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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
a. What are the similarities and differences between view-driven and event-driven
accounting information systems? Both types of systems can involve information
technology, although the specific technologies involved are different. In fact, most
event-driven systems require some form of relational databases due to their complexity.
In addition, both system types are capable of producing the general purpose financial
statements. Event-driven system are capable of producing many other types of reports
as well.
b. What does the acronym REA stand for? Give examples of each element. “R”
stands for Resources, such as inventory and equipment. “E” stands for Event, such as
“pay employees” or “purchase inventory.” “A” stands for Agent, such as a customer or
employee.
c. List the six steps for creating a REA model. 1. Understand the organization’s
environment and objectives. 2. Review the business process and identify the
strategically significant operating events. 3. Analyze each strategically significant
operating event to identify its resources and agents. 4. Identify the relevant behaviors,
characteristics and attributes of the REA model elements. 5. Identify and document the
direct relationships between elements of the REA model. 6. Validate the REA model
with business people.
e. How would you use a REA model to design a relational database? In general,
each box in a REA model requires at least one table. If the maximum relationships
between two elements of the model are one and many, the primary key of the “one side”
must be included as a foreign key on the “many” side. If the maximums are both many,
a junction table is required.
f. Prepare a response to the questions for this chapter’s “AIS in the Business
World.” As in previous editions, I’ve posted responses to each chapter’s AIS in the
Business World on my accounting information systems blog
(www.bobhurtais.blogspot.com). Look for the 4th edition’s responses in the 15
December 2014 post.
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
8-1
Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
a. Which systems documentation technique would you use if your goal was to
construct the relational database that supports the narrative? Why? The best
documentation technique for database design is REA modeling. A properly constructed
REA model gives clear guidance when it comes to creating normalized database tables.
c. Based on your REA model, identify four tables you would need in the relational
database—one each for a resource, an event, an agent and a junction table. What
would be each table’s primary key?
• No resource table is required.
• Event table: Create Account. Primary key: Account number.
• Agent table: Customer. Primary key: Customer ID.
• Junction table: Customer / use miles. Primary key: Customer ID, Use miles
transaction number.
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
8-2
Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
d. Based on the tables you created, suggest two queries the airline might create.
For each query, indicate its name, its purpose and the fields involved.
• Query 1: Customers that have not created an account. Fields: Customer ID,
Account number. (The latter would be ‘null’ in the query to select customers
without an account.)
• Query 2: To calculate a customer’s mileage balance. Fields: Customer ID,
miles earned, miles used. The query would need a calculated field to determine
the balance.
3. Multiple choice review questions. Answers to all of these questions appear at the
end of the textbook itself.
5. Field exercises
Answers to these exercises will vary significantly. Although I’m not providing solutions
to them, don’t hesitate to share your students’ work with me if they come up with an
especially strong response.
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
8-3
Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
(1,1) (1,1)
(1,*)
(1,1)
(0,1)
(1,1) Customer
(1,1)
(1,*)
(1,*) Show trailers (1,1)
(1,*)
(1,*) (1,*)
(0,1)
(0,*)
Inventory (0,1) (1,1)
(1,1) (1,1)
Sell trailer
(1,*) (1,1)
(1,1) Salesperson
(1,1) (1,1)
(1,*)
(1,1)
(1,*) (0,1) Bank
(1,*) Receive
payment (1,*)
(1,1)
Cash
(1,1)
(1,1)
Delivery person
(1,1) (1,1) (1,*)
Deliver trailer
(1,*)
The database would include at least the following tables (primary keys are underlined,
foreign keys are in brackets):
Inventory table: Identification number, make, model, year, date acquired,
purchase price.
Cash table: Cash account number, beginning balance, beginning balance date,
bank.
