Chapter 17

Investments of a south Bohemian ‘banker’ in the first half of the 16th century: the credit operations of Knight Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby

Tomáš Sterneck

Introduction

The boom of the lending business in the early modern Bohemian lands is inseparably connected with the activities of the lower nobility. Knights as lending investors represent an important phenomenon of the economic and political history of Bohemia and Moravia in a period between the middle of the 16th century and the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War, as their activity considerably contributed to the transformation of the social elites of that time.

There are many documented cases when the aristocracy’s requirements for self-representation within the spontaneous reception of the new, Renaissance lifestyle led to far-reaching indebtedness and, in more than one case, even to the disintegration of large aristocratic dominions (Ledvinka 1985; Vorel 1998). Skilful knightly entrepreneurs were capable of using client relationships to their nobler patrons to develop lucrative financial deals. Some grew tremendously rich in this manner and used the means to build their own large land complexes, often through the purchase of immovable property from indebted aristocrats. As an illustrative example, we can name members of the knightly family of Malovec of Malovice, who acquired the extensive Hluboká domain in southern Bohemia from the lords of Hradec in the late 16th and early 17th centuries (Bůžek 1989; Bůžek 1996; Maťa 2004).

Another remarkable personage connected with the southern Bohemian milieu is Knight Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby, who developed his own systematic lending business as early as the first half of the 16th century. Doudlebský’s activities heralded the behaviour of many later knightly financial entrepreneurs; at the same time, however, his lifestyle was specific or even atypical in many respects. Rather than as an isolated phenomenon, Petr’s lending investments need to be studied with regard to his origin, family ties, and personal life, as they conditioned his business to a considerable extent (Sterneck 2004).

Origin, inheritance, and first business activities

The father of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby, Diviš (d. 1516), belonged to the large circle of South Bohemian lower nobility that found employment in the services of the leading South Bohemian magnate family, the lords of Rosenberg. He himself worked in the administrative apparatus of the Rosenberg dominion but his precise official function is unknown. Other members of Diviš’s generation of the knights of Doudleby were also engaged as officials of the lords of Rosenberg – especially his brother Vilém, who is documented as the burgrave of Český Krumlov in 1479–1483 (SOA Třeboň, rkp. A 22, I. historický kvatern, pp. 169, 180).

Along with Vilém and his other brothers, Petr and Jan (i.e. uncles of our Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby), Diviš granted loans to his aristocratic employers in the 1460s and 1470s. A notary in Rosenberg services unflatteringly describes the brothers as maledicti usurarii. When ticking off debt entries in Rosenberg Libri obligationum, however, the zealous clerk makes similar caustic glosses also about many other creditors whose behaviour cannot yet be regarded as a targeted lending strategy of later entrepreneurs (Pelikán 1953, pp. 153–4, no. 422).

Diviš left four sons; after Petr, the eldest, came (in the order of birth) Jiřík, Bohuslav, and František Doudlebský of Doudleby. They preliminarily agreed on a property settlement on June 30, 1516; its definitive form was approved by parchment deeds of March 19, 1518. Petr, Bohuslav, and František split among themselves the father’s estates east of Soběslav and north of Jindřichův Hradec (the Budislav farmstead with a fortified house and nearby properties), while second-born Jiřík kept the remnants of the family property near České Budějovice including a part of the village of Doudleby, which gave name to the Doudlebský family, and the village of Nedabyle (SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Doudleb 2, 2b, 2c, 3, kart. 6, no. 351–3, 356–8).

A considerable shift in the property situation of Diviš’s sons was in the offing, however. Jiřík Doudlebský of Doudleby suddenly died late in 1521 or early in 1522. Even though his younger siblings Bohuslav and František also had inheritance rights to a part of the deceased’s property, they waived their claims in favour of their eldest brother. Petr Doudlebský’s land possessions were thus suddenly increased by the addition of estates near České Budějovice (SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Doudleb 5, kart. 6, no. 371).

