Holy Roman Empire

At the Vienna Hotel, a heartwarming aspect emerges as the two unlucky men tell each other their woes, a scene that is sad to hear and tearful to hear.

And then there was no more, no matter how much Massimiliano wanted to help, there was no point.

In order to restore the country, Massimiliano had not only exhausted his own connections, but also owed a lot of favors. To this day, his own influence over the Vienna government was infinitely close to zero.

Aside from looking good, Massimiliano, the Mexican emperor-in-exile, is an empty frame. The only thing that works is probably a high enough status to help speak at a critical moment, but whether it works or not is unknown.

With such a little help, Leopold II was still unwilling to give it up. Regardless, it's better to have someone to help speak than no help at all.

No matter how low Massimiliano's political voice was, it was still an existence that could directly exert influence on Franz. The fact that he was able to get hundreds of thousands of restoration funds every year was the best proof of that.

But people grow up, and despite being very moved and happy to help Belgium, Massimiliano is not the same teenager he once was.

"Leopold, I would personally advise you not to get your hopes up. I understand that the Viennese government is running a deficit again this year.

If you really want to get funds from Vienna, it's best to go through private channels for financing. Although the interest required to pay for the funds is a little higher, it is unnecessarily costly politically."

This was Maximiliano's sincere opinion, aid and interest-free loans were too much of a hardship. It was no longer the time of the European War, Belgium's importance to the Shinra Empire had diminished considerably, and the Viennese government was not a wrongdoer.

If the numbers are small, perhaps it's still useful for Belgium to cry and sell its misery. The problem is that Belgium now has a huge financial shortfall, and the interests involved are much larger.

These problems Leopold II naturally want to get, but now is no way. Ordinary international financing not only carries a high interest rate, but also comes with a lot of political strings attached.

The most important thing was that the Belgian government had already mortgaged everything it could in its previous loans, and now that it couldn't come up with enough collateral items, purely on the government's credit guarantee, the financial consortium simply wouldn't buy it.

Not only Vienna, all major financial markets all over Europe Belgian government has gone to borrow money. Now all but the larger banks and financial companies across Europe are creditors of the Belgian government.

In order to raise enough money, duplicate mortgages and screwing around, the Belgian government has not done anything less.

Unfortunately, the financial institutions were too smart and unsure of the Belgian government's ability to repay their loans, and each time they collected more mortgages and lent out very little.

The post-war reconstruction expenditure greatly exceeded the budget, and the normal commercial channels were not accessible, which is why Leopold II made this trip to Vienna.

"Massimiliano, don't you know what those vampires are? In Belgium's current situation, do you think it's possible to get a normal commercial loan?"

Seeing the helpless expression on Leopold II's face, Massimiliano nodded very sympathetically. At any rate, he was a man who had been an emperor, so he naturally knew what kind of goods the bank was.

"Borrow an umbrella on a sunny day and close it on a rainy day." But not just kidding, back then in the position of the Mexican emperor, Massimiliano suffered a lot of trouble.

The apparently very conscientious loan, that was only used to fool the general public, the real interest rate was never terribly high.

To this day, Massimiliano remembers the first time he got a loan, which was to mortgage a silver mine in Mexico. He took a Mexican silver mine as collateral and got a loan that seemed generous.

Obviously the annual rate of only 2.5%, in fact, all kinds of fees a pile of more pit loans or installment issue, interest to be calculated in full, the final discount down the real interest rate directly as high as 14.62% year.

This is still a conscience loan given by Napoleon III after he personally communicated with the French consortium out of support for him.

It would have been a true usury if the banks had been left free to do what they wanted without government intervention. No one knows how much the highest was, but anyway, Massimiliano had borrowed an international loan with a 50% discount on the principal, an interest rate as high as 46.9%, and a whole bunch of additional conditions.

Of course, Massimiliano is not at a disadvantage. The interest rate was a little higher and the strings attached were a hundred million points more, but it was a high-risk loan. With the fall of the Mexican empire, these debts became rotten.

The aftermath was that when Massimiliano wanted to finance the restoration of the country, there were no longer any banks willing to lend money to the government in exile. Even when he borrowed in his personal capacity, no bank would lend.

Government debt is not the same as emperor debt, and there is no joint liability between the two parties. Theoretically, as a true member of the Habsburg family, Massimiliano was still a quality customer in the eyes of the banks, and it was no problem if he couldn't borrow more than a million or eight hundred thousand.

Unfortunately, Franz had already put words to the financial sector, who dares to lend money to Massimiliano personally, is and Habsburg dynasty.

Capital for profit and weakness, no bank head iron to a little interest income, and the Habsburg dynasty will be up against.

So much so that the uninformed Massimiliano even hit a wall, only to think that he had become a fallen phoenix and was being stoned by the vampires.

