354. Richer Than All His Tribe
(Othello)
When Wallenstein clattered into Vienna with the contents of the
Olmütz treasury in May 1619 he was himself, if not penniless, certainly
landless, apparently with little more to his name than his investment
in his new regiment. Less than five years later he was in the super-rich
class, the largest landowner in Bohemia and one of the wealthiest men
in the Empire. The fortune acquired in this period was the basis of his
future success, as it gave him the means to raise, finance and supply
armies, to raise further credit, and in turn to extend credit on a vast
scale to his massively indebted emperor. How he achieved this is a
question which has excited much interest, although without producing
definitive answers, and this in turn has prompted speculation that it
must have been by dubious means. Examination of the subject is there-
fore necessary, but it is also undeniably complicated, so that readers of
a financially nervous disposition may wish to skip this chapter.
If the answers are not clear the fault is probably not Wallenstein’s.
His approach to business was orderly and methodical, as is evident
from the detailed records and extensive correspondence which have
survived both from his career as a general and from the administration
of his lands and properties. On the other hand there are large gaps, and
documents covering key aspects of his life have disappeared without
trace. For example in June 1631 Wallenstein had some five hundred
important papers catalogued in Prague and then despatched for safe
keeping in the vaults of one of his castles in Bohemia. The documents
themselves have vanished but the register has survived, among the
items it lists being an official receipt for a very large loan, three and
a half million gulden, which Wallenstein advanced to the emperor in
January 1623.^1 Some of the files may simply have disappeared through
the accidents of history, but it seems likely that many were deliberately