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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86053564093?pwd=soarDcaeGTlulMIYP18BZtzjrtjKmj.1

Meeting ID: 860 5356 4093
Passcode: 197637

Short abstract:
The present paper examines how Transylvanian elite actors navigated and described networks and practices of network building at several levels, between roughly the early 1750s and the end of the 18^th century. The enquiry is framed by two major collections of correspondence stemming from two Transylvanian Saxon elite families, whose scions effectively and deftly negotiated positions within the estate-level, the ‘national’ and the imperial administrations over the course of the second half of the century. It surveys and catalogues a medley of actors and groups holding varied agendas, arguing that despite differences in backgrounds or confessional allegiances, these nevertheless operated in similar fashions across the political scene of the Habsburg Monarchy’s peripheral provinces. Based on this exploration, it argues on the one hand that the emergence of a provincial-level civil service in Transylvania shifted the landscape of patronage by introducing new criteria of allegiance and novel nodes of power. On the other hand, this process likewise worked to formalize interactions between estates, individuals, and the government, which in turn paved the way for the construction of a ‘gray area’ within this realm of mediation that would eventually be assimilated to corruption during the 19^th century.

Photo source:
Sibiu County Branch of the National Archives, Magistrate of the city and the seat of Sibiu, Series Financial, accounting and tax records, Section – Financial-accounting records – Tax records, Tax records for the city of Sibiu, 1809, fol. 1r.

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This event is part of an ongoing series of public seminars organized under the ERC research project “Transnational histories of ‘corruption’ in Central-South-East Europe (1750-1850)” – TransCorr, hosted by New Europe College [ERC-2022-ADG, project 101098095 -TransCorr – European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA)].