Greet customer table: [Customer ID], [Salesperson ID], date
Show trailers table: Show transaction #, [Customer ID], date, [Salesperson ID]
Sales table: Sales transaction #, transaction date, [inventory identification
number], [salesperson ID], [customer ID], type of sale (cash or installment)
Receive payment table: Receipt #, [sales transaction #], date, amount received,
source (bank or customer), [salesperson ID], [customer ID], [cash account
number]
Delivery table: [Sales transaction #], [delivery person ID], delivery date
Show trailers / inventory table: [Show transaction #], [inventory ID number],
[salesperson ID], [customer ID]
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
Customer table: Customer ID, last name, first name, address, city, state, ZIP,
area code, phone, date of first visit, date of first purchase
Salesperson table: : Salesperson ID, last name, first name, address, city, state,
ZIP, area code, phone, emergency contact information, date employed
Fill (1,*)
(0,*) prescription
(1,1)
(1,*) (1,*) Pharmacist
(1,1) (1,1)
(1,1)
Drugs Receive (1,*) (1,1)
payment Customer
(1,*) (0,*)
(1,*)
(1,1) (1,1)
(0,*) (2,2)
(1,1) Reconcile Pharmacy
cash employees
(1,1)
Cash (1,1)
(1,*) (1,1)
(1,1) Deposit Deposits
cash Express
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
here. Since the narrative implies only one pharmacist, it seemed inefficient
to create a separate “pharmacist” table. Pharmacists are differentiated
from other employees via the “job title” field.)
Customer table: Customer ID, last name, first name, address, city, state, ZIP,
area code, phone, date of first visit, medication allergies, primary doctor,
insurance
Deposits Express table: contact name, address, phone
(1,1)
(0,*) Receive (0,*) (1,1)
customer (1,1)
order Employees
(1,*) (1,1)
(1,1) (1,1)
(1,1)
(0,*)
Check
credit
(1,*) (1,*)
(1,1)
(1,1) (1,1)
Inventory
(1,*) (0,1) Customer
(1,*) (1,1)
(0,*)
Fill order
(1,1) (1,*) (0,*) (1,1) (1,1)
(1,1)
(1,1)
(1,1) (1,*)
(0,*)
Price list Ship order (0,*)
(1,1)
(1,1)
(1,1) (1,*)
(1,*)
(1,1)
(1,*) (1,1) Bank
Receive
payment
notice
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
8-6
Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
Receive order / inventory table: [Order ID], [Inventory ID], quantity ordered
Check credit table: [Order ID], [employee ID], credit decision (yes / no)
Fill order table: [Order ID], [employee ID], [customer ID], date
Fill order / inventory table: [Order ID], [Inventory ID], quantity filled
Ship order table: [Order ID], [customer ID], [employee ID], date shipped
Ship order / inventory table: [Order ID], [Inventory ID], quantity shipped
Invoice customer table: Invoice number, [Order ID], [customer ID], [employee ID],
invoice date, payment notice date
(1,*)
Submit
hours
(1,*) (1,1)
(1,1)
Auditors
(1,1) (1,1)
(1,*)
Compare
(1,1) actual & (1,*) (1,1)
budget
(1,1) Audit
Audit plan (1,1)
superviso
r
(1,1) (1,*)
(1,*) (1,1)
Prepare &
issue Payroll
checks staff
Submit hours table: Transaction number, date submitted, [auditor ID], task,
number of hours
Compare actual & budget table: [Transaction number], comparison date, audit
plan ID, [supervisor ID]
Audit plan table: Audit plan ID, client ID, audit task, budgeted task hours (Each
audit would involve multiple audit tasks. But, the # of tasks would be fixed;
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McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
therefore, a database designer would know how many “audit task” fields to
include in this table. If a particular task was not included in an audit, its
number of budgeted hours would be zero.)
