Coffee Economy

As result of the complete meltdown of the economy and the start of the civil war with banks losing their reserves overnight, Golden Shields have become extremely rare between the populace, as an unexpected currency began to be used, that being cigarettes and coffee beans.

By general rule, albeit this changes from region to region, twelve coffee beans are worth one cigarette with seven cigarettes being worth a Golden Shield in the new economy.

For some reference, a loaf of bread is generally considered to be worth two cigarettes or about a quarter of a golden shield with Provinciales costing amounts even up to 5 Golden Shields and a working old truck reaching the 40 golden shields

Between a rock and a hard place

The situation on the borders of Miglia has always been delicated. Enemies to the east, an aggresively militaristic nation to the west with claims to the north, and sea to the north and south with it's only traditional ally laying across the South Sea and whose only grant of territorial integrity comes by the hand of the guarantees by Schivia and Lombezia in order to avoid aggressive expansion of the unitist regime of New Ragdistan, as well as the presumed impenetrable the Exclusion Zone.

As the Miglian Civil War broke out, the possibilities for humanitarian catastrophes has skyrocketed, as refugees have not been provided many options thanks to the situation of the continent.

Ragdistan's borders remain hermetically closed to refugees to the west, despite being the only land route to the safe heavens of Schivia and Lombezia, two nations that have declared their doors open for Miglian refugees. Nevertheless, for refugees to use said route they would have to not only cross the most militarised border in the world, but also cross an entire nation that strictly emphasize cultural and racial superiority of the Ragdistanis, with a police force that would put United Veldanian's one to shame when it comes to finding out dissidents, let alone illegal immigrants. Those who take this route, risk deportation at best, and deportation or enslavement in the multiple work camps for undesirables of the nation at worst.

The second option and maybe a safer one, is to throw themselves at the treacherous waters of the East Angolan sea and try to make it to the New Hope coast. While the New Hope government had reluctantly opened its doors to refugees in order to comply with the Consortium's resolution Nº 928, the populace is not as keen on seeing their former oppressors arrive at their towns en-masse, and more often than not refugees would be subjected to a derogatory and humiliating treatment by the locals, that left them marginalised.

Finally, the third route, and the safest one would be to make it to the isolationist Ibwaii islands, the only place of the nation where ships still come and go to and from Lombezia, Schivia, and for the hardline syndicalist dreamers, United Veldania.

Nevertheless, the gargantuan cost for a trip to the island itself provided only by the Black Guard summed to the already expensive cost of the trip to the final destination ensures that most of the population can only dream about taking this route.

Mass Media Distrust

At the start of the war both sides scrambled to take control of whatever piece of media was not already controlled by other factions, replacing their usual news by propaganda and misinformation campaigns.

The literate public is not stupid however, and most know that whatever appears on the newspapers must be taken with a grain of salt, as a lot of facts are omitted or changes in order to fit the general narrative. However, the public on both sides understands that this might be needed for these times of war.

Nevertheless, those that are curious about the ongoing events manage to get out of their way to grab an edition of "La Provincia", publicly now known as 'provinciais' the plural in native urclese, and read it communally in clandestine meetings in basements

Miglian Economic Meltdown

Fzzzzzz - "The number of evictions in Urclum have increased a 4'4%" - fzzzzz - "The Miglian Psychiatry Organization have denounced the current economic situation as they claim it's giving birth to a society that is completely hopeless" - fzzzzz - "A man of 30 years has commited suicide today in the Capitol, the same day that he and his family were going to get evicted" - fzzzz "By territories, the province of Darkstone is once again the province with the most monthly evictions totaling 2431 so far this month, and also the one where criminal rates have increa" - fzzzz

The extract above is what you could find in the Miglian radiowaves by zapping between radio channels at lunchtime. After the theft of the Belachoir reserves, the main private bank of Miglia went into default, something that was even worsened due to the economic system adopted by ex-president Eduardo Alfonso, whom specially promoted private investing through private banks to create a self-feeding loop of economic development.

Miglia has beocme a country where only the State itself and the rich folk on the Golden Valley still have their wealth piles untouched. For the rest of Miglians, be it medium business owners or common farmers, those savings that they didn't have in physical money just turned into thin air, and whatever cash money that still exists in circulation has become increasingly appreciated, with deflation running rampant for as Golden Shields never abandoned the golden standard and actually contain their worth in gold, which made them nevertheless rare between the populace.

International economists agree that the current situation of Miglia is far from a recession and even worse than an economic depression, and the current situation has been labeleld the 'Miglian Economic Meltdown', the greatest financial crisis in human history.

Bankruptcy of small businesses, homelessness and crime have become commonplace in the nation as the horrors of total economic collapse draws even more hatred for the Oligarchs (plus whoever associates with them) and pushes the populace more towards Syndicalist ideas, criminal organizations, or in the case of the Darkstone province, towards BFF sympathies