Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 140: Investing In A Shipyard

The treaty signed between the French Government and the Spanish Government was not of a military nature, so there was naturally no need to conceal it.

In fact, the French needed to publicize this treaty to help themselves recover from the dire situation in diplomacy. After all, anyone with eyes could see how difficult the current France was, with no particularly friendly countries around.

Spain naturally had no need to conceal it either. Even cooperation with the French could serve as a smokescreen to confuse the British, making the British more cautious in their diplomatic policy toward Spain.

After the cooperation treaty with France was signed, the Spanish Government immediately dispatched a diplomatic mission in the relevant field to France.

Their main purpose was to actually inspect the industrial equipment and related technical experience that France could export to Spain, screen out the materials and technologies needed by Spain or those with higher strategic value, and find ways to transport them to Spain.

Regardless of whether the French loan had arrived, it was also very important to go to France in advance for on-site inspection of the relevant systems in industry. The experience accumulated by the French in the industrial aspect could also serve as valuable wealth, allowing Spain to take fewer detours in developing industry.

Currently, Spain had made significant progress in the military industry, but this progress was basically in army weapons.

The Vitali M1872 rifle possessed by Spain could be said to be a first-class breech-loading bolt-action rifle in Europe, and the artillery technology obtained from Austria was also first-class in Europe.

Therefore, in purchasing French military industry equipment and technology, Spain mainly focused on the introduction of navy technology, followed by French artillery technology, basically ignoring the introduction of rifles.

After all, after the invention of smokeless powder in the future, rifle technology in various countries would still see further improvements. Carlo’s future goal was to develop rifles similar to the British Lee-Enfield rifle and the German Gew.98 rifle, that is, the predecessor of the famous 98K rifle. These two rifles were respectively the peak of rifle technology during World War I in Britain and Germany, and were also the standard weapons massively equipped by the two countries during World War I.

To be precise, the Lee-Enfield rifle had relatively more advantages. The advantage of this rifle was its fast rate of fire, with proficient veterans even able to fire at least 30 bullets per minute.

However, the disadvantage was also the fast rate of fire. The hit rate on the battlefield could not be guaranteed, and such a fast rate of fire meant massive bullet consumption, which was a great test for military industry production capacity and logistics and supply capacity.

But if Spain’s military industry production capacity and logistics and supply capacity could keep up with the consumption of frontline rifles, the Lee-Enfield rifle would exert its greatest role and become the most powerful rifle in firepower during World War I.

The long rifle version（MLE） of the Lee-Enfield rifle was born in 1895, and after the Boer War, it was improved into the short rifle version（SMLE）, serving until

It was procured and used by Britain and Commonwealth countries for more than 70 years, with over 71 million produced, which was enough to show the power of this rifle.

The Gew.98 rifle developed by the Germans was slightly inferior to the Lee-Enfield rifle in performance, but it was more famous.

The short rifle version of the Gew.98 rifle was the famous Kar98 rifle, that is, the 98K rifle.

The Gew.98 rifle was not without advantages. In terms of operability and accuracy, it was slightly higher than the Lee-Enfield rifle.

As a pure standard infantry firearm, the Lee-Enfield rifle was definitely more excellent. But if used for special purposes, such as long-distance precision sniping, the capability of the Gew.98 was not inferior to the Lee-Enfield rifle at all.

The lower rate of fire also meant lower pressure on military industry production and logistics and supply. For some countries with insufficient military industry production capacity or logistics capacity, a rifle with a slower rate of fire was sometimes a better choice.

Rifles were things that had to be used in conjunction with bullets. A rifle without bullets was no better than a fire poker, and only with sufficient bullets could the full power of the rifle be demonstrated.

But whether it was the Lee-Enfield rifle or the Gew.98 rifle, their birth times were more than twenty years later.

By then, smokeless powder had already been invented, and the military industry production capacity and industrial foundation of various countries would be much stronger. Developing a more powerful rifle on this basis was naturally reasonable, and this phenomenon applied equally to warships.

The history of military ships was already quite long, and a hundred years ago, sailing warships still dominated the world.

But now, the most powerful capital ships of various countries had become ironclad ships, and industrial strength was also endowing ironclad ships with more powerful speed and firepower.

In the future, when the industrial scale of various countries became even stronger,

larger in volume, thicker in armor, more powerful in firepower, and faster in speed battleships, that is, pre-dreadnoughts, would also be born.

