The Great Elector, Taxes and the Rise of Prussia

When Frederick William came to rule the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the realm he inherited was in a deplorable state: during the Thirty Years’ War, half the population had died – from starvation, disease and the cruelty of Swedish soldiers. Depending on the region, 15 to 85% of the farms lay fallow and the formerly proud cities had lost up to two thirds of their inhabitants.

1639 medal by Sebastian Dadler. Rare. Very fine. Estimate: 1,500 euros. From Künker auction 401 (5/6 February 2024), No. 1641.

A Land in Ruins

Of course, Frederick William’s subjects longed for peace. And they yearned for a ruler who would effectively protect them against any threat from the outside. After all, this was where George William, the father of Frederick William, had utterly failed. Since 1639, the latter had lived safely with his crown prince in the Prussian city of Königsberg and thus far away from Brandenburg. The citizens of Königsberg commissioned Sebastian Dadler to create a medal in 1639 to express their hopes. The reverse depicted the personification of peace (Pax) in front of a map of the Duchy of Prussia. The translation of the inscription reads: This is how I, peaceful Borussia, am worshipped, for I have been given golden peace as an exquisite gift from heaven. However, there was still no talk of peace when George William died in 1640 and Frederick William took over the rule at the age of 20.

1641 taler, Berlin. Rare. Very fine to extremely fine. Estimate: 1,500 euros. From Künker auction 400 (1 February 2024), No. 76.

Soldiers, Taxes and How This Related to Administration

The main reason for Brandenburg’s terrible fate was the fact that it had no standing army of its own. Thus, it could not effectively oppose anyone who used its territory as a base for their troops and fed their soldiers “off the land”. Local militias were out of their depth. Frederick William decided to raise a standing army instead. But this was expensive, and his tax system anything but sound.

After all, income taxes in today’s sense of the word did not exist in the early modern period. Instead, rulers derived their revenue from the yield of their estates and the income from state privileges. One of these privileges was the right to mint coins. Every ruler received a share of the seigniorage, i.e., the amount left after deducting material and production costs from a coin’s face value. However, all electoral sources of income combined added to merely ten million talers a year. And these resources had to be sufficient to fund not only the court but also the administration of the entire state. Such a meagre annual budget simply was not enough to afford a powerful standing army.

The traditional solution was to negotiate with the members of the Diets of the various parts of his realm in times of war. They were obliged to co-finance the realm’s defense. However, it was not specified to what extent, so the issue was hotly debated in times of need. And this process took time. By the time they had finally made up their minds, collected the taxes and raised an army, the enemy had long invaded the territory.

Great Britain. Gaming tokens with the portrait of Charles I, n.d. (1625-1628). Very fine. Estimate: 50 euros. From Künker auction 401 (5/6 February 2024), No. 1100.

Instead, Frederick William forced his citizens to pay annual taxes to fund the military. Of course, his subjects were not happy about this. Once again, there were heated debates. The city of Kleve even threatened Frederick William to suffer the same fate as Charles I of England (fig. 4), who had been executed by his Parliament – the English equivalent to the German Diet.

But Frederick William held his ground. And, eventually, they reached an agreement. However, in order to collect the new military taxes and administer the budged, his realm was in need of a completely new authority. Following the French model, Frederick William installed a General War Commissariat in the April of 1655. What had been devised as a temporary body developed into an essential pillar of Brandenburg-Prussia’s fiscal administration.

Detail of a flintlock musket. The then ultra-modern mechanism abolished the need to use a fuse to ignite the gunpowder. Of course, the muskets of soldiers were not as splendidly worked as this musket from the armory of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

What You Can Do If You Do Not Collect Enough Tax

Frederick William’s army grew quickly. While he had 3,000 soldiers at his disposal in 1641/2, there were as many as 8,000 between 1643 and 1646, 25,000 during the First Northern War and as many as 38,000 in the Franco-Dutch War. The Franco-Dutch War was fought between the Netherlands and France, so it is reasonable to wonder why Frederick William needed so many soldiers for a war that did not concern him.

Once again this was about finances. Even high taxes were not enough to fund a standing army of the scale that Frederick William had in mind. As a young adult, Frederick William had spent many years in the Netherlands and wanted to have the modern equipment he had seen there. No more pikes! No more matchlock firearms! He wanted flintlocks. These weapons used a flint to ignite the gunpowder, which drastically increased the rate of fire and their reliability.

Speaking of artillery – these were the weapons of the future! Frederick William switched to standardized guns instead of carrying separate ammunition for every cannon.

The elector founded a school for cadets to standardize the training of officers. But he also made sure that soldiers were paid regularly and cared for when they retired or became disabled. The soldiers were content under his rule, as evidenced by the low number of desertions.