When returning to the imperial capital, Bai Zhizhan's first feeling was the cold that penetrated his bones.

Although it was only early winter, Bai Zhizhan felt that it was even colder than the severe winter when he first came to the imperial capital twenty years ago, as if the air was about to freeze.

Not only the temperature, but also the depressed city.

The Great Depression, which began in the 1989th calendar, has been going on for ten years so far.

Although three years ago, the New Deal of the Newland Federation first showed results, countries around the world announced that they would successfully survive the most difficult period, the Great Depression had passed, and another golden age was about to come, the truth was exactly the opposite, and it was even more cruel than the public opinion propaganda.

Did Keynesianism defeat the Great Depression?

Obviously, this is a false proposition.

When the Newland Federation began to implement the new policy, the most famous economist of the Empire asserted that it was just adding a scoop of cold water into a pot of boiling water, or throwing a huge ice cube in it, temporarily reducing the water temperature to the boiling point; because the fire at the bottom of the pot has not been extinguished, it will boil again in no time, and the pot is full and can no longer accommodate more cold water and ice cubes.

So what should I do?

About three years ago, the Nayi Empire gave the answer with its actions.

In the early 1996th year of the Imperial New Calendar, the Newland Federation once again launched a call, proposing to sign a new treaty based on the "Hacheng Treaty" and the "Lentite Treaty" to increase the deadline for limiting naval armaments by another five years, preferably ten years, to cool down the increasingly tense international situation.

This proposal was fully supported by the Liangxia Empire and the Bran Kingdom, but was opposed by the Nayi Empire.

Although in the end, the three major contracting parties reached an agreement and signed the second phase of the arms restriction treaty called the "Second Lontai Treaty", the treaty also stipulated that if the Naoyi Empire did not become a contracting party at the beginning of the following year, that is, the first day of the 97th calendar of the Empire, the restrictions on the main ships and motherships will be fully relaxed. To be precise, the upper limit of various performance indicators is equivalent to no restrictions.

As a result, the Nayi Empire did not sign a contract the following year, and the "Second Luntai Treaty" became waste paper.

Fundamentally, it was caused by the Great Depression.

If the contract is signed and the naval military equipment is strictly restricted, the economy of the Navy will be ruined in less than five years, and many enterprises, including shipyards and steel mills, will go bankrupt, thousands of workers will be unemployed, and even trigger a nationwide riot.

For this reason, the excess capacity can only be used to produce arms.

Even if it is drinking poison to quench thirst, it is much better than being done immediately.

Besides, if you are desperate in the end, you need a strong army to have the possibility of diverting domestic conflicts through external expansion.

In the middle of that year, the Navy Navy launched the construction of the "Super Battleship". It was not until this time that the outside world learned that before the end of the "Naval Holiday", the Navy had secretly completed the design of the Super Battleship, and all indicators significantly exceeded the treaty restrictions.

It can be seen that the Nayi Empire had long been determined to withdraw from the contract and would not agree to extend the deadline for five years.

Now, the great powers returned to the field.

From an economic perspective, vigorously building infrastructure in the development of arms and new policies is actually the same thing, that is, spending severely oversupply of industrial production capacity through expenditures without direct output, providing new orders for enterprises, allowing factories to start construction, and allowing workers to obtain job opportunities to support their families.

The difference is that the arms race requires the realization of value through military expansion.

In addition, the effect of this glass of poison wine quenches thirst varies from person to person.

For powerful powers of tens of millions of sizes, such as the Nai Empire and the Bran Kingdom, building more battleships and expanding the scale of the navy by one third, can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in a short period of time, allowing millions of people from hundreds of thousands of families to have food and clothing without worries.

With hundreds of millions of hungry people missing, the domestic situation will definitely be stabilized.

However, for super hegemony of the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation of 100 millions, that would not work.

At the height of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate in the Newland Federation was close to 30%, and the unemployment rate in the Liangxia Empire also exceeded 20%.

What is this concept?

According to the family population, there are 60 million people in the Newland Federation, and 100 million people in the Liangxia Empire are in a dilemma of having a meal but not having a meal, and they may be hungry at any time.

Build more warships to let these people have enough food?

Obviously, this is unrealistic!

Not to mention a few warships, even building a few more fleets will be of no use.

The huge scale of the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation determines that only by reshuffling the global landscape, re-dividing colonies, and re-dividing markets and resources can we get out of the dilemma caused by the Great Depression and create a peaceful situation that can exist stably for decades.

Of course, reshuffle must require sufficient military strength.

In fact, this is the essential difference between the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation when it expanded its armaments and the Bran Kingdom and the Naoyi Empire.

What's the meaning?

The difference between far-sightedness and short-sightedness!

From beginning to end, the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation were heading towards their final goal, that is, through a war, after a reshuffle, they became the only super hegemony in the world, the maker and defender of the international order and interest structure, and the master of the future world.

To this end, the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation were both very comprehensive when expanding their troops, with the foundation being consolidated and focusing on infrastructure construction.

What about the Kingdom of Bran and the Kingdom of Nayi?

At most, we only regard military expansion as a means to resolve the economic crisis, and we have no longer-term plans, even if we have the ability to implement it.

More than two years ago, the Imperial Navy proposed a long-term plan to build four main battleships each year, and it was supported by the Imperial Cabinet and the House of Discussions. After receiving the grant, the Imperial Navy launched the first round of construction plans in 1997 of the New Calendar and ordered one main battleship in each of the four shipyards. Since then, in 1998 and 1999, the orders for four main battleships were placed, and the shipbuilding plan has been fully implemented.

The key point is that the Imperial Navy also considers aircraft carriers as capital ships.

The Newland Navy did not regard aircraft carriers as the main battleship, but also began to steadily expand the fleet at a speed of three or four ships per year.

However, as mentioned earlier, the help of expanding the military to the economy is far less obvious than expected.

The aftermath of the Great Depression has not yet dissipated, and the economy of the Liangxia Empire is still in a very sluggish state.

What to say is just a little better than ten years ago. At least the people are no longer so pessimistic about the future and have begun to face challenges actively.

Even if life is still hard, as long as there is hope, there is motivation to be positive.

In fact, the changes in the imperial capital are also very big.

The most obvious thing is the airport in the suburbs.

Although civil aviation is still in its infancy, and aircraft are just toys for a few rich people, after twenty years of rapid development, aircraft have long been well known to the public.
Chapter completed!