Rekeningen van de thesaurier van Delft

Author: 
Thesaurier Delft
Volume: 
OAD 678.1 - 678.205
Publisher: 
Gemeente Delft
Year: 
1554 - 1810

Rekeningen van de thesaurier van Delft, 1554-1810, met hiaten

Accounts of the Treasurer of Delft, 1554-1810, with gaps

OAD Archief van de Thesaurier inventory numbers 678.1 - 678.205

In Leeuwenhoek's time, from the late 1650's into the beginning of the 1700's, the account books were structured the same way. They ran well over six hundred pages. The first third of each volume was revenue (ontvang); the other two thirds was expenses (uitgeeff).

Revenue

Money came to the city's administration from several sources, among them excise taxes (accijns), rental fees for use of property and buildings owned by the city, sale of annuities (losrenten and lijfrenten), and property taxes (verpondingen).

Some of the excise taxes were paid by tax farmers Maerten Huijchs Leeuwenhoek, Antony's cousin, and Catharina Philips Leeuwenhoek, his sister.

The list of rentals gives a sense of the city's assets. The city rented houses, shops, storage, grounds, gardens, attics, cellars, wagon houses, stalls for selling fish, birds, and vegetables, the meat hall, warves, lumber yards, bleaching fields, drying racks, windmills, and towers in the city's wall. The ferries to Rotterdam, Den Haag, Maassluis, and Leiden brought in between ten and fifteen thousand guilders per year, two thirds of it from the Leiden ferry, with connections to Amsterdam. The example of 1660 below gives a sense of how much revenue came from excise, about 13%, and property taxes, about 65%.

1660 Andries vander Goes, Treasurer (cover on right)

  • excise taxes: 53,806 guilders
  • property and weath taxes: 265,550 guilders
  • total revenue: 412,083 guilders

The detailed breakdown of the revenue and expenses for 1678, referenced below, show a similar breakdown, excise taxes at 8% and property taxes at 72% of total revenue.

Expenses

Salaries to employees and payments to vendors were the City's major expenses, followed by annuity payments. The salaries went to people appointed by the Council of Forty and the mayors. Leeuwenhoek's salary as camerbewaarder are examples. The payments to vendors when to people such as Leeuwenhoek's step-brother/brother-in-law Jan de Molijn for painting or his cousin Lambrechts Leeuwenhoek for delivering baskets. The annuity payments, usually only a few guilders, went to hundreds of people making up over half of the 300-page Treasurer's accounts. The example of 1660 below gives a sense of how much of the City's expenses were devoted to salaries, about xx%, and annuity payments, xx%.

1660 Andries vander Goes, Treasurer (cover on right)

  • salaries and payments: [to come]
  • annuity payments: 127,231 guilders
  • total revenue: 412,083 guilders

The people below are family and colleagues of Leeuwenhoek who are noted in these volumes.

Note the link below to a detailed examination of the account books for one year, 1678.