Quicksilver Reading CompanionIn 1687, Eliza writes from the French court at Versailles to the diplomat d’Avaux, detailing her financial maneuvers and the shifting political alliances of Europe.
“d’Avaux” — Jean-Antoine de Mesmes, Comte d’Avaux was a premier French diplomat and Louis XIV’s ambassador to the Dutch Republic, serving as a vital node in the King’s intelligence network.
“Mme. de Maintenon has got her girls’ school open at St.-Cyr” — The secret second wife of Louis XIV, Madame de Maintenon was a pious and powerful figure who founded the Maison royale de Saint-Louis to provide an education for the daughters of impoverished noblemen.
“invested it mostly through sub-brokers in Amsterdam, who specialize in particular commodities or species of V.O.C. derivatives” — The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was the first corporation to issue stock and pioneered the use of complex financial instruments like futures and options in the 17th century.
“William of Orange” — The Dutch Stadtholder and Protestant champion, William III would eventually seize the English throne from his father-in-law, James II, during the Glorious Revolution.
“William of Orange declared the League of Augsburg” — Formed in 1686, the League of Augsburg was a coalition of European powers, including the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, united to check the aggressive territorial expansion of Louis XIV.
“Maréchal de Catinat, who suppressed the Protestants in Savoy” — A prominent French military commander, Nicolas Catinat led the brutal persecution of the Waldensian Protestants in the alpine valleys of Savoy.
“now I have some idea as to who belongs to the cabinet noir” — The Cabinet Noir, or “Black Chamber,” was a secret French office dedicated to intercepting, opening, and deciphering diplomatic and private correspondence.
“pipe a little melody that he had Lully compose for him” — Jean-Baptiste Lully was the dominant figure of French Baroque music and the favorite composer of Louis XIV, essentially inventing the French opera style.
“Colbert, the late Contrôleur-Général, who built Versailles” — Jean-Baptiste Colbert served as the Minister of Finances and was the architect of France’s mercantilist economy, as well as a major patron of the sciences.
“Mansart—the King’s architect—was there” — Jules Hardouin-Mansart was one of the most influential architects of the 17th century, responsible for the Hall of Mirrors and the Grand Trianon at Versailles.
“news that the Parthenon in Athens has b” — During the Morean War in 1687, a Venetian mortar shell struck an Ottoman gunpowder magazine stored inside the Parthenon, resulting in the destruction of the Parthenon as a standing structure.
“everyone was assuming that I was just another empty-headed Duchess who had read too much Pascal” — Blaise Pascal was a brilliant mathematician and physicist whose posthumous Pensées became a foundational work of French literature and Christian philosophy.
“the man dressed as Orion was none other than the King himself” — Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” famously used elaborate court ballets and theatrical performances to project his absolute power and divine right to rule.
“the French East India Company there around 1666” — Established by Colbert to challenge English and Dutch trade, the French East India Company struggled for decades with mismanagement and the high costs of establishing outposts in the Indian Ocean.
“explain the concept of selling short” — Short selling is the practice of selling an asset one does not own in hopes of buying it back later at a lower price; it was a highly sophisticated and controversial maneuver in the Amsterdam markets.
“investing in commodities futures” — Futures contracts are legal agreements to buy or sell a commodity at a predetermined price at a specific time in the future, a staple of Dutch financial innovation.
“planted the Coffee Tree in the Island of Java, near their City of Batavia” — The history of coffee was transformed when the Dutch broke the Arab monopoly by smuggling seedlings to Java, eventually making the island’s name synonymous with the drink. Stephenson’s annotation: “In 1687 the Amsterdam stock market really was moved by a false report of the Fall of Batavia. All I have done here is attributed it to Eliza.”
“the French practice of sending Huguenots to the galleys” — Huguenots (French Protestants) who refused to convert to Catholicism after 1685 were often sentenced to the “galères,” where they faced brutal labor as oarsmen on Mediterranean warships.
“simply killing them all as was done in Savoy” — This refers to the Waldensian Massacre of 1655, a bloody ethnic cleansing of Protestants in the Duchy of Savoy that sparked international condemnation across Europe.
“forget about the Taunton schoolgirls and what they signify” — The Maids of Taunton were young girls who presented banners to the rebel Duke of Monmouth; after his defeat, they were notoriously held for ransom by the crown and the “Bloody Assizes” of Judge Jeffreys.
“playing basset with M. le duc de Berwick” — James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, was the illegitimate son of James II and a nephew of John Churchill; he became one of the greatest generals in French history.
“Henrietta Maria of France, the mother of James and Charles” — The widow of the executed Charles I, Henrietta Maria was a French Catholic princess whose religious influence over her sons remained a source of deep political anxiety in England.
“Versailles was infested with Satan-worshippers, poisoners, abortionists… in the late 1670s” — The Affair of the Poisons was a sensational criminal investigation into a network of fortune-tellers and poisoners that implicated many high-ranking members of Louis XIV’s court.
“his contacts at Trinity College in Cambridge” — Trinity College, Cambridge, was the intellectual home of Isaac Newton and served as a center for both the new “experimental” philosophy and secretive alchemical research.
Original annotations by: stephenson