Main characters POV

Now that I finished the war, I can start some more reforms. Last time I tried to do some reforms, I was opposed by the bourgeoisie because it will hurt their intrests. Now after winning and conquering kingdom of Galicia, I have enough prestige to finally start the reforms. There will also be a parlimentary election this year so lets do it before the parliment is elected or they will try to stop me.

"What are the living standards of the people, Hermann." I asked Hermann.

"The living standards are not really that good due to the exploitation of the capitalists. The people don't have much money to engage in buying so the economy can't be stimulated much. This has until now been covered up by the merchants coming and buying things in our country but this can't countinue as we will began to grow dependent on the merchants."

Hermann is part of the aristocracy which naturally has conflicts with the capitalists. I support the aristocracy due to the fact that a kings and aristocrats intrests are tied together. The capitalists also want a republic to maximize their intrests but I don't want to become a figurehead like the British monarchy became. I mean they had power until Edward the 7th but after that George the 5th gave up his power and willingly became a figurehead. Well anyway I am getting off topic here and a good king should always supress the capitalists to death so that they can't threaten his power. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate capitalism they will just try to overthrow my rule. Despite what you might believe, most revolutions in Europe had been propagated by the capitalists, not the communists.

"What do you think the solution towards this is, Hermann."

I wanted to find out the knowledge level of this era and whether some of my work can be delegated towards them. A wise person said that a good bureaucracy is a busy bureaucracy. I will not handle everything, not because I am lazy but because any king who has tried this in history has always failed. If I delegate work to my subordinates, they won't have time to scheme against me.

"Your majesty, I think the best solution to this is to have more state enterprises. We can decide the wage standard and use the free market against the capitalists themself as they will have to compete against us to find more skilled workers." said Hermann.

This was a very good idea. This will force other companies to compete against us for workers. I hadn't thought about this due to the fact that as a person from the modern age, government don't really have a lot of government enterprises and therefore can't regulate the market using this way. This forces the government to use minimum wage to protect worker conditions.

"Also establish a minimum wage of 12.5 marks as the other idea might not work at all times. Start using the shared responsibility system in private factories. Force them to use the standards of that as the state enterprises. Also start using tax cuts for the infrastructure industry so private investors can start investing in it."

This will hopefully revitalize the economy and bring more government revenue. The infrastructure industry is just a giant pit. It might seem profitabe but it isn't in a lot of places. Now that the government is building in these places, foreign capital will come and invest. Most of the places are actually are not profitable but the government still needs to build them for a variety of reasons such as strategic value.