The reason Spain abandoned naval development in a short time was precisely to prioritize the development of industry and economy, preparing for the birth of future pre-dreadnoughts.

The current British Empire was steadily the world’s number one naval power, and other countries had no chance of surpassing it under normal circumstances.

The British navy scale was determined based on the world’s second and third naval powers, and their navy scale always maintained a level more than the second and third combined, which was also the guarantee for the Royal Navy to dominate the world.

If purely comparing numbers, no country could match the British Empire. Because the British possessed an entire India that they could exploit without restraint, the wealth India provided to the British allowed them to spend military expenses confidently.

One of the few opportunities to surpass the British navy, or to pose a greater threat to the British navy, was perhaps during the generational update of capital ships.

Currently, the capital ships of various countries were already ironclad ships, and there would be two more naval generational updates in the future: ironclad ships updating to pre-dreadnoughts, and pre-dreadnoughts updating to dreadnoughts.

Pre-dreadnoughts would be born in more than ten years, by then Spain could possess a certain scale of industry and economy, and could also increase its investment in the money-burning navy.

Dreadnoughts would be born in 1906, more than 30 years from now. 30 years was enough to build Spain into an industrial power and economic power, and as long as it laid out in advance in dreadnoughts, Spain would become one of the naval powers of the 20th century.

Although the British navy always maintained the world’s first position, the French steadily occupied the world’s second throne.

This was also the reason the French could become the European hegemon. Before the Franco-Prussian War, the French, whether army or navy, were the strongest countries on the European continent.

But after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the French construction focus had shifted from balanced sea and land to emphasizing the army.

Although there were related navy construction plans, compared to the Germans who had already humiliated France once, the naval competition with Britain was not so important.

Of course, more importantly, France had no chance of winning in the naval competition with Britain. Anyway, France’s position as the world’s second navy was steady, and currently no country could surpass France.

Although the Germans posed a great threat on land, their navy could be said to be almost non-existent. The French Government also assessed Germany’s development potential, and they were convinced that even if given another ten years to the Germans, Germany might not necessarily surpass France in the navy.

Not to mention surpassing France, even if given five years to the Germans, their navy scale might not necessarily match Spain.

Yes, Spain was currently also among the naval powers.

The reason was also simple. Spain in the early 19th century was the world’s third largest colonial empire in terms of colony scale, with vast American countries like Mexico and Argentina all being Spanish colonies.

Spanish colonies were spread across Central America, South America, Africa, and Asia, naturally requiring a powerful navy to protect these colonies.

If it was the early 19th century, the Spanish navy could even steadily sit in the world’s top three. But amid political turmoil, after consecutively losing American colonies, Spain was also unable to bear the expenses of a massive fleet.

From the mid-19th century to now, over twenty or thirty years, Spain had not made much investment in the navy, and had gone from the former third naval power to the top five.

Although claimed to be among the world’s top five naval powers, there was still a significant gap between Spain as such a naval power and Britain and France.

It was undeniable that, as the former empire on which the sun never sets, Spain possessed an extremely strong foundation in the navy.

During its prosperous period, Spain had the invincible fleet that dominated the world, and the Spanish Navy at that time could be called the world’s first.

However, after being defeated by the British later, the Spanish Navy repeatedly weakened, and the name of the invincible fleet had also disappeared.

Most of the Spanish Navy consisted of old and worn-out old-style warships, with very few ironclad ships, and even many were sailing warships.

But Spain still had a considerable foundation in shipbuilding industry. The reason Carlo believed Spain could become a new naval power during the future generational update of navy capital ships was precisely because he saw Spain’s rich foundation in shipbuilding industry.

Moreover, current Spain had already obtained industrial aid from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and cooperation intentions from France.

If it could integrate the experience of these two countries in military shipyards, Spain’s military shipbuilding field would also see considerable improvements.

Although the current Spanish Government had no demand for building warships, this did not mean that other countries around the world had no demand for building ships.

Carlo’s expectation for Spain’s military shipbuilding field was to explore as many military ship orders from other countries around the world as possible when there was no demand domestically in Spain.

This would not only allow Spanish shipyards to gain more income, but also accumulate more experience in military shipbuilding, preparing for the major construction of the Spanish Navy in the future.

After all, if these military shipyards remained in deficit, scale reduction and bankruptcy were inevitable.