Prepare & issue checks table: Check number, date prepared, [payroll staff ID],
[auditor ID]
Auditors table: Auditor ID, last name, first name, address, city, state, ZIP, area
code, phone, billing rate, withholding status, withholding allowances
Audit supervisors table: fields would be similar to the “auditors” table
Payroll staff table: fields would be similar to the “auditors” table
(1,*) (1,1)
(1,*) Collect
(1,*) Instructors
order data
(1,1)
(1,1)
(1,1)
(1,*) Bookstore
Receive (0,*) (1,1)
books staff
(1,*) (1,1)
(1,*)
(1,1)
(1,1) (1,1)
(1,1) (0,*)
Publisher
(1,*) (1,1)
Pay invoice
For the sake of simplicity, this solution assumes that the bookstore does
not receive partial shipments, nor does it pay for partial receipts.
Collect order data table: Order ID, [instructor ID], [secretary ID], date
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
Textbook / collect order data table: [Textbook ID], [Order ID], class, quantity
Prepare purchase order table: Purchase order #, [bookstore staff ID], [publisher
ID], date, [Order ID]
Prepare purchase order / textbook table: [Purchase order #], [textbook ID],
quantity ordered
Receive books table: Receiving transaction #, [bookstore staff ID], [publisher ID],
date
Receive books / textbook table: [Receiving transaction #], [Textbook ID], quantity
received
Pay invoice table: Transaction #, [publisher ID], [bookstore staff ID], date,
amount, [receiving transaction #]
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McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
Initiate new members table: Initiation event ID, Initiation date, Initiation place
Initiate new members / Chapter members table: [Initiation event ID], [Chapter
member ID]
Points table: Event type ID, points available
The other events would be similar to the “initiate new members” table. The
“chapter members” table would be similar to other agent tables presented
previously. And, the remaining junction table (host events / chapter members)
would be similar to the junction table presented above.
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
A pet owner calls the grooming salon to make an appointment for a pet; a grooming
salon employee assists the customer. A member of the grooming staff grooms the pet.
8. Terminology
1. J 6. A
2. E 7. F
3. I 8. C
4. D 9. G
5. H 10. B
b. Always true
c. Always true
e. Always true
f. Never true.
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
i. Always true
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education
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Accounting Information Systems: Basic Concepts and Current Issues (4th edition)
Dr. Bob Hurt, C.F.E.
End-of-chapter solutions
Chapter 8: REA modeling
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8-13
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PLAN OF LIEGNITZ, AUGUST 15, 1760.
“this army, spent with bloody toil and girt by mighty hosts,
must press on without rest and without delay, and yet must
bear with it every gun and man that had been taken and all
the wounded as well. These last were packed into meal-
wagons and bread-wagons, into carriages and carts, no
matter whose they might be. Even the King gave up his. King
and generals gave up their led horses to carry the wounded
who could ride. The empty meal-wagons were broken up and
their horses harnessed to the captured guns. Every horseman
and driver must take with him one of the enemy’s muskets.
Nothing was left behind, not a single wounded man, Prussian
or Austrian, and at nine o’clock, four hours after the end of
the battle, the army with its enormous load was in full
march.”
Twelve good miles were covered that day under the August sun.
Frederick was still between two armies, each larger than his own.
Neither Russians nor Austrians, however, dared attack him and he
joined Prince Henry at Breslau without another stroke of sword.
Of his brother Henry, Frederick said at a later date, “There is but
one of us that never made a mistake in war.” But the King
continually rejected his counsel, though the event proved it to have
been wise, and his relations with the Prince often became strained.
A brilliant strategist, Henry wished to husband Prussian powder and
Prussian blood by manœuvring more and fighting less. The victor of
Leuthen, on the other hand, was ready to take great risks if he
believed that his success would be fatal to the chief army either of
the Russians or of the Austrians. “If you engage in small affairs
only,” he maintained, “you will always remain mediocre, but if you
engage in ten great undertakings and are lucky in no more than two
you make your name immortal.”