The 1520s were a time of a revived interest in silver-bearing areas near České Budějovice (Kořan & Koutek 1947, p. 15). Petr Doudlebský made use of the fact that land plots inherited from his brother stretched into these areas. Together with Knight Václav Metelský of Feldorf, he asked King Louis Jagellon for a license for precious metal mining near Nedabyle. The sovereign confirmed his consent with the commencement of mining in a privilege of November 4, 1522. For a period of 15 years, the knights did not have to pay fees connected with mining activity to the royal chamber; moreover, they were granted the right of free sale of the yield (SOkA Č. Budějovice, AM ČB – chronologická řada, no. 1522/9). Counting on the approval of their request, the two knights had started to mine silver in the new mine of St Anne before July 22, 1522 (Kalousek 1893, pp. 58–9, no. 1403 and 1405).

Still in the first half of the 1520s, before mining near Nedabyle got fully under way (regrettably, we have no information about its profitability), Petr Doudlebský sold all his property from his brother Jiřík to his partner in the mining business for 900 threescore of Meissen groschen. As he did not want the sale of the silver-bearing land to exclude him from participating in the possible proceeds of the mining, however, he conditioned the sale by retaining a claim to one-half of the prospective profits (SOkA Č. Budějovice, AM ČB – knihy, Kniha konceptů 1538–1550, f. 147r).

In the services of the lords of Rosenberg

By selling the inheritance from Jiřík, Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby lost the newly acquired estates but gained a considerable amount of ready money while, for a certain period, remaining a partner in Nedabyle mining (he later lost the claim to half of the proceeds from the mining under unclear circumstances). The motivation for his steps in the first half of the 1520s needs to be sought in an effort to create a financial reserve in connection with entering the services of the lords of Rosenberg where Petr is documented from October 16, 1523. His employment in the dominion of the South Bohemian magnates was undoubtedly connected with self-representation costs. It is possible, however, that the knight already linked the perspective of such work with considerations of utilizing new contacts for launching a lending business.

In his first years among the servants of the lords of Rosenberg, Petr was among the group of ‘senior courtiers’. He left it on January 1, 1528 to become the burgrave of Český Krumlov, an office in which he is documented until 1531. In 1532–1540, he held the same post at another Rosenberg residence, Třeboň. The knight’s career culminated on October 16, 1540, when he became the governor of the Český Krumlov domain – that is, the leading official of the whole Rosenberg dominion at that time. He held this position until his death on March 18, 1550 (SOA Třeboň, CR – registratura, z Rožmberka 10, fasc. I, 1441–1553, ff. 97r, 110r, 118r, 126r and pp. 172–4; SOA Třeboň, rkp. A 22, I. historický kvatern, pp. 170, 171, 183, 219, 223).

An important milestone in the knight’s professional life was the death of Peter V of Rosenberg on November 6, 1545. The subsequent guardianship period lasting until May 1551 placed considerable demands on the governor of Český Krumlov. He became a leading member of the official council that took over some powers of the Rosenberg guardians in their absence (Pánek 1989, pp. 42–3). At that time, Doudlebský participated in an effort to economically strengthen the dominion by seeking new financial resources and restricting the expenditures of the Rosenberg chamber as much as possible (Pánek 1985, pp. 18, 20, 32, 34, 36–8, 40, 46–7, 53, 236).

The entering of the services to the lords of Rosenberg introduced Petr Doudlebský to a prominent social milieu, providing the knight with numerous opportunities to establish contacts with a wide circle of noblemen, many of whom needed ready money for various reasons. He made use of the simplified access to potential debtors to commence credit investments.

Credit investments and their resources

The earliest document of lending activity of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby is a debenture dated December 6, 1526 with which Linhart Ekhart of Urtvinovice confirms receipt of a loan of 500 threescore of Meissen groschen (SOkA Č. Budějovice, AM ČB – chronologická řada, no. 1526/4). Petr’s further credit investments involved members of various knightly families as well as the chambers of the lords Krajíř of Krajk, of Sternberg, of Hradec, of Pernstein, Zajíc of Házmburk, Ungnad of Sunek, of Gutnštejn, Kavka of Říčany – and of Rosenberg. The knight’s financial business even outgrew the boundaries of the Bohemian lands, as he found debtors also among members of the Austrian families of the barons of Hohenfeld and the counts of Starhemberg. (SOA Třeboň, CR – registratura, Doudlebští z Doudleb; SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Doudleb 7, 9, kart. 7, no. 409, 423; SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a, I 7B gamma 3e).

