"Low return on investment?"
Joseph frowned slightly. Did that mean it was not profitable? It was the end of the 18th century, they were engaged in industry, and they had his various advanced ideas to boot, and yet they were not making money?!
Mirabeau replied helplessly, "Indeed, Your Highness."
With his help, Joseph found the data on the return on investment for various industries in the report. A quick glance revealed that indeed, most industries had returns ranging between 6% and 10%.
Such figures would be very impressive in the 21st century, but right now, they were frustratingly low.
One must know that the current base interest rate for bank deposits was at 6.5%, and this was after a decrease following some alleviation of last year's financial crisis; before that, it had even been above 7%.
And if one were to lend money out, a 10% interest rate could easily be obtained.
In such a scenario, who would be willing to invest in industry?
