The Kingdom of Prussia's shipbuilding plan greatly shocked Franz. He had never imagined that Prussia, which had always thrown itself wholeheartedly into building up its army, would suddenly turn to developing a navy.
However, after reviewing the Kingdom of Prussia's development over the past few years, Franz understood their reasoning.
Domestic industry and commerce needed cheap raw materials and markets. The European Continent had already stabilized, and the Kingdom of Prussia could no longer see any hope of growing stronger.
If things continued to drag on, then even if Germany were unified, they would be the ones being unified.
No one was willing to sit still and wait for death. Taking advantage of this peaceful period to build up the navy might just give them a chance to claw their way back from the brink.
To make the Junker nobles accept this cruel reality, William I personally acted as a lobbyist and promised them benefits.
Whether the government could profit from overseas colonial expansion remained unknown, but domestic capitalists would certainly profit.
If the nobles were willing to serve as the main force of colonization, then naturally they would receive their share as well.
This was also why so many colonial empires ran fiscal deficits. The vested interests took too much, refused to pay taxes to the government, and dumped administrative expenses onto it instead.
This situation was even more obvious in old-established empires. The government lacked the power to suppress these interest groups and could not collect taxes. Coupled with the corruption of the bureaucratic class, which devoured wealth, deficits eventually emerged.
Short-term losses were still acceptable, but once they lasted too long and exceeded the limits of what government finances could bear, domestic interest groups would no longer be willing to foot the bill and simply allowed the