Given Franz's abilities and the Austrian Empire's strength at this moment, it was not impossible to force a breakthrough. After all, Patagonia genuinely bordered Argentina, and they also held an advantage in military technology.
But the risks were simply too great; the gains would not justify the losses.
Rather than personally entering the fray and fighting the nations to the death, it was better to keep watching the show and let them continue bleeding each other dry.
Franz looked at the world map on the wall. More and more places were igniting in war, from the Far East to South America, from Alaska in the north to Australia at the southern end.
And according to his memories, the remaining regions would ultimately be unable to escape the flames of war as well. Without question, a great tide was about to sweep across the world.
At this time, every branch of United Power Department Store simultaneously installed a new invention—the cash register.
It was a cast-iron box weighing over thirty kilograms, with five rows of rotating numerical keys in the middle, two levers, and a hand-cranked handle on the side.
To modern people, it might have seemed dispensable—an invention without significance, a not particularly complicated tool.
Yet in truth, it was something worthy of a line of its own in the history of Western economics. A simple cash-management tool changed the fundamental logic of modern commerce.
The cash register's contribution to commerce was in no way inferior to that of the steam engine to industry. To a certain extent, it solved one of the most fundamental problems in commercial logic: "People cannot be trusted," and ushered in an entirely new era of business.
In fact, from the very founding of United Power Department Store, Franz had always faced one problem—those entrusted