UDC 94(497.4 Maribor)"1254/14"
Author: MLINARIČ JožePh.D., academician, emeritus professor of the University of MariborFaculty of education, Department of historyKoroška 160, SI - 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Title: MARIBOR AS OF FIRST MENTION AS CITY (1254) UNTIL 1500
Studia Historica SlovenicaČasopis za družboslovne in humanistične študije / Humanities and Social Studies ReviewMaribor, 6 (2006), No. 2-3, pp. 261-278, 48 notes, 6 pictures
Category: 1.02 ReviewLanguage: Original in Slovene (Abstract in Slovene and English, Summary in English)
Keywords: Maribor, review of history as of first mention as city (1254) until 1500.
Abstract: Primarily on the basis of written sources, which are preserved by the Provincial Archive in Maribor and the Land Archive in Graz, the author extends a short history of Maribor as of its first mention as city (1254) until 1500. The manysided development of the city depended primarily upon economic development. Conditions for the latter were favourable: the city had a favourable geographic position and was supported by the land prince, its urban lord, who had, by way of privileges, particularly regarding wine commerce, weakened the competitive position of the nearby Ptuj belonging to Salzburg. Unfavourable circumstances, particularly the general economic crisis in Europe and Turkish incursions in the 15th century brought about a stagnation of the economy. As of then, a Maribor citizen, owner of land estate, primarily of vineyards in the suburbs, was mainly an artisan, was dependent even more on the latter source. The forced expulsion of Jews from the city at the end of the Medieval period (1496) also weakened its economy. Thus, after the manysided development between the 13th century and the end of the Medieval period Maribor entered Modern times weakened.
SUMMARY
Further manysided economic development of the city was dependent upon its economic development. Circumstances in this respect were favourable: the city had a favourable geographic position as a junction of roads along the Drava and it enjoyed the support of the land prince who had weakened the competitive position of the nearby Salzburg owned Ptuj. The most significant artisanships were established in the city, producing not only for the city inhabitants, but for the countraside as well. Artisans established, for the purpose of securing their material interests and for providing for their spiritual - religious needs: fraternities, from which guilds evolved, the rules of which were confirmed by the land prince. Craftsmen were always more numerous than petty merchants - shopowners, whose activities were limited to the city and the nearby countryside and only by the settlement of Jews at the end of the 13th century did commercial links at a distance expand, as Jewish commerce reached to Italy and it expanded to the entire Central Europe. Citizens enriched mostly on the account of wine commerce, as the city became a centre for the export of wine primarily of Carinthia and Central Styria. Competition from the countryside intervened in the bourgeois artisanship, but to an extent it was suppressed by patents of land princes. Maribor citizens were also the owners of land on both banks of the Drava, particularly vine growing lots on the hills to the North of the city. They took part in commercial affairs by the sale of own wine product. Thus the Maribor citizen was not only and artisan or merchant, but an agriculturist as well. The city populace was enlarged by immigrants, who came primarily from the near-by places, though some came for economic reasons from more distant locations: e.g. the Austrian lands, from Germany, Italy and Bohemia. The economic success of citizens was best discernible from the urban development. By some assessments, at the passing of the Medieval period. Maribor had over one hundred and eighty five houses with more than one thousand inhabitants. The establishment of the city medieval hospital (1348), a charity indicates the presence of solidarity among citizens. Unfavourable conditions, particularly the general economic crisis in Europe and the Turkish incursions in the 15th century, brought about a stagnation of the economy. The latter demanded major expenditures for defense against the Turks. The competition by the near-by Ptuj caused the long lasting so-called wine war. As of then land owned by them took an ever greater part in the maintaining of land estates, particularly of vineyards in the city vicinity. The forced expulsion of Jews from the city at the end of the Medieval period (1496) weakened its economy. It needs to be established that Maribor entered Modern times weakened economically, after manysided development as of the 13th century.