Part 56: Q&A - November 16

Empire Total War: The Second 80 Years War quick online Q&A

Q: How much of an effect did elections have over the war time economy of the Netherlands?

A: It could be tremendous. There were parliamentary elections that had sliced the effective tax revenue of a nation in half, poorly managed armies to inflate to twice their prior value in upkeep, and justice ministers that completely lost control of the police and the very nations they were meant to control. In the case of the election of 1708 for example, Adelbert had mismanaged his supply contracts, paying for five times more wagons than he would need, a quarter the horses required when factoring in rotations, and completely forgetting to arrange for the proper shipping of gunpowder, increasing the cost of maintaining the army by approximately 20% compared to the previous defense minister, while Herbeert managed to very nearly match his predecessor.

However, very few nations were republics. Any monarchy that did not rely on an elected cabinet would have either inept or talented ministers that would remain so until they rotted. However, since the main means of promotion was nepotism, replacement ministers were far less competent than an elected official.