- 9 -

for the Swiss economy, since they were exchanged for essentials such as salt, corn and iron. Most trade was with France, so important that it was not disrupted even by serious political differences such as France's expulsion of its Protestant subjects in 1685, an action which aroused much anger among Protestants in Switzerland. Protestant refugees, however, were welcomed not so much for ideological reasons but because they had skills which were of great benefit to the textile industry.

It is certainly arguable that this image of the Swiss as prosperous was derived from the reports of travellers who were not Swiss and not peasant farmers or industrial outworkers, and that the reality was less pleasant. But the structure of the Confederation meant that the Swiss were not paying taxes to support an expensive standing army, or an inefficient national bureaucracy, or a court full of extravagant princes and nobles, as other European peasants were doing. Virtually all foreign visitors who recorded their opinions on Switzerland compared it favourably with its neighbours. To give one example, a young Russian gentleman called Nikolai Karamzin who toured Switzerland in 1789-90 compares the "abundance and wealth" of Switzerland with Savoy's "poverty, ragged people, and great numbers of beggars - general slovenliness and filthiness" [p 164]. Many also said that the Swiss peasants were less servile and more capable than those of other countries. Even allowing for the fact that eighteenth-century travellers had a tendency to praise other countries as a covert way of expressing criticism of their own, it seems probable that, relatively, the Swiss were prosperous and were respected for it.

Their "Warlike Genius" also earned respect. Men of fighting age received military training and the cantonal militias could all be relied on to produce excellent soldiers when required. There are many instances of Swiss armies defeating forces much more numerous and better equipped than themselves. But quite early in their history the Swiss gradually adopted a policy of not involving the Confederation in war except under direct threat of invasion; the word "neutrality" appears in Swiss documents as early as 1674. This meant that 18 th-century Switzerland had not recently undergone the wholesale devastation suffered by other European countries, another factor in Swiss prosperity. It also allowed Swiss men to profit themselves and their homelands by fighting as mercenaries. Very large numbers of Swiss men fought in the service of foreign countries, a figure of 40,000 has been cited [Ford, p 62] for the 1780 s, mostly serving in France, Spain and Holland.

Swiss culture was strongly flavoured by militarism, even the dances, games and local customs on occasions such as weddings had a strong flavour of combat about them. The Swiss of all classes loved nothing so much as a military parade. Even Bräker, who had done active service and hated every minute of it, was happy to put on his Prussian uniform and throw wooden grenades in a local festival procession [see diary, 18th March 1790]. And though it is often no more than a traditional gibe against the Swiss to say that they would fight each other if the price was right, they were not in fact expected to show solidarity beyond the cantonal boundary. Swiss did indeed sometimes fight Swiss, for example at the battles of Blenheim (1704) and Malplaquet (1709). Throughout Swiss history attempts were made to limit mercenary service on moral and economic grounds, but it was indispensable to Swiss prosperity; without it "starvation stared strong healthy men in the face every winter" [Bonjour, p 177] .

The cantonal governments were variations on two themes: rule either by oligarchy or by popular assembly, a form of government which was admired as being reminiscent of classical Greece but in fact deriving from the ancient tribal assemblies of the Alemanni. "Oligarchy" implies that the councils and other governing bodies were made up entirely of members of certain local clans of the nobility or upper bourgeoisie. By the 18th century it had become impossible to introduce representation of local industry or trade, let alone of its employees, or the peasant farmers, or even of new upper-class clans, since the oligarchies had made this illegal. Bern, for example, had not added any names to its list of clans eligible to rule, since 1651. Feuds between rival clans could seriously hamper an oligarchic government, and most such governments in the cities had proved unable to reduce the powers of the trade guilds which were

Contents