Begging for votes!!! The stats are pitiful.
By the way, I got review-bombed and shoved right to the bottom, with a one-star rating! So far, nobody has owned up to it.
It makes me look as if I've committed some unforgivable crime. If you have a moment, please help me rate it.
The buying frenzy began. Franz had people spread rumors that prices were about to rise.
There was good reason to believe it. Vienna had always been the most expensive city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, yet for the past six months, prices there had actually been lower than in other regions.
Everyone knew that wasn't normal. Capitalists weren't philanthropists, and there was no way things could stay that way.
Faced with hard evidence, Vienna's residents believed the rumors. Their six months of good times had just passed, and now they were about to end.
Naturally, everyone went wild with panic buying. Before dawn, long lines had formed outside every supermarket in Vienna. The buying frenzy had arrived.
Volvo had prepared in advance and moved many of its goods elsewhere. Naturally, it had no stock of daily necessities that could be stored for a long time. Most of what it had set aside consisted of handicrafts and items meant for short-term consumption, such as bread and all kinds of snacks.
They were snapped up in no time. Volvo's employees opened the warehouse, and everyone saw that the goods inside wouldn't keep for long. Naturally, they weren't what ordinary residents were mainly after.
They all left and surged toward other supermarkets instead. Soon, many of those were cleared out too. Gazing at their empty shelves, many capitalists could only weep.
After all, most supermarkets bought their stock on credit, usually settling accounts monthly. It was normal to put off payment for six months or even a year.
Now they were selling at a loss. The more they sold, the more they lost, but they still owed every penny.
If you had the means to keep operating, then delaying payment for a while to retain your customers was no problem. But if your losses were severe and you wanted to shut down, you couldn't blame your creditors for kicking you while you were down.
Kotei, which had only just emerged from its troubles, was dealt another heavy blow. Its stock was snapped up, leaving it in an awkward position: nothing left to sell!
Vienna's retail sector was hit hard. Many capitalists faced the same problem: they were running short of cash.
Department stores and supermarkets were now losing more the more they sold. The money they made from clearing out their stock wasn't even enough to pay what they owed their suppliers.
With no other choice, they borrowed money. Vienna's banks naturally wouldn't miss this feast of capital, and they swooped in to take advantage of the crisis, kicking people when they were down.
The small capitalists had it even worse. They faced the danger of insolvency, and many simply skipped town, taking what they could. After all, in this era, there was no way to pursue them across borders.
The crisis spread to the manufacturing sector, too, dragging many factories down with it. Those who owed money had fled, so naturally their suppliers couldn't collect payment. Many small factories were in trouble because of all the bad debts.
The capitalists who had escaped disaster were naturally unwilling to let things end there. Many had a flash of inspiration and came up with all sorts of ventures: clothing malls, dining complexes, machinery centers, and the like. They planned to make a killing and recoup their losses.
They figured that the buildings were already there and couldn't be sold off anyway, so they might as well make a last-ditch effort. With the popularity they had built up earlier, the pioneers naturally made money. The side effect was that every other sales business suffered.
A massive wave of bankruptcies swept through the city. Countless capitalists went under, each collapse dragging another down with it. Unemployment kept rising, and Vienna fell into a deep slump. The economic crisis had arrived.
The financial bigwigs who had just been gloating probably weren't familiar with this kind of operation. They had started by helping themselves to a huge feast, only to choke and end up unable to digest it.
They were holding a mountain of collateral, but when the financial crisis hit, they couldn't turn it into cash. All they could do was watch its value fall day after day, helpless to stop it.
Then the crisis spread to the stock market. With funds in short supply, stocks began to plunge, and countless fortunes evaporated.
Vienna's financial crisis soon spread throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Businesses went bankrupt in droves, workers lost their jobs, and society fell into turmoil.
Bank deposits began to dwindle rapidly, and at last, a small bank called Boston ran out of cash and went bankrupt.
Because the Austrian government handled things poorly, a wave of bank runs began, dragging more banks into the crisis. Many that had already been short on reserves now followed in Boston's footsteps.
At long last, the slow-to-react Austro-Hungarian Empire realized it had to step in and rescue the economy. On December 8, the empire's finance minister, Murdoch Holman, held a press conference and announced the launch of a rescue plan.
Ferdinand knew the harvest season had arrived. The Austro-Hungarian Empire's economy was still developing quite well. As long as enough money flowed in, the financial crisis would soon pass.
Taking advantage of the sluggish stock market, Ferdinand went on a buying spree, snapping up a number of valuable companies at bargain-basement prices. He also seized the opportunity to buy into Skoda, becoming its second-largest shareholder.
Of course, Skoda wasn't as powerful then as it would be in later generations. Its real rise would begin in 1899, and it would reach its peak in 1937, when its artillery output surpassed that of the entire British Isles. Ferdinand was simply getting in early.
Kotei Department Store, which Ferdinand had long regarded as already in his pocket, naturally didn't escape his grasp.
Kotei Department Store had first suffered heavy losses in retail. Then, after the financial crisis broke out, the banks called in their loans early, dealing it another fatal blow.
The two hundred thousand pounds in loans once provided by Hungarian capitalists had now become Kotei's death warrant.
Ever since its reputation had been dragged through the mud, Kotei Department Store had been required to pay cash for all the goods it purchased, tying up a huge amount of capital.
Now the banks were calling in their loans early as well. With its cash flow broken, Kotei Department Store had no hope of recovery. After holding on for a while, the Hurd family finally decided to give up.
After all, they had lit the fuse for this financial crisis, and the government would most likely dump the blame on them. Being a scapegoat was no easy thing!
If they sold the company right away, everyone could still get a share of the proceeds. The key was that Ferdinand could pay in cash, which they could use to bail out their other businesses.
For fifty thousand pounds in cash, plus his assumption of all its debts, Ferdinand easily took over Kotei Department Store, a giant valued at eight hundred thousand pounds.
Opportunities like this only came along during a financial crisis, when countless companies went bankrupt. Everyone was busy taking over businesses and restructuring them, so naturally, nobody competed with Ferdinand.
Ten years of hard work, beaten by a single burst of fortune!
This time, those words rang true. Ferdinand had made a killing. The gains from this one deal alone were enough to save the Kohary Family ten years of effort.
The financial crisis had still caught Ferdinand somewhat by surprise. The power of the butterfly effect had exceeded his imagination.
As its effects continued to spread, the influence of his foreknowledge would grow weaker and weaker. Ferdinand felt a little panicked. It seemed he would need to prepare a few more escape routes.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was out of the question. Although it was the Kohary Family's home base, unfortunately, it had no future for development.
The Alliance was out of the question too. Ferdinand wasn't confident enough to change the outcome of the World War on his own!
Perhaps he should turn his gaze beyond Europe and seek his fortune in the colonies. After all, many places were still wide open, with no competitors at all. He could probably still remember a few famous mineral deposits around the world; if nothing else, he could become a mining magnate.
There wasn't much time left. It looked like he would have to make his trip to London early, Ferdinand said to himself.
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