n the morning, sometimes
as early as five or six o'clock, by Jews who rap at his door to enquire if
he wants to exchange gold and silver against currency or _vice versa_. I
used to lose all patience at being so disturbed in the morning, and was
obliged in self-defence to put an affiche on the door of my room to this
effect: "_Man kauft und verkauft hier nichts; kein Wechsler darf
hereintreten_." "Here there is no buying and selling; no money changer is
allowed to come in," and I hereby recommend to all strangers not to treat
with these Jews, but on their arrival, or at any time they think fit, to go
to a banking establishment in this city, where every day after eleven
o'clock you can exchange your gold and silver for paper at the just rate of
exchange, as published at the Bourse, paying only a very slight premium,
and on leaving Vienna to go to the same establishment to change your
superfluous _Wiener Waehrung_ for _Convenzions Muenze_ or gold and silver
money. For when the Jews tell you the rate of exchange is so and so, you
conclude probably your bargain with them, and on enquiring at the Bourse
you find that the Jew has made a percentage of six or eight per cent, out
of you. _Louis d'or_ are the best foreign coin to bring into the Austrian
Dominions. Next to them in utility are the Dutch ducats, or _Geharnischte
Maenner_ as they are termed, from the figure of the man in armour upon them.
All other corns suffer a loss in proportion. The bankers in Vienna pay the
foreign bill of exchange in _Convenzions Muenze_, which you must afterwards
change for _Wiener Waehrung_, the only current money in Vienna and Austria.
But what makes it additionally troublesome is that here in Vienna there are
particular payments, which must absolutely be paid in gold or silver or
_Convenzions Muenze_, and _not Wiener Waehrung_; for instance the franking of
foreign letters at the post office, where they do not take the _Wiener
Waehrung_. In vain you may intreat them to take the _Wiener Waehrung_ at any
rate they please; no! you must go elsewhere and buy from the first person
you can meet with as much gold and silver as is required for the franking
of the letters; so bigotted are they in the Austrian dominions to the
letter of the law! This happened to me: I wanted to frank three letters for
England and I went to the post office with _Wiener Waehrung_ paper, not
being aware of this regulation, and I was obliged to return to my Hotel, to
lay hold