Richer Than All His Tribe 51programme in such a short time and in spite of his military commit-
ments, a success which must have relied in considerable measure on
his judgement in finding men of ability whom he could trust, and his
willingness to delegate power to them to act as his agents.
If his achievement still seems difficult to comprehend it is worth
noting that others have done similar things in more recent times when
unique opportunities have arisen. The Gettys, father and son, recog-
nised key points in the development of oil, first as a new commodity
and then as the basis of the world’s biggest industry. Both quickly
became super-rich, and the son, John Paul Getty I, went on to become
the richest man in the world. However the most comparable exam-
ple dates from the 1990s after the collapse of the Communist bloc
in Eastern Europe, which was followed by a massive sell-off of state-
owned property, of which the present author had first-hand experience
in what used to be East Germany. A number of super-rich individuals
have subsequently emerged, particularly in the countries of the former
Soviet Union.
There was, however, a Faustian twist, as in exchange for his new
wealth Wallenstein found himself bound irrevocably to Ferdinand.
Should the emperor lose in the continuing conflict, or even emerge
less than totally successful, a principal condition of any settlement was
bound to be the recovery of their lands by the dispossessed Bohemians.
Wallenstein and the other purchasers would then in turn be dispos-
sessed, and while they might have a claim on the Imperial treasury to
recover what they had paid the chances of securing settlement from this
perennially bankrupt source in the wake of a lost war would be slim. The
alternatives for Wallenstein were simple but stark: victory for Ferdinand
or total ruin for him. Still worse, his salvation depended on the emperor
not only winning but making a sustainable peace thereafter, something
which Ferdinand was to prove unable or unwilling to do. The resulting
dilemma is the key to understanding the rest of Wallenstein’s life, and
indeed his death.