DIPLOMACY IN POLAND-LITHUANIA 295
sign of change came in 1671 when a Muscovite envoy made his entry into
Warsaw in the King's carriage. In 1677, the papal Nuncio, looking for
Muscovite support against the Turks, asked John Sobieski to recognize the title
of 'Tsar'. It was, he explained, 'a barbarian name' like that of 'Sheriff among
the Arabs, or of 'Sophie' in Persia. Yet the officials of the Republic were still
keeping to the formula of 'Tres Puissante Souveraine Tsarine, Grande Duchesse
de Moscou' in the mid-eighteenth century. They finally capitulated in 1764 to
the combined bullying of Catherine and Frederick of Prussia, who imposed
their respective titles on a helpless Sejm as a symbol of political defeat.
Diplomacy, of course, costs money. In the Republic it was paid for from state
taxation. The costs were shared out in the ratio of roughly two-thirds from the
Kingdom and one-third from the Grand Duchy. The decline of the central trea-
sury was an obvious cause of waning diplomatic energy. Contrary to some
accounts, however, Polish diplomats were not starved of their expenses, and it
was not for financial reasons alone that diplomacy fell into the hands of the mag-
nates. It is true that the cumbersome machinery of the Sejm often caused delay,
but recent studies show that even during the Swedish wars expenses did get paid,
and paid in full. An ambassador's expenses could be enormous, and methods of
payment were often tortuous. Dantyszek's expenses for his stay in Madrid
between 1524 and 1530 were paid partly via the Treasurer of the Queen's Duchy
of Bari, partly through a loan from the Fuggers in Venice. They included 100
ducats a month from Bari for his upkeep, plus 500 florins for the journey.
Although he spent 318 ducats on the way from Cracow to Madrid, he was soon
deep in debt, having paid 1,000 ducats as an inducement to the imperial chancel-
lor, Gatinara, to fix the Neapolitan succession in Poland's favour. In the seven-
teenth century, sums like this would have looked paltry. In 1672, for example, the
Sejm reimbursed 53,000 zl. to Gninski for his recent mission to Moscow, and
134,000 zl. to Radziejowski for his embassy to the Porte. (In the same session,
13,800 zl. were awarded to Sobieski for his outlay as Grand Hetman of the Crown
in the war against Turkey.) Personal expenses, however, represented only a small
part of the diplomatic budget. In dealings with the East, gifts and subsidies were
an essential ingredient of negotiations. If the Republic did not choose to fight its
enemies, it had to buy them off - in effect, to compensate them for loss of earn-
ings from loot and pillage. In the case of relations with the Tartars, it has been cal-
culated that in the eighteen years between 1654 and 1672, almost 2^1 / 2 million zl.
were spent on 'diplomacy', of which 2 millions and more were attributed to gifts.
Gifts and appeasements 2,122,930 zl. 18 gr. 2d.
Embassies to the Crimea 87,402 zl.
Maintenance of Tartar envoys 199,074 zl. 44 gr.
Miscellaneous: including ransoms 83,506 zl.
Total 2,492,912 zl. 62 gr. 2d.^8In view of the facts that the Tartar alliance was part of the Republic's defence
against Moscow, and that in 1654 alone no less than 13 million zl. were spent on