Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 386: Chapter 40 Mobilization

Without the jingle of gold and silver, wars cannot be fought.

The old Duke Lotar once said to his son-in-law—Emperor Richard IV of the Holy Muro Empire, “Three things are needed to wage war: money! money! and thirdly, still money!”

With periodic financial bankruptcies, Richard IV lost his finest generals as well as all the territories south of the Sheltering Mountains.

But essentially, money cannot be used directly for war.

Gold cannot serve as gunpowder, and turning silver into weapons and armor is economically impractical. War requires money because it can purchase the resources for war.

Monk Reed once told Winters, “The weapon that kills the most people in the world is not swords, but mobilization.”

At that time, Winters did not understand, thinking it was just old priestly gibberish.

But after seeing the common folk of Horsehead Town waving war bonds and hearing the old begging monk analyze how the Republic of Palatu raised one batch of war funds after another,

Although Lieutenant Winters Montagne still did not fully grasp the term “mobilization,” he sincerely felt a sense of fear.

The military history courses at the Land Academy revealed a truth: war is a game for the few, at least until it’s time to divide the spoils.

Wars between kingdoms are, in fact, wars between kings.

Commoners have to pay taxes and serve in wars for their kings, but that is out of necessity.

No one is willing to participate in a war for free. Some didn’t believe this, so they didn’t pay their soldiers, and their ends were often terrible.

Taxes, service, and feudal duties can still be seen as a king’s property; fundamentally, the king still uses his personal wealth, his treasury to support his wars.

So excessive taxation, onerous conscription, and extreme exploitation of vassals leading to being overthrown is equivalent to bankruptcy.

Thus, dynasties and empires that held superiority in population, wealth, culture, but were destroyed by barbarian tribes emerging from remote areas are numerous,

Wealthy nations and bankrupt royal houses are also not rare;

In terms of population, land, and wealth, the Duke of Forthland’s domain was insignificant compared to the Holy Empire, but in the end, it was the laughingstock of “peddlers and mob” in the emperor’s mouth that had the last laugh.

Ultimately, war is not about how much gold, silver, or population you rule, but rather about how much gold, silver, and population you can mobilize for war.

Among all the republics, the population of Palatu ranks second to last, and its wealth is also far inferior to Vineta, The Federated Provinces, and Varn.

If it was still the Duchy of Palatu, years of campaigning would have already made the duke pack his bags—not at the hands of the Herders, then the Palatu People would have done it.

But her territory was the largest, and it was still growing.

Where on earth did the Republic of Palatu get the money to fight wars?

The answer: borrowed.

It is common for monarchs to borrow money for war, but essentially it remains a private loan. The pool of lenders is limited to wealthy merchants, the church, knights, and bankers.

Most of the time debts were repaid, occasionally defaulted.

Thirty years ago in Palatu, with royalists causing disturbances from within, and Herders’ Iron Cavalry invading from without, the republicans were holed up in Kingsfort, busy holding public trials and sentencing people to the guillotine.

Faced with a dire situation of lacking men, food, and most importantly, money, General Ned pioneered another way of borrowing to raise military funds: special war bonds.

[Note: Ned Smith was still a general at the time]

These bonds were of small denominations and available to everyone for purchase.

Without collateral, they were expected to be repaid with all profits during the war, including unclaimed noble private properties, future spoils from fighting the Herders, and so on.

It sounded like getting something for nothing, but perhaps precisely because of this, the bonds sold at a particularly cheap price.

Bonds with a face value of four silver shields sold for just one silver shield—yet even then, there were few buyers.

Then Ned Smith won a small victory and pillaged a knight’s home.

Valuables, land, houses… all spoils were auctioned off at low prices, but could only be purchased with bonds.

Because they could be immediately converted into real assets, people gradually began buying bonds, but the price of bonds with a face value of four silver shields rose to two silver shields.

Then Ned Smith fought a moderately significant battle and pillaged an earl’s home.

As per the precedent, the price of bonds with a face value of four silver shields on the market had risen to three silver shields.

Soldiers under Ned Smith gradually agreed to be paid their wages in the form of bonds—naturally, at the market rate.

Bond purchasers became shareholders, and the army became associates.

War turned into a business, or perhaps, a gamble.

Every Palatu citizen who bought bonds prayed for Ned Smith to win more victories and seize more spoils of war.

After the eighth victory, General Ned announced that all bonds would be repaid uniformly after the war.

There were two reasons: first, during the war, the largest part of the spoils, the real estate, could not sell at a good price; secondly, he planned to reinvest the movable spoils back into the war, essentially using the profits to expand operations.@@novelbin@@

This decision was a significant blow to the confidence in bonds, but Ned Smith had a contingency plan.

“Open bond trading to the public.”

General Ned also announced that to enable bond purchasers to recover their investments, the Kingsfort “Bond Exchange” would be established.

If you don’t want your bond, you could sell it off at the trading hall. Whether at a loss or profit, it’s all up to your skill.

The world’s first [Bond Exchange], just like that, was born three months after the birth of [war bonds].

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