Frederick’s habitual inclination to throw for high stakes was
increased by the events of September and October, 1760. His task
was to guard the Silesian fortresses against Daun, but while he—like
the court of Vienna—yearned for a decisive action Berlin fell into the
hands of 40,000 Russians and Austrians. The raiders occupied the
city for four days and exacted a contribution of two million thalers,
but the rumour of the King’s approach sufficed to drive them off.
Winter was drawing nigh and the Russians vanished as was their
wont. There was thus less need to fear for Silesia, but the enemy
still held Saxony, and Saxony was to Frederick a recruiting-ground, a
treasure-house, and a home. With added reasons for a battle, but
with little assurance of success, he therefore transferred thither the
seat of war.
Before dawn, he was once more among his troops riding through
the lines and embracing Zieten. At Torgau he had frustrated the
Austrian reconquest of Saxony and reduced their forces by some
16,000 men. But when his own loss came to be counted he strictly
forbade his adjutants to reveal the sum. Torgau was the bloodiest
battle of the war and the Prussians had suffered most. Their
casualties exceeded by nearly one thousand those of the beaten
side.
In spite of Liegnitz and Torgau the campaign of 1760 seemed to
have changed Frederick’s situation but little. Dresden was still
beyond his reach, but he was able to spend a pleasant winter at
Leipzig, surrounded by books and men of letters. Diplomacy, as
before, promised much and performed little, but drilling and
recruiting went on without pause. Although the quality of the
Prussian army could not but deteriorate, the numbers were
astonishingly maintained. Commissions were given to mere lads,
freebooters were welcomed, and the lands of the lesser German
princes were scoured for men, till in the spring of 1761 a hundred
thousand soldiers were ready to take the field. To furnish the
necessary funds no new taxes were laid upon the Prussians, but
Frederick issued great quantities of base coin and Saxony, where the
Austrians might otherwise have found support, was harried to the
verge of devastation.
It was believed at Vienna that Frederick would resort to his plan
of the preceding year by pitting himself against the army which
covered Dresden. The Empress therefore implored Daun once more
to take command. He consented, but only on the astounding
condition that he should not be expected to make conquests. Then
the King of Prussia transferred himself to Silesia, which became the
principal scene of the events of 1761, perhaps the dreariest of all
campaigns.
For the third year in succession it was beyond the power of the
Prussians to prevent the armies of the Empress and Czarina from
joining hands in Silesia. The King would have risked a battle against
either, but battle was not vouchsafed him. Yet in face of an enemy
who outnumbered his 55,000 men by more than two to one he had
still a weapon at his disposal and it proved effectual. The bold
offensive of his earlier campaigns had perforce given place to
defensive action only. Although Ferdinand still gloriously held his
own against the French, Frederick knew that he himself was too
weak to meet the combined Austrian and Russian army in the field.
He therefore entrenched himself and defied the allies either to
destroy him where he stood or to make lasting conquests while his
army remained undestroyed.
For five weeks, till near the end of September, he thus inhabited
the famous camp of Bunzelwitz, resting upon Schweidnitz, the key of
Lower Silesia. Then, deeming the danger past, he moved southward
to seek fresh supplies. His absence woke the foe to life and the
campaign closed with disaster. On October 1, 1761, Laudon
astonished Europe by storming Schweidnitz. A second reverse
followed. Before the year was out the Russians were masters of
Colberg, the Baltic gate of Prussian Pomerania. For the first time,
therefore, the armies of the enemy could winter on Prussian soil. A
huge crescent of foes, French, Imperialists, Austrians, Russians,
Swedes, was at last enfolding Prussia. When spring came would they
not surely stifle her?
Frederick, moping through the winter at Breslau, declared once
more that Fortune alone could save him. He likened himself to a
fiddler from whose instrument men tore away the strings one by one
till all were gone and still demanded music. Once more he declared
that philosophy alone could console him in his “pilgrimage through
this hell called the world.” “I save myself,” he wrote, “by viewing the
world as though from a distant planet. Then everything seems
infinitely small, and I pity my enemies for giving themselves so much
trouble about such a trifle.” Yet he never ceased to recruit, to drill,
and to make plans for the glorious offensive campaign that he hoped
to engage in with the aid of the Tartars and the Turks.
