Vienna International Grand Hotel
Palmerston argued, "Mr. Metternich, your demands are far too high. They have already exceeded what the Kingdom of Sardinia can bear!"
Metternich replied unhurriedly, "Mr. Palmerston, let us settle the accounts. In this Austro-Sardinian War, Austria spent 100 million shield on military expenditures and suffered 12,000 officer and soldier casualties. Even at a pension of 1,000 shield per person, that would be 12 million shield.
Civilian deaths reached as high as 586,000, while 26,000 nobles died, including one marquis among the highest-ranking. More than a million people were left homeless.
Calculated at 500 shield in death and injury compensation for each civilian and 3,000 shield for each noble, that comes to 371 million shield. Let us count less for the homeless people—there should still be at least 150 million shield in resettlement expenses, should there not?
Nearly half the cities in Lombardy and Venice were destroyed by the flames of war, and the local economy completely collapsed. Postwar reconstruction will cost no less than 300 million shield.
Then there was the Sardinian army's reckless plundering of immense civilian wealth—at least 180 million shield's worth. That must be returned as well.
..."
By the Austrian calculation, the Kingdom of Sardinia likely would not finish paying even by the next century. Before Metternich could finish, Palmerston said:
"Mr. Metternich, accounts cannot be settled this way. Most of these casualties and economic losses were caused by the revolutionaries. The losses the Sardinian army inflicted upon your country were only a small part of them."
That was right. Those losses had resulted from the combined actions of the rebels, the Austrian army, and the Sardinian army. It was merely that the Kingdom of Sardinia was being made to bear all of them.
Without changing expression, Metternich said, "Mr. Palmerston, we