The outbreak of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) brought profitable market conditions for the Salzburg farmers. The Austrian army needed many horses as well as large quantities of slaughter cattle. Growing demand caused an increase of prices, inducing more and more farmers to sell their livestock abroad for specie. The excessively high exports led to a dangerous shortage of meat, lard and cheese in the archbishopric itself. Prices rose so extremely that wageworkers could no longer afford this sort of food. If at the beginning of the 18th century a pound of beef had cost 3 kreuzer, one had to pay double the price by 1770.