Sonderband 3. „wir aber aus unsern vorhero sehr erschöpfften camergeföllen nicht hernemben khönnen…” – Beiträge zur österreichischen Wirtschafts- und Finanzgeschichte vom 17. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (1997)
Ronald E. Coons - Carey Goodman: An Audacious Proposal. A Memorandum Attributed to Finance Minister Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Bruck
AN AUDACIOUS PROPOSAL A Memorandum Attributed to Finance Minister Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Bruck by Ronald E. Coons and Carey Goodman Included among the papers of Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Bruck which the Austrian National Library acquired in 1990 is an item that should be of special interest to political and economic historians of the neoabsolutist era1. Hitherto in private possession, the manuscript focuses renewed attention on a dynamic figure who occupied a series of important governmental posts prior to his suicide in April 1860. Called after a successful business career in Trieste to head the Commerce Ministry in November 1848 in the cabinet of Felix Fürst zu Schwarzenberg2, Brack held that position until May 1851 when he resigned, according to some authorities because he opposed the increasingly authoritarian character of the post-revolutionary régime3. Brack did not return to his private interests in Trieste for long, however. Late in 1852 he traveled to Berlin to represent the monarchy in negotiations that culminated in the Austro-Prassian commercial treaty of 19 February 1853; in June of that year he arrived in Constantinople to assume the duties of Austrian intemuncio to the Sublime Porte; and in March 1855 he succeeded Andreas Freiherr von Baumgartner 1 For a brief notice on the Brack papers see Margarete R. Straßnig-Bachner in: Biblos 4 (1990), pp. 297-298; a more complete discussion can be found in Goodman, Carey: The Nachlaß of Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Brack in the Austrian National Library. In: Austrian History Yearbook 25 (1994), pp. 185-193. 2 A thorough study of Brack’s years in Trieste remains to be written. For a brief, uncritical contemporary account see the anonymous Biografia di sua eccellenza Carlo Barone de Bruck. Trieste 1853; more satisfactory, though by now outdated, is Charmatz, Richard: Minister Freiherr von Brack. Der Vorkämpfer Mitteleuropas. Sein Lebensgang und seine Denkschriften. Leipzig 1916, p. 10-26. Brack’s rôle in founding and guiding the Lloyd Austriaco, the most important enterprise with which he was associated in Trieste, is discussed in Ronald E. Coons: I primi anni del Lloyd Austriaco: Politica di govemo a Vienna ed iniziative imprenditoriali a Trieste, 1836-1848. Udine 1982 (Civiltà del Risorgimento 15), pp. 18-24, 50-53. On Brack’s earliest experiences as a statesman and on the origins of his German policy see the doctoral dissertation by Carey Goodman: Carl Ludwig von Brack and the Reshaping of Germany, 1848/49. National State or Multi-National Union? (University of Virginia, 1996). 3 The view that Brack resigned because authoritarian rule offended his political sensibilities was canonized by Charmatz: Minister Brack, pp. 81-83 but has been challenged by Friedrich Walter: Die österreichische Zentralverwaltung [hereafter cited as ÖZV], Abt. 3: Von der Märzrevolution 1848 bis zur Dezemberverfassung 1867. Bd. 1: Die Geschichte der Ministerien Kolowrat, Ficquelmont, Piliersdorf, Wessenberg-Doblhoff und Schwarzenberg. Wien 1964 (Veröffentlichungen der Kommission fur neuere Geschichte Österreichs 49), p. 484. Not all writers accept Walter’s refutation, however; see, e.g.,Burg- s tall er, Wolf-Dieter: Das österreichische Handelsministerium unter Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Brack und der Kampf um die politische und wirtschaftliche Vormachtstellung im deutschen Raum. Diss. Graz 1969, pp. 136-138 and Bled, Jean-Paul: François-Joseph. Paris 1987, p. 154. Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs, Sonderband 3/1997 151
