To have enough troops, was there any choice besides expanding the army? And to expand the army, they naturally needed money.
Ever since its founding, the Hungarian Republic's finances had been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
The newborn government had no idea how to manage its finances. The taxes they had worked so hard to collect had barely warmed in their hands before being muddleheadedly spent away.
Kossuth bore direct responsibility for this. It could be said that, in terms of corruption and graft, the newborn Hungarian republican government had already surpassed Austria.
One could look to the Republic of China after the Xinhai Revolution for comparison. With the old order collapsed and the new order not yet established, once restraints disappeared, officials in high positions became even more unscrupulous.
"Mr. Kossuth, the government has already levied war taxes twice this year!" Marquis Luoqi reminded him.
Hungary's taxation had always been independent of Austria's. Back when the rotten aristocracy controlled the government, there had often been all kinds of disorderly taxes, and the people had lived bitter lives.
They had originally thought that after independence, everyone would finally live well. Yet reality was precisely the opposite. Without "Austrian exploitation," their lives had only become harder.
The newborn republican government had granted greater power to the localities. In their eyes, any government chosen by election seemed to consist of incorruptible saints.
Reality was always different from ideals. Hungary had now learned from the Americans: not only did the central government have the right to levy taxes, local governments could do so as well.
Simply put, the number of tax-collecting authorities had increased, yet there were no restraints whatsoever. Officials took the opportunity to line their own pockets, and even some community governments had established a whole heap of bizarre taxes.