If it caused too much impact on Spain’s military shipbuilding industry, perhaps in the future when the Spanish Government wanted to formulate a naval development plan, it would need to reorganize larger-scale shipyards, which would undoubtedly waste a lot of time.

Before the 18th century, Spain’s military shipbuilding industry was distributed in various regions, with no large-scale shipbuilding industry centers.

But after the 18th century, Spain’s military shipbuilding industry had been integrated into various shipbuilding industry centers, forming four representative large military shipyards.

These four shipyards were the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, the Cuban Havana Shipyard, the El Ferrol Shipyard, and the Cartagena Shipyard.

Any other civilian shipyards, compared to these four major shipyards, had significant gaps in both scale volume and the degree of government attention.

Among them, the Cuban Havana Shipyard was the most special among the four major shipyards, located in Havana of the Cuban Colony, and it was also Spain’s only large shipyard overseas.

But unfortunately, the Havana Shipyard had been destroyed during the independence movements of the various American colonies. Although the Spanish Government later rebuilt the Havana Shipyard, because most American colonies had already been lost, there was naturally no longer need for such a large shipyard in America.

This shipyard, which once could build large sailing warships, had gradually fallen to the bottom tier among the four major shipyards, and was even no longer on the Spanish Government’s attention list for future shipbuilding industry development.

This shipyard’s last work was the heavy frigate Luisa Fernando built in 1845, equipped with a full 44 cannons.

And from 1845 to this year 1872, nearly 30 years, the Havana Shipyard had only undertaken construction tasks for some small warships and civilian ships, with not a single order for large ships.

Currently, Spain’s largest shipyard was the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, crowned with the royal name.

It was worth mentioning that although the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard was an industry established by the Spanish Royal Family, because it belonged to the Bourbon royal family, most of the current shares actually belonged to the government.

Carlo, as king, instead had few shares in the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, and coupled with Spain’s decline over the past thirty years, the scale of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard had also shrunk by more than half, currently operating at a loss and facing serious funds and bankruptcy crisis.

Besides the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard and the Cuban Havana Shipyard, the remaining El Ferrol Shipyard and Cartagena Shipyard were also no longer glorious.

If the Spanish Government did not intervene, they would sooner or later face bankruptcy and reorganization, or directly disappear from history.

For the future development of Spain’s shipbuilding industry, Carlo and Prime Minister Primó reached an agreement.

The royal family would use very little funds to take back the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard from the government and reconstruct it into Spain’s largest shipyard.

The government would mainly be responsible for maintaining the El Ferrol Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard. With the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard as the leader of Spain’s shipbuilding industry, the El Ferrol Shipyard and Cartagena Shipyard only needed to maintain their current scale, without the government needing to expend much effort.

As long as it ensured that when needed, these two shipyards could quickly expand into shipyards capable of building capital ships, it would satisfy Spain’s shipbuilding needs.

Investing in and maintaining the scale of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard required considerable funds, so when acquiring the shares of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, only very little funds were needed to complete the acquisition.

The subsequent Royal Gualnizo Shipyard would be completely the royal family’s industry, and whether it profited or lost would be the royal family’s matter, unrelated to the government.

Carlo was still willing to acquire the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard. As Spain’s former largest shipyard, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard had very rich experience in shipbuilding, especially in building military warships.

This also ensured that after the royal family invested in the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, it could quickly restore the former glory of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard by relying on the shipyard’s own foundation, aid from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and French technology.

Still that sentence, even if there was not much demand for warships domestically in Spain, it did not mean that all countries in the world had no great demand for warships.

Currently, there were still many countries wanting to build new ironclad ships. If Spain could export the most advanced ironclad ships, it would certainly attract some foreign orders.

Currently, the costs of ironclad ships varied, but even the cheapest ironclad ship cost over 200,000 pounds sterling. For various shipyards, the income from building 1 ironclad ship was at least over 50,000 pounds sterling, or even more.

Especially those more advanced and powerful ironclad ships, the higher the cost, the higher the export selling price.

Building just a few ironclad ships a year could not only maintain the daily expenditures of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, but even expand the shipyard’s scale through continuous income, recruit more employees, and wait for Spain’s shipbuilding plan to be announced in the future.

At the same time, undertaking foreign orders could continuously accumulate experience in shipbuilding. It should be no problem to attract some countries to place orders at Spanish shipyards by relying on Spain’s reputation as a top five navy power.

Combined chapter seeking support!