Philip Wilhelm von Hörnigk, "Austria over all, if she only wills it" (1684)

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Chapter X

[The author now turns to enumerating the natural resources of Austria. We omit his somewhat particular description of its resources in gold, silver and salt. He then points out that for food and drink, man needs cereals, fruit, milk products, vegetables, meat, fish, etc., and goes on:]

[ . . . ]

Anyone who knows the common saying that the Hereditary Dominions were really made for eating and drinking can easily imagine that all these things are present, not only in abundance but in superfluity. Hardly one of all the Provinces lacks sufficiency of any of them (saffron excepted). And if one, such as Silesia, lacks wine, it can get it from the nearest co-Province, so that the money spent on this, too, remains, so to speak, at home. Only the Tirol draws its supplies of bread from some foreign neighbors, but more for convenience than of necessity; the barns of other Austrian Provinces could assuredly supply its needs. And for the rest, most products, such as salt, wheat, wine, cattle, swine, fish, vinegar, brandy, fruit, etc. are present in such abundance that the only complaint is where to dispose of them all. As it is, the inhabitants are almost driven to knavery to get rid of the surplus to prevent its going bad. Austria and Bohemia lead the way in this superfluity, but above all, Hungary, which should really be regarded as Europe’s Promised Land. Its soil is so fruitful that ordinary seed yields the finest wheat flour in the second crop and the grass almost covers the backs of the grazing cattle. The water is so full of fish that it is hardly an extravagance to say that the Tisza in Upper Hungary carries between its banks two parts of water and one of fish. The wine of some districts, such as Tokay, can vie with the best in the world. The fields resound with the voices of beasts, great and small. The farmyard practically overflows with poultry, the air teems with its feathered denizens – in a word, Hungary is a real mine of bread, fat, and meat. I will say no more, lest I be held a hired panegyrist.