The rivers froze, and with them, the mills. So corn did not get ground, and people starved. This was some of the richest farmland in Europe, and bad weather was a terrible hardship for these simple farmers. The weather was not the only headache for the Palatines central Europe was wracked by chronic warfare as France and Spain tangled with each other over the succession to the Spanish throne. At that time, Germany was a patchwork of little fiefdoms and principalities duchies constantly duking it out with each other.
War costs money, of course, and the local princes made sure the peasants paid for it.
Your average Palatine farmer was saddled with a crippling tax burden. So there the Palatines were, huddled around the fire, their stomachs growling, wondering how they were going to make it through the winter, and if they did, how they were going to get crops growing when spring brought new armies raping and pillaging. These were not happy people. When a book arrived from England promising milk and honey in America, it quickly had everybody s attention. Queen Anne s ministers were in need of cheap labor.