I had Haugwitz communicate this confidentially to the Supreme Chancellor, Count von Harrach. The latter actually told me that he entirely agreed with the main principles, and all the Ministers approved them almost entirely, except that some of them said that they must first examine the capacity of their Provinces to raise the necessary sums, a reasonable reservation which was generally met by drawing up complete balance sheets, which showed that when all forced levies, Provincial contributions, and other demands on the State and private individuals were added together, the total would infallibly exceed what was required for the system. This gained the proposals further adherents.
The first big difficulty arose over the allocation of the payments among the different Provinces. Some Councillors appealed to an alleged traditional quota, which would have laid quite disproportionate burdens on the Inner Austrian Provinces, the poorest and most heavily burdened of all. The Supreme Chancellor, Count Harrach, who insisted on this most strongly, produced the idea of abolishing all Cameral and consumption surcharges in the Provinces – a sum amounting to many millions – in return for which the Estates were to be asked to vote all expenditure beyond what the few remaining Cameral resources could supply, both for the systematic upkeep of the 108,000 men and for the covering of the entire debt and the regular Cameral expenditure. I found, however, no one agreeing with this. Some thought it was completely impracticable, and must lead to the collapse of the “Banco” (which I was always most anxious to avoid), to expect the lands, even given these tax remissions, to produce increased revenues amounting to some twenty-seven million, especially since, if the consumers bore no share of the increased prices, the burden on the direct taxpayers would be impossibly heavy. On the other hand, neither I nor my other Ministers could take on ourselves the responsibility before posterity of letting the surcharges which my predecessors had already imposed and actually collected slip again out of my hands altogether, and thus leave Provincial revenue, the whole essence of the Prince’s authority, the whole material condition of its existence, dependent on the pleasure and arbitrary disposition of the Estates. This change would greatly have limited the power of the Crown, and while the Estates or some private persons might have profited from it, it would certainly not have promoted the general welfare; for strongly as I have asserted my authority where I have believed this necessary and salutary, so gladly and unhesitatingly would I have limited it or even renounced it altogether for myself and my successors if justice and equity and the general welfare would have been better served under the administration of the Estates. Since, however, I was entirely convinced of the contrary, and sure that even highly placed persons were only seeking to increase their advantage and repute on both sides by playing off the Crown against the Estates as they pleased, I could not possibly accept the idea.
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