quality:corruption, structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:voice_change, information:extraction
Jews

Maria Theresa regarded both the Jews and Protestants as dangerous to the state and actively tried to suppress them. She was probably the most anti-Jewish monarch of her time, having inherited the traditional prejudices of her ancestors and acquired new ones. This was a product of commonplace antisemitism and was not kept secret in her time. In 1777, she wrote of the Jews: "I know of no greater plague than this race, which on account of its deceit, usury and avarice is driving my subjects into beggary. Therefore as far as possible, the Jews are to be kept away and avoided." Her animosity was such that she was willing to tolerate Protestant businessmen and financiers in Vienna, such as the Swiss-born Johann von Fries, since she wanted to break free from the Jewish financiers.

In December 1744, she proposed to her ministers the expulsion of around 10,000 Jews from Prague amid accusations that they were disloyal at the time of the Bavarian-French occupation during the War of the Austrian Succession. The order was then expanded to all Jews of Bohemia and major cities of Moravia. Her first intention was to deport all Jews by 1 January, but having accepted the advice of her ministers, had the deadline postponed. The expulsion was executed only for Prague and only retracted in 1748 due to economic considerations and pressures from other countries, including Great Britain.

In the third decade of her reign, Maria Theresa issued edicts that offered some state protection to her Jewish subjects. She forbade the forcible conversion of Jewish children to Christianity in 1762, and in 1763 she forbade Catholic clergy from extracting surplice fees from her Jewish subjects. In 1764, she ordered the release of those Jews who had been jailed for a blood libel in the village of Orkuta. Notwithstanding her continuing strong dislike of Jews, Maria Theresa supported Jewish commercial and industrial activity in Austria. There were also parts of the realm where the Jews were treated better, such as Trieste, Gorizia and Vorarlberg.