The End of the Knockoff Era

Having not become the fuse that ignited a world war, Sarajevo was still merely an ancient city surrounded by mountains and blessed with beautiful scenery.

Among Austria's many cities, it was utterly unremarkable. Especially after failing to compete for the position of provincial capital of Bosnia Province, it became even less conspicuous.

That had to do with the Vienna Government's policies. To prevent resources from becoming overly concentrated and causing unnecessary waste, administrative centers, economic centers, and industrial centers were generally not clustered together.

Sarajevo was Bosnia Province's overland transportation hub, had fairly good industrial development, and was also a historic ancient city. All these advantages became disadvantages in its bid to become the provincial capital.

Though it was not widely known, Sarajevo's economic development had not been slow in the slightest. Especially after Bosnia became another Austrian heavy-industry center, the local economy soared into the sky.

Thanks to its geographical advantages, Sarajevo could rank among the top twenty of Austria's many cities.

Inside an office building on Wuerhe Avenue in Sarajevo stood the headquarters of the Fike Group, a giant in the hardware accessories sector. At that moment, Executive President Yanuo'er was giving a work report to his boss.

"Mr. Shilov, the proposal we submitted to establish an integrated food-processing plant failed to pass review. The government's reason was that the market was already saturated, that Sarajevo was unsuitable for developing the food-processing industry, and it suggested that we choose another investment direction."

Fike Shilov frowned. During wartime, aside from arms, food was the best-selling commodity—especially food that could be eaten simply by tearing open the package.

Compared with the lofty arms trade, food was much easier to get into. Food profits might not match those of weapons, but the sales volume was huge!

Austria was a neutral country