Holy Roman Empire-Chapter 987 - 1: A New Era - The Divine Shield Settlement System
Chapter 987 -1: A New Era – The Divine Shield Settlement System
Politics has always been a matter of moving the entire body by starting with a single hair. What seemed like a mere tap was actually Franz closing the valve of expansion, suppressing the voices of the domestic War Party.
Every coin has two sides. The war on the European Continent was won too easily, the spoils of war too abundant, and most critical was the Emperor’s willingness to share the benefits, leading “fame and fortune lies beneath the horse’s hooves” to become the mainstream in society.
Stimulated by interest, the whole Empire became unprecedentedly bellicose. Ordinary people wanted to turn their lives around through war, ordinary soldiers sought to cross the threshold into the Nobility with their military merits, and the Nobility themselves aimed to go even further through war.
“Men die for wealth, birds die for food.”
The law of survival in nature was vividly demonstrated here. Under the stimulus of interest, everyone had forgotten the risks brought by war.
It was not that no one had discovered the problem, but everyone tacitly pretended not to see it. The reason was very simple–the collapse of France had caused the Vienna Government to lose its sense of crisis.
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In everyone’s eyes, without France, the old archenemy, there was no one in the world that could match the Holy Roman Empire.
Even though the Royal Navy was still the world’s first, and the Russians remained robust, their weaknesses were all too clear.
Russia had weak industrial strength and a government so poor it rattled; its economic lifeline was in the Empire’s hands, requiring them to look to Vienna’s face.
Although the British had the world’s number one navy, it was only temporary. Once the Empire decided to compete for maritime supremacy, it would be their turn to exit the stage.
If you can’t beat them in quality, beat them in quantity. If the British build one warship, the Empire will build two – two versus one is always a winning strategy.
Having money is this overbearing. With the consolidated Holy Roman Empire, its fiscal revenue surpassed the total of all European countries. As long as the government tightened its belt, playing with both terrestrial and naval power was not an issue.
Regardless of how others might be carried away, Franz certainly was not. Income and expenditure were proportional. Ordinary people only saw the government’s enormous fiscal income but overlooked its enormous expenditures.
Had it not been for the adoption of the primitive feudal system, significantly reducing administrative expenses, with the current income of the Vienna Government, it might not have been able to sustain such a vast Empire.
Keep in mind, due to the war, the Vienna Government had already faced three consecutive years of fiscal deficits. To balance the budget, the earliest it could achieve this would be the year 1894.
“A large country that loves war will eventually perish.”
This holds true in any era. Reality had proven that as long as the scale of war reached a certain level, no matter how abundant the spoils of war, it was a loss in the short term.
The outside world only saw the glory of the victorious countries but did not know the pain behind it. The spoils of war were truly a fortune only when digested; otherwise, they remained figures on paper.
Not only was the government impoverished, but even the pockets of the Nobility were not wealthy, especially the newly risen Military Nobility, who might now have pockets cleaner than their faces.
There was no choice; all the money was thrown into their fiefs. One had to manage and pay for the construction of their own fief, of course.
Not to mention the emerging Nobility, even for the Old Nobility, producing such a large sum of money was not easy.
The construction of a fief was not a one-person affair; everyone not only emptied their own wallets, but many also emptied the wallets of relatives and friends.
Of course, this was also an investment and a very stable one at that. As long as they did not blindly mess around, managing a piece of land was definitely not a losing venture.
Now, the only ones probably rich were the capitalists. However, they were shivering at the moment, keeping as low a profile as possible, for fear that the financially desperate Vienna Government would catch them on a criminal charge and confiscate their wealth.
If it were all legal property, there would be no need to hide and pinch, but the capital of these times was bloodstained, and nearly every one of them would be caught upon investigation.
And the Vienna Government loved to play this game; when in need of money, they would initiate an anti-corruption campaign, then incidentally involve a bunch of capitalists, or directly target a few fat sheep for investigation.
Since Franz’s ascension, similar events had occurred three times, and each time the capitalists were chives on the chopping board.
Those who jumped the highest died the quickest, especially those fools who went to manipulate politics; now, one by one, their graves were overgrown with grass.
It was not Franz’s affair; this was the game between the Aristocratic Group and the bourgeoisie. To ensure their dominant position politically, the Aristocratic Group always suppressed the rise of the bourgeoisie within the rules of the game.