After hesitating for a while, Massimiliano slowly said: "Leopold, I can only help you to convey the difficulties your country is facing in this matter.

In the end, the one who can make the decision is the Vienna government, you better not hold too much hope. That brother of mine is rarely involved in such matters."

Politics was such a reality, but whenever it was something that offended someone, it was never the cabinet that took the blame, and Emperor Franz, who really made the decisions, usually only appeared when all was well.

With Massimiliano's knowledge of his own brother, unless the Belgian government could come up with enough benefits in exchange, this kind of thing that was done for nothing would most likely not pass.

"Thank you!"

"If the government of Vienna can provide us with the assistance we need, then all future international trade settlements in Belgium will be conducted using the S.H.I.E.L.D.,"

Leopold II said through gritted teeth.

In a sense, it was a betrayal of national sovereignty, but Belgium had run out of better options.

The post-war reconstruction was underfunded, the French couldn't get their hands on the reparations, and in order to raise funds, Belgium had mortgaged everything it could, and now it was left with only a few chips in hand.

Had it not been for the discovery that the Vienna government was prepared to make the S.P.E.D. an international settlement currency, Leopold II would not have known that the settlement currency could be traded.

After all, international trade settlements before this were mostly done using gold, and sometimes silver as well. Settlement using the divine shield was all when countries began trade with the Holy Roman Empire.

All the use of the S.H.I.E.L.D. for trade settlement, not only means that Belgium gave up the gold and silver settlement, but also means that Belgium will be pegged with the S.H.I.E.L.D. currency, from the original pure gold standard country, into a mixed standard of S.H.I.E.L.D. and gold.

Only because the guilder and gold are freely convertible and the value of the currency is relatively stable, the difference between this hybrid standard and a pure gold standard is not large.

Just because the gap isn't big now, doesn't mean the gap won't be big in the future either. Once the S.H.I.E.L.D. and gold are decoupled, the situation changes completely.

There was no doubt that no one was aware of these problems right now. No one in their right mind could imagine the decoupling of Godshield and gold, and no one knew that the future economy would develop so fast that it would be unable to meet realistic demand as gold production.

Had they known this, Leopold II would never have been so generous as to take it as a condition. After all, negotiations hadn't even been officially opened, and the conditions offered right now could only be considered good faith, and the price to be paid in the end would definitely be much higher.

Massimiliano nodded his head, feeling relieved. The fight for currency hegemony between the God's Shield and the pound had been going on for more than a day or two, and even he, an exiled emperor far from politics, had heard about it.

Belgium's current stance was not just about economic interests, but also about political squads.

Several years ago, Britain and Austria had engaged in their own settlement systems, and had also pulled together European countries. Only the conditions were not mature enough at that time, and even if there was some inclination, no country dared to declare that all settlements would be made in a particular country's currency.

If Belgium were to come forward now, it would be the first country in the world to openly declare that it would all use the S.H.I.E.L.D. for settlement. With that alone, it would gain a huge wave of goodwill from the Vienna government.

Such a thing is currently only dared by the impoverished Belgium. By fully adopting S.H.I.E.L.D. for settlement, it was not only politically maligning the British government, but also excluding its own goods from the British market.

Whether it was for the sake of face, or for the sake of profit, the London government could not accept the God's Shield as the settlement currency for Anglo-Belgian trade. It should be known that the Anglo-Austrian trade was now settled in gold.

Even if the Vienna government wanted to make the Shen Shield an international settlement currency, it wasn't that aggressive, and right now it was only planning to make the Shen Shield the internal settlement currency of the European Union.

Knowing that the consequences were severe, Leopold II did it anyway. The reason was very cruel, the only ones with the power to provide funds to Belgium now were Britain and Austria.

Don't look at the fact that the Vienna government seemed to be financially tight, that was relative, squeeze the money out.

Moreover, just because the government doesn't have the money doesn't mean it can't come up with the money. After more than a year of buffering, no matter how tight the financial markets of the Holy Roman Empire were, it wasn't as if tens of millions of dollars couldn't be taken out.

The post-war reconstruction funds are not a single day spent out, as long as there is eighteen million to save the emergency, the rest of the funds can wait until next month to allocate.

The situation in Europe has become clear, and it is not for Belgium to continue to be double-minded. If you go to collude with the British for the sake of the loan, you will definitely be tired of living.

Leopold II decided to take a gamble and take the number one horse's place anyway. Even though the number one pony needed to charge in and be a little more dangerous, the benefits were lucrative!

Prior to this, the top level of the Belgian government had also carefully studied it.

With the current momentum gathered by the Holy Roman Empire, as long as the Vienna government didn't die, the position of the European hegemon was already secure, and the chances of replacing the British as the sea hegemon were also very high.

Belgium's size was limited, and if they didn't lean over immediately, their value would be lost once another country took the lead.