Recht und Schulden Beiträge zur Finanzgeschichte des Alten Reichs – Tagungsband

This volume contains the papers presented at the conference “ Recht und Schulden,” which took place on September 12, 2025, at the House of Finance of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. The papers address various aspects of the financial history of the Holy Roman Empire between 1648 and 1806, focusing in particular on the differing approaches to deal with public debt across the Empire's territories. Many indebted princes used the le asing of troops to foreign powers to increase their income through financial subsidies. The Landgraves of Hesse Kassel were even able to accumulate considerable wealth in this way and then grant loans to other princes. The increase of existing taxes or the introduction of new ones for the purpose of permanent debt reduction, as demonstrated by the case of the Duchy of Westphalia, was strictly limited, however, by the participatory rights of the estates. Interestingly, in the ecclesiastical territories of th e Empire a tendency to limit public debt can be observed and likely be attributed to institutionally debt brakes enshrined in the episcopal election capitulations. Such election capitulations, like treaties among princly families, exemplify the highly diff erentiated regulations in German international law during the 17th and 18th centuries.