1636: The Viennese Waltz

CHAPTER 2

June 1634

Liechtenstein House, outside the Ring of Fire

“It’s a letter from your Uncle Gundaker.” Josef Gandelmo, Karl’s tutor, financial manager, and companion, handed him the letter across the desk.

Karl opened it and read. “The family wants me to increase their allowance.”

“That’s hardly fair, Your Serene Highness.” Josef’s voice held quite a bit of censure, but at least a touch of humor as well. He moved over to the sideboard and gestured to the drink bottles.

Karl shook his head. He still wasn’t happy with the down-time version of Sprite and had never been all that pleased with beer or wine. “I know. But it does seem a bit strange how the world works. Gundaker wants five hundred thousand guilders in silver. Which is insane. Granted, silver is worth more in Vienna. It might even be profitable to ship silver to Vienna and dollars back here. If they had any dollars worth mentioning in Vienna. But they don’t.”

“I suspect His Imperial Majesty is putting considerable pressure on your family and if your family’s access to its wealth is problematical, His Imperial Majesty’s lost two-thirds of his tax base. The wealthier two-thirds,” Josef said.

Karl nodded. “Somehow, I don’t think my neighbors in Grantville are going to be all that thrilled with me if I start sending silver to fund Ferdinand’s armies. For that matter, Wallenstein-who is King Albrecht now-won’t be thrilled and he can cut off access to the better part of my assets. Frankly, it would be better politically if I didn’t have the money. . at least not in cash.”

Josef snorted. “You should do more business with the Barbie Consortium. I’m sure they would be happy to relieve you of your cash. . Ken Doll.”

Karl looked at Josef, then leaned back in his swivel chair and grinned. “You know, that’s not a bad idea.”

“I was joking, Your Serene Highness.”

“I know, but I’m not.” Karl gave Josef a serious look. “Josef, that letter was delayed. I didn’t receive it for at least a week from now. A month would be better. Meanwhile, get in touch with both Judy Wendells, the younger and the elder.”

Seeing his look, he added: “No, Josef, I don’t intend to defy my family and my emperor. But I’m walking a tightrope here, with Ferdinand II on one side and Wallenstein on the other. I can’t send cash. It would raise too many red flags. If I don’t send anything, it will raise red flags on the other side. I will send an authorization for the family to borrow against family assets in Bohemia and Silesia. Those assets will have considerably more value if they are the planned recipients of up-timer sweet corn, new plows, stamp presses, sewing machines, and anything else I can think of or learn from Mrs. Wendell. For the rest, I can’t send it if I don’t have it, and the Barbies might be just the group to invest those funds in ways that will make them temporarily unavailable. Go, Josef. Make your phone calls.”

Wendell Home, Grantville

Judy the Younger, irrepressible as always, said, “I don’t know how you do it. Somehow that outfit works on you.”

Karl smiled, gave her a little bow, and followed her into the living room where her mother and sister waited. She waved him to the couch. Karl was wearing dark-red calfskin riding boots with a bronze down-time made zipper replacing the laces. Zippers had become all the rage since the Ring of Fire; at least, for those who could afford them. Tucked into the boots were dark brown pants with embroidery in red and gold. A white linen shirt was covered by a gold lame waistcoat and a dark green morning coat with the same red and gold embroidery. Both the vest and the morning coat had zippers as well. This was all topped with a beaver cowboy hat, which Karl took off and set on the end table once he was seated.

“So, what’s so important, Prince Karl?” asked Sarah Wendell. She was wearing the down-time version of a woman’s business suit, a divided calf-length skirt and a matching jacket, with a high-collared blouse, all done in various shades of blue.

“I find myself in an unusual position,” Karl admitted. “For complicated reasons, I find it would be much better if I temporarily had a great deal less cash on hand.”

“I have to ask.” Judy the Younger grinned. “What complicated reasons?”

“My uncle wants me to send him five hundred thousand guilder in silver.”

Judy tut-tutted. “You people don’t know anything about money.”

“Be nice, Judy, or I’ll send you to your room,” Judy the Elder told her daughter.

“I note, however,” Karl said, “that you didn’t disagree with her.”

“Well. .”

“It’s perfectly all right. I have come to believe that, to a great extent, our knowledge of money is on a par with our knowledge of medicine.” Karl sighed. “The truth is that three years ago my family knew more, or at least as much, about money and finance as anyone in Europe. And Kipper and Wipper were, I believe, less the result of avarice than of ignorance.”

