All of the above leaves an open question of what would be better for the neighbors: the Polish kings with or without the money? 😜
The “Magnificent Age” - Catherine II TL
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Assuming they would not blow it on whores, operas and paintings:
Probably better for Habsburgs and company, for Swedes it depends, Hohenzollerns of course wouldn't get anywhere and could rot in their margraviate, with Turks it's complicated, for Tatars it would be worse, and with Russians we would have a dozen more battles of Orsza and sieges of Smoleńsk
You know how colonial powers sailed around the world and invaded various less advanced countries and forced treaties on them that made them produce basic goods and exchange them for developed goods? Our geniuses did that to themselves, so they could sell their grain and buy manufactured goods from abroad....
Actually, this would probably the best use of money, both domestically and internationally. 😂
To sum it up, your list start looking as “the less money the better”. 😜
Kings with the money or even power would not necessarily change the situation: industrialization by the decree did not make the Russian Empire of the XVIII - mid-XIX century a truly developed country. You need the conditions under which development of the capitalist/manufacturer/trader class is stimulated and this requires combination of many factors. It even seems (just my opinion) that having a strong agricultural sector producing a big surplus is detrimental for such a situation.
Lowkey makes me wish some polish hussar took down the Aztec Empire just to see what would happen if they had infinite money
Like I know they'd squander it, but it'd be so entertaining
Next TL you should make: Orły zza mórz (Eagles from across the seas): A story of a Polish Americas
Living the dream
Not calling them developed but did the 20th century autocracies that became industrialized undergo that same development?
Because while I know about the NEP in the USSR and China's later turn to State Capitalism their industrial period seems to have happened during their industrialization by degree phase
They did and, because they lacked capital, they paid for it with their own people's blood
I dont think this follows a arcane rulebook where if you dont sacrifice capital you have to sacrifice people, they just were bloodthirsty monsters as well
Actually, it became well-developed in the late XIX - early XX. The Soviet industrialization became possible not due to the atrocities (which tend to produce mostly the corpses) but thanks to the huge imports of the American (and to the lesser degree Italian and German) technologies.
decree?
That’s true but the XX century was noticeably different from the XVIII and socialism was different from the monarchies, even the absolute ones.
Yeah, sure. During the GNW Amsterdam was simply ignoring the state policies defined in Hague and traded with whom its merchants wanted. So you can find some commonalities to work with. But the Dutch merchants tended not to spend all their money upon the “entertainments”. 😉
Indeed
Yeah typo my bad
Fair enough!
But it would be so fun tho!
Sure, it would. But I’m afraid that this would be the end of their commerce, even without the British help. 😉
BTW, on partially related issue, at the time we are ITTL, one of the big reasons for a minimal grain export from both parts of Ukraine was a habit to use the grain surplus for, shall we say, “recreational purposes”, which was seemingly helpful in keeping the population in high spirit.
😂😂😂