The Empire's finances are already depleted, a highly counterintuitive yet upon reflection, entirely reasonable situation.
With the onset of apocalyptic disasters, the places where the Empire needs to spend money are increasing, and amounts spent are growing rapidly. Yet, the revenue of the Empire's finances is decreasing, inversely proportional to the expenditure of the Imperial Center.
The reason is simple; one of the main sources of the Empire's financial income is colonial trade.
It's not just the various profits from direct trade but also the fact that the entire industrial system of the Empire's homeland heavily relies on every colony to supply raw materials for production.
Moreover, a considerable portion of the industrial products from these factories is meant to be dumped back into the local colonies.
Coming and going, it's clear how much profit the Empire can actually reap from the colonies.