As initial capital for launching his lending business, Doudlebský could use part of the cash he gained from the sale of the estates from his brother Jiřík. Petr’s later investments were undoubtedly also based on further extraordinary income to a considerable extent. His property grew thanks to his siblings also at the beginning of the fifth decennium of the 16th century through inheritance from his youngest brother, František. Having sold his inherited part of the Budislav farmstead, František lived in Soběslav and died childless there in 1540. Among other things, František’s estate included a debenture on 600 threescore of Meissen groschen lent to Lady Anna Hradecká of Rožmitál. She repaid this debt to Petr on the holiday of St George in 1544 along with 1,700 threescore she had borrowed directly from him. Later, towards the end of 1547, she borrowed money – this time 400 threescore – from him again (SOA Třeboň, CR – registratura, Doudlebští z Doudleb, no. 7, 10; SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a).

Petr’s property was considerably augmented by a one-off appreciation of his professional qualities by Peter V of Rosenberg. In his will dated July 8, 1544 in Český Krumlov, he remembered his loyal official with a large bequest of 2,000 threescore of Meissen groschen (SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Rožmberka 27/15a, 27/16, kart. 75, no. 410, 413; NA Praha, Desky zemské, DZV 7, f. H 27).

Petr’s mining activities, which did not remain limited to the opening of the mine near Nedabyle, probably also added to his financial potential. While in the service to the south Bohemian magnates, Doudlebský participated in Rosenberg precious metal mining (Pánek 1985, pp. 36–7). He bought the first mining shares as early as the 1520s, at the time of the greatest boom of mining activity near Český Krumlov. He further extended his activities in this field later, having invested in many mines in the wider neighbourhood of Český Krumlov and near Kamenný Újezd in the 1540s. Since the mid-40s, he financed above all the mine he had founded himself. Although period sources do not allow us to assess the return on these investments in a complex manner, they probably also played a part in the knight’s property rise (SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 7B gamma 3e).

Regular income structure

Regular incomes of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby can be divided into three basic categories: land rents from Land-Table estates, the salary paid to him from the Rosenberg chamber and, finally, interest profits. It was especially the numerous entries in the last category that prompted the knight to keep running records of his incomes. Registers in his own hand of the incomes expected on the individual accounting dates (St George and St Gall of each year) with additional marks denoting paid off receivables are preserved for 1546–1549. In other, occasionally made, records, Doudlebský registered the principals of the loans along with the names of debtors and other information about his property (SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a, I 7B gamma 3e).

These sources make it possible to study the structure of Petr Doudlebský’s incomes and the development of the value of his debentures in the last years of his life. On the other hand, we are lacking a more complex overview of the knight’s expenditures, apart from those that were a direct part of his business activities. A certain part of Petr’s incomes must have necessarily been paid in various taxes. Naturally, his expenses included payment for ordinary life necessities as well as the costs of his household and self-representation.

Table 17.1 Basic categories of the regular income of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby in 1546–1549 – amounts and relations

Notes:

1)For this date, we also have separately quantified the amount of tax money Doudlebský was to take over from his peasants: 11 threescore and 54½ groschen.

2)The claim of 24 threescore and 11 groschen was reduced by 1 threescore and 32 groschen from peasants whose homesteads had been damaged by fire.

The sums denoted (*) include other entries added to land rents and not falling into the knight’s regular incomes. Apart from land rents, the amounts in question include also tax money Doudlebský collected from his peasants and delivered to tax collectors under his name.

