Michael Hochedlinger, Anton Tantner, eds. ”der groÃ?te Teil der Untertanen lebt elend und muhselig”: Die Berichte des
Hofkriegrates zur sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Lage der Habsburgermonarchie 1770-1771. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag,
2005. 184 pp. EUR 43.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-7065-4154-1.
Reviewed by Christopher Storrs (Department of History, University of Dundee)
Published on H-German (January, 2007)
Enlightened Despotism, Security, Investigation and Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy under Maria Theresa
and Joseph II
Under Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph II, and with
the support of a number of key ministers, the chief of
whom was Wenzel Anton, Graf Kaunitz, the second half
of the eighteenth century witnessed profound changes in
the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. Historians have debated the impulses behind the reforms, their impact and
the extent to which the “enlightened despotism” those
reforms are sometimes thought to reflect was about genuinely enlightened, humanitarian improvement or, as Peter Dickson has suggested, simply about state formation
and improving the defensive capacity of the Austrian
Habsburg monarchy in an age in which its very existence
was at stake.
mand for military manpower in the Seven Years War necessitated greater reliance on traditional recruiting by the
estates, but exposed again some fundamental weaknesses
of that method. The sheer loss of men prompted a desperate search for more troops, while the annual quota,
40,000 men in the last year of the war, proved a major
challenge.
Inevitably, Maria Theresa and her ministers looked
around for models for how to solve their recruitment difficulties. One of the most obvious was the canton system
of the monarchy’s chief opponent, Prussia. Almost ten
years of debate over the issue ensued in 1761. In favor
of the “Prussian” model were Count Franz Moritz Lacy,
president of the Aulic War Council, and Joseph II. Their
chief opponent was Kaunitz, who opposed conscription
on the grounds of both his hostility to Prussian military
despotism and the harmful economic consequences of
such a move, which were further bolstered by his belief that the real shortcoming of the monarchy’s military
was poor leadership rather than recruitment. In the end,
Kaunitz had to give way and in the spring of 1770 a Konskription, or census, which included everything from traditional household statistics to the recording of draughtanimals that might be used in wartime, was decreed. The
operation was carried out in tandem by military officers
and civil servants.The population was not only counted,
but was also classified in order to ensure that only those
men would be called up whose absence would not be
disruptive. There were therefore many exemptions. It
Among the many reforms that, at least superficially,
seem to fit into the latter category was the introduction
of conscription from 1770-71 in the monarchy’s hereditary lands and the monarchy’s apparent “militarization.”
This move represented the culmination of the reorganization of the monarchy’s military institutions, which
had been triggered by the disappointing performance of
Maria Theresa’s armed forces in the War of the Austrian Succession.[1] In 1748, the Austro-Bohemian estates agreed to a substantial increase in their military tax
contribution in return for being relieved of their traditional obligations to recruit and supply the army. Unfortunately, the new system proved less than effective,
prompting a gradual return to the pre-1748 system of
obligatory service, a development that triggered the first
attempt at a census in 1753-54. The equally pressing de-
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took some time to implement the new scheme: it was
not until 1781 that the thirty-seven Austro-Bohemian infantry regiments could be assigned their recruiting districts and the new Konskriptions- und Werbbezirkssystem
became effective. In addition, the Austrian Habsburg
army continued to rely on the recruitment of foreigners. Nevertheless, the monarchy’s recruitment system
had been substantially overhauled in the hereditary lands
and was subsequently extended to the other provinces of
the monarchy.
troduction in which Hochedlinger and Tantner, authorities in the fields of the monarchy’s military experience
and census taking respectively, discuss and explain the
background of the Konskription. Besides placing the entire episode in context, the editors’ introductory material
also prompts some thoughts regarding the process of reform in the monarchy, its inspiration and impact. The
apparent or supposed tension between enlightened reform and state formation can often be a false one. The
Anmerkungen reflect an interest on the part of the authorities, as identified in the specific points on which inforIn its essentials this story has long been fairly fa- mation was required, in the conditions of the population
miliar to historians and has been outlined for Englishbeing counted, and certainly does a great deal to bring
language readers by Franz Szabo and even more rethese to light. The Konskription collected a great deal of
cently, in briefer fashion, by Michael Hochedlinger.[2] data useful to the economic and social historian of the
The present volume is essentially a bringing together of monarchy. This material may have inspired some subsethe so-called Politische Anmerkungen, what were in ef- quent measures to protect the monarchy’s subjects, who
fect summaries of the detailed findings of the censuses were, after all, those it must rely on for its future defense.
carried out in the nine territories affected by the decree
In that sense, measures aimed at improving the welfare
of 1770, which included Silesia, Steiermark, Carinthia,
of those subjects could equally promote the interests and
Krain, Gorz-Gradisca, Bohemia, Moravia, Upper Austria security of the monarchy on the international stage. Huand Lower Austria, and were written at the end of 1770 in manitarianism and state formation were compatible and
response to a request from the Aulic War Council. Some not necessarily competing in the impressive reform proof these Anmerkungen have already been published, but gram of Maria Theresa and Joseph II.
not all. The collection is therefore extremely useful in
making available the entire collection. No doubt reflectNotes
ing the relative size, population and wealth of the dif[1]. For what follows, see Michael Hochedlinger,
ferent territories, the extent or volume of the individAustria’s
Wars of Emergence 1683-1797 (London: Longual Anmerkungen varies considerably. Surviving informan,
2003).
mation for the monarchy of Silesia occupies fewer than
eight printed pages, whereas that for Bohemia fills forty[2]. Franz Szabo, Kaunitz and Enlightened Abfive.
solutism 1753-1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
The Anmerkungen are here preceded by a lengthy in- Press, 1994); Hochedlinger, Austria’s Wars of Emergence.
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Citation: Christopher Storrs. Review of Hochedlinger, Michael; Tantner, Anton, eds., ”der groÃ?te Teil der Untertanen
lebt elend und muhselig”: Die Berichte des Hofkriegrates zur sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Lage der Habsburgermonarchie 1770-1771. H-German, H-Net Reviews. January, 2007.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12805
Copyright © 2007 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for
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