Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 206: Chapter 151: The Economic Crisis Arrives (Part 3)

For Carlo, whose assets have already exceeded a billion, this minor expense is nothing, incomparable to the importance of making his Queen Sophie smile.

Since Sophie is almost daily focused on the major events occurring in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the economic crisis that broke out recently in Vienna inevitably reached her ears.

“This is the law of capital development, it’s unavoidable, Sophie,” Carlo could only nod and explain to Sophie, “But considering the economic size of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although this economic crisis is severe, its impact won’t be too detrimental.

If the government can react in time, the impact on Austrians should be confined to an acceptable range.”

“Spain shouldn’t be affected, should it? Do we need to prepare in advance?” Hearing that the economic crisis would not have too severe an impact on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Queen Sophie sighed in relief and then began to be concerned about Spain’s response in this economic crisis.

“Don’t worry, the impact of this economic crisis on Spain is minimal. Spain’s economy and industrial size are not large enough to cause an economic crisis.

Even if affected by the economic crisis, it’s within an acceptable range, so there’s no need to worry,” Carlo said with a smile.

The impact of the economic crisis on Spain was already minimal, not to mention that the Spanish Government and Royal Family had been prepared for a long time.

Just the tens of tons of gold reserves contributed by the Padmanabhaswamy Temple ensure that Spain won’t be heavily affected by this economic crisis.

Moreover, Spain’s economy and industrial development are quite healthy, the severe impact on Vienna can largely be attributed to the lack of regulation of the stock exchange and bank management.

The banks and construction companies established purely for speculation are the most vulnerable in this economic crisis.

It was the rapid bankruptcy of these castle-in-the-air enterprises that caused the economic crisis to quickly sweep through the entire Vienna.

If there were fewer of these shell companies, the impact on Vienna wouldn’t be so severe. It was the mass bankruptcy that exacerbated the panic among Vienna’s citizens, leading to unmanageable runs, ultimately causing banks that could have maintained order to also fail during the run.

This issue is not only seen in this era, but will appear in future generations as well.

The financial industry is quite lucrative, but also quite fragile. Bankruptcy may even be influenced by a single rumor; if enough people believe the talk of a bank failing, it creates a run crisis, and the bank indeed faces the possibility of bankruptcy.

Conversely, even if a bank faces a cash flow problem, as long as a run crisis doesn’t occur, it won’t face a situation of bankruptcy.

To guard against such unpreventable run crises, there are only two methods. One is for the government to exert certain regulatory control over banks to ensure funds are not used excessively, always keeping a portion reserved for emergencies.

Because of previous economic prosperity, numerous banks used the majority of their funds for speculative profit.

When the economic crisis erupted, they simply couldn’t obtain funds from elsewhere for circulation, what else can a cash-strapped bank do but go bankrupt?

Indeed, just like Carlo said, as long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire Government responds swiftly, the impact of this so-called economic crisis is actually not as severe.

At least for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it’s not a devastating blow, those nations with the fastest industrial expansion suffer the greatest impact.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire has good industry and economy, its development speed in the past decade doesn’t even rank in the top five globally.

In recent years, the fastest developing countries are invariably Britain, the United States, and Germany; the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s development speed even ranks behind that of the French, which is also why the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s impact isn’t too severe.

Sure enough, just as Carlo anticipated. The impact of the economic crisis was indeed severe for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but only for the week preceding the crisis.

After the banks and construction companies that speculated for profit quickly went bankrupt, most of what remained were factories and enterprises focused on industry.

Although these factories and enterprises also faced rather severe bankruptcy crises, they at least had some foundation, allowing them to endure longer.

They also awaited the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s aid. On the second day of the crisis outbreak, the Austro-Hungarian Empire Government announced it would use 300 million Rhine Shields for market rescue, prioritizing aid for some more important and large factories and enterprises.

As long as these major factories and enterprises survive, the industries lost due to the economic crisis still will have a chance to revive.

But if these major factories and enterprises go bankrupt in the crisis, rebuilding in the future won’t be easy.

After Vienna’s economic crisis was temporarily stabilized, the ones suffering next turned out to be Germany and France.

Among them, Germany suffered more severely, as Germany’s development speed in recent years has been one of the fastest in Europe.

After receiving 5 billion francs of amicable aid from France, Germany’s industrial expansion speed and railway building speed were remarkably fast.

billion francs is equivalent to 200 million pounds, this is an extremely vast sum even for the British Empire. The Germans indeed used this funding to swiftly propel the German Empire towards industrialization.

Furthermore, due to integrating resources and industry throughout the German Region, the German Empire leaped into becoming an industrial giant and economic powerhouse in Europe.

However, such status doesn’t grant any advantage in an economic crisis, rather it leads to a more severe economic crisis due to recent rapid economic and industrial expansion.

About ten days after Vienna’s economic crisis erupted, its impact had reached Berlin’s stock exchange.

On the day of impact, many companies faced severe bankruptcy crises. Luckily, during these ten days, the German Government had already prepared, announcing a plan to rescue the stock exchange market on the day Germany was affected.

Furthermore, Germany’s big construction projects have just started a few years ago, not yet reaching a situation like the United States where production far exceeds demand.

Under the effective control of the German Government, the economic crisis’s impact on Germany wasn’t overly severe.