The Friedrich miracles in War are great; but those in Finance are
almost greater. Let Dryasdust bethink him; and gird his flabby
loins to this Enterprise; which is very behooveful in these
Californian times!"--

The general Secret of Prussian Thrift, I do fear, is lost from the
world. And how an Army of about 200,000, in field and garrison,
could be kept on foot, and in some ability to front combined
Europe, on about Three Million Sterling annually ("25 million
THALERS"=3,150,000 pounds, that is the steady War-Budget of those
years), remains to us inconceivable enough;--mournfully miraculous,
as it were; and growing ever more so in the Nugget-generations that
now run. Meanwhile, here are what hints I could find, on the
Origins of that modest Sum, which also are a wonder: [Preuss, ii.
388-392; Stenzel, v. 137-141.]--

"The hoarded Prussian Moneys, or 'TREASURES' [two of them, KLEINE
SCHATZ, GROSSE SCHATZ, which are rigidly saved in Peace years, for
incidence of War], being nearly run out, there had come the English
Subsidy: this, with Saxony, and the Home revenues and remnants of
SCHATZ had sufficed for 1758; but will no longer suffice. Next to
Saxony, the English Subsidy (670,000 pounds due the second time
this year) was always Friedrich's principal resource: and in the
latter years of the War, I observe, it was nearly twice the amount
of what all his Prussian Countries together, in their ravaged and
worn-out state, could yield him. In and after 1759, besides Home
Income, which is gradually diminishing, and English Subsidy, which
is a steady quantity, Friedrich's sources of revenue are
mainly Two:--