Franz's purpose in issuing shopping vouchers was naturally to resolve the current economic crisis. Ordinarily, in later generations, a state's large-scale distribution of shopping vouchers would be considered an unwise move.
In theory, it could drive up prices, exhaust the public's desire to spend, saddle the government with crushing debt, breed corruption and unfairness, and obstruct free competition by allowing poorly performing enterprises to linger on.
"Pouring out the milk is the only rational course of action." — Some prominent influencer from a later age
Whether that statement was right or wrong aside, it was at least not entirely applicable to the Holy Roman Empire at this time.
Because of the price war Bismarck had stirred up earlier, followed by the workers organizing production on their own initiative, the entire market system of the German Confederation had now basically ground to a halt.
Without intervention, the final outcome of this chaos would be an unavoidable economic crisis.
If they intervened through conventional means, it would take at least two or three years to absorb the impact of this economic crisis. The price paid by the state and its people would still be enormous, and Franz's reforms would be heavily compromised.
Some things were like rowing a boat against the current: if one did not press forward, one drifted back.
Britain's accumulation over centuries had nearly vanished after scarcely more than a decade of disadvantage.
If Franz's accumulation over more than a decade went through a two- or three-year period of stagnation, he truly had no idea what the future would look like.
But Franz knew that those who had placed such hopes on the reborn Holy Roman Empire would be bitterly disappointed.
Once a people's spirit was gone, it would be difficult to find again.
By now, certain sharp-eyed British