Manors and markets in Rhineland, Westphalia and Lippe, 1650-1850

该项目分析了1650年至1850年期间在今天的北莱茵-威斯特伐利亚的五到六个庄园的谷物销售情况。推动这项研究的想法是，区域市场经济和市场社会在庄园谷物库存的日常管理框架内发展到相当大的一部分，而谷物租金是庄园谷物库存的主要收入来源。该项目主要有四条调查路线：第一，跟踪销售量和价格，主要是评估区域市场一体化的进程。其次，它就庄园的合同类型和交易伙伴对当地市场进行了微观分析。预计这将提供有关市场机构演变以及地方与区域网络在当地粮食市场运作中的相对重要性的信息。第三，研究了粮食销售的季节模式，以及有关粮食库存的补充信息，以检验庄园使用其粮食收入是否符合理性投资者的模型。此外，有关拖欠租金和向当地农民出售粮食的信息将被用来探索另一种家长式模式，其特征是连锁市场和精英一方的义务文化。与庄园经济有关的当代手册(主要是所谓的豪斯瓦特文学)将被视为潜在的规范性背景，指导这两种截然不同的模式之间的实际行为。第四，也是最后，项目探讨庄园粮食销售管理中的委托代理问题。由于缺席所有权是规则，日常运作由居住在庄园的管理员领导。这意味着信息不对称，并为管理者一方的机会主义行为创造了空间。由于粮食销售必须得到所有者的批准，这些问题的满意解决构成了庄园一致的市场行为的先决条件。关于方法，该项目基本上依靠两个支柱。一方面，它开发了单个粮食销售及其属性的关系数据库，然后可以使用统计工具进行分析。另一方面，通过对粮食租金、库存和销售管理等方面的协议、信函等定性分析，支持和扩展了定量分析。对来自不同背景的大约六个庄园进行比较，预计将得出有关粮食市场演变与区域发展模式之间关系的见解。

The project analyses grain sales of five to six manors in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia during the period c. 1650-1850. The idea motivating this research is that regional market economies and market societies developed to a substantial part within the framework of the everyday administration of grain stocks of manors, for which grain rents consisted a major source of income. The project pursues four main lines of inquiry: First, it tracks sales volumes and prices, mainly to assess processes of regional market integration. Second, it carries out a micro-analysis of local markets with respect to types of contracts and transaction partners of manors. This is expected to yield information on the evolution of market institutions and the relative importance of local vs. regional networks in the operation of local grain markets. Third, seasonal patterns of grain sales, together with additional information on grain stocks are studied in view of testing whether the use that manors made with their grain income conformed to the model of the rational investor. In addition, information concerning arrears on rents and grain sales to local peasants will be used to explore an alternative paternalist model characterized by interlocking markets and a culture of obligation on the side of elites. Contemporary manuals relating to the manorial economy (mainly so-called Hausväter-Literatur) will be considered as a potential normative background orienting actual behaviour between these two contrasting models. Fourth and finally, the project explores principal-agent issues in the management of grain sales by manors. Since absentee ownership was the rule, day-to-day operations were led by administrators residing on the manor. This implied information asymmetries and created room for opportunistic behaviour on the side of the administrator. Since grain sales had to be ratified by owners, satisfactory resolution of these issues formed a prerequisite for consistent market behaviour of the manor. With respect to method the project rests on essentially two pillars. On the one hand, it develops a relational database of individual grain sales and their attributes, which can then be analysed using statistical tools. On the other hand, the quantitative analysis is supported and extended by a qualitative analysis by protocols, letters etc. concerning the management of grain rents, stocks and sales. The comparison of about half a dozen of manors from different contexts is expected to yield insights concerning the relationships between the evolution of grain markets and regional patterns of development.