Marturina

The name of the marturina indicates that it was originally an in-kind tax, collected in marten's fur.[1] Similar taxes—payable in the form of an animal's fur—also existed in other territories.[1] These taxes were typically paid by the Slavic inhabitants of the densely forested regions of Eastern Europe to the rulers of the neighboring nomadic peoples.[1] Historian Pál Engel proposes that the marturina was also "originally a special tax that the Slavs of Slavonia had to pay to their Hungarian overlord".[1] The tax was also collected in other territories to the south of the Drava (in Baranya, Požega and Valkó Counties).[2]

A document recorded in 1300 that those who were obliged to pay the marturina used to give one marten's fur to their lords in each year.[2] During or before the reign of Coloman the Learned, King of Hungary (r. 1095–1116), the marturina was converted into a money tax.[1][3] Initially, each mansio (or peasant household) was to pay 12 Freisach denars, but it was gradually raised during the 13th century before it was returned to its original rate around 1300.[3] Those who were to pay marturina were also obliged to pay another tax, known as pondus.[3] On the other hand, commoners paying the marturina were exempt of the chamber's profit (a tax collected in Hungary).[4]

The marturina was initially a royal revenue, collected for the monarch, or for the duke who ruled Slavonia in the monarch's name.[3] However, when parcels of the royal domain were given away, the grantee typically also seized the right to collect the royal taxes in his new estate.[3] The marturina (and the pondus) collected in royal estates was attached to the honor of the Bans (or governors) of Slavonia in the 14th century.[3] Revenues from the marturina made up around 8,000 florins in 1427.[4]

• Granic, Stan (2008). "From Fur Money to Modern Currency: The Kuna" (PDF). Review of Croatian History. Zagreb: Croatian Institute of History. IV (1): 87–109. ISSN 1845-4380. Retrieved 25 March 2019.