Judy the Elder was giving Karl what he could only describe as a doubtful look.

“It’s true, ma’am,” Karl said. “I’m not saying that avarice played no role, but my family minted money using less silver and after only a short while, no one trusted it. You people mint money out of no silver and everyone trusts it.”

Sarah cleared her throat. “Ah. . why does your family want you to send them eighteen to twenty million dollars in silver? I mean, well, extravagant lifestyle or not, that’s a lot of money.”

“It’s not lifestyle,” Karl said. “It’s politics. Most of my family’s lands are in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. When Albrecht von Wallenstein declared himself the king of Bohemia, he effectively conquered my family’s lands. We hold those lands in fief from the king of Bohemia.

“King Albrecht must let us collect our rents and taxes from our lands. To do otherwise would be to declare before all the world that he doesn’t respect the rights of his nobles. But, with my uncles in Vienna and serving in Ferdinand II’s court, he is pointing out that he is not required to allow those monies to go to people who are actively at war with him.”

“But you’re not actively at war with him,” Judy the Elder said, nodding.

“Quite right. I am living here in Grantville, a prince in name, but acting as a businessman and not holding any government post for any state. I can collect family rents, tithes and taxes. My uncles can’t, not for lands that are in Bohemia or Silesia. Then there is the matter of my Aunt Beth. She is the duchess of Cieszyn, a duchy in Silesia. Aunt Beth is involved in two lawsuits in the Holy Roman Empire, one with the empire itself and one with my uncle, her husband. Aunt Beth is living in her duchy and daring Uncle Gundaker to come see her there. She appealed to King Albrecht on both cases and he has found for her in both cases. She, in return, has sworn loyalty to King Albrecht.”

“What are the cases about?” Judy the elder asked.

“In a sense both are about her being a woman. There was a privilege granted by King Wladyslaw II Jagiellon to Duke Casimir II of Cieszyn in 1498, under which was secured the female succession over Cieszyn until the fourth generation. Aunt Beth is the fourth generation or her older brother was. Ferdinand II insists that she was disqualified by her gender. The lawsuit with Uncle Gundaker involves the wording of the marriage contract and who is the duke or duchess of those lands. And, as I said, when King Albrecht took Bohemia, she appealed both cases to him as her new liege. Albrecht confirmed her as duchess of Cieszyn. She swore fealty to him and has dropped all persecution of non-Catholics in Cieszyn.”

“Good for her,” Judy the Younger said.

“I agree, though I prefer not to say so in my uncle’s hearing,” Karl said.

“Makes sense. There’s lots of stuff I don’t like to talk about in front of Sarah, because she gets all high and mighty.”

“Judy,” Judy the Elder said, warningly, but Judy the Younger just grinned.

“Still, it seems simple enough,” Sarah said. “You appeal to King Albrecht about your rights and collect your rents.”

“Would that it were so simple. There are other issues. Among them that some of our lands are in the Holy Roman Empire-what’s left of it-and openly giving fealty to King Albrecht would be an act of treason against the empire. Not to mention the fact that both my uncles are in the service of the emperor.”

“Would it be taken that seriously?” Judy the Elder asked. “I’m no historian, but I seem to recall that it was. . is. . pretty standard practice to have part of the family on one side and the other part on the other, to cover all the bets, so to speak.”

“Yes, we do, so to speak, cover all the bets and the kings and emperors know it. But we are expected to be as discreet about it as we can. More importantly, we are expected to pay our taxes. By each side.”

“How unreasonable!” Judy the Younger said. Then laughed.

“My thoughts exactly,” Karl agreed. “Ferdinand is bringing considerable pressure on my family to support the government. And the family, in turn, are asking me to send them the money to do it with. It would be very convenient for me to not have that money available.

“It has always been my intention to invest in the family lands in Bohemia and Silesia. However, my plan was to do it gradually, in a systematic way, once the armies were out of the area. Now I need to rush things a bit and I am in need of advice.”

“What sort of advice?” Judy the Elder asked.

“What should I buy? Who should I buy it from? Understand, it’s not necessary that everything I buy be shipped immediately. In fact, it would be better in some ways if it were delayed. It will be more likely to get there if it waits till some of the armies have moved out of the area. At the same time, I have no desire to spend a great deal of money and then have the company I’m buying these products from go broke.”

