Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 1146: Chapter 160, Ceasefire Negotiations

Currency standard reform is not a novelty. The gold standard had been accepted by European countries only in the last three to five decades.

Along the way, there had been disruptions, and to prevent the massive outflow of gold, most countries had basically implemented restrictive policies during the reform period.

The most representative of these was the Vienna Government’s financial control legislation, which explicitly restricted the outflow of large capital sums.

This was one of the reasons why financial capitalists detested Shinra, as restrictions on major capital flows hampered their ability to quickly move money in and out, significantly affecting everyone’s speed of earning money.

Before the war, Britannia was the financial hegemon, always having excess capital, so naturally, there was no need to restrict capital outflow.

Now the situation was different. With the continuously worsening conditions, politically astute capitalists were already planning their escape.

Anyone with clear sight knew that once the Oceanic Alliance collapsed, even if Britannia managed to come out intact, it would have no future to speak of.

Looking around, enemies were everywhere, what future development could there be?

Capitalists could abscond with their money, but existing beneficiaries could not. Away from Britannia, capitalists could still be capitalists, but the nobility and bureaucrats would be left with nothing.

Although the power of capital was strong, in this day and age of the Great Britain Empire, it was not their turn to run the show.

In prosperity and hardship alike, it was shared. Capitalists looking to escape from the vortex would naturally be unaccepted by other forces.

If we were to die, we would all die together. It couldn’t be that everyone was fighting and dying on the battlefield while allowing the capitalists to stab us in the back.

“The currency system reform” was the countermeasure everyone came up with. Once the capitalists massively withdrew their funds, the plan was to completely decouple the British Pounds from gold.

Just like at the end of the wars in Europe, the French government had done the same. While abandoning the gold standard, they also ceased the free exchange of Francs for gold.