Compared with "archaeology," young people nowadays preferred having fun. Just look at how many people fell asleep in Professor Binns's history classes.
From another angle, the Firebolt had indeed proved immensely useful. Whether during the Triwizard Tournament or in the wars that followed, its high price was proportional to its performance.
Napoleon brought back quite a few Arabian horses from Egypt. At the Easter ceremony in 1802, the carriages they pulled looked magnificent. Even at British royal weddings in the twentieth century, carriages were still used instead of automobiles. Perhaps it was the romance and fairy-tale sentiment etched into humanity's bones.
Given any other choice, most Europeans would not eat horse meat, whether from draft horses or thoroughbreds. When Josephine bought horses, everyone's attention happened to be focused on the war. Draft horses could not serve as cavalry mounts.
However, when Georgiana arrived, there had already been two consecutive years of reduced grain harvests—possibly three, since Father Piazzi had previously said there were signs that some places would suffer reduced harvests again this year, though France was not among the disaster-stricken areas.
While France was at war with Britain, the blockade turned France into one enormous "besieged city." When it was at peace with Britain, although bread prices still rose for a time and had to be held down through rationing, there was still plenty of meat available. Horse meat was still meat; during the Franco-Prussian War, Victor Hugo had even eaten rat meat.
Georgiana bought horses through logistics and transport, while Josephine bought meat. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that Bonaparte remembered to offer a reward for the invention of canned food. Mercury could preserve things, but that stuff could not be eaten. Everyone knew the consequences of mercury poisoning.
But people who cared about beauty did