The Economics of Witch Hunts: Land, Power & Patriarchy

Introduction: Follow the Money

Behind the theological rhetoric and moral panic of the witch hunts lay a brutal economic reality: witch trials were profitable. Accusers seized property, courts collected fees, executioners earned wages, and communities eliminated economic burdens. The witch hunts were not just spiritual warfare—they were wealth transfer, a systematic redistribution of resources from women to men, from the vulnerable to the powerful.

When we examine who was accused and who benefited, a pattern emerges: witch trials followed property lines, inheritance disputes, and economic competition. The women burned were often those who owned land, controlled resources, or threatened male economic dominance.

This is the fourth article in our Witch Hunts series, completing our examination of the historical background. We now explore the economic engines that drove persecution, how greed fueled the fires, and how patriarchy profited from women's deaths.

The Profit Motive: Who Made Money?

1. The State and Church

Confiscation of property: Upon conviction, the accused's property was seized

Distribution:

• 1/3 to the state (prince, duke, city council)
• 1/3 to the Church
• 1/3 to the court and executioner

Result: Authorities had financial incentive to convict

2. Professional Witch Hunters

Payment structure: Paid per conviction, not per investigation

Famous witch hunters:

• Matthew Hopkins (England, 1640s): "Witchfinder General," charged 20 shillings per town plus expenses
• Franz Buirmann (Germany, 1620s-1630s): Executed hundreds, became wealthy
• Various inquisitors: Received fees, expenses, and share of confiscated property

Incentive: More convictions = more money. This created pressure to find witches everywhere.

3. Executioners and Torturers

Fee schedule (example from Bamberg, Germany, 1627):

• Arresting a witch: 1 gulden
• Each torture session: 1 gulden
• Shaving the accused: 3 batzen
• Burning at the stake: 5 gulden
• Beheading before burning ("mercy"): extra fee
• Wood for the fire: charged to victim's estate

Result: The victim's own property paid for her torture and execution

4. Accusers and Informants

Rewards:

• Share of confiscated property
• Elimination of economic competitors
• Settlement of debts (creditors accused debtors)
• Acquisition of land and goods

The Targets: Women with Property

Widows: The Primary Economic Target

Why widows were vulnerable:

• Inherited husband's property
• No male protector
• Male relatives (sons, brothers, nephews) wanted inheritance
• Neighbors coveted land

Pattern:

1. Husband dies, widow inherits
2. Male relative or neighbor accuses her of witchcraft
3. She's convicted and executed
4. Property goes to accuser or male heir

Example: In Würzburg, Germany (1626-1631), many wealthy widows were accused. Their property enriched the prince-bishop and accusers.

Independent Women: Economic Threats

Women who controlled resources:

• Brewsters: Women who brewed and sold ale (competition to male brewers)
• Healers: Charged fees for services (competition to male doctors)
• Midwives: Controlled lucrative birth assistance market
• Merchants: Women who ran businesses

Pattern: As male guilds professionalized and excluded women, witch accusations eliminated female economic competition

The Poor: Economic Burdens

Why poor women were accused:

• Seen as burdens on community resources
• Beggars asking for charity were resented
• If refused charity and misfortune followed, blamed for cursing
• Easy scapegoats with no resources for defense

Economic function: Eliminating the poor reduced welfare costs

Case Studies: Economics in Action

The Würzburg Witch Trials (1626-1631)

Context: Prince-Bishop Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg needed money after Thirty Years' War devastation

Solution: Witch trials

Results:

• 900+ people executed
• Victims included wealthy merchants, city councilors, priests
• Property confiscated enriched the prince-bishop
• Built "Witch House" (Hexenhaus) with proceeds

End: Stopped when Swedish invasion made trials impractical, not from moral awakening

The Bamberg Witch Trials (1626-1631)

Context: Prince-Bishop Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim ("the Witch Bishop")

Economic motive: Rebuilding after war, funding lavish lifestyle

Results:

