Their murmurs, however, were powerless to alter the purpose of the King. The innovation, indeed, was not recommended by conspicuous success. Though it simplified the fiscal administration, a large proportion of the returns was still swallowed up by expenses of collection. On a review of the twenty years, 1766–1786, the proceeds of the Regie seem to have been in no wise augmented by de Launay’s hated invasion. Yet Frederick adhered to his plan, kept the taxes high, administered the funds of the State in secret, and crowned all by bringing coffee under the control of the French. To his fiscal measures more than to all else was it due that the State which he had exalted drew a deep breath of relief when he died.
The chief significance of the Peace of Hubertusburg for Prussia was not expressed in any of its clauses. The signature of the treaty implied that Europe renounced the endeavour to deprive her of the rank among the Great Powers which she had arrogated to herself in 1740. Their survival of the great ordeal conferred a new consequence upon Frederick and his State. “Frederick himself,” Mr. James Sime happily says, “acquired both in Germany and in Europe the indefinable influence which springs from the recognition of great gifts that have been proved by great deeds.” The brief sketch of his domestic labours that has been given in Chapter X. suggests that he was not lacking in the energy which was needed to maintain this influence and to derive full profit from it. The history of his dealings with foreign Powers during the latter half of his reign is the story of how this was done.
From the moment at which he signed the treaty down to the day of his death, Frederick felt that Austria was still his enemy. Joseph II., the eldest son of the Queen, who was unanimously elected Emperor in 1765, had learned politics from the King of Prussia. He desired nothing so much as to restore the immemorial pre-eminence of his House by a sudden blow at its upstart rival. Frederick, who had spies everywhere, was soon acquainted with the ambitions of the restless youth. For the present he could place some reliance on the pacific influence of the Queen and more on the emptiness of the Austrian treasury, but he was none the less compelled to make it his foremost task to thwart successive Hapsburg schemes of aggrandisement.