The Sun Never Sets In Spain

Hearing this, Boist's face became even more bitter.

No matter how rich a country is, it is impossible for it to have a fiscal surplus in two consecutive wars.

What's more, Austria-Hungary is not a rich country in the first place. As early as in the first Prussian-Austrian war in 1866, they paid a sky-high compensation to the central bank for the central government's indiscriminate issuance of currency. pay off.

Even the current cost of requisitioning the domestic railways is owed first, and the money will be paid out where it is.

...Actually, it's not that they can afford it, it's just that this matter is not important enough to require the Austro-Hungarian Empire to borrow money.

"Let's change it, Your Majesty, we still owe you £7.25 million." Boist said with some embarrassment.

"Well..." Alfonso was also embarrassed: "Without money, it's difficult to help you with errands.

We fought the war for France and they got rid of millions of pounds of debt.

This is to take the initiative to attack Prussia, I am afraid..."

In fact, Alfonso didn't have to ask for money. In addition to money, he also wanted scientific research and industrial production materials, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire couldn't get these things either.

The military strength of Bohemia is not bad, but Austria-Hungary is the volume, and the technical level is not much higher than that of Spain.

Then the two discussed again, but Boist still couldn't come up with enough interest to impress Spain.

So the talks broke up.

After Beuist left, Alfonso secretly slandered. This is obviously because he wants Spain to work for free. Not to mention that the two countries are just friendly and quasi-ally allies.

Don't you see that every thing Hungary does requires the central government to transfer its interests.

Spain dragged 100,000 Prussian troops in Strasbourg, making the opponent unable to escape. It was already benevolent and righteous, but he did not expect his teammates to continue to prostitute for nothing.

There was no agreement between Theo, but the war continued.

In the blink of an eye, two weeks have passed since Austria-Hungary declared war on Prussia, and the scattered Wehrmacht soldiers finally gathered on the front line.

The "military superiority" claimed by Emperor Franz has finally emerged. After all, no matter how violent Prussia can be, it is impossible to defeat the two great powers of Fao at the same time.

However, military superiority does not mean victory.

In this war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire entered the war on the grounds of helping Bavaria defend Prussia, which is obviously untenable.

In the contract signed in 1866, German affairs had long been unrelated to Austria-Hungary, let alone forming an alliance to defend against foreign enemies.

As an aggressor, Austria-Hungary was at a disadvantage in terms of morale, justice and international public opinion.

Coupled with Prussia's lenient policy towards Austria-Hungary at the time, the soldiers below did not have any revenge, and naturally it was impossible to compete with the Prussian side who defended the country.

In this way, Austria-Hungary fought back and forth with 480,000 troops and Prussia's 360,000 troops.

For every kilometer the South German side advanced westward, Bohemia lost about the same amount of land.

In this way, Austria-Hungary lost blood, and almost all the military industry of the entire empire was concentrated on the small one-acre land in Bohemia, and every inch of land was the essence of Austria-Hungary.

South Germany was only temporarily occupied by Prussia, and if it was lost, it would be lost.

And in order to take care of the emotions of their ally Ludwig, they could not loot in Bavaria, but Prussia had no scruples about Bohemia.

In the Hofburg Palace, Franz had nothing to say about such an embarrassing situation, and all who should be angry were angry.

After careful consideration, Austria-Hungary is still short of money.

If they have money, they don't need to deduct and search for it when they mobilize. If they have money, they can command Spain to be a gunman.

So the emperor summoned the senior ministers of Vienna on March 22, including the Hungarian ministers who had recently had a very tense relationship.

The emperor only announced three things. First, Hungary's financial burden was immediately reduced from 30% to 23.7%, and there was no need to hold another central financial meeting.

The second is to impose a nationwide war tax and borrow £4 million from the central bank to deal with the war.

Third, suspend the repayment of all debts, including principal and interest.

A few simple words caused a big wave of rendering throughout the empire.

Such a tough money-raising method undoubtedly shows that the financial situation of the central government is deteriorating sharply.

Almost all the people began to criticize the government's aggressive diplomacy, and the war tax, a means of harvesting, really hit their pain point.

However, the turmoil in the empire was gradually improving.

The tax hike and the cessation of debt repayments are effective for the whole country, but the reduction in fiscal obligations is for Hungary alone.

The disadvantages of the former cannot offset the gains of the latter.

In return, the Hungarian politicians not only stopped slandering the central government, but also immediately sent 100,000 troops to Bohemia to help. For this reason, they even distorted the legal provisions so that the local defense forces could be dispatched across borders.

With the help of Hungary, the binary empire of Austria-Hungary finally stopped fighting with one hand, and the situation gradually improved.

On the Iberian Peninsula, Alfonso is keeping a close eye on it all.

Every day someone came to him to report the latest developments in the war.

The fact that Austria-Hungary stopped paying his arrears had an impact on him, after all Romagna and Renwy owed him money (Croatia had already paid it off).

But he is not concerned about this, but another - Austria-Hungary borrowing 4 million pounds from the central bank.

In fact, this is just a pretense. The main purpose of Austria-Hungary is to issue additional banknotes in the territory again, and the borrowing is to explain the source of funds to the people.

This is not a secret among high-level officials of various countries, and financial scholars are well aware of the economic situation of Austria-Hungary.

Austria-Hungary didn't even try to hide it from everyone.

This operation is what Enrique just told Alfonso.

It has to be said that it opened the door to a new world for Alfonso.

Austria-Hungary can increase issuance, why can't Spain increase?

Austria-Hungary, like Spain, does not have sufficient reserves of precious metals, even less than Spain.

Where is his confidence in daring to issue additional currency?

No confidence, messy hair.

The Habsburg finance ministers have been trying to stabilize the value of domestic paper money for years, but with little success, because the continuous wars and debt repayments are too expensive.

In addition, it is a monarchical country, and the Ministry of Finance has no ability to persuade the emperor not to waste money.

But Spain is different, with at least three advantages in comparison:

One: There are more domestic precious metals. Two: Spain has a strong central government. Three: Spain's central bank's assets are more dominated by real estate and precious metals.

After more than two years of development, Spain has annexed Sicily and Sardinia. Its economic strength has long been enough to carry more currency, but it has not been issued frequently because of insufficient silver stocks.