Counting Land Transactions. The Perils and Gains of Quantitative Approaches to Late Medieval Land Markets, Tested on Wine-Growing Villages Near Vienna, 1454–1513

Abstract

In order to evaluate activities and mechanisms pertaining to medieval land markets, numerous case studies have been conducted that collect and analyse quantifiable data – above all, transaction numbers. Such quantitative approaches have been subject to particularly rigorous discussion in the context of the land-family bond debate. Although originally focused on much broader questions, this extensive debate has exerted significant methodological influence on land market research. In this contribution, these methods are examined critically by applying them to a case study of three Lower Austrian wine-growing villages. This allows for an in-depth discussion of the challenges of their implementation as well as their methodological issues and potential. The assessment of manorial sources from the Klosterneuburg monastery reveals that the quantitative evidence of an active land market for the 15th and early 16th century is ambivalent. These results suggest a rather low tenurial continuity in the case of families, yet also some major uncertainties around this. The analysis further highlights theoretical and source-related reservations and methodological constraints.