How did Fredrick William attempt to fund his military campaigns?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. Fredrick William's need for more taxes led to a confrontation with his diets, local political assemblies dominated by the nobility. Hohenzollern diets had traditionally granted taxes to the ruler, but after Fredrick William proposed supplementing the grant with a general excise tax, the local nobility objected that the excise violated their traditional rights of tax exemption. The solution created two tax systems: the countryside, led by nobles, paid a land tax, while towns adopted an excise tax. In creating this twofold system in Brandenburg, the elector split the united opposition of urban and rural taxpayers to new taxes. Furthermore, in Prussia, Frederick William introduced the two-tiered system there as well. Shorn of their taxing power, the diets withered away, and, as in France, political power was increasingly consolidated in the hands of the ruler and his government.Fredrick William also used the massive landholdings under his control to produce wealth. Finally, the elector also encouraged economic growth along mercantilist lines by increasing exports and introducing new manufacturing centers.