Archduchess Maria Clementina, Princess of Salerno

What people wore

Clothing as Annual Servant Wages

Servants often received clothes as part of their annual wages, but these garments were made of less durable fabrics and inferior thread, causing them to wear out quickly within a year.

Getting around

Mail coach travel discomfort

Travel by mail coach was uncomfortable, with passengers complaining of seats as hard as stone, and typically involved covering only about 37 kilometers per day.

At the table

Potatoes become a staple food

During the second half of the eighteenth century, the potato became a vital staple food for lower social classes in the Habsburg monarchy because it was cheap, easy to grow, and yielded more than cereals.

Music

The rise of the Viennese waltz

By the end of the 18th century, the waltz emerged in Vienna as a popular dance that involved couples gliding smoothly in circles in three-four time. Dancers were so passionate about this style that the authorities even considered banning faster variations, and it eventually replaced the minuet as the most fashionable dance.

Daily life

Lighting costs were a major household expense

Families relied on candles or oil lamps for light, with expensive beeswax candles providing a cleaner flame than cheaper, smoky tallow versions made from animal fat. Small lighting costs were so significant that they led to the common idiom that a task might not be worth the candle.

What it cost

The high cost of footwear

Heavy taxes on leather made shoes very expensive, often forcing poor peasants to own only one pair for their entire lives or rely on wooden shoes. A pair of wooden shoes cost 9 sous 6 deniers in the countryside in 1790.