Making Peace in an Age of War by Mark Hengerer

Author:Mark Hengerer [Hengerer, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781557538444
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Published: 2019-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Silver, Mercury, Subsidies

The spectacle of the miserably equipped Imperial troops played an important role in Sweden’s 1637 decision to prepare another offensive. In contrast to the enemy, Ferdinand III had a notoriously underfunded army of mercenaries. Throughout the hereditary lands, emergency conscription was the exception. Mercenaries, however, understandably did not like to fight on credit but wanted to see cash. As he had practically no war materiel production of his own, the emperor also needed money for weapons, ammunition, horses, clothing, and victuals.31 The economy of the hereditary territories was not strong enough to finance an Imperial war. The so-called Little Ice Age lowered agricultural productivity, while massive forced emigration from Bohemia, Moravia, and Upper Austria as well as the extreme inflation of the 1620s exacerbated the negative military impact on the economy. In the territories occupied or devastated by Sweden (mainly Silesia, northern Moravia, and Bohemia), little remained that could replenish the war chest after 1639. Upper and Lower Austria had been war theaters during the Bohemian-Palatine war; in addition, Upper Austria had suffered greatly during the peasant uprising in 1626. After 1618, only Inner Austria had been spared any military campaigns.

Added to the economic weakness was the fact that Ferdinand III could marshal a large portion of the remaining resources only in the form of securities for loans that could temporarily overcome his liquidity problems. He was forced to obtain credits to bridge the gap between the cash he needed and his expected income from duties, tolls, taxes on salt, beer, and wine as well as appropriations from territorial Diets. The personnel of the court treasury, however, not only came up with expensive cash loans but also had to organize debt service as a socioeconomic power struggle for loan securities. Meanwhile, they did not neglect to enrich themselves.32

Imperial appropriations and Ferdinand III’s own—encumbered—income still were insufficient, and thus his ability to make war depended on Spanish subsidies. These were especially important because the emperor personally assigned them a prominent and salubrious significance in his total financial planning.33 But Spain’s military and economic might collapsed dramatically in 1640 when both Portugal and Catalonia launched wars of secession against Philip IV, the latter with French help. For their part, the United Netherlands attacked Spain in South America and, like England, reduced the flow of American silver to Spain. This flow had ebbed in any case because the most productive Spanish mine in Potosí (today’s Bolivia) required mercury for extracting silver. But the production of mercury was dwindling in South America and fell sharply in 1637/38. Ferdinand III sold mercury to Spain from his Inner Austrian mine at Idira in Carinthia, but such exports could not meet Potosí’s demands. After the fall of Breisach in 1638 and the sinking of a Spanish fleet in the English Channel, supplies both by land and sea were much reduced. In 1640, the United Netherlands took Breda and France took Arras. Between 1635 and 1640, Spain annually provided approximately four million escudos for the army in Flanders; between 1643 and 1648, there were only about two million.

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