Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was already the end of 1917. The time had come once more to decide the expenditures of every government department for the coming year.
Unlike during wartime, the military would also be joining this battle for the budget, and Ferdinand had even let word slip that a new round of reforms for state-owned enterprises was coming!
The enterprises controlled by the military would very likely be separated from the armed forces. From now on, there would be only one source for all their funding—fiscal appropriations!
Of course, there would still be dividends from running the colonies, but only after Bulgaria's colonies turned a profit!
As the military's representatives, Bulgaria's five marshals now circled around Ferdinand every day. Even with nothing to do, they could find something to do; naturally, their purpose was military spending.
Their good days of being free from budgetary restrictions were gone and would never return! During the war, in order to win, all of Bulgaria had revolved around the military. Once the fighting began, even if the government had no money, it still had to scrape together supplies for them!
Now that the economy had begun returning to normal, the military no longer possessed that former swagger of simply reaching out to the government whenever they lacked something.
Everything would be handled according to the rules. From now on, the military would have to pay for procurement just like everyone else. No money? Sorry, step aside.
In terms of fiscal revenue, Bulgaria had seen a massive increase. The Ministry of Finance's budget figure for 1918 was 5.2 billion Lev—roughly £208 million. Before the World War, a figure like this would likely have delighted the cabinet to death. Now, though, it was merely so-so.
Fiscal revenue