Reforms, 1763–80
Maria Theresa’s second period of reform was more important than the first, because it carried with it elements of centralization and change that were portents of the kind of government, society, and economy that would emerge in the 19th century and mature in the 20th. As modern as some of these elements were, the government that introduced them was not thinking of long-range goals but was dealing with immediate problems, the most important being recovery from the Seven Years’ War. The area requiring urgent attention was finance. The cost of the Seven Years’ War had added so much debt to the treasury that, for the remainder of Maria Theresa’s reign, servicing that debt while providing for the costs of defense and governmental operations became the obsession of many of her advisers.
Financial need led Maria Theresa and her statesmen into other fields. All realized that financial recovery to a great extent depended on an improved economy, and they introduced a number of measures to make it better. Foreign workers and artisans with skills in the manufacture of various articles were recruited from the Low Countries, the Italian lands, and Germany and settled throughout the monarchy. Farmers came from western Europe for settlement in some of the more remote lands of the monarchy that had been badly depopulated, mainly in southern and eastern Hungary. Some important sectors of the economy, such as textiles and iron making, were freed from guild restrictions. And in 1775 the government created a customs union out of most of the crown lands of the monarchy, excluding some of the peripheral lands and the kingdom of Hungary, which was not joined to Austria in a customs union until 1851.
The basically mercantilist policy of Charles VI’s reign and earlier was revised in line with the influence of physiocratic and so-called populationist theories (see physiocrat). Thenceforward human labour, and not precious metal, was gradually to become the yardstick of national wealth. This led, on the one hand, to restrictions on emigration and, on the other, to an easing of some imports that were not considered competitive with domestic industries.
Financial and economic reforms also had an impact upon society. Maria Theresa’s government was fully aware that most taxes came from society’s lower elements, and so it was eager to make certain that those lower elements had the wherewithal to bear their burden. In 1767 she imposed a law on Hungary regulating the rights and duties of the serfs and their lords with the intent of bettering the condition of the peasants, which was not good at all. This law suffered somewhat because the lords themselves were responsible for implementing it, but it was later codified into the Hungarian statutes in 1790–91 and remained the basic law regarding the status of the serfs until their final emancipation in 1848. In response to a serf revolt in 1774 protesting not only oppression but also hunger, Maria Theresa issued a law in Bohemia in 1775 that restricted the aristocratic practice of exploiting the work obligations of the peasantry. She also had plans drawn up to change the dues of the peasantry from various forms of service to a strictly rent-paying system. Such a system was introduced on lands owned by the crown, but she did not enforce its extension to privately held lands. (See also serfdom.)
Maria Theresa also introduced a system of public education. The motivation for this reform came from concern both that the Roman Catholic Church in Austria was no longer maintaining public morality properly and that certain changes in the 18th-century economy required that Austria provide a better-educated work force. It is often assumed that the great mass of the people in Austria at this time were serfs working on the lords’ lands, owing various work and money dues, and thus—while suffering oppression—at least forming a fairly stable society. In fact, by the late 18th century the vast majority of the rural population was made up of cottars, gardeners, and lodgers who owed minimal feudal duties and who depended on nonagricultural occupations for their survival. These people represented a proto-industrial work force, but they also represented an ignorant and potentially ill-disciplined rural population. Compulsory education was a method of instilling a good work ethic and a sense of morality in them. In 1774 Maria Theresa issued the General School Regulation for the Austrian lands, establishing a system of elementary schools, secondary schools, and normal schools to train teachers. The implementation of this regulation was difficult owing to a lack of teachers, resistance on the part of lords and peasants alike, and a shortage of funds. Despite these obstacles, however, 500 such schools had opened by 1780.