Holy Roman Empire

Another day without success, and Ives' heart grew heavier and heavier. With no income for over five months, his poor wallet was looking at the bottom of the barrel.

Reaching out to his parents, not to mention whether he could put aside his poor pride, the problem was that Ives's parents were just ordinary people, with grandparents above to be surmised and younger siblings below to be supported.

Now caught up with the wave of layoffs, pay cuts, everyone hates a dollar in half to spend, the past savings is the last guarantee to survive the crisis. People won't use it until they're at the end of their rope.

Ives, who couldn't gnaw on the old man, returned to the rental house and stared dumbly at the world map on the wall.

The map was left behind by the landlord, and it was said to be a gift from the business for a campaign to celebrate the victory of the European War. Frankly speaking, from the map, the Holy Roman Empire was truly overbearing.

Excluding the areas that were uninhabitable to humans, the Holy Roman Empire had occupied nearly a quarter of the land and one twentieth of the ocean, making it one of the only world empires in the world today.

Ives was also hot-blooded, fantasizing about fighting in the sands with an iron horse, and finally returning home as an honorable nobleman.

Unfortunately, he was not born at the right time. When Ives enlisted for military service, it coincided with the end of the European War, and the French surrendered without waiting for the new recruits to finish their training.

Not to mention the war effort, not even a chance to go to war. The last few months of military service were completed in good time, and then he was discharged and went home to find work.

It didn't matter that the aristocratic dream was shattered. The probability of ordinary people becoming aristocrats is not high, and those who stand out are "possessed by the Emperor of Europe", and most of them, even if they come across opportunities, will only end up with a farm.

I don't envy it at all, I really don't. As long as you work hard, you'll be able to make it in your lifetime. As long as he works hard, he will have the chance to buy a farm in his lifetime.

With society beating him down, Ives thought it would be nice to become a great engineer, after all, he got perfect marks in all of his mechanical operations classes in school. With a dream in mind, he came to this strange city with his retirement money.

He thought he could easily join a big company with good salary, and then he would be appreciated by "Bole", and finally become a great engineer.

As it turned out, it was all in his own mind. He had only just started his career when the economic crisis hit.

Against the backdrop of companies laying off employees in droves, not to mention entering a large company with good pay, Ives didn't even snag a job washing dishes at a street-side restaurant.

Overseas, that was so far away. While airplanes had been around, that had only been able to be used militarily, and the civilian population was at best a few flying clubs.

Wanting to make planes to and from Africa and the mainland, no problem in theory, in practice it was simply impractical. Safety aside, the high operating costs alone make airlines shy away from the idea.

Currently, all airlines in the Holy Roman Empire are mainly airships that take fast cargo for short and medium distances. Passenger transportation was also available, but the price was not affordable to the average person.

According to the normal rhythm, a round trip by ship from the mainland to the African continent would take a month at the earliest, and certain remote areas might take a small half year for a single trip.

The more distant South Seas and the Americas, that's needless to say. Fast is a few months, slow is a year and a half.

With such a long journey, the cost was naturally not expensive. Many people left their hometowns for more than a decade. It wasn't that they didn't want to go home for a visit, the problem was that the cost of a round trip was a year's income.

Ordinary people can't afford to take such a trip, especially those with small families, so they have to let go of their homesickness in order to give their families a better life.

Many immigrants, after leaving their homeland, would only take a trip back home with their whole family in their old age. There was no way to get enough free family leave to make the trip, and only then.

The five-year family leave promised by the colonial government or by an employer was limited to the person employed and to one visit. To bring in family members, one either had to accumulate family leave or pay for it.

It's not that there aren't better conditions, but the problem is that if you leave with your whole family, they're afraid you'll never come back!

In addition to getting ahead to be able to return a few more times, ordinary people to return home, it is already "children do not know each other, laughing to ask where the guests come from". Childhood hometown, fond memories are no longer there.

Looking at his wallet, Ives knew that if he couldn't find a job, he would have to give up on life.

There may be a better life overseas, but the taste of home is something that can never be found again. Once you step outside, your family and friends will be a passing part of your life.

This night, Ives had trouble sleeping. Along with him, there are thousands of unemployed people who have to choose whether or not to go out to make a living.

......

The economic crisis was raging, and it was not just the private sector that was having a hard time, but governments were having an equally hard time.

The bankruptcy of the Prussian government was only the beginning, and by May the governments of Modena, Parma, and the Two Sicilies followed suit, and in June the governments of Sardinia, Lucca, and Tuscany couldn't hold on any longer and joined the wave of bankruptcy.

The entire Italian region was left with the Papal States struggling to hold on. After all, it was a religious country, and with donations from the faithful, the Papal States were still in a better position than their neighbors.

But that was only better, if the economic crisis continued and the believers ran out of money to donate, the Papal States would probably join the wave of bankruptcy.

The collapse of the Italian region was only the beginning. As far as Franz knows, the four governments of Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland, which are still holding on, have also reached a difficult situation.

Belgium is because of heavy losses in the war, reconstruction work is only halfway, suffered from economic crisis, to be able to hold on until now is not bad.

Switzerland, on the other hand, is eating it up, and the poor Swiss government is borrowing heavily in the financial markets in order to build up its newly acquired territory.

Now that it's raining and the banks have suddenly taken their umbrellas, the financial problems are suddenly exposed and the Swiss government is in a dilemma. If the project fails, the initial investment will be wasted; if it continues, the government finances will not hold up.

As for Portugal, it was the hash of misadventure. The republicans and monarchists in the country are making so much noise that no one cares about building the economy.

Unlike other colonial countries, Portugal's colony lost money, and it was the kind that lost money for years on end.

Don't ask why they lost money, they lost money anyway. And still the more they lost, the interesting thing is that the more the colony lost money, the more the Portuguese were reluctant to give it up.

