I mean, besides losing provinces which is obvious. There was a time when I had far fewer provinces, but my hourly manpower production was higher. That leads to the question what can cause it to decrease?

(It's claimed that Local Industry increases manpower production, though I have not seen that to be the case. I went on a tear and built like a dozen Local Industries at my top manpower provinces at the same time and my manpower production needle didn't budge. Wish I had screenshots and dates to back that up but i wasn't expecting it to happen. Next game though...)

Ah, very good points. I bet that both of those are exactly what happened. I had to move my capital which caused a drop in morale in my original provinces, plus an ever growing army. Geez, this game gets complex. But I suppose that's what keeps it fun.

Thank you!