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National currencies were losing their purchasing power before the Turning. Governments promised solutions, but printing more money could not create the food and resources people needed. Savings bought less, prices became harder to predict and some merchants refused payments they no longer trusted. The financial crisis helped turn public frustration into anger at the institutions running society.
For a shopkeeper, accepting payment meant judging whether that money would still buy replacement stock. For a customer, the same uncertainty could mean working all week and still being unable to afford groceries. Goods might be available while the usual way of paying for them stopped working.
The crisis did not make every part of the Old World equally poor or equally disconnected. Advanced robotics and global data systems continued operating alongside scarcity. That gap mattered. People could see extraordinary technology around them while feeling less secure in their own lives. Divinity later drew on that anger in its opposition to concentrated government power.
