The Black Forest people had no intention of keeping it secret. The actions of the Frankish Empire and the Ilibia Kingdom quickly reached Hudson.
The moment he saw the news, he was stunned. This fledgling noble-style capitalism was playing hard.
Although the technological levels of the continent's nations were roughly comparable, their actual productivity differed vastly.
The more free citizens a country had, the more developed its commerce and manufacturing were, and the higher its government revenue.
Even workshop-style production became more conducive to cost control once it reached scale.
When there was such an obvious gap, only an idiot would agree to open their borders from the outset.
Bullying small countries was one thing, but if simple loans could settle matters with great powers, there would be no such thing as "forcing open a country's gates with military force."
Compared to war, loans cost far less.
After considering it carefully, Hudson found it perfectly normal. The economic models of the Frankish Empire and the Ilibia Kingdom could not simply be summed up as capitalism.
At their core, they were still ruled by nobles, with capital merely serving as an accessory. Their growth and expansion mainly stemmed from the noble lords' pursuit of profit.
Even Hudson was confused about where this mishmash of noble capitalism would ultimately lead.
With the variable of extraordinary power involved, the experience from his previous life was destined to be unreliable here.
Judging from the current situation, as long as the noble class controlled extraordinary power, capital could only remain subordinate.
The noble way of handling matters was far more direct and decisive. They had yet to learn all sorts of roundabout schemes—or perhaps they simply disdained learning them.
Whether the two nations' plans would succeed was unknown, but in the short term, they would