In December, 1761, he professed indifference to the course of
events in England, though two months earlier his champion Pitt had
given place to men who preferred the Austrian alliance to the
Prussian, and who desired that separate peace with France which
Pitt had rejected in 1758. The treaty then made between England
and Prussia forbade either to make peace without the other till April
11th of the following year. In 1759, 1760, and 1761 this compact
had been renewed. Now, however, Newcastle and Bute began to
clamour for what Pitt had ventured only to suggest—that Frederick
should purchase peace by some concession conformable to the
course of the Continental war. The Prussian envoys in London dared
to advise their sovereign to comply. He answered that they were in
nowise permitted to give him such foolish and impertinent counsel.
“Your father,” he wrote to one of them, though the charge was
baseless, “took bribes from France and England; has he bequeathed
the habit to you?”
Frederick’s inflexible resolve to make no concession was by no
means the same as a resolve to make no bargain. He often played
with the fancy that Saxony or a part of it might be left in his hands
at the peace. For this he would gladly surrender any or all of his
outlying provinces. But he would rather forfeit the English subsidy
and jeopardise the very existence of the Prussian State than sue for
the peace which Kaunitz was more than willing to conclude on terms
of moderate profit for the allies. Two weighty reasons of policy
increased his determination. The labours of the winter once again
filled the ranks and the war-chest of Prussia. And Fortune, of whom
the King said that she alone could extricate him, now gave with one
hand more than she took away with the other. At the moment when
England left him, Russia ranged herself at his side.
The cause of this marvellous revolution was the accident that
the Czarina died early in January, 1762, and that her nephew and
successor, Peter III., was a worshipper of the King of Prussia.
Elizabeth had lived in debauchery and left upwards of 15,000
dresses to bear witness to her luxurious tastes. It is possible that her
chief motive in attacking Frederick was a desire to chastise the man
who had spoken ill of her. But there can be no doubt that her policy
was suited to the interests of the State. It was argued at a later date
that her alliance with the Queen had cost Russia countless lives and
sixty millions of money. But in 1762 it had already procured Ost-
Preussen and part of Pomerania, and there seemed to be good hope
that Prussia, the only Power which could prevent a vast extension of
Russian influence in Poland, would be permanently crippled. If the
allies dared not attack the King of Prussia, they were at least in a fair
way to exhaust his strength.
In a moment, however, the rash young Holsteiner who now
wielded the sceptre of his great namesake, Peter, flung away all that
his troops had purchased with their blood in five campaigns—at
Gross-Jägersdorf, Zorndorf, Kay, Kunersdorf, and Colberg. In the first
hours of his reign he ordered his army to take no step in advance.
Before January was over, Frederick knew that peace with Russia was
assured. The Czar’s one desire seemed to be to gratify his brother of
Prussia. He craved investiture with the order of the Black Eagle, and
declared that he would stand by while Turks and Tartars attacked
the Austrian dominions. He resigned the Russian conquests without
indemnity, undertook to promote peace with Sweden, and even
offered Frederick his alliance. Influenced by his withdrawal, the
Swedes came to terms of their own accord and concluded the Peace
of Hamburg (May 22, 1762), which re-established the conditions of
1720. Frederick could therefore face the remnants of the coalition
without anxiety for his rear. From Ost-Preussen he now drew 15,000
men. By undertaking to assist Peter in his schemes for winning back
the lands which the House of Holstein had lost to Denmark forty
years before, he secured the immediate help of 20,000 Russians.
