But for the time being, the Kingdom of Sardinia could not afford to offend the Austrians any further. Still, Carlo Alberto had no desire to pay this unjustified sum.
The Kingdom of Sardinia simply resorted to its old stalling tactic once again. Yes, they would ransom the prisoners, but they needed to raise the money first, so there was no telling how long it would take.
It was a bit shameless, but perfectly reasonable. After all, more than twenty million florins was no small sum.
Carlo Alberto had already spent a great deal bribing the Swiss. Add to that the recent propaganda campaign and military expedition, and the treasury of the Kingdom of Sardinia was nearly empty.
No king or government in the world liked to be in debt. They usually borrowed only when they had no other choice.
At this point, Carlo Alberto naturally intended to drag things out for as long as he could.
The Austrians had no particularly good way to deal with this. They could only send people to negotiate and demand that the other side pay as soon as possible.
That was only true in the usual sense, though. Franz was not worried in the least. After all, feeding tens of thousands of mouths was no problem for the Austrian Empire.
Especially after the sea route to Venice was restored, the large quantities of grain arriving from the Americas would greatly ease the crisis in Northern Italy.
But the Austrians would hardly calculate the prisoners' food costs according to Austrian standards. This was an internal supply price, after all. How could the Kingdom of Sardinia expect to enjoy that?
Put simply, grain was very expensive in a year of famine. If Carlo Alberto did not ransom the prisoners soon, the late fees would be enough