“Part of that includes areas where it would be illegal for me to help you,” Mrs. Wendell said. “I can tell you what you need to buy but not which company to buy it from. It’s simply too easy for a conflict of interest to rear its ugly head if I recommend specific companies. This is a case where public officials have to be like Caesar’s wife, because any suspicion that we were endorsing a company for personal gain, or even for the general gain of Grantville, would endanger the whole industrialization project.

“The Grantville Better Business Bureau maintains a list of companies and their reputation. Beyond that, Sarah and Judy can probably tell you quite a bit about the economic health of most of the companies that are likely providers.

“As to what you will need, to a great extent that depends on the situation in Bohemia and Silesia, and that’s getting a bit far afield for my expertise. But, in general, the first issue is transport because good transport makes everything else easier and its lack makes everything else almost impossible. Whether that means Fresno scrapers for improving roads, small steam engines for barges, light rail, even wooden rail to get you through the next few years till you can replace it with steel, depends on your terrain and situation. There are also issues of where the roads should go, which depends on your relations with the neighboring landlords. It’s not going to do you that much good to put in a road if the goods are going to be stopped at the border anyway.”

“I’ve been corresponding with King Albrecht and he is supportive of the idea of improvements and so are the Roths,” Karl said. “Silesia is a little more complicated. Well. . difficult. I will have to convince Aunt Beth that I am not building roads to help my uncle invade.”

“Is your uncle really likely to invade?”

“Not really, but it was a political marriage and was never a happy one,” Karl admitted. He suspected-but didn’t say-that the Wendell women would see what had happened back then as church-sanctioned rape. He was starting to look at it that way himself. In any case, it had left Aunt Beth with a distrust of the church and of men. At this point, after her duchy had been overrun by Protestant Danes, Aunt Beth had little faith in any confession and still less faith in men. But that wasn’t something he wanted to get into with the Wendell women. Instead he continued. “The goal of both families was to unite the lands in Silesia, or at least most of them, under one rule.” Actually, at this point Karl was pretty sure that the whole thing was a put-up job and an attempted land grab on the part of his family. But he wasn’t going to say that either. “But my Uncle Gundaker is very dedicated to the Catholic faith, and interpreted the marriage to mean that Aunt Beth’s lands were now his.”

“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.

“Instruction sets,” Sarah Wendell said out of the blue. “There are a lot of things that you can build with nothing but instruction sets, even simple steam engines. And even more that you can build using a few components and forms. It will be slower and more expensive, but it will get you started.”

“Yes. I’ve already done some of that,” Karl acknowledged. “I’d like to do more but I’m not sure what needs to be done.”

“So set up the Bohemia and Silesia Advancement Corporation,” Sarah said. “Hire some researchers-all sorts of researchers-and put together a prototyping and testing shop. Then have them come up with cheat sheets specific to your family’s lands in Bohemia and Silesia. What sort of natural resources are there?”

“Quite a bit of coal and copper. According to the encyclopedias, and from our experience as well.”

“So, coking plants to get you coke, coal tar and all sorts of stuff. You have the foamed rosin process for making copper and bronze parts. Copper wire for electricity, coal for steam to generate the electricity. Which gives you electrolytic refining.”

“That’s very good, but it will take time to set up.”

“Yes. But not necessarily to pay for. If you pay in advance by funding the company and moving the money out of your accounts to the company’s, you give the company a sound financial footing and it will be better able to hire people,” Sarah said. “And skilled people are harder and harder to find. The pros can mostly write their own ticket.”

“Which gives you an excellent reason for not pulling the money out, because to pull the money out so soon would destroy confidence in the company,” Judy the Younger said. “You want an up-timer on the board, for confidence,” she added in a thoughtful voice. “It can’t be Mom or Dad. They work for the government. And it can’t be Sarah, because she’s going to work for the Fed as soon as she graduates. That just leaves me.” Judy smiled brightly.

“Better would be David Bartley or the Partow twins,” Sarah said repressively. “Even better than that would be Mr. Marcantonio or one of the up-time teachers at the high school. I doubt you can get Mr. Reardon or anyone like that. Aside from the public relations aspect, having an up-timer, especially one with a somewhat technical background, will be a help in terms of telling what can and can’t be done.”

“Only if they’re balanced by down-timers with technical know how,” Judy the Elder said. “One thing we have consistently underestimated is what down-time craftsmen can do.”

“And don’t think we aren’t aware of that.” Karl smiled. “Aside from farming and mining, what would you suggest as the best options?”