The situation was so completely transformed since the days
when Frederick lay motionless at Bunzelwitz that in 1762 he
determined once more to take the aggressive. His first aim must be
the recovery of Schweidnitz. This could only be accomplished by
inducing Daun to give battle, for his army, which had encamped near
the fortress, was now playing the part that had fallen to the
Prussians in the previous year. While the manœuvres were pursuing
their tedious course the news arrived that Peter III. had been
deposed. His wife, the German princess Catherine II., who was thus
placed in power, at once recalled the 20,000 Russians from Silesia.
Frederick, however, calculating on the influence which their presence
would exercise upon the mind of Daun, persuaded their commander
to conceal the order and to remain a few days longer as a spectator
of the war. Then on July 21, 1762, the Prussians surprised Daun’s
right wing and gained a clever victory at Burkersdorf. At a sacrifice
of some 1600 men they reduced the enemy’s force by nearly 10,000,
and the retreat of the Austrians enabled them to begin the siege of
Schweidnitz.
Thenceforward it was plain that the dragging war would lead to
no decisive issue. Frederick was so sure of his cause that he had
already sent a commissioner to examine the civil needs of
Pomerania. But he could only undertake formidable aggressive
movements if the Turks and Tartars rose, and once again they
disappointed his hopes. Instead of new combatants joining in the
fray the old ones were quitting it. Bute was eager to take the step
which Pitt had scorned to take in 1760. Before the year was out
France and England signed the preliminaries which were embodied
in the Peace of Paris in February, 1763. Immediately after
Burkersdorf, the Russians withdrew and it was not to be expected
that the Austrians and Imperialists could accomplish by themselves a
task which had baffled the unbroken coalition. Daun, indeed,
attempted to avenge Burkersdorf by a counter-surprise. He failed
and in October, 1762, Schweidnitz fell. Before the month was over
Prince Henry, who was conducting the campaign in Saxony, gained a
great victory over the Imperialist army at Freiberg. The campaign
closed with an armistice between Frederick and the Austrians and a
series of Prussian forays against the hostile princes of the Empire.
At last the Queen realised that she had failed. She promptly
determined not to prolong a struggle which could only add to the
misery of mankind. So vast a legacy of hate had, however, been left
by the war that it was difficult to find a single Power whose good
offices both sides could accept with a view to peace. The Queen
therefore brought herself to approach “the wicked man” direct and
sent an envoy to the King of Prussia. For nearly seven weeks
negotiations went on at Hubertusburg, a castle of the unfortunate
Saxon monarch. Frederick showed himself pliant in matters of
etiquette and unbending where any practical advantage was at
stake. He was willing to gratify Hapsburg pride by sending his envoy
more than half-way to meet the envoy of the Queen, by allowing her
name to precede his in the documents, and by promising to further
the election of her son Joseph as Emperor. But he insisted on the
restoration of Glatz by the Austrians, and on the payment by the
Saxons of his grinding taxes up to the very eve of peace.
On February 15, 1763, the Peace of Hubertusburg was signed.
After seven campaigns and an incalculable loss of blood and
treasure, Austria and Prussia agreed to return to their situation
before the outbreak of the war.
CHAPTER X
FREDERICK AND PRUSSIA AFTER THE WAR
His first desire was to get rid of those helpers whose services he
had accepted only because of pressing need. Twenty-one free
battalions had been raised and had proved immensely serviceable.
Now the King bade two-thirds of them go their ways without reward.
His learned friend and servant, Colonel Guichard, upon whom in
consequence of a dispute about the battle of Pharsalia he had
inflicted the name Quintus Icilius, appealed to him to repay to his
officers part at least of the money which they had spent from their
own pockets in enlisting their men. “Thy officers have stolen like
ravens,” replied the King; “they shall not have a farthing.” Still more
ungenerous was his treatment of a section of his army whose only
fault was their lack of noble birth. During the long war many
students and schoolboys of the citizen class entered the army as
volunteers and received commissions. In the hour of triumph they
were ruthlessly sacrificed to Frederick’s principle that his officers,
save perhaps among the garrison regiments, must belong to the
caste of nobles. Prussians who had served him in his extremity must
submit to be cashiered, while foreigners of rank were enlisted to
atone for the dearth of natives whose pedigrees satisfied his
requirements.
