Contributions:texts:trial

Testimonies in the trial

“In the fourth place, we confess again that there is a tradition in the Moldavian country and this is how the rulers have a convention with the custom officers, so that from 150,000 sheep, from which the tenth part belongs to the ruler, there should not be any custom duty, and if this number is not reached, the custom officers have to pay and to complete this amount, for each sheep three aspri, until the number of 150,000 sheep is completed. And if they exceed 150,000 sheep, the custom officers will take for their part three aspri for a sheep from the merchants” p. 141.

Aspri = Romanian; it is the plural form of aspru. In this case it is the name of a Turkish silver coin used in the Romanian principalities in the sixteenth century. I did not find the proper English translation.

References

Mărturii în procesul lui Petre Şchiopul (Testimonies in the trial of Petru Şchiopul). Ed. Alexandru Mareş et alii. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 1994.

Contributed by Cristian Daniel