, pp. 654-55, 690-91, and 695. 3 33
