Overview The text has been given the scholarly name
Inquisitio de theloneis Raffelstettensis after Raffelstetten (called
Raffoltestetun in the text), a
toll-bar on the
Danube, a few kilometres downstream (southeast) from
Linz (nowadays part of the town of
Asten in
Upper Austria). The regulation has been dated to somewhere 903 and 905/906. At the time, Raffelstetten was part of
East Francia, under the nominal reign of the Carolingian king
Louis the Child (), who was about 9 years old when the incident occurred. The background of the regulation was that Bavarian bishops, abbots and counts, "whose path led them to eastern territories" (
qui in orientales partes iter habebant), had complained (
clamor) to the child-king about being "disturbed by unauthorised customs duties and tolls" (
se iniusto theloneo et iniqua muta constrictos in illis partibus et coartatos). Therefore, a royal order was issued to the Margrave of the Bavarian Ostmark
Aribo (), together with "judges from the eastern territories" (
iudicibus orientalium), to investigate and redefine the existing, traditional customs law. Then, a total of 41 named secular and church officials including bishops and counts reviewed the investigation, and the
Inquisitio de theloneis Raffelstettensis summarises the results of their findings.
Identification of toponyms Several
toponyms and
demonyms are mentioned in the text. Scholars have been able to identify most of them to modern-day locations, but there are some unresolved questions. •
Bawari[a]. "
Bavaria". •
Patavi[a];
silva Patavica. "
Passau"; "Passau woods" (German:
Passauer Wald, nowadays
Sauwald). •
Arboni marchioni. "of Arbo the margrave." Indirectly refers to the
March of Pannonia or Eastern March, governed by margrave
Aribo or Arbo (). •
Raffoltestetun. "
Raffelstetten." •
Rosdorf. Nowadays named
Aschach an der Donau. •
ad Lintzam. "to
Linz". •
ad silvam Boemicam. "to the
Bohemian Forest". •
Anesim fluvium. "the
river Enns". •
ad Urulam. "to the ." •
Trungowe. "
Traungau", a
pagus of the
Duchy of Bavaria that later became part of
Upper Austria. •
Sclavi. "
Slavs" (modern German:
Slawen; modern Czech:
Slované). To be distinguished from
enslaved people (modern German:
Sklaven), who are identified as
mancipia, see
res mancipi. •
de Rugis. Uncertain; it could refer to the
Rugii (see
Rugiland), or to the ''
Rus'''. •
iuxta ripam Danubii. "on the banks of the
Danube" (German:
Donau). •
in Rotalariis vel in Reodariis. "at the [people] of Rodel or those of
Ried". •
Eperaespurch. Understood to render
Ebersburg in modern German, although its location is unknown. Boretius & Krause (1897) argued it was a "
vicus at the present site of
Mautern (an der Donau)." •
ad Mutarun. "to
Mautern (an der Donau)". •
ad mercatum Marahorum. "to the market of the
Moravians".
Assessment The customs regulations are very valuable for scholarly research on trade in
Eastern Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries. As the 41 officials claimed to list the customs places and rates that were supposedly in force during the reigns of
Louis the German () and
Carloman of Bavaria (), some inferences can be made about the period between the 840s and 906, although extrapolating beyond 906 is much riskier. The text makes it clear that Raffelstetten was a place where various traders met between the mid-9th century and the beginning of the 10th. The regulation mentions "skoti", a currency otherwise not attested in Carolingian Europe. It appears that both the name and weight of the "skoti" were borrowed from
Rus' people. == Notes ==