The crisis of wine production in late sixteenth-century Central Europe: Climatic causes and economic consequences

From the mid-1580s wine production all over Central Europe dropped to a low level that was maintained beyond the turn of the century. This is concluded on the basis of four series of wine production from Lower Austria, Western Hungary, Wurttemberg, and the region surrounding the lake of Zurich (Switzerland) for the period 1550-1630. This long sequence of crop failures is related to a temperature decline in all seasons, particularly in winter, affecting Europe north of the Alps. The economic, social and political consequences of this climatic "gearshift" are investigated from the example of Lower Austria. It is shown that it had far-reaching effects for major social groups depending on the wine economy and the revenues of the Habsburg crown.