As the saying goes, a great man cannot be without power for a day, and a small man cannot be without money for a day. It is difficult for a head of a household to manage without money, and it is even more tragic for a King to be without money.
As Ludwig I's second son, the crown of Bavaria had nothing to do with him. Europe has always practiced primogeniture, with a complete system of inheritance.
Even if he dealt with his older brother and became the King of Bavaria, considering the London Agreement's prohibition against the merger of Bavaria and Greece, he would probably only be able to choose one of the two crowns.
From the perspective of several main indicators for measuring national strength, the Kingdom of Bavaria is at least a medium-sized country in Germany.
Perhaps there are still many domestic problems, but all conditions are far superior to the newly independent Kingdom of Greece.
However, for a country to develop, in addition to its own circumstances, it must also consider the surrounding situation. Geopolitics is also an important factor affecting whether a country can develop or even survive, especially in Europe, where various relationships are complex.
The Kingdom of Bavaria is located in Central Europe, in the Greater German Region. There are also two stronger royal families above it: the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Prussian Kingdom's royal family.
During this period of surging nationalist sentiment, unifying Germany also became the cry of many Germans.
As the elder and second elder brothers of Germany, the royal families of Austria and Prussia both had the idea of unifying the other German states besides themselves. The key is that the national strength of these two countries far exceeds that of Bavaria.
As a result, sandwiched between them, the Kingdom of Bavaria, which ranks third in national strength in Germany, was extremely tragic. It was a country that was strictly guarded by both sides. Once it made any move to annex surrounding states, it would most likely face a mixed doubles attack from both countries.
Historically, other countries were unwilling to see Austria integrate Germany and obstructed it in various ways, tripping up Austria. Coupled with its internal problems and several mistakes in choices, Austria missed opportunities repeatedly.
On the other hand, the Prussian Kingdom, under Bismarck's excellent diplomatic skills and Prussia's militaristic expansion of military power, spent nearly half a century developing. Then, after several wars, it had the last laugh, successfully merging most of the states in Germany.
The Kingdom of Bavaria found itself in danger of being annexed by Prussia and initially sided with Austria. However, it suffered a crushing defeat in the war, and with the general trend, it could only join in, becoming a member of the nascent German Empire, and then gradually lost control over Bavaria.
From a geographical perspective, if Otto inherited the crown of the Kingdom of Bavaria, he could only expand his strength by annexing smaller surrounding countries.
However, given the situation around Germany, he would first have to overcome the obstacles of the Austrian Empire and the Prussian Kingdom. After all, Central Europe is too sensitive, and these two countries would not watch Bavaria annex other German states and gradually grow stronger.
Even if he succeeded by chance, at most, he would be like the Prussian Kingdom, unifying Germany outside the Austrian Empire. If he wanted to further integrate Austria, not to mention whether Austria would be willing, even if both were willing, as soon as the news spread, he would face joint military intervention from surrounding countries.
Thus, even if the country developed through industrialization, it would inevitably face the future European situation similar to the German Empire.
Otto dared not gamble that he or his descendants would be able to break through the blockade of Britain and France, supported by numerous colonies, plus the Russian Empire, the gendarme of Europe.
Fighting on two fronts coupled with a blockade of foreign trade—the probability of winning such a hellish difficulty is obviously very low. At that time, there is a very high probability of sharing the same fate as the future Germany.
On the other hand, the Kingdom of Greece is located in the Mediterranean, and its neighboring countries are far weaker than Britain, France, and Russia.
For example, the Ottoman Empire, which has now become the sick man of Europe; the still-ununified Italian region; and the African continent to the south, which is still in feudal or even tribal times.
From the perspective of the surrounding development space, it has completely dropped from hell difficulty to hard difficulty.
In original history, Greece, simply by clinging to Britain, was able to acquire a lot of territory from the Ottoman.
As long as he could use his understanding of history to conduct diplomacy based on the current situation, it would at least not be worse than the original Greece.
