CHAPTER SIX
In Search of Old Fritz
Now that we have spent so long in Frederick's company, we need not
be surprised at the ways in which he responded to the sudden
relaxation of the stresses of wartime. Once he had alleviated the
immediate hardships of the people of Berlin, he returned to Sans Souci
to rejoice in the daily transformation that spring was working in the
face of nature. In the middle of May 1763 he visited the former theatre
of war against the Russians in the Neumark and Pomerania, but he
was overcome by a physical collapse so complete that he had to be
driven around in a carriage. It seemed scarcely possible that he had
more than a short span of life left to him.
Frederick's labours to make good the ravages of war have been
given the general title the Rttablissement. This process ranged from
the rebuilding of damaged houses and farm buildings (12,000-14,500
by the end of 1766) to the reform of the debased currency, the
restocking of the fields with cattle, experiments in agricultural
improvements, and the peaceful conquest of internal colonisation.
Up to 500,000 souls had died or fled from Prussia during the war,
which was a severe diminution in a population of only some
4,500,000. Foreign immigration made up for less than 60,000 of the
losses, but a disproportion of 30 per cent in births over deaths made
Prussia the fastest-growing state in Germany in terms of population,
and helped to bring the total up to 5,430,000 by 1786.
It is not altogether easy to determine the purpose and character
ofth eRetablissment (for a modern estimate see Johnson, 1975). If the
coal and iron industry in Upper Silesia grew significantly from 1777,
the manufactures and trade as a whole languished, thanks to the
system of monopolies and the duties on exports - 'a piece of wrong
politics of so flagrant a nature, that would make one think his
abilities were those of a warrior alone' (Marshall, 1772, III, 274).
Frederick looked upon industry, as much as anything else, as a means
of keeping people at work, and he regarded taxation primarily as a
regulator of the economy (Zottmann, 1937, 167). In fact most of the
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