The table shows that Petr’s regular income from land rents dropped by almost a third between 1547 and 1548. The amount of the salary paid out to the Český Krumlov governor from the Rosenberg chamber was stable in 1546–1549. On the contrary, a steep increase in regular incomes from the lending business is visible during the very brief period preceding his death: on St George’s in 1546, he was to receive 255 threescore and 54 Meissen groschen from his debtors; as of St Gall 1546 and on both dates in 1547, it was already 297 threescore and 54 groschen and in 1548, 315 threescore and 54 groschen on St George’s and 333 threescore and 54 groschen on St Gall’s. After Anna Rožmberská of Rogendorf repaid 200 threescore of Meissen groschen, the knight’s interest profit slightly deceased to 327 threescore and 54 groschen as of St George 1549. However, subsequent investments in loans totalling 2,300 threescore of Meissen groschen to Austrian noblemen considerably increased the source of Petr’s income under study. On the last accounting date of his life, St Gall in 1549, Doudlebský was to receive 442 threescore and 54 groschen in interests.

We need to point out, however, that while the amounts from land rents and the salary usually arrived on time, the interest profits of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby suffered from frequent delays of the individual instalments sometimes even stretching over several accounting dates. Petr was therefore forced to send the debtors reminders of interests; some arrears for the last accounting dates even had to be collected by his heirs (SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Doudleb 9, kart. 7, no. 423; SOA Třeboň, CR – registratura, Doudlebští z Doudleb, no. 6, 7, 20).

Profit from the lending business was by far the knight’s most important regular income in 1546–1549. Even with the delays of some of the instalments, the total of the interests received well exceeded Petr’s land rents and service salary combined. Until St Gall of 1547 inclusive, the salary reached less than two-thirds of the value of the income from his peasants. Then (based on dates for which we know the incomes not distorted by the inclusion of other entries) the income from land rents dropped almost to the level of the salary, which nevertheless remained the knight’s lowest income. Regular incomes from the Rosenberg chamber, thus did not play a more considerable part in the extension of Petr’s fortune. We know, however, that it was the service to the South Bohemian magnates that brought Doudlebský to the prominent social milieu, which provided ideal opportunities for the development of his business activities.

Value of debentures

A precondition for the steep increase in Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby’s interest revenue was a fundamental rise in the amount invested in the loans. Petr’s capital in debentures rose from 6,810 threescore of Meissen groschen as of St George in 1546 to 11,710 threescore of Meissen groschen as of St Gall in 1549; the increase amounted to 4,900 threescore, or 71.95% of the initial amount. The knight’s lending business thus reached an astonishing volume, with debentures becoming clearly the most important part of his property. The repayment of the principal by some of the debtors did not reduce the value of the debentures for long, as Petr strove to quickly re-invest the money. If he momentarily lacked ready money when concluding new credit deals, Petr did not hesitate to borrow the needed sum himself for a short time (SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a; SOA Třeboň, CR – registratura, Doudlebští z Doudleb, no. 13, 16).

Petr’s strategy concerning the profitability of the particular receivables deserves attention. The regulations concerning credit operations in the lands of the Bohemian Crown underwent an important change in 1543, as the legal annual interest rate was reduced from 10% to 6% (Gindely & Dvorský 1877, pp. 565–6, 569, no. 309, 310; Ledvinka 1985, pp. 28–35). While receivables based on his earlier credit investments continued bearing Doudlebský the contractually fixed ‘higher interest’, with new loans in the Bohemian lands, he was already bound by the lower, 6% interest. Towards the end of his life, however, Petr found a way of circumventing the interest rate reduction in the form of new high loans to Austrian noblemen. On the holiday of St George in 1549, he lent 1,300 threescore of Meissen groschen to Jerome and Paul James of Starhemberg and doubled an earlier loan of 1,000 threescore to Christopher of Hohenfeld – all with 10% interest (SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a; SOA Třeboň, CR – registratura, Doudlebští z Doudleb, no. 18, 20).

Table 17.2 Value of interest-bearing receivables of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby in 1546–1550

The comparison of the value of Petr Doudlebský’s credit investments in 1546–1549 with his income at that time shows that the newly lent amount could not by far have been covered by his regular incomes, especially as he financed his mining business as well. The same is undoubtedly true also of his earlier credit operations before 1546. We have said already that Petr relied on other, extraordinary sources of money. Without them, his lending business would have not grown into its gigantic dimensions, even with repeated reinvestment of the interest profits. Apart from means gained from inheritance and the money received in connection with his employment in Rosenberg services (besides the regular remuneration), the knight’s extraordinary incomes probably included also yields from precious metal mining. One more source needs to be added to those mentioned above, however: a continuous rearrangement of Petr’s property from immovable to movable.

