Publication details
Doprava a obchod se dřevem v předhusitských Čechách a Praze
| Title in English | Transport and trade in timber in pre-Hussite Bohemia and Prague |
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Citation | |
| Description | The transport of timber by rafts to Prague along the Vltava River is documented as early as 1130 in the privilege of Prince Soběslav I for the Vyšehrad Chapter. In the charter of King Přemysl Otakar I from 1226 for the Doksany Premonstratensians, there is mention of timber floating on the Labe and Ohře rivers. The timber market was regulated by the Czech King John of Luxembourg on 28 April 1316. The Emperor Charles IV made a major regulatory intervention on the Vltava River on 3 August 1366. He protected the free trade on the Vltava from České Budějovice to the capital of the kingdom, Prague, and to other cities of the country, which, according to the information of the Prague purser and council, was already possible at the time of King Wenceslaus I (1230-1253). Charles also spoke out against the unjustified customs duties levied by the nobility during navigation and established the places and amounts of royal duties. Interesting information is provided by sources of Johannine provenance, namely a visitation from 1373, a fragment of the accounts of the Prague commandery at the Virgin Mary at the end of the bridge from the 1480s, and the roster of the same religious house from 1378. This is an enclave of the Order by the Vltava River with its centre in Varvažov. Two of the villages closest to the river, Zbonín and Nevězice, were burdened with special duties related to felling trees, assembling rafts and sailing them, and the Varvažov serfs also participated in the actual sailing. There is also evidence of water transport of timber for the Benedictine monastery in Břevnov or for the Premonstratensians in Strahov. |