38 Wallenstein
Bohemia and Moravia, also ensured that he would recover his confis-
cated properties. He had been a substantial Moravian landowner before,
not as rich as Liechtenstein, Dietrichstein or Zierotin but nevertheless
in the top echelon. By 1621 he was probably significantly richer than
he had been before the revolt, and even if his properties were not yet
fully restored to him and his military profits were mainly in the form
of promissory notes from the Imperial exchequer, they could, given the
right contacts, be used as collateral for future business dealings.
Minting money
Next, although slightly ahead of the chronology, we should look at the
consortium set up to operate the mints and issue coinage in Bohemia,
Moravia and Upper Austria for one year beginning on 1 February
1622.^4 This became a cause célèbre both at the time and in subsequent
histories, and it has been blamed for the inflation of the period, while
the participants were assumed to have made such huge profits that
it provoked an Imperial exchequer investigation into Liechtenstein’s
financial affairs which was still active over 40 years later.^5 The idea was
simple enough and may have originated with Paul Michna, head of the
Bohemian treasury, who himself became a member of the consortium.
With the war continuing the government desperately needed money,
but although profit from minting the coinage was a traditional source of
revenue this was not going well, with silver in short supply and increas-
ing in price in the prevailing inflationary climate. Nor had a series of
debasements (reduction of the silver content of the coins) solved the
problem or assured a steady income. Privatisation, as it became known
in modern times, looked like an answer, contracting out the sourcing of
silver and the minting and issuing of coinage in exchange for guaran-
teed weekly payments to the exchequer. Financiers were found to run
the scheme, the dominant one being Hans de Witte, Bohemia’s lead-
ing banker, working with Jakob Bassevi, a Prague merchant and silver
trader. Impressive names were also required to provide respectability,
contacts and influence, first among them being Liechtenstein, together
with Michna and Wallenstein, then newly appointed as military com-
mandant at Prague. In the shadows behind them were ten others whose
names have not been firmly established, but who were probably well
placed at the Imperial court.
The consortium was certainly not principally responsible for the
notorious and severe inflation of the period, known as the Kipper- und
Wipperzeit. This was already under way long before the consortium was