At the same time the army as a whole was wounded by harsh
criticism and harsh reforms. This, like much of Frederick’s conduct,
may be ascribed to the contempt for mankind which experience only
increased, and to the almost inevitable effect upon himself of the
unbridled absolutism described in the sixth chapter of this book.
“Dogs, would ye live for ever?” he shrieked at his men in the crisis of
one of his fights. He was forced to confess that, as his strength
became less and the number of his subjects greater, he could not
hope to look into all affairs of government with his own eyes. Yet he
shrank more and more from creating an official or a system in
anywise independent of his own immediate control. In 1763 he
therefore appointed inspectors of cavalry and of infantry in every
province and endowed them with wide powers of supervision of the
officers and all that they did. This measure, it need hardly be said,
roused the utmost bitterness among the regimental staff, which had
hitherto enjoyed a great measure of independence on the sole
condition that the King was satisfied with the results of its work. It
was the more distasteful for the very reason which made it
acceptable to Frederick—that the new inspectors were appointed at
the royal pleasure without regard to seniority. The chief officer of a
regiment, who had been wont to rule it like a patriarch, was now
subjected to the control of a rival, perhaps his junior, who did not
resign his own command and could favour it as he pleased.
The captains, too, suffered in pocket from another unpopular
reform. They had hitherto received from the treasury the full wages
of every man on the muster-roll of their company. In time of peace,
however, the native-born soldiers spent nine or ten months of the
year on furlough without pay. Each captain defrayed the cost of
recruiting foreigners for his company out of what he received and
pocketed the balance. Now, at the moment when war ceased,
Frederick cut off this source of income. By retaining regiments of
special merit on the old footing he insulted the rest, and by
graduating according to his opinion of the regiment’s efficiency the
trifling allowances paid by way of compensation he cast a slur upon
the professional honour of officers and men alike. The King paid his
officers ten thalers a month and their pensions depended entirely
upon his caprice. Many captains were thenceforward unable to resist
the temptation to falsify the muster-rolls so as to receive pay for
soldiers who did not exist.
The King’s despotic power, however, enabled him to make light
of military discontent in time of peace. He resolved to keep up an
army of 150,000 men, to drill it as it had never been drilled before,
to educate the officers, to review all the troops every year, to build
new fortresses, and to establish stores of money and munitions
sufficient to enable Prussia to enter at a moment’s notice upon a war
of eight campaigns. It is a highly significant fact that in Frederick’s
secret estimates for the future struggle the annual contribution of
Prussia was set down at 4,700,000 thalers and the sum to be
extorted from Saxony at 5,000,000. The balance of the 12,000,000
thalers, which was the price of a campaign, must come from the
royal accumulations. Frederick’s own expenses were only 220,000
thalers a year. At the close of his reign, when the total revenue of
the State was not quite 22,000,000 thalers, the treasure amounted
to more than 51,000,000, a sum fully five times as great as that
which he had inherited from his father.
Frederick was compelled by his past to stand to arms all his life
through. With advancing years he became more lonely and more
subject to disease. In 1765 he lost his sister, the Margravine of
Schwedt, and next year the aged Madame de Camas, whom he
always called Mamma. His old friends died one by one and the
French wits had vanished. His brothers, Henry and Ferdinand, were
often estranged from him by his bitter words. Yet to the end of his
life he prided himself on his cheerfulness between the attacks of
gout and he permitted no disease to interrupt his labours. These
were devoted first, as we have seen, to making the land secure from
attack by means of the army, and also to guarding it from famine by
methods which may next be considered. Close on the heels of these
essential duties came tasks of fresh development and reform, the
acquisition of West-Preussen in 1772, and new endeavours to uphold
Prussian prestige against the House of Hapsburg.
