What are the Germans?' enquired the Imperial Privy Councillor Friedrich Carl von Moser of his readers in 1766, replying to his own question as follows: ‘What we are, then, we have been for centuries; that is, a puzzle of a political constitution, a prey of our neighbours, an object of their scorn outstanding in the history of the world, disunited among ourselves, weak from our divisions, strong enough to harm ourselves, powerless to save ourselves, insensitive to the honour of our name, indifferent to the glory of our laws, envious of our rulers, distrusting one another, inconsistent about principles, coercive about enforcing them, a great but also a despised people; a potentially happy but actually a very lamentable people.’ The grounds for Moser's lament were obvious: the Empire was split up into 314 territories and towns and into 1475 free lordships, all of which guarded the sovereign rights guaranteed them by the European Powers after the Peace of Westphalia with the utmost jealousy. Furthermore, Central Europe was divided by deep confessional gulfs, since the conflict between Reformation and Counter Reformation had not been resolved in Germany, unlike in most of the other European states, but had been petrified by the principle of ‘cuius regio, eius religio’ (whose the region, his the religion). Added to which there were countless customs restrictions, an uncontrollable multitude of monetary and measurement systems and a confused muddle of legal norms.