Patent, issued by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Archduke of Austria, for Moravia [Present-day Czech Republic]: “1. The number of Jewish families, which has been limited to 5106, shall be increased to 5400. 2. The Moravian state government shall distribute the additional families proportionally among the Jewish communities, and afterwards re-determine the [maximum] number of families for each community. 3. In the future, however, no Jew may obtain a numbered slot for his family until he can show that he has the necessary means to support a family. 4. Therefore, if after some time, the exact number of families in a given community should be found to have increased, without prior notice to the county government; then, if the local authority is shown to have permitted this increase in families, it shall be fined 100 guilders, while the guilty officer incurs a fine of 50 ducats, and the Jewish community, in which the surplus family is found, shall be fined 100 ducats without any leniency.” [Researcher’s note: A ducat was a coin made of 3.51 grams of pure gold, with five guilders to one ducat. At the average gold price for the year 2019, that means that the above fines of 100 guilders, 50 ducats and 100 ducats are equivalent to US$3,134.12, US$7,835.30 and US$15,670.60, respectively.]
Moesle, Johann Georg (pub.). Handbuch aller unter der Regierung des Kaisers Joseph des II. für die K.K. Erbländer ergangenen Verordnungen und Gesetze in einer Sistematischer Verbindung: enthält die Verordnungen und Gesetze vom Jahre 1787. Vierzehnter Band (Handbook of all ordinances and laws issued under the government of Emperor Joseph II for the royal-imperial hereditary lands, in a systematic connection: contains the ordinances and laws of the year 1787. Volume 14.) Moesle: Vienna, 1789. Page 609. Researched by Dominik Jacobs 4/16/2020