Terp, Holger: Danish Peace History - Det danske Fredsakademi

money 47 , cavalry money 48 , march money 49 , food tax 50 , all taxes that were part of the
military burden. The reference is Nielsen and Thalbitzer’s jubilee publication “Tax
and tax administration in older times” 51 . It was the first breakthrough. The two tax
historians wrote that by the time of the great Nordic war 1701-1720, the navy had to
be rearmed and an expensive system of conscripted soldiers was introduced: “The
share of military burden in the total state budget was so great, that changes in the
military areas marked the total account (of public expenses). The preponderance of the
military expenses of wars, armaments and changes in the military policy thus greatly
influenced the states finances and was quickly manifested in the tax policy48“. And
because it was the history of tax and tax administration, the different military related
taxes and the protests against them was easy to find and prove; as the connection
between tax administration and conscription also is the subject of the important
philosophical doctor’s thesis “Great Landowner and Public Administrator” of the
archivist Birgit Løgstrup.
Law & order and punishment would possible show non book printed protests
especially regarding to the military, conscription and desertion. By 1701 a complex
detailed adscription conscript registration system was enforced wherewith the
agricultural workers became slaves of the landowners. The only time off was during
military service 52 . Historian Finn Stendal Pedersen connects again the conscription
register to the landowners from 1733 to 1793, when conscription was taken over by the
military 53 , resulting in a growing number of complains to the Danish Chancellery. This
had been possible from 1687. By 1785 there were 5086 complaints. In 1795, there was
9546 according to the research done by Michael Bregnsbo. The files of Danish
Chancellery are a new source to complaints about enlistment and conscription 54 .
By the year 2000 Tyge Krogh was able to publish his second major empirical based
thesis, “The Enlightenment and the magical: Executions and corporal punishments in
Denmark in the first half of the 18th century” 55 . Krogh analyses criminal cases 1719 to
1756 presented to military courts covered by the Provincial court of Zealand. Krogh ’s
volume even has a database of military criminal cases 56 ! Soldiers drafted collectively.
47
Portionspenge.
48
Rytterholdspenge.
49
Rytterholdspenge.
50
Fourageskat, madskat.
51
Nielsen, Helge: Skatter og Skatteforvaltning i ældre Tider / Helge Nielsen; Victor Thalbitzer, 1948.
Reprinted 1976. Another good historical research introduction to the history of Denmark in the 17th.
and 18th centuries is the Handbook in Genealogy / Håndbog i Slægtsforskning by Albert Fabritius ;
Harald Haat. 1963. Reprinted 1982.
Løgstrup, Birgit: Jorddrot og offentlig administrator: Godsejerstyret inden for skatte- og
udskrivningsvæsnet i det 18. århundrede, 1983.
52
Krogh, Tyge: Staten og de besiddelsesløse på landet 1500-1800. Odense, 1987.
53
Stendal Pedersen, Finn: Den ulige frihed: Studier i myten om stavnsbåndsløsningens betydning.
Odense, 1990 pp. 48-51.
54
Bregnsbo, Michael: Søens folk skriver til kongen. In: Søfart politik identitet tilegnet Ole Feldbæk,
1996 pp. 163-173.
55
Krogh, Tyge: Oplysningstiden og det magiske: Henrettelser og korporlige straffe i 1700-tallets første
halvdel, 2000. – 608 pp.
56
Ibid.: Landmilitære straffesager i Sjællandsfar Landstings område m. fl. (1722) 1728-56. pp. 454-514.