In order to weather the economic crisis, Austria was the first to open the floodgates to dumping. Beginning in September, Austria's export volumes surged.
Agricultural products are necessities and their prices didn't fall too drastically, with most promotions offering a ten percent discount; the prices of daily textile goods, however, dropped quite fiercely, with discounts of 20 to 30 percent being common and many were even cut in half.
By this time, profit was no longer important. Selling off unsalable goods to acquire cash flow was paramount.
It's not until you act that you realize the consequences. Watching the daily explosive increase in export trade volumes, Franz was on tenterhooks.
Austria was the world's leading industrial nation, as well as the leader in product surplus. After the Prusso-Russian War, not only had the Berlin Government defaulted, but the Russians had done the same.
The war had ended, and naturally, the undelivered orders were not going to be fulfilled.