Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 142: Cleaning Up The Slums

Time came to the end of November 1872, and a new problem appeared before the Spanish Government.

Currently, development and construction in various places in Spain were proceeding smoothly. Madrid and Barcelona’s development was far ahead, known as the twin stars among Spain’s many cities.

Of course, the main reason was also that Spain’s overall population scale was really too small. The entire country did not even have a single city with a population over one million.

Currently, among the major great power nations, the United Kingdom’s capital London was the city with the largest population, already approaching 4 million.

Such a population scale was extremely exaggerated, not much less than small countries like the Netherlands and Belgium. But the United Kingdom’s actual population was not as large as Germany and France or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This also showed how exaggerated the industry and economic development of London was as the core city of the First Industrial Revolution.

Although the Foggy City’s reputation was not good, London at this time was indeed the most brilliant city in the world and a true international metropolis of this era.

Compared to London, Paris’s starlight was a bit dimmer. According to current data, Paris’s population was around 2 million, slightly more than half of London’s population.

However, compared to the capitals of other great powers, Paris’s population could still rank at the forefront. Berlin and Vienna further behind were only at the million-population scale, inferior in both scale and economic volume.

The United States was a special country; its capital was not the most developed city domestically. The most developed city in the United States was New York, but the capital was in Washington.

Currently, New York’s population was also approaching one million and would experience a population explosion along with the United States’ rapid development. New York now could not yet rank compared to London and Paris, but decades in the future, New York would develop into an international metropolis second only to London, easily surpassing many European cities with much longer histories.

Currently, Madrid’s population had just broken through 400,000, considered a large city in Spain, but only a larger city when viewed across all of Europe.

The other twin star city, Barcelona, also had over 360,000 people at this time. Besides the two twin stars of Madrid and Barcelona, other cities in Spain were smaller in scale, even Seville with its small industrial base having just over 100,000 people.

This also showed why the new industrial base was sited in Barcelona. Because besides the capital Madrid, only Barcelona’s population could support the construction of a medium-sized industrial base.

The industrial base currently under construction in Barcelona would provide at least 50,000 jobs. If not for Barcelona’s nearly 400,000 population, these 50,000 jobs probably could not be filled.

Even currently, Barcelona’s population was far from enough. With the construction of the industrial city, it would definitely absorb more population from surrounding rural areas and small cities.

Large cities like Madrid and Barcelona would have increasingly more population in the future, while those small cities’ populations would not experience much growth, even maintaining negative growth.

This phenomenon was inevitable, occurring frequently both now and in the future.

The rise of a super-large city meant the decline of several medium and small-scale cities. After Barcelona’s industrial base was completed, it would definitely absorb population from surrounding rural areas and small cities of Barcelona.

It could be foreseen that within the next decade, Barcelona’s population would enter a phase of rapid growth. But the populations of towns around Barcelona might not grow, even facing decline.

But this was also an unavoidable problem in urban development. For the development of Madrid and Barcelona, it was very necessary to appropriately sacrifice some small cities.

Because only such large cities could support the construction of industrial bases, and the construction of large industrial bases could improve Spain’s industrial scale and environment.

The perspective returned to Madrid. As Spain’s currently largest city, Madrid’s population had exceeded 400,000, a brilliant pearl of the Iberian Peninsula.

But this did not mean Madrid was an extremely prosperous city. Besides a few bustling streets in Madrid City Center, there were not many high-rise buildings in the city, and there were even many slums.

The Spanish Government during Queen Isabella’s reign only focused on the construction of bustling streets and did not care about the slums where grassroots people lived.

This also created two scenarios in what was originally a unified Madrid. The streets in the city center were extremely prosperous, with foot traffic not inferior to other major European cities.

But outside the city center, in the urban outskirts, large numbers of slums were everywhere, even with many dirty, chaotic, and dilapidated dangerous buildings.

This not only severely damaged Madrid’s urban image but also increased the possibility of disease transmission. The sanitary conditions of these slums were extremely poor, with some even openly defecating in public places.

Precisely because the sanitary conditions here were extremely poor, dignitaries were unwilling to go to the slums, which also became a paradise for criminals with poor security.

Since development was being discussed, Madrid’s development was particularly important.

After all, as Spain’s capital and the current largest city, Madrid was one of Spain’s calling cards to the outside world and also a propaganda tool to attract immigrants.

If Madrid became famous for its dirty, chaotic, and poor image, it would also be a blow to Spain’s own immigration work.

Barcelona was still Catalan territory for now, so the government should not carry out large-scale rectification there. The city most suitable for rectification currently was Madrid. If successful, it could be promoted nationwide; if not, it would not have too much impact.