Even if someone offered them a high price for this "inferior" asset, they still held on to it. There's no need to say why, as long as you know.

In short, Portugal became increasingly powerless in the face of rising colonial costs. In order to maintain their colonial empire, the Portuguese ran up huge foreign debts, which overwhelmed the small European country.

Unfortunately, the Philippine War not only emptied the Spanish treasury, but also tore through their "Great Powers" disguise.

Although the Philippine War was still going on and Spain was not defeated, the strength they showed was really difficult to be linked with the Great Powers.

Spain would have collapsed had it not been for the repeated deflections of Vienna. Now it's not so much that Spain is at war with the Japanese, it's more that Shinra is adding to the Japanese problem.

Just look at the situation on the battlefield, the Spanish fleet, which had suffered heavy losses, had not only completed its replenishment, but had even added a major ship.

Needless to say the army, now the main force on the battlefield are turned into mercenaries, and the ones who are having a PK with the Japanese are the former elite of the French army.

Looking at the results will know, originally the exchange ratio between the two countries was 1:1.4, now directly rose to 1:2.7, a complete qualitative breakthrough.

The Spanish Expeditionary Force, which had been beaten to a pulp by the Japanese, has now gradually seized the initiative. Although victory was still distant, it was at least developing on the favorable side.

In contrast, the Japanese, who were also a poor empire, were now much more miserable. With the British backing, the navy was naturally no problem, but the army had no choice!

The gap in weaponry, the British could figure out how to fix it, but that would take a long time to wait; the training of soldiers, that would be for the Japanese to fix.

Originally they were learning from the French, and now the Philippines was just staging a battle of the teachers and apprentices. The Japanese originally wouldn't have taken such a big loss, but the key was the trouble caused by the expansion of the army.

Not every country is capable of raising hundreds of thousands of standing armies in peacetime, and Japan has just a few standing army divisions that add up to over 100,000 men.

When the Philippine War broke out, it swelled rapidly to over 800,000, a full five-fold increase. Whether it was officers or veterans, they were all in severe shortage.

Even though they made up for it with the warrior's doctrine ideology, they were still not able to improve their professional quality. Looking at the hit rate of the soldiers, you can see that when they were firing at each other on the battlefield, even the Spanish Army was hanging them, not to mention changing the French elite.

Their only advantage was their courage, and they were not ambiguous when fighting for their lives. Unfortunately, Japan is too poor these days, and the environment in which the soldiers lived as children limited their growth, many of them were yellow-skinned, and it was obvious at a glance that their nutrition could not keep up.

If the nutrition didn't keep up, the physical fitness naturally didn't want to keep up. Originally, in terms of physical quality, Asians are inherently slightly worse than Europeans, and now this gap is even more obvious.

If it weren't for the jungle to exploit, the Japanese wouldn't have survived even if they had been brave enough. However, the jungle wasn't omnipotent, and they didn't fold if the enemy didn't come in.

Unlike the Spanish army, the mercenaries ran to fight for money. One by one, morale is high at the sight of a city, and they push back when they encounter the jungle.

Then an interesting scene occurred. With the help of over 100,000 mercenaries, the Spanish Expeditionary Force managed to take several cities in the Philippine Islands, but the jungle became off-limits to them.

The mercenaries were reluctant to fight where there was no oil, and the Spanish army had learned its lesson and was equally reluctant to go into the jungle to suffer.

The Japanese troops, who had made an ambush in advance, were fed mosquitoes in the jungle for nothing. The Japanese are forced to play guerrilla warfare, from time to time to emerge from the jungle to engage in attacks, from the enemy to get supplies.

If the situation does not change, it is estimated that another year and a half, the expeditionary force will be able to take all the important towns of the Philippine Islands, occupying the vast jungle of Japanese troops really become guerrilla.

Obviously, this was not something the Japanese government could tolerate. In order to win the war, they had enlisted the locals in a solid "anti-white alliance".

However, the Spanish rule had deliberately stirred up conflict between the indigenous tribes, and now there were many problems within the Grand Alliance. Many of them were deeply white-phobic, and while it was fine to help wave the flag, it was still impossible to expect them to contribute to the war effort.

For the Japanese government, military trouble is only a small problem, as long as the willingness to die all is not a problem, now suffer just did not understand the rules of the game in Europe.

Not knowing that the Spanish would allow mercenaries to act as the main force, they were caught off guard. As soon as this is eased, things will get better in the back.

By contrast, the financial troubles were the real ones. The Japanese government, which had never been wealthy, had long since exceeded the limits of its finances by maintaining a large navy and raising a continental army.

Although the Japanese army had reaped considerable gains in the Philippine Islands, most of that wealth had gone into the pockets of individuals, and the government had received only a fraction of it. This portion of the loot alone was clearly not enough to fund the war.

You can still borrow foreign debt in normal times, but you don't have to think about it now. During the economic crisis, cash is king, banks and consortia are tightening their monetary policy, and they will not lend to the outside world easily.

Unemployment is rolling in, and ordinary people are counting on the funds they have on hand to survive the crisis, so who has spare money to buy bonds?

"British support", just listen to it. Not everyone is that iron simpleton Louis XVI, selling blood to aid the U.S. has happened once in history. It's impossible to get British support at any cost.

Besides, the London government was now too busy looking after itself. An economic crisis was breaking out all over the world, and as the world's second largest economy, Britain would naturally be no exception.

Perhaps because of the overdeveloped financial industry, along with the economic crisis that was ravaging the world, Britannia was also experiencing a financial crisis at the same time.

Of course, the war was not all bad. At least the war helped the Japanese government to survive the economic crisis, compared to the Great Depression in the European world, in addition to the smell of gunpowder in Japan, the economy is still "thriving".

......