The Kingdom of Bavaria is currently developing slowly, and its financial situation is not good, but the royal family is still very wealthy and has a large number of distinguished relatives.
The royal family's greatest wealth was land. Otto himself, by being sweet and charming, received a large fief from his parents, and his 'pocket money' was also the most among his siblings.
However, when his elder brother becomes the King of Bavaria in the future, most of the royal family's property will fall to him. At most, he will receive an 'annuity' each year, the amount of which will depend on how much his brother is willing to give.
Even if he became the King of Greece, in the short term, the Kingdom of Greece, ravaged by the War of Independence, would struggle to have enough funds for national development.
Therefore, whether it was to leave himself a fallback or to have enough money to spend and even build the country after inheriting the Greek throne in the future, earning a little more money in these two years was an extremely important matter.
Thinking of making money, the first thought that popped into Otto's mind was “arms trade,” but as soon as this thought appeared, he decisively dismissed it.
Some observations over the years made him realize that the arms trade option was not realistic.
In those days, every large-scale arms trade was accompanied by political transactions.
There are only so many powerful buyers in the international market now, and the large-scale arms trade market has long been divided up with various loans, treaties, and the like.
Small deals of a hundred or so guns simply did not suit Otto's current status, and the money earned would not even be enough for his pocket money.
After discarding the option of becoming an arms dealer, new ideas quickly emerged in Otto's mind, starting with department stores.
The first department store in history was born in Paris in 1852 and quickly spread throughout the world.
In this era, department stores have a clear superiority over the current times. As for supermarkets, which are a step further, Otto felt that they might be more convenient than department stores and have a broader market, but for now, it's better not to move too quickly. Any business model must conform to the times.
Especially, as far as he knew, department stores mainly dealt in various durable goods, with product grades primarily mid-to-high end. Profits were mainly derived from management efficiency and by leasing out space.
In this regard, Otto still had an advantage.
At least he had a large number of direct and indirect relatives, many of whom owned vast amounts of land and fixed assets. As long as he was willing to spend money, he would certainly be able to acquire a batch of properties suitable for opening department stores in the early stage.
Moreover, the variety of mid-to-high-end goods in this era was far less numerous than in later generations. Many were inextricably linked with the nobility, and the main target customers were concentrated in cities.
With the relevant network of connections, at least in the Greater German Region, and even in surrounding France, Britain, and the Italian region, suitable partners could be found.
After a calm analysis, Otto believed that given Europe's current economic situation, most of the money was in the hands of wealthy capitalists and nobles, which met the conditions for department stores to establish themselves and be profitable. Thinking of this, Otto quickly went to his desk and began to write a simple plan.
To make a department store successful, in addition to investing sufficient capital as a basic foundation, it is also important to leverage connections for rapid expansion.
Another point is that for a department store to do well, shop assistants are also particularly important.
In terms of connections, he could handle things within the Kingdom of Bavaria himself, as it was not unusual for royal family members to manage their own businesses, and no one in the country would dare to disrespect him, the most favored prince.
For other regions outside the Kingdom of Bavaria, Otto quickly wrote down multiple names, mostly noble members he knew or had only met a few times at banquets. Most of them were from Germany, and all had considerable influence in their respective countries, making them perfect partners.
As for sales assistants, intelligent employees could be recruited locally. In European cities, there were many 'agencies' on the streets that helped with renting houses, introducing shops, and so on. By selecting from these people and providing a little training, they could become good sales assistants.
Department stores were still an extremely novel business model in this era, making him the most knowledgeable person in this field. At least he had seen department stores, and in his previous life, he even had a friend who was a senior executive at a department store, and he had heard a lot of relevant knowledge from him while drinking together.
“No matter what, this is the first business plan for a department store of this era. Perhaps it even has the chance to become historical material, serving as evidence for future generations studying me, this future King.”
After more than a month of work, based on various materials collected by his subordinates and with the help of business talents found through the royal family, he selected suitable partners and finally formulated a detailed plan. Otto felt relaxed and even began to imagine the future.
