election as palatine, Joseph assumed a more active role in Hungary. While previously he had mostly relied on the opinions and decisions of Izdenczy's ultra-conservative party and supported the removal of progressive teachers accused of corrupting the youth, he now realised that their investigation lacked real proof and was not conducted in a professional way. He heavily criticised this to the Viennese court and reprimanded Németh. Economic considerations first appeared in Archduke Joseph's letters in early 1796. In early February, he alerted Emperor-King Francis to the devastation that the loss of the Polish market for Hungarian wine caused after Poland had been partitioned two times. His proposal that the emperor-king should help out wine trade was his first individual idea, but was rejected as Vienna wanted to maintain the economic dominance of the Habsburg hereditary lands. In early September, while the sovereign continued to demand soldiers and ammunition from Hungary for the ongoing war, the palatine relayed the nobility's wish for a diet, which was fervently opposed by the court. This might have been what ultimately convinced Joseph that Vienna was partial against Hungary and many of their decisions were made on biased grounds. During these first years of his palatinate, the majority of the archduke's time was taken up by preparations for the war, equipping and training Hungarian soldiers. In early 1797, after many military failures, Emperor-King Francis sent his family to Buda for their safety. Around this time, a shift can be observed in the tone of the letters exchanged by the brothers: Joseph stopped simply executing Francis' will and became the more pro-active one. Still, he remained conservative in his thinking and worried that the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers could 'confuse' the less-educated. He warned the emperor to keep an eye on returning prisoners of war who might have picked up revolutionary ideas in France. In early 1798, he suggested the establishment of a police force against the 'strong advance of the revolutionary spirit' and proposed a secret police to keep an eye on bigger cities. These ideas had already been brought up during the reign of Joseph II but were too fiercely opposed by the nobility. While a secret police was established to monitor the mood in ten cities, there is no proof of the palatine ever collaborating with them. Effect of first two visits to Russia A major turning point in Archduke Joseph's attitude towards