Time was the best way to smooth over pain. After two years of settling, investors had gradually recovered from the panic of the stock market crash.
One only had to look at the Vienna stock exchange. Although daily trading volume was still less than half of what it had been at its peak, the market had returned to normal.
Tempered by the stock market crash, the weak had been weeded out and the strong retained. Though there were now fewer companies on the market, their quality was far superior to before.
With the bubbles squeezed out, the market had become markedly healthier after sobering up. As the economy returned to normal operation, another wave of fresh, tender leeks entered the market.
Compared with the veterans who had entered at the peak, they were obviously far luckier. They had entered at the bottom and caught the wave of rapid economic development.
It could not be said that everyone made money, but most people had earned at least a little. If the previous crash had not left such a deep shadow and so many people still fearful, there might well have been another bull market.
It was against this backdrop that the push to list oil companies began. Unlike the sunset industry it would become in later generations, the petrochemical industry of this era was unquestionably high-tech.
As the world's largest producer and consumer of oil, the Holy Roman Empire's demand for petrochemical products had maintained double-digit annual growth for more than a decade.
Although petrochemical products had yet to become widespread across the world, the Holy Roman Empire's demand alone showed just how enormous this market was.
According to the calculations of socioeconomists, global crude oil demand was expected to rise to 35 million tons per year within five years, with