On November 30, 1872, a member of Parliament submitted legislation to Parliament regarding rectifying order in Madrid’s urban area, sparking heated discussion in the entire Spanish Parliament.

The reason for the heated discussion was the scope of rectification, which included most areas in Madrid’s outskirts, with large numbers of slums and Spain’s grassroots people, at least over 100,000 people.

Rectifying these slums also meant providing new residences for these over 100,000 people; otherwise, chaos would definitely ensue.

This was no small expenditure and also required replanning Madrid’s urban area to build relocation sites for these slum residents, preferably not too far from their workplaces.

The benefits of doing so were many. It could not only replan Madrid’s urban district, allowing Madrid to accommodate as many more people as possible while maintaining its current city scale, but also make it cleaner and tidier, looking more like a modern metropolis.

But the drawbacks were also many. First, replanning the city and providing sufficient residences for slum residents required considerable investment.

On this basis, whether all residents within the rectification scope were willing to relocate, and whether there were enough construction teams to build more buildings in a short time for these residents to live in, were also issues worth considering.

Precisely because the interests involved were very large, this proposal was voted on in Parliament for several days, sparking widespread discussion among members of Parliament, but no clear result was reached.

The hot topic in Parliament also attracted the attention of Prime Minister Primó and Carlo. Regardless of Prime Minister Primó’s attitude, for Carlo, rectifying Spain’s slums was very necessary.

The housing conditions in slums were very poor, and the sanitary environment was extremely bad. This not only damaged Madrid’s urban image but also affected the health of slum residents.

Rectifying slums was an extra expenditure for the government, but besides spending money, there were no other bad effects. If it could effectively reduce the number of slums in Spain and allow slum residents to live in houses built with reinforced concrete, it could instead win the support of these people.

But houses absolutely could not be distributed for free; that would be unfair to those outside the rectification scope, and even for those getting free houses, they might not be grateful to the government and royal family.

There was a saying: what is easily obtained is often not cherished. If the government distributed houses to slum residents for free, they would definitely be grateful to the government and royal family in the short term, but not necessarily after a long time.

Compared to distributing houses for free, Carlo actually had a better plan: posterity’s low-rent housing.

So-called low-rent housing was cheap housing built by the government for poor people. The rent for these houses was generally very low, ensuring that poor people could afford to rent them.

Since they were specifically for poor people, these houses did not need to be built too exquisitely. Housing area and space could be reduced, in exchange for lower rent.

Thinking of posterity’s low-rent housing policy, Carlo also decided not to hesitate anymore and promote Spain to also build houses similar to low-rent housing to guarantee the housing needs of slum populations.

However, such a proposal definitely could not be put forward by Carlo himself. After all, low-rent housing also required rent, and rectifying slums would definitely make some people unwilling to change their current lives.

Fortunately, after several years in Spain, the people available to Carlo were constantly increasing. Currently, most seats in the Spanish Parliament were controlled by Prime Minister Primó, but there were still many seats not belonging to Prime Minister Primó’s Progressive Party.

The previously mentioned Spanish Conservative Party also held parliamentary seats. Their ideology was more inclined toward the Royalist Party, so naturally some would choose to side with Carlo.

Jovellar Soler was such a person. His Conservative Party supported monarchy more, but did not have much opposition to Prime Minister Primó’s reforms.

The Conservative Party not opposing reforms seemed strange at first, but actually made sense upon thinking. Truly conservative and stubborn Conservative Party members had been annihilated during the revolution. The current remaining Conservative Party was more conservative on monarchy issues rather than reforms.

Those stubborn conservatives had disappeared from Spanish history along with the Bourbon Dynasty. As long as Prime Minister Primó’s reforms did not experience complete failure, or Carlo’s rule did not go through several more failed wars, the Bourbon Dynasty was basically impossible to restore.

The pain Queen Isabella and her father brought to Spaniards was too deep, not something that could be compensated in decades.

The reason the Bourbon Dynasty was restored in history was that Amadeo, selected through king selection, failed to promote Spain’s reforms, and the Republican Party that overthrew monarchy performed even worse than monarchy, ultimately allowing the Bourbon Dynasty to restore.

If Amadeo or the Republican Party had not performed so poorly, Spain’s history would have been completely rewritten.

On December 2, 1872, Jovellar Soler resubmitted a proposal to the Spanish Parliament, which included building large numbers of low-rent housing in Madrid and saving part of the expenditure through rent collection, trying to rectify Madrid’s slums at a smaller cost.

In addition, the proposal included encouraging residents in civilian areas to work in factories on the Madrid Outskirts, effectively improving the actual income of slum residents and other means to reduce the impact of slum rectification.

Although the new industrial zone construction was in Barcelona, Madrid itself also had industrial zones. It was just that Madrid’s industry was more dispersed, with factories everywhere in the outskirts, and the overall industrial scale even higher than Barcelona’s.

