Accoutrement Straps: Material and Color
In the 18th century great effort was devoted to keeping the cost of an inherently expensive institution (a standing army) down, both for the benefit of the State and for the benefit (profit) of the colonels commanding regiments, who were allowed to keep any difference between the the government's appropriation for the regiment and the colonel's actual cost for furnishing it. (see, for example Bennet Cuthbertson, A System for the Compleat Interior Management and OEconomy of a
