I'm getting closer to being able to participate in salon again--maybe next weekend?
Also, as you could deduce from my total silence, I did not receive any Peter Keith papers in time for my 3-day weekend, even though I sent the bank transfer on Tuesday and it should have arrived by Thursday. :( Hopefully this coming week!
Anyway, I am here just to report that it seems you and I owe the MT miniseries yet another apology, selenak. Remember this?
Somewhat frustratingly, they keep inventing marriage drama for MT and FS, and this installment's most baffling invention is that in order to come up with money for his beloved's army, Franzl secretly through free mason intermediaries sells army equipment to Fritz (who has the money to pay for it). I kept waiting for the material to be at least faulty or something, but no, the scriptwriters actually seem to think this was a viable scheme to make some cash through which the Austrian army can be funded. They never bother to explain why on earth if Franz Stephan can get his hands on all the textiles and gunpowder he can't equip the Austrian army with it directly. They also present MT as being in the wrong at being upset about this when eventually she finds out. You think?
Well, I'm reading a biography of FS, Und sitzet zur linken Hand, on which more on another occasion, and it says:
Eduard Vehse reports in his history of the Austrian court and nobility: "...The emperor finally took up supplying too. He took over the delivery of the uniforms, weapons, horses and outfits for the entire imperial army. In fact, during the Seven Years' War he repeatedly took over the delivery of provisions, horse feed, and flour for the army of the King of Prussia, i.e. his wife's hereditary enemy, at the most extortionate prices, at which Maria Theresa, when she found out, had to express surprise."
Also King Frederick II remarks caustically in his history of the Seven Years' War: "During the war, the prince consort, Emperor Franz, supplied friend and foe alike with ammunition and food..."
It seems like they changed which war it was, and I don't know if freemason intermediaries were involved, but the basic premise the screenwriters did not invent. I guess this falls under things you couldn't make up!
The "extortionate prices" makes more sense of it: if the Austrians had access to enough food, and FS could make a huge profit, the Austrians could use that profit to supply and pay their own soldiers. And the reason Fritz could afford extortionate prices was because he was exploiting Saxony and debasing the Saxon-Polish currency!
Money-making schemes
Also, as you could deduce from my total silence, I did not receive any Peter Keith papers in time for my 3-day weekend, even though I sent the bank transfer on Tuesday and it should have arrived by Thursday. :( Hopefully this coming week!
Anyway, I am here just to report that it seems you and I owe the MT miniseries yet another apology,
Somewhat frustratingly, they keep inventing marriage drama for MT and FS, and this installment's most baffling invention is that in order to come up with money for his beloved's army, Franzl secretly through free mason intermediaries sells army equipment to Fritz (who has the money to pay for it). I kept waiting for the material to be at least faulty or something, but no, the scriptwriters actually seem to think this was a viable scheme to make some cash through which the Austrian army can be funded. They never bother to explain why on earth if Franz Stephan can get his hands on all the textiles and gunpowder he can't equip the Austrian army with it directly. They also present MT as being in the wrong at being upset about this when eventually she finds out. You think?
Well, I'm reading a biography of FS, Und sitzet zur linken Hand, on which more on another occasion, and it says:
Eduard Vehse reports in his history of the Austrian court and nobility: "...The emperor finally took up supplying too. He took over the delivery of the uniforms, weapons, horses and outfits for the entire imperial army. In fact, during the Seven Years' War he repeatedly took over the delivery of provisions, horse feed, and flour for the army of the King of Prussia, i.e. his wife's hereditary enemy, at the most extortionate prices, at which Maria Theresa, when she found out, had to express surprise."
Also King Frederick II remarks caustically in his history of the Seven Years' War: "During the war, the prince consort, Emperor Franz, supplied friend and foe alike with ammunition and food..."
It seems like they changed which war it was, and I don't know if freemason intermediaries were involved, but the basic premise the screenwriters did not invent. I guess this falls under things you couldn't make up!
The "extortionate prices" makes more sense of it: if the Austrians had access to enough food, and FS could make a huge profit, the Austrians could use that profit to supply and pay their own soldiers. And the reason Fritz could afford extortionate prices was because he was exploiting Saxony and debasing the Saxon-Polish currency!