It is of course impossible to calculate exactly the damage which
a country suffers in time of war. Moral gains and losses count in the
long run for more than material, and no statistics even of material
losses are truly satisfactory. As between one Prussian province and
another, however, a rough comparison may be made by means of
the growth or decline of the population. Silesia and the lands east of
the Oder had naturally suffered most, since, in addition to their
quota of soldiers slain, they had long endured the presence of
invading armies. In Silesia the numbers fell by 50,000, about one in
twenty-three, but further north, in the districts in which the Russians
had encamped, the proportion was nearly five times as heavy.
Frederick’s own estimate was that one-ninth of his subjects had
perished.
The loss of property had undoubtedly been very great. The
conscience of the age forbade massacre, but was lenient towards
pillage and devastation. But the King surpassed himself by what
Carlyle terms “the instantaneous practical alacrity with which he set
about repairing that immense miscellany of ruin.” So far as the
material losses sustained by individual Prussians could be
ascertained, they were set down by the careful hands of royal
commissioners and mitigated by royal gifts. The King had at his
disposal depreciated coin to the amount of nearly 30,000,000
thalers, the sum which had been accumulated to pay for the eighth
and ninth campaigns. This more than sufficed for the needs of the
army and the repayment of the trifling loans, less than five and a
half million thalers in all, that Frederick had contracted during the
war. With the residue and with the surplus revenues of the State the
King set to work to prevent a single one of his subjects from falling
into absolute ruin. His doles were graduated not by any standard of
abstract justice, but by the rule that the minimum amount of help
should be given that would serve the purpose of the State. Many
towns had paid ransoms to the enemy to avoid being sacked. That
of Berlin, two million thalers, was repaid out of the treasury, but
Halle received less than one-sixth of what it claimed, and in the
majority of cases the burghers were left to bear the loss themselves.
In the country districts, however, there was less power of
recuperation than among the comparatively wealthy towns.
According to Frederick’s opinion, it was therefore necessary that the
State should make it possible for nobles and peasants alike to
resume their normal duties. The spare horses from the army, to the
number of 35,000, and many rations for man and beast from the
magazines were at once distributed to the most needy. Officials
allotted to the peasants wood to rebuild their houses and sums of
money to assist the work. Their rents were remitted for a time, and
oxen, cows, sheep, meal, and seed-corn were supplied to them free
of charge. The State reaped its reward in the rents and taxes which
speedily flowed into the royal coffers, as well as in the rapid growth
of population.
While the King was thus doling out relief to a great part of his
subjects, he indulged in a singular extravagance which has been the
subject of much criticism and conjecture. Though he inequitably
threw upon the people the expense of restoring the coinage, though
his subjects were sending him sheaves of petitions for aid, though
he was of all monarchs the least addicted to pomp, none the less,
three months after peace had been signed he began to build a third
palace at Potsdam. The astonished Prussians believed that the cost
was 22,000,000 thalers. If no more than one-tenth of this was
actually expended, the King lavished on a superfluity more than one-
third of the sum that he assigned to the restoration of the land.
Those who insist that he did nothing without a motive of State
may find it in his desire to convince foreign Powers that it was
dangerous to attack a nation which could afford luxuries while its
enemies were deep in debt. Other conjectures are possible.
Frederick loved to indulge the hope that the Sciences, which had
visited Greece and Italy, France and England, in turn, might settle
for a while in Prussia, and the new palace, like the salary paid to
Voltaire, might be regarded as a sacrifice at their altar. The claims of
the new Prussian industries, especially the manufacture of silk,
which was largely used in adorning the interior, may have induced
the King to provide an artificial market in this way. Frederick’s
Versailles, however, remains to this day both a monument to his
absolutism and an enigma.
THE NEW PALACE AT POTSDAM.