Abstrakt
The study focuses on the activities of court merchants in early-modern-era Prague, particularly on the period when this provincial metropolis was the residence of Bohemian monarch and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Rudolf II, between 1583 and 1612 (he ruled as Bohemian king in 1576-1611, as emperor in 1576-1612). Court merchants were privileged entrepreneurs who supplied luxury foreign goods and other foreign delicacies (citrus fruits, oysters, sweet wines) to the imperial court (Hofstaat).
The study describes the development of the legal status of court merchants in the Habsburg monarchy during the 16th and 17th centuries and analyses their economic and personal freedoms, including the development of tax obligations towards the state and the city of residence. Based on primary archival sources, the paper describes the national composition of the court merchants active during the reign of Rudolf II in Prague.
It deals with their business activities towards the imperial court, but at the same time reconstructs the business and other personal networks that court merchants had in relation to the city and its inhabitants, and the contacts they had with each other.