This guide will assume that military expansion is the priority. Granted, insane situations leading to crashes and great inefficiency of market is arguably realistic in various ways but if the game is nothing but exercise in market insanity it probably doesn't sit too well on gameplay terms either.
From where did they get the rest of the man? Built using carefully inspected parts of the mods NNM and PDM as a base, the main aim is to correct the 1836 start date in regard to both countries and pops and to add more historical flavor to the game, while taking into account the plausible historical outcomes and the mod performance.
Additionally, while unemployed pops are weighted to prefer to move to provinces with open jobs, they will still often move to provinces with no open jobs they will continue moving around your empire until they find a province with an open factory. PDM completely reworks the VIC2 economy, and adds hundreds of new events, decisions and game mechanics, all with the goal of making a more historically plausible and fun experience.
