Material conditions of service in the Torun municipal militia in the light of the debt book from 1737–1744

Abstract

The article takes up the subject of the social history of the Toruń’s military, describing the material conditions under which its
soldiers served at the turn of the 1730s and 1740s. The author introduces the history of the unit and sketches their research perspectives. The uniqueness of the source in a nationwide context is highlighted. A potential state of the soldiers’ accounts is then presented, summing up their possible income and expenditure. In order to provide as detaileda picture as possible, the situation in the Polish and Prussian armies is presented in depth, followed by a comparison of information available for the Toruń militia. Finally, it describes the data extracted from the debt book, depicting the actual state of aff airs as shaped by the conditions provided by the city to its soldiers.