“Upgrades in the manufacture of things you’re already producing should come first. Basically, labor-saving devices for small shops. Stamp presses and steam hammers for blacksmiths. Sewing machines for tailors. One of the most important things that does is free up labor for new types of work while increasing your productivity. Freeze dryers, and canning plants for the preservation of foods, so that you lose less of your farming output to spoilage. Both of which will help you avoid inflation.”

“Don’t forget consumer goods,” Judy the Younger added. “Like grooming kits.”

“Grooming kits?” Karl asked. “And why consumer goods?”

“Little pouches or folders that have stuff like fingernail and toenail clippers, nail files, combs, or brushes and maybe a little mirror. Grooming stuff. Why, is because you need to build a consumer base. You need things that are small enough for people to buy, and stuff they will use. Grooming kits in particular, because good grooming is important to how others see you and how you feel about yourself.”

“And because the Barbies have an interest in a company that makes grooming kits,” Sarah added with a look at her sister. Judy the Younger just grinned like an imp. And Karl laughed out loud.

* * *

Over the next week the Liechtenstein Industrialization Corporation was formed. The LIC charter had lots of high-sounding rhetoric in it and was officially a nonprofit, which had some tax advantages. It really was a nonprofit. Karl and the family would get their profits on the other end, in increased pieces of the action from the new companies it would help to form and finance. The slogan “with a lic and a promise” was considered for the company but rejected as soon as Karl found out what it meant. It struck just too close to home.

Karl talked to the local Abrabanel representatives about what the LIC was designed to do and how it might be expected to increase revenues in Liechtenstein lands over the next few years by fostering industrial development using up-timer knowledge. He specifically asked that the information be forwarded to the Abrabanel representatives in Vienna.

Then he wrote back to his Uncle Gundaker.

I’m sorry, Uncle, but you’re catching me at an inopportune time. I have learned from my stay here that if our properties are not upgraded, the incomes they generate over the next several years will be diminished as they are forced to compete with up-timer influenced lands that produce more for less.

In order to avoid that, I have created the Liechtenstein Industrialization Corporation to introduce up-timer techniques into our lands. While the initial costs of such a program are quite high, in the long run they will much more than pay for themselves. For the moment, however, we are in the expensive part of the proposition and it will be a few years before returns outpace investment.

I have talked to the local Abrabanel representative and he concurs that should the investments I have been making continue, the income derived from our lands should double, at the least, over the next decade or so. However, should I pull the funds already allocated to that endeavor, confidence in that increase would be drastically diminished. Based on that assessment, I am authorizing you to borrow funds up to two hundred thousand Holy Roman guilder at a rate of interest not to exceed six percent annually, secured by the income from our lands in Bohemia and Silesia. I’m sorry it’s not all you asked for and that I must limit the interest to six percent to secure the family’s ability to repay the loans.

There is considerable coal under our lands, Uncle, enough to support a strong and profitable industrial development. To facilitate that development, one of the most important of the general improvements is a wooden rail railroad from Opole to Vienna. This will connect Vienna to the Oder by rail and hence to the Baltic by a combination of rail and river. It will also provide our lands ready access to markets from the Baltic to the Black Sea, politics allowing.

I don’t expect the wooden rails to last long, five to ten years I am told, depending on many factors. However, I consider them an important stopgap measure to facilitate trade until we can develop iron and steel industries and replace the wooden rails with steel. I have written your good wife to ask her authority to facilitate the road in Silesia and hope that you and Uncle Maximillian will use your influence with His Imperial Majesty to facilitate its approval between the border of Silesia and Vienna.

Karl knew that his Uncle Gundaker wasn’t going to be thrilled with his letter. Especially the part where he mentioned that he was appealing directly to Aunt Beth. Also, Gundaker wasn’t going to be all that thrilled with the limits of two hundred thousand guilder and a maximum interest of six percent. Inflation was rearing its ugly head in the USE, but for the most part it had been put off on other currencies, including HRE guilders which were still circulating in the USE. The silver ones, anyway. People were anxious to get American dollars because they were anxious to have what American dollars could buy-or at least that was how it had started. By now, almost everyone in the USE just trusted American dollars. However, the HRE didn’t have that advantage. There were things that you could buy with the HRE guilder more readily than with other currencies, but not nearly as many of them. Besides, HRE guilders based their value on the silver content, and silver had been dropping against the American dollar since the dollar’s introduction. The HRE was suffering stagflation, because imports from the USE were expensive, but sought after. Karl was right about his Uncle Gundaker’s reaction to his letter. In fact, he underestimated the case by a considerable margin.