Eric Flint: 1636: The Viennese Waltz

“What about you?” Sarah asked. “About the church, I mean.”

“I was much as my uncle,” Karl admitted. “And in a way I still am. But the Ring of Fire is its own holy writ. God-” Karl looked at Judy the Younger and grinned. “-or little green men if you insist, brought a town from the future and didn’t choose a Catholic town. Anyway, Aunt Beth was always. . ah. . iffy. . about her Catholicism and the enforcement. Besides, she figures she is the ruling duchess and Uncle Gundaker figures he is the man and therefore the head of the woman.”

Sarah and both Judys snorted and made various comments about that.

Karl held up his hands and said, “I surrender, I surrender! Come, ladies, it’s not my fault! But Elisabeth Lukretia von Teschen’s lawsuits against Uncle Gundaker and the Holy Roman Empire were in the courts since her brother’s death, until King Albrecht went ahead and confirmed her and her line as the proper heirs to the duchy. In response, though, the HRE found against her and is now claiming the duchy as part of the Habsburg lands. So Aunt Beth is not at all trusting of anything coming out of Vienna. Absent a railroad, she is in Silesia and any attempt to push her would have to go through King Albrecht’s armies. Add in a railroad, and they can take a train right to her doorstep.”

* * *

It turned into quite an interesting evening. Surveying equipment and surveyors came up, and Judy the Younger confirmed that Sonny Fortney had worked as a railroad surveyor, as well as a bunch of other things since the Ring of Fire. Micro-financing and micro-industry the way Boot’s Bank in Magdeburg operated were discussed, where to put it and how to set it up. They talked about the things the up-timers had gotten right and the things they had gotten wrong. Local banking and investment could be better done by buying the equipment to set up micro industries, then reselling them to individuals and groups in his lands, either for a share of the business or on credit.

“Don’t try introducing your own money, Karl,” Judy the Younger said. “No one will take it.”

“Judy!” Sarah complained. “There’s no reason to be rude.”

“You said it yourself,” Judy said.

Karl had felt his face go a little stiff when Judy made that comment. Not because it was a surprise, but because it wasn’t. “No, she’s quite right,” he forced himself to say. “I know that my family’s reputation is not good when it comes to the issuing of money.”

“It’s not that we don’t trust you, Prince Karl.” Sarah flushed a little. “The fact is that full faith and credit isn’t dependent on any one person, but on how most people will see the thing. I believe you about what happened in Kipper and Wipper, but my belief won’t make your money good. Besides your territory is too small. . well, I think it’s too small. . to be issuing its own currency.”

“When taken altogether, it’s actually about the size of Saxony. But it’s not all in one place. . or, at this point, even all in one country.”

“That seems like enough territory,” Sarah conceded, “but didn’t you tell me something about it not qualifying as noble lands?”

“Imperial immediacy,” Karl explained. “The princely title is a court title, so it doesn’t involve rulership over any lands. We hold quite a bit of land and often enough we’re the local government, collecting both rent and taxes. Both landlords and lords. However, those lands aren’t held directly from the emperor. Instead some are in fief from the king of Bohemia, some from the king of Austria, and some from the king of Hungary.

“Isn’t Ferdinand II the king of Austria and Hungary?” Sarah asked. “I mean, it’s the same guy, right?”

“Actually, he’s the king of Austria and the king of Hungary and the Holy Roman Emperor, plus other stuff. Yes, it’s the same guy, but he’s legally different people. And the only one who matters for a seat in the Council of Princes is the Holy Roman Emperor. Whereas all our lands are held in fief from someone who isn’t the Holy Roman Emperor.”

“Does that mean that Wallenstein is entitled to a seat in the Council of Princes?”

“Well, it would if he swore fealty to Ferdinand II. Of course, the first thing Ferdinand II would do is order him to execute himself for treason. I don’t see him doing that anytime soon.

“But it doesn’t matter. I would have to apply to both King Albrecht and King Ferdinand II for permission to issue currency. Besides, the point of this evening is to remove money from the accounts, not add it.”

“In that case, as we said before, buy equipment and sell it on credit rather than simply giving loans,” said Judy the Elder.

This would tie up his money quite well and had the added advantage of making corruption rather more difficult. If he just gave out the money, some people were going to take it and run. That had happened to the up-timers more than once as they tried to get the New U.S. industry going. If he gave them the equipment, they would at least have to find a buyer for it before running off with the money. Of course, it wouldn’t prevent some thief in Silesia from taking his stuff and running into Poland hoping for a better deal. So shipping equipment rather than sending money was no replacement for due diligence.

Sarah and Judy had opinions about who he should buy from, which businesses were stable enough to provide the goods he would be ordering for delivery over the next year or so.

“Unfortunately,” Karl said, “the Oder is the only major river into Silesia. It runs through Brandenburg.”

“And that’s a problem?” Judy the Younger asked.

Karl blinked. Judy was a very clever girl, but she had some blind spots. Anything farther than Magdeburg might as well be in China. “Brandenburg is ruled by Emperor Gustav’s brother-in-law, Frederic William. The one who, along with John George of Saxony, refused to come to Gustav Adolf’s aid when he was attacked by France and the League of Ostend.”

“We trade with France, for goodness sake,” said Judy.

“True enough. But Fredric William has decided that, since he is not part of the USE, he is under no obligation to allow free trade with the provinces of the USE. As usual, he is in need of money. This time to hire an army to hold his brother-in-law at bay. So, his tariffs on goods from the USE are quite high. And that’s how things are going to remain, until Gustav gets around to dealing with his recalcitrant relative.”

The Bohemian situation was a bit better. Bohemia had a border with the USE, but it was a long slog over bad roads. The main river corridors in Bohemia flowed through Saxony, which John George would no doubt find a major headache when Gustav got around to him. And Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein, having studied war under his father and uncles and having lived in Grantville, was quite confident that Gustav would sooner or later be free to deal with both of them. Which belief failed to fill Karl with joy. If he honestly thought there was anything he could do to restore the Holy Roman Empire, he’d do it. But he didn’t think that. He didn’t see a damned thing anyone could do to stop the Swede-or Wallenstein, for that matter. And if some of the things that the Vatican II conference had said about freedom of conscience and the importance of respecting other faiths were true, then God didn’t want the HRE restored. If the Good Lord didn’t want conversion by the sword, the HRE had been doing it wrong. But that wasn’t all the Holy Roman Empire did. It also protected Europe from being forced away from Christianity itself. . to Islam.

Anyway. . Karl pulled his thoughts away from that over-trodden path, back to the matter at hand. For right now it was going to be almost impossible to ship large stocks of goods to Silesia or even Bohemia. Small things were not that much of an issue, but caravans of goods would never get to their destination, or would get there with half their goods gone as tolls.