On the Concept of a "Seignioral" Power

Abstract

At the end of the seventeenth century, in the epoch of emergent political economy, a stirring story circulated about an occurrence in the mid-sixteenth century, on the fortune of Emperor Charles V and his civil financier. A variant of this tale went approximately as follows: On one of his travels, Charles V made a stop in Augsburg. In order to ensure due deference to the Emperor, the Fugger family, known for their fabulous wealth, provided magnificent hospitality and hung in the fireplace a bundle of cinnamon sticks, a spice among the most expensive goods at the time. After they had shown the Emperor a note of debt, with which he had redeemed a considerable sum on receipt, they burned the slip of paper and set the cinnamon on fire as well. These released into the air “a scent and a glow that the Emperor found all the more sweet and pleasant, seeing himself discharged of a debt that, considering his financial situation, he could have settled only with difficulty and that was presented as a gift in such a gallant way.” Although this anecdote, circulated by the French art theorist André Félibien in 1685,1 is a complete fiction, it gains its meaning in correspondence with some related episodes. Similar stories were reported of tradespeople from Genoa or Antwerp; the amounts of money vary considerably,