The Prussian estates (; ) were representative bodies of Prussia, first created by the Monastic state of Teutonic Prussia in the 14th century (around the 1370s)Daniel Stone, A History of Central Europe, University of Washington Press, 2001, , Google Print, p.18-19 but later becoming a devolved legislature for Royal Prussia within the Kingdom of Poland. They were at first composed of officials of six big cities of the region; Braunsberg (Braniewo), Culm (Chełmno), Elbing (Elbląg), Danzig (Gdańsk), Königsberg (Królewiec) and Thorn (Toruń). Later, representatives of other towns as well as nobility were also included.Karin Friedrich, The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569-1772, Cambridge University Press, 2006, , Google Print, pp. 21–24 The estates met on average four times per year, and discussed issues such as commerce and foreign relations.
Era of Teutonic Prussia Originally, the Teutonic Order created the Estate to appease the local citizens, but over time the relations between the Order and the Estates grew strained, as the Order of knights treated the local population with contempt.
Different Prussian holders of the privilege of coinage (among them the Order and some cities), actually committed to issue a Prussian currency of standardised quality, had debased the coins and expanded their circulation in order to finance the wars between Poland and Teutonic Prussia. However, this expansion disturbed the equilibrium of coins circulated to the volume of contractual obligations, only coming down due to a harsh depreciation of all existing nominally fixed contractual obligations by inflating all other non-fixed prices measured by these coins, ending only once the purchasing power of every extra issued coin equalled its material and production costs.Nicolaus Copernicus, Modus cudendi monetam (1519) [= Way of Coinage; i.e. the Latin title of Copernicus' own translation into German of his 'N.(icolai) C.(oppernici), Meditata XV Augusti anno domini MDXVII, 1517], published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 33–37, lines 26–31 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld.Cf. Ulf Heinsohn, "The Role of Good Bills and Covered Bonds in the Creation of Money", in: Eigentum und Recht und Freiheit: Otto Steiger zum Gedenken (Gedenkschrift), Detlev Ehrig and Uwe Staroske (eds.), Marburg: Metropolis, 2010, pp. 213–233, here pp. 216seq. .
"Obligations would be retroactively changed if new coins, too plentifully issued, would be counted as equal to the old ones (1526, lines 307-310Nicolaus Copernicus, Monete cudende ratio per Nicolaum Coppernicum (1526), Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 48–67, lines 307–310 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld.)."Ulf Heinsohn, "The Role of Good Bills and Covered Bonds in the Creation of Money", in: Eigentum und Recht und Freiheit: Otto Steiger zum Gedenken (Gedenkschrift), Detlev Ehrig and Uwe Staroske (eds.), Marburg: Metropolis, 2010, pp. 213–233, here p. 218. . Thus a law was "passed by the Diet of Teutonic Prussia in 1418 (cf. Max Toeppen, 1878, 320seqq.„Disse nachgeschrieben verramung diss gantzen landes ist ausgangen von Marienburg am sontage nach Allerheiligen tag Anno 1418“, in: Acten der Ständetage Preussens unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens, Max Pollux Toeppen (ed.), see references for more detailed bibliographical information, vol. 1: Die Jahre 1233–1435, pp. 320seqq.), smartly regulating the fulfilment of old debts fixed in old currency by adding an agio when repaid by new coins."Ulf Heinsohn, "The Role of Good Bills and Covered Bonds in the Creation of Money", in: Eigentum und Recht und Freiheit: Otto Steiger zum Gedenken (Gedenkschrift), Detlev Ehrig and Uwe Staroske (eds.), Marburg: Metropolis, 2010, pp. 213–233, here footnote 78 on p. 218. .Cf. Nicolaus Copernicus, Monete cudende ratio per Nicolaum Coppernicum (1526), Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913-1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 48–67, lines 331–334 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld. Thus creditors and recipients of nominally fixed revenues were not to lose by debasement-induced inflation.
As Prussia became increasingly tied economically and politically with Poland, and the wars became more and more devastating to the borderlands, and as the policies and attitude of the King of Poland were more liberal towards the Prussian burghers and nobility than that of the Order, the rift between the Teutonic Knights and their subjects widened.
The Estates drifted towards the Kingdom of Poland in their political alignment. Norman Housley noted that "The alienation of the Prussian Estates represented a massive political failure on the part of the Order".Norman Housley, The Later Crusades, 1274-1580: From Lyons to Alcazar, Oxford University Press, 1992, , Google Print, p. 339
At first, the estates opposed the Order passively, by denying requests for additional taxes and support in Order wars with Poland; by the 1440s Prussian estates acted openly in defiance of the Teutonic Order, rebelling against the knights and siding with Poland militarily (see Lizard Union, Prussian Confederation and the Thirteen Years' War).