If these factories on the Madrid Outskirts could be effectively utilized to provide more jobs for slum residents, it could also change the opinions of slum residents and make them more supportive of slum rectification policies.

Overall, providing residences for over 100,000 Spaniards living in slums required a lot of funds budget, but this funds budget was not as much as imagined.

After all, housing prices in this era were not that expensive, and Madrid was just a small city with a population just over 400,

With land and building materials fully sufficient, what was being built was very simple low-rent housing. The overall cost per building was very cheap.

Considering these residents’ actual needs, a four-person family needed about 50 square meters of housing area. Spain had no shared area; 50 square meters was not large but sufficient for a four-person family’s daily life.

As for toilets, 1 to 2 public toilets could be built per floor to meet residents’ sanitary needs. Additionally, a certain number of large public toilets could be built in each area to effectively improve the sanitary environment of public areas.

According to such needs, the cost of building the buildings would be much less. For the Spanish Government, this was not a budget it could not bear.

After all, the 500 million francs loan promised by the French was about to arrive one by one. With the help of this loan, the budget for rectifying Madrid slums was just a small part of it.

After Jovellar Soler submitted the proposal to Parliament, Prime Minister Primó already understood who was behind it.

For Prime Minister Primó, he knew clearly who these Conservative Party members of Parliament had sided with. Since His Majesty the King intended to promote rectification of Madrid slums, Prime Minister Primó was naturally happy to see it.

After all, this was originally part of the reforms, just happening in advance. Since the King actively supported such a plan, he naturally could not oppose it.

With Prime Minister Primó’s indication, Progressive Party members of Parliament expressed support for this proposal. And Conservative Party members of Parliament, under Jovellar Soler’s persuasion, also voted in favor.

Under the promotion of the two major parties, Progressive Party and Conservative Party, this proposal was quickly passed in Parliament. Other opposing parties and members of Parliament were ultimately just a minority.

Although the proposal to rectify slums was passed, how exactly to do it still needed proper discussion.

For the government, rectifying Madrid was something that must be done, but it could not be completed all at once. Rectifying all slums needed to be prioritized by urgency: first the dangerous building areas, then the dirty, chaotic, and poor areas, and finally the merely somewhat dirty, chaotic, and poor areas.

After such allocation, the slums needing priority rectification were actually not many, with only tens of thousands of residents inside.

However, the overall construction volume was still very large, and it would be hard for Spain’s domestic construction teams alone to complete it in a short time. Since slum rectification needed to be completed quickly, to achieve this goal, the Spanish Government decided to publicly tender internationally, seeking foreign construction companies to help Spain build more low-rent housing faster.

There was nothing much to say about low-rent housing construction. Such houses had low requirements: as long as they were sturdy enough and livable.

Compared to slum houses, sturdy buildings made with reinforced concrete were already warmer, more spacious, and brighter places.

What the government needed to study was not how to build low-rent housing, but how to allocate it to slum residents after completion.

Still that sentence: free distribution was impossible, and Prime Minister Primó’s attitude was the same. Like the previous land, it would still be leased out.

However, considering that those truly needing this low-rent housing were extremely low-income groups, the rent for these low-rent houses definitely could not be much.

Referencing Spain’s current per capita income, the government finally set the low-rent housing rent at 2 cents per square meter per month.

Generally, a four-person family needed about 50 square meters of living area, so monthly rent was 100 cents, or 1 peseta. Annual rent was only 12 pesetas, roughly equivalent to one-tenth of current average annual income.

Such rent was absolutely affordable for the vast majority of families. Taking posterity as an example, assuming monthly per capita income of 4,000 yuan and annual income of 48,000 yuan, 50 square meters of low-rent housing rent at 400 yuan per month was not too high.

Of course, considering there were indeed a small number of extremely poor families, such rent was not completely fixed. If there were families lacking labor and with income far below per capita income, the government could provide certain rent reductions for the first three years of low-rent housing or issue certain rent subsidies to such families, ensuring these low-income groups all had housing.

Additionally, the environment of these low-rent houses could not be too good; individual household houses would not be equipped with toilets. This was not because the Spanish Government was unwilling to provide better living environments for low-income groups, but really to prevent higher-income groups from occupying low-income groups’ housing sources.

Those needing low-rent housing were mostly low-income groups. If the living environment of low-rent housing was built too well, it would definitely attract attention from some non-low-income groups.

Low-rent housing was originally built by the government at a loss, so naturally the fewer built the better. If mid-to-high-income groups came to snatch low-rent housing sources, either many true low-income groups would not get houses, or the government would be forced to build more houses, attracting more mid-to-high-income groups to compete, forming a vicious cycle.

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