novelraw Chapter 145: Annual Work Report
Chapter 145: Annual Work Report
Time continued to pass, and as 1872 became the past, 1873 officially began.
For the Spanish Government, 1872 was a year of continuous advance. The government promulgated several decrees that year to continue advancing reforms across all of Spain, and the completion of the Seville Industrial Base also brought significant growth to Spain’s industry.
Combined with the results of various construction projects, this allowed Spain to begin transforming from a traditional agricultural nation into an industrial nation, and it was striving toward becoming a developed European country.
As the saying goes, a fat man is never made in one bite. Spain’s reforms and the construction of its industrial economy could not be completed in a short time, and surpassing Britain and France—that so-called slogan—could not be achieved in the 19th century either.
For the Spanish Government and various levels of officials, the most important thing at present was to align with the Five-Year Development Plan legislation promulgated by the Spanish Government and effectively improve the development of Spain’s industry and various industry sectors, thereby effectively promoting the country’s progress.
As usual, Carlo attended the large-scale parliamentary meeting at year-end and listened together with many members of Parliament to the 1872 annual government work report submitted by the Spanish Cabinet Government to Parliament.
Speaking of which, the proposal to submit an annual government work report to Parliament every year came from Prime Minister Primó. The intention was not only to explain to the members of Parliament what contributions and efforts the Spanish Cabinet Government had made that year, but also to inform the Spanish people through this opportunity that the government was doing real things for the country and all Spanish people, rather than doing nothing.
Precisely because of this purpose, the annual government work report meeting each year was extremely important. Various departments would summarize their political achievements from that year into a clear and straightforward report, so that all members of Parliament and the public could understand.
If a government department had nothing impressive to report at the annual work report meeting, it effectively proved that the department’s work that year was not very satisfactory.
Because of this, various departments attached great importance to the annual work report meeting, as it truly concerned their own interests. Do not forget that the Spanish Parliament has the power to impeach officials. Whether it is the Prime Minister of the Cabinet who forms the Cabinet Government or every Cabinet Minister of the Cabinet Government, the Spanish Parliament has the power to impeach and dismiss them.
However, the entire impeachment process is not that easy; it requires the support of a majority of seats in Parliament to complete the impeachment and dismissal process for officials.
According to the provisions in the Spanish Constitution, members of the Spanish House of Representatives have the power to impeach any official. When any member of Parliament submits an impeachment proposal to Parliament, it means the entire impeachment process officially begins.
What ultimately determines the fate of the impeachment proposal is actually the attitude of all members of Parliament within Parliament. Once more than 60% of members of Parliament agree to the impeachment proposal, it means Parliament has formally dismissed the impeached official from their position.
If the number of people agreeing to impeachment exceeds 40% but does not exceed 60% of the seats in the House of Representatives, a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate will be initiated for a broader vote