Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg, Die Wiener Getreidepreise im 18. Jahrhunderte (1887)

Inama-Sternegg’s historical-statistical article publishes Vienna grain-market records alongside methodological commentary and preliminary comparative analysis. Its tables cover surviving observations from 1693 to 1791, with a documented gap for 1696–1705. The argument moves from archival recovery and editorial selection to the reconstruction of measures and currencies, then to price comparisons across periods and markets. Its principal finding is that eighteenth-century grain prices remained strongly harvest-dependent, without displaying a continuous rise attributable to monetary depreciation.

Vienna’s absence from published historical price series was conspicuous given its importance in grain commerce and its substantial local consumption. Inama describes the initial evidentiary problem directly:

Weder offizielle Marktlisten, noch private Aufzeichnungen der Getreidepreise aus den letztverflossenen Jahrhunderten waren bisher bekannt gemacht.

English translation: Neither official market lists nor private records of grain prices from the centuries last past had hitherto been made known.

Searches assisted by municipal archivist C. Weiss recovered twenty-one folio volumes of weekly market reports. These recorded grain and flour prices and official bread and flour tariffs; later entries also differentiated prices more finely and counted sellers. The records supplied evidence about the conditions under which numerical observations were produced:

Ausserdem finden sich auch Eintragungen, welche sich auf die Veränderung der Maasse und der Marktusancen beziehen.

English translation: Besides this there are also entries which relate to the alteration of the measures and of market usages.

Such information is essential to the article’s method. Prices become historically comparable only when their units and institutional setting are understood. Because the records were too extensive to publish in full detail, Inama generally selected weekly prices used to establish the bread tariff rather than calculating monthly averages throughout. He argues that these observations reflected preceding market conditions while influencing subsequent transactions. Official assessment thus appears as a stabilizing influence compatible with free price formation. Multiple tariff revisions yield multiple observations; months without revisions generally receive averages.

The distinction between archival entries and editorial calculations remains explicit:

Die Jahresdurchschnitte sind überall erst berechnet worden, in der Quelle nicht enthalten.

English translation: The annual averages have in every case only been calculated afterwards; they are not contained in the source.

The tables preserve original monetary and volumetric units, while the analysis introduces conversions separately. This arrangement makes the material available for further investigation without allowing processed results to displace the documentary evidence.

Comparability nevertheless demands substantial reconstruction. The reform of June 1752 enlarged the Vienna Muth from approximately thirteen to eighteen and a half hectolitres. Monetary conversion is less certain: Inama assigns roughly thirteen grams of fine silver to the earlier gulden and 11.7 grams to the Convention standard, provisionally dating the latter’s effect on Vienna’s market to early 1753. Expressing wheat prices in grams of silver per hectolitre permits comparison without relying on unstable contemporary Austrian currency.

The resulting eighteenth-century wheat average is forty-three grams of fine silver per hectolitre. Inama distinguishes relatively inexpensive periods in 1720–1739 and 1750–1765 from the dearer 1740s, 1766–1775, and closing years of the series. These alternating movements challenge a simple narrative of secular inflation. Annual wheat prices range from 24.2 grams in 1723 to 79.8 grams in 1789, showing how longer averages conceal severe fluctuations. He attributes the exceptionally high closing prices primarily to successive unfavourable harvests.

International comparison qualifies this explanation. Correspondences with English price movements suggest some influence of the European grain market, but shared climatic effects could also produce similar harvest outcomes. Vienna’s prices generally exceed Prague’s while drawing closer over the century. Inama leaves their unusual relationship in 1751–1770 unresolved, suggesting that conversion procedures and the later impact of the Convention currency in Prague may partly account for it.

A concluding comparison with 1821–1885 places nineteenth-century wheat near eighty-five grams of silver per hectolitre, almost twice the eighteenth-century average. Inama associates this difference with transformed monetary and market conditions while emphasizing continuing volatility. The work’s methodological significance lies in its conjunction of archival publication, transparent selection, and qualified conversion: historical price series become interpretable through attention to the institutions, measures, and calculations behind their figures.