Revenue of Vilnius from the production and sale of alcoholic beverages from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century

ENThe article deals with the analysis of the background of the revenue of Vilnius from alcohol production and sales, its legal regulation, specifics of tax collection, the size of the tax, and its importance to the city's treasury from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. It is highly likely the revenue of this type might have amounted to a considerable share of total revenue in the fifteenth century, but over time the city authorities made attempts to secure ever new sources of revenue as the share of returns from alcohol was shrinking. Analysis of the city's books of revenue and expenditure show that returns from alcohol production and sales were most profitable to the city in the first half of the eighteenth century, after the hardships of the Northern War, when the city's revenue from other sources was at its lowest. [From the publication]