Era of Ducal and Royal Prussia within Poland and Poland–Lithuania The estates eventually became governed by the Kingdom of Poland. First the western part of Prussia, which became known as Royal Prussia after the Second Peace of Thorn ended the Thirteen Years' War in 1466, and later the eastern lands, known as Ducal Prussia, after the Prussian Homage in 1525, became part of the kingdom.Hajo Holborn, A History of Modern Germany: 1648-1840, Princeton University Press, 1982, , Google Print, p.58 On 10 December 1525 at their session in Königsberg the Prussian estates established the Lutheran Church in Ducal Prussia by deciding the Church Order.Albertas Juška, Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje, Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742–771, here after the German translation Die Kirche in Klein Litauen (section: 2. Reformatorische Anfänge; ) on: Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia, retrieved on 28 August 2011.
Nicolaus Copernicus, then canon of the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, addressed the Prussian estates with three memoranda, in fact little essays,In these essays Copernicus also described, what has been later called Gresham's law by Henry Dunning Macleod. on currency reform.Cf. Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978. Debasements continued to ruin Prussian finances, the groat had been debased by 1/5 to 1/6 of its prior bullion content. In 1517, 1519 and again in 1526 he suggested to return to the law passed in 1418.Nicolaus Copernicus, Monete cudende ratio per Nicolaum Coppernicum (1526), Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 48–67, lines 307–310 and 331–334 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld. However, especially the cities refused that. They had raised most of the funds for the warfare, and now lightened their debt burden by debasing their coinage, thus passing on part of the burden to receivers of nominally fixed revenues, such as civic and ecclesiastical creditors and civic, feudal and ecclesiastical collectors of nominally fixed monetarised dues. So Copernicus' effort failed. At least the estates refused to peg the Prussian currency to the Polish (as proposed by Ludwig Dietz), which even suffered a worse debasement than the Prussian.Cf. Nicolaus Copernicus, "Epistola Consiliariorum Prussie ad Ludouicum Decium Cracouiensem de Ratione restituende monete Pruthenice" (Letter of the councillors of Prussia to Ludwig Dietz from Cracow, concerning the improvement of the Prussian coin) (1526), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 112–123, lines 13-15 of the Latin original as given by Sommerfeld on p. 112 (with German translation on p. 113).
Under Polish sovereignty, Prussians, particularly those from Royal Prussia, saw their liberties confirmed and expanded; local cities prospered economically (Gdańsk became the largest and richest city in the Commonwealth), and local nobility participated in the benefits of Golden Liberty, such as the right to elect the king. Royal Prussia, as a direct part of the Kingdom of Poland (and later Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) had more influence on Polish politics and more privileges than Ducal Prussia, which remained a fief (for example, while nobles from the Royal Prussia had their own sejmiks, Sejm and Senate representatives, those from the Duchy did not). Royal Prussia also had its own parliament, the Prussian Landesrat, although it was partially incorporated into the Commonwealth Sejm after the Union of Lublin, it retained distinct features of Royal Prussia.Karin Friedrich, The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772, Cambridge University Press, 2006, , Google Print, p.31
Local estates sending envoys to Royal Prussia's estates In the following towns local estates used to gather to elect their envoys to Royal Prussia's estates. Człuchów (for the County of Człuchów), two envoys elected, Kowalewo Pomorskie (for the Chełmno Voivodeship), two envoys elected, Malbork (for the Malbork Voivodeship), two envoys elected, Mirachowo (for the County of Mirachowo), two envoys elected, Puck (for the County of Puck), two envoys elected, Starogard Gdański (for the Counties of Gdańsk, Tczew, Nowe, and in 1642–1655 for the Lauenburg and Bütow Land), two envoys elected; in 1642–1655, four envoys elected, Świecie (for the County of Świecie), two envoys elected, Tuchola (for the County of Tuchola), two envoys elected.
Era of the Kingdom of Prussia With the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth waning from the mid-17th century onwards, the Prussian Estates drifted under the influence of the Hohenzollern Electors of Brandenburg, who ruled Ducal Prussia in personal union with Brandenburg from 1618 (first the eastern Duchy of Prussia, sovereign after the Treaty of Wehlau in 1657 and upgraded to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701; then the western Royal Prussia, annexed to the former after the First Partition of Poland in 1772). Under the Hohenzollerns' absolutist rule the power of the Estates increasingly diminished.F. L. Carsten, The New Cambridge Modern History: volume V: the ascendancy of France 1648–88, CUP Archive, 1961, , Google Print, p.549Margaret Shennan, The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia, Routledge, 1995, , Google Print, p.34