Similar events were not limited to the Holy Roman Empire; almost the entire European Continent saw the two classes in strife.
It was just that the Conservatives in the Holy Roman Empire were much stronger, suffocating the bourgeoisie.
Of course, the struggle is the struggle, but it actually has little to do with ordinary people. Even most nobles and small to medium capitalists don’t have the privilege of participating in this game.
Even if you’re a big capitalist, as long as you don’t get involved in politics, you won’t be targeted.
Unfortunately, many people don’t understand this, still dreaming of establishing a strong political network, only to step on the toes of the Aristocratic Group and risk everything.
You live and you learn.
Despite not knowing that the Emperor had drawn a red line for them, crossing which meant death, after enduring enough social beatings, the capitalists still grew wiser.
Most people believed that having too much money courted trouble, which is why the most popular trend was now “wealth concealment”, more prevalent in the East than flaunting wealth.
After sensing the Vienna Government was short on funds, one after another started to feign poverty. Many capitalists would rather stash their money in a basement than let the outside world know they were wealthy.
Holding onto money isn’t a sin: a person has the right to manage their own money. The Vienna Government abides by the rules; legitimate private property is inviolable, to be managed as one sees fit.
In a sense, the capitalists’ hoarding was also helping the Vienna Government stabilize the currency and get through the fiscal crisis.
Otherwise, with the times of currency oversupply, the value of the Divine Shield would have already been jeopardized. The Franc plummeted drastically, but the similarly oversupplied Divine Shield barely fluctuated at all, which was a miracle.
Insufficient currency circulation wasn’t a problem once the era of paper money arrived. If it wasn’t enough, they would just print more, and as the circulation market for the Divine Shield grew, increasing the circulation of the currency just made sense.
Just like the future US Dollar, as long as the market had confidence, Old Te dared to flood the market.
The era of military expansion was over; the age of economic expansion had just begun. As soon as the Vienna Government achieves a short-term goal, it will immediately escape the current fiscal predicament.
By the mid-19th century, the gold standard system was successively established on the European Continent, with gold being the mainstream method of settling international trade, and both British Pounds and Divine Shield being supplementary to gold settlements.
Besides being known as international currencies, in reality, both Divine Shield and pound sterling weren’t true international currencies – their ability to function as settlement currencies still depended on gold.
Only by transforming the “Gold-Divine Shield system” into the “Divine Shield system” would the Divine Shield become truly international. At that point, it could emulate the future Americans, becoming wealthy simply by printing money.
Prime Minister Carl hurriedly advised, “Your Majesty, besides our reputation, the value of the Divine Shield is important because it is tied to gold and can be freely exchanged.
Once it’s decoupled from gold, without the limitation of gold reserves, we could print as much as we want, but the outside world definitely wouldn’t accept it, and we might crash just like the current Franc.”
That was an inevitable result. The Shinra Empire’s credibility was solid but not universal adoration.
If the Divine Shield were to decouple from gold, the British would likely take advantage of the situation and push the pound sterling to capture the market.
Seeing the Prime Minister misled by surface issues, Franz shook his head and explained, “This is a long-term goal. In the short term, the Divine Shield naturally cannot decouple from gold.
However, apart from the fixed exchange rate with gold, we can add some more chips, like grain settlements, oil settlements, etc.
In these areas, we have an absolute advantage. If we propose settling directly with Divine Shield, the antipathy of other countries should not be too strong.
First secure the settlement status of the Divine Shield on the European Continent, then gradually expand to the rest of the world, and implement the final step once the overall situation is stable.”
Copying homework, who doesn’t know how to do that?
Even though Franz didn’t know the specifics of how the future dollar hegemony was established, he was aware of the dollar’s flamboyant maneuvers of coupling and decoupling with gold.
Since it succeeded in the original timeline, then just copy the homework. The small challenges that Americans handled, there’s no reason the Vienna Government wouldn’t be able to manage.
The Americans had their grain dominance, their oil dominance, and the Holy Roman Empire had these things as well – the bargaining chips were evenly matched.
In the short term, promoting the Divine Shield system worldwide was impractical, but it was very promising to implement it throughout the European Continent.
When selling grain, oil, and other monopoly goods, insisting on transactions in Divine Shield would make the European nations comply.
At that time, the European Continent was still the center of the world. Once Divine Shield hegemony was established in Europe, expanding overseas would be much easier.
