Although Annecy's carriage factories kept producing new carriages, without horses there was no way to increase transport capacity.
The owner of Orionda Import-Export Company had spoken with Austria again about buying horses, but they had not replied, neither agreeing nor refusing.
The "highly practical" Theresian Cadastre the Piedmontese spoke of was located near Trieste. Not only the Piedmontese, but many Milanese also owned land there. These cadastral registers had not been annulled when Lombardy became the South-of-the-Mountains Republic; they remained valid.
Serbelloni, who had only recently passed away, left behind an enormous inheritance, divided equally between his brother and his only daughter, Maria, who was married to Marquis Ludovico Visconti.
Milan's municipal administration was now handled by a governing committee formed by the Visconti family. Before this, the Cisalpine Republic had been under military administration, overseen by Minister of War Ambrogio Birago. In 1798, when the Austrian-Russian coalition retook Lombardy, he was forced into exile in the Champagne region of France. After France reoccupied Milan in 1800, he and nine special government commissioners administered part of the municipality, but three months later this department was replaced by the Visconti family. After the South-of-the-Mountains Republic was established, the War Ministry was abolished, and he himself became a member of the Legislative Assembly.
In short, there were still plenty of Italian people nostalgic for Austrian rule. The French bombardment of La Scala Opera House was described by some newspapers as an "atrocity."
Milan's twenty million in war contributions were divided among three bankers, while other regions, such as Ferrara and Bologna, apportioned them proportionally, even though the amount was only three million lire. Yet Ferrara believed it had borne more than Bologna. So, on the day the South-of-the-Mountains Republic was established, they called upon all representatives to go there. Later, most of