• 600-900 executed
• Built special "Witch Prison" (Drudenhaus)
• Victims' property funded construction projects
• Even the bishop's chancellor was eventually accused and executed

The North Berwick Witch Trials (Scotland, 1590)

Context: King James VI (later James I of England) survived storm at sea

Political motive: Blame witches for storm, eliminate political enemies

Economic aspect:

• Accused included wealthy women
• Property seized by Crown
• Torture and trials funded by victims' estates

The Gendered Economics of Inheritance

Primogeniture and Male Inheritance

System: Property passed to eldest son

Problem: Widows had dower rights (1/3 of husband's estate for life)

Solution: Accuse widow of witchcraft, seize property, give to male heir

Women's Property Rights

Medieval period: Women could own property, run businesses, inherit

Early modern period (witch hunt era): Women's property rights increasingly restricted

Witch hunts as enforcement: Eliminated women who exercised property rights

The "Spinster" Problem

Issue: Unmarried women who inherited or earned property

Threat: Property not controlled by men, not passed to male heirs

Solution: Accuse of witchcraft, seize property, redistribute to men

The Labor Market: Eliminating Female Competition

The Professionalization of Medicine

Timeline:

• Medieval period: Healing was women's domain (herbalists, midwives)
• 13th-14th centuries: Universities begin training male doctors
• 15th-17th centuries: Male doctors seek monopoly, eliminate female healers

Method:

• Reframe female healing as witchcraft
• Accuse successful healers of making pacts with Devil
• If patient dies: murder through witchcraft
• If patient recovers: demonic intervention

Result: Male doctors monopolized medicine, despite being less effective than female herbalists for centuries

The Brewing Industry

Medieval period: Brewing was women's work ("brewsters")

15th-16th centuries: Male guilds took over brewing

Method:

• Accuse female brewers of using witchcraft to make better beer
• Associate brewing equipment with witchcraft (cauldrons, brooms for stirring)
• Eliminate female competition through accusations

Legacy: The witch stereotype (pointy hat, cauldron, broom) comes from brewsters

Midwifery

Medieval period: Midwives controlled childbirth, lucrative profession

Witch hunt era: Midwives heavily targeted

Result: Male doctors (barber-surgeons) took over childbirth, maternal mortality increased

The Macro-Economics: Capitalism and Enclosure

The Transition to Capitalism

Context: Feudalism declining, capitalism emerging (15th-17th centuries)

Changes:

• Enclosure of common lands (peasants lost access)
• Wage labor replacing subsistence farming
• Women's unpaid domestic labor becoming invisible
• Women excluded from guilds and professions

Witch hunts as enforcement: Terrorized women into accepting new economic order

Silvia Federici's Analysis

Thesis: Witch hunts were part of primitive accumulation of capital

Functions:

• Destroyed women's economic autonomy
• Forced women into dependence on male wages
• Eliminated women's control over reproduction
• Created disciplined, docile female workforce

Book: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004)

The Cost of Trials: Who Paid?

Trial Expenses

Costs included:

• Arrest and imprisonment
• Food and guards
• Torture equipment and torturer's fees
• Court fees and scribes
• Executioner's wages
• Wood for burning
• Priest's fees for last rites

Who paid: The accused's estate

Result: Even if acquitted (rare), the accused was financially ruined

The Poverty Trap

• Poor women couldn't afford defense → convicted
• Wealthy women's property seized → impoverished
• Either way, women lost economically

Conclusion: Patriarchy's Profit

The witch hunts were not irrational superstition—they were economically rational from the perspective of patriarchal capitalism. They eliminated female economic competition, seized women's property, enforced women's dependence on men, and funded state and Church coffers.

In the next article, we will explore The German Witch Trials: The Epicenter of Horror. We will examine why Germany saw the most executions, the role of political fragmentation, and the specific trials that devastated entire regions.

The witch hunts were profitable. Women paid with their lives. Men profited with their deaths.

For the women whose property was stolen. For the healers whose livelihoods were destroyed. For the widows whose inheritance was seized. We remember the economic violence alongside the physical.

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