Immovable property

The core of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby’s land possessions was his portion of the inheritance of his father’s estates. To this Land-Table property, Petr added – we do not know when – a part of a nearby village. The knight’s subsequent activity concerning land property, however, already had the form of a reduction in favour of the accumulation of financial means. Apart from the aforementioned sale of family possessions near České Budějovice acquired after the death of brother Jiřík, Petr gradually divested himself also of properties east of Soběslav and north of Jindřichův Hradec. We have written documents of that until 1539 (SOA Třeboň, CS – listiny, Budislav II-70–1, kart. 17, no. 114; SOA Třeboň, CS – registratura, II-30A-1, kart. 101, no. 24; NA Praha, Desky zemské, DZV 8, f. A 3; Sedláček 1885, p. 92).

Further reduction of Petr’s land possessions can only be followed indirectly, through sources testifying to the decline in its valuation and to the reduction of land rents he received from his estates (Sterneck 2004, pp. 278–82). Even so, it is evident that rather than building his own domain, Doudlebský preferred capital investments, not hesitating to partially cover them by the sale of real property.

Petr Doudlebský made valuations or lists of his assets for his own needs. In some of these records, he quantified the market value of some of his Land-Table estates using the method common at that time, that is the multiplication of their annual revenue by a corresponding capitalization coefficient (Kostlán 1986). Based on these sources, we can state that the market value of the knight’s Land-Table property in 1543–1546 amounted at least to 2,679 threescore and 30 Meissen groschen. Between 1546 and 1547, it dropped to approximately 2,285 threescore and 35 groschen and on the accounting date of St Gall in 1547, it only amounted to 2,000 threescore.

In a private property valuation from the last months of his life, Doudlebský divided his assets into two categories and quantified the value of each of them separately. He counted ready money and invested capital worth 11,515 threescore of Meissen groschen, while his Land-Table property and the equipment of his household were worth 3,350 threescore according to his valuation (SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a). Preserved inventories of Petr’s inheritance show that it included various articles of daily use as well as of luxury character – clothing, bed linen, cook- and tableware, tools, weapons, hunting, bird trapping and fishing equipment, furs as well as jewellery (Sterneck 2004, pp. 296–308, 316–23, 329–32). The value of the knight’s real property evidently did not increase since the end of 1547. The total estimate of 14,865 threescore of Meissen groschen can be regarded as a reliable quantification of the value of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby’s fortune near the end of his life.

Rich old bachelor and his bequest

On the absolute level, 16th-century property estimates made for the purposes of taxation need to be taken with reserve. With a certain level of caution, however, they can be used as indicators of property proportionality of tax payers (Míka 1967; Sterneck 2006, pp. 10, 187, 221–3). According to a preserved list for the Bechyně Region in 1523, the tax estimate of Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby’s own property was 2,000 threescore of Meissen groschen (the knight did not show any land rent property at that time). He probably had 900 threescore from the sale of the estates from his brother Jiřík at his disposal already but it did not reflect in the valuation because it had not been invested in loans as yet. Even so, a comparison with the assessments of other payers from among the lower nobility indicates that, at that time, Doudlebský was one of the less affluent knights in the region (Bůžek 1985, p. 79). In 1543, however, Petr’s dominicalis property was valued at 5,940 threescore of Meissen groschen for tax purposes, and his peasants’ property at 630 threescore. By that time, the invested capital certainly already comprised a considerable part of the knight’s own property (Sterneck 2004, pp. 287–8).

Regrettably, we do not know the property proportionality of the lower nobility in the Bechyně Region at the very end of the first half of the 16th century. As regards Petr Doudlebský, the (solitarily recorded) tax valuation of his property as of 1543 is not followed by any other we would have at our disposal. Let us call to mind, however, the reliable estimate of his property Petr made for his own needs in the last months of his life. An absolute majority of the total of 14,865 threescore of Meissen groschen was covered by the value of debentures and land possessions (c. 13,650 threescore), that is of regularly taxed parts of property. In view of the temporally closest preserved earlier and later tax sources depicting payers in the Bechyně Region (from 1523 and 1557), we can say that towards the end of his life, Doudlebský was among the property elite of the knighthood (not only) in this region (Placht 1950, pp. 24–32, 81–4).

Petr Doudlebský did not start his own family; he never married and probably had no illegitimate children, either. He therefore faced the question of to whom he would bequeath his considerable fortune. King Ferdinand I of Habsburg complied with the knight’s application for the right to freely make his last will on June 7, 1536. In a testament drawn up in Český Krumlov on January 28, 1547, Petr established two groups of heirs between which his estate was to be divided after his death. He bequeathed half of his property to William and Peter Vok of Rosenberg, minor sons of Jobst III of Rosenberg (d. 1539), and the other half to his own relatives, Diviš and Fridrich Doudlebský of Doudleby. Before the division of the inheritance, however, William and Peter Vok of Rosenberg as well as their three unmarried sisters were to receive a hundred threescore each for gold chains in memory of the Český Krumlov governor (SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Doudleb 6, 8, kart. 7, no. 394, 414; NA Praha, Salbuchy, Majestalia 283, f. 110v; SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Rožmberka 27/17, kart. 75, no. 415).

Petr died on March 18, 1550 at Český Krumlov Castle. His last will was registered in the Land Tables on April 23, and the division of his estate took place in several stages by the summer of that year. Lady Anna Rožmberská of Rogendorf gained numerous garments, textile, furs, and other items within the framework of the settlement, and some of Petr’s weapons were ceded to the Rosenberg armoury (NA Praha, Desky zemské, DZV 9, ff. E 16–17; SOA Třeboň, CR – listiny, z Doudleb 9, kart. 7, no. 423; SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a).

The heirs did not retain Petr Doudlebský’s Land-Table estates. On May 12, 1551, William of Rosenberg, acting also on behalf of his younger brother Peter Vok, together with Diviš and Fridrich Doudlebský of Doudleby, sold them for 1,940 threescore of Meissen groschen (SOA Třeboň, CS – listiny, Katov II-195-1, II-195-2, kart. 48, no. 342, 343; NA Praha, Desky zemské, DZV 16, f. C 12; DZV 49, f. D 27; DZSt 45, f. E 21). As for the deceased’s debentures, documents are preserved of inheritance claims made to the relevant receivables (SOA Třeboň, CR – registratura, Doudlebští z Doudleb, no. 20). The heirs used the respectable fortune of the deceased knight above all to strengthen their financial potential.

Conclusion

Petr Doudlebský of Doudleby could base his property rise on capital inherited from his forebears and on economically favourable circumstances under which he started his career in the service of the Rosenbergs. Later, he also repeatedly enriched himself thanks to good fortune rather than his own merit. However, he was always capable of making perfect use of his luck for business activities in which he found a resource for another, systematic augmentation of his property. His motivation demonstrably did not lie in an outlook of building his own extensive knightly domain or in an effort to secure his offspring. Next to Petr’s generous investments, however, we can see manifestations of his excessive parsimoniousness in relation to minor amounts. Several preserved documents prove his unwillingness in the fulfilment of his financial obligations towards persons standing on lower levels of the social ladder (SOA Třeboň, pobočka Č. Krumlov, VS Č. Krumlov, sign. I 5AE 7a).

The unmarried and childless knight found a home in the proximity of his aristocratic employers, the lords of Rosenberg, whom he served in a loyal and model manner. The main content of his bachelor life, however, was diligent ‘multiplication’ of money, not only through efficient large-scale lending investments but also on the level of petty skimping (bordering on ludicrousness in the context of his large financial transactions). It was from this contradictory and somewhat curious background that one of the pioneers of systematic lending business of the Bohemian lower nobility grew in the early modern period.

References

Archival sources

NA – Národní archiv Praha.

SOA – Státní oblastní archiv Třeboň.SOkA – Státní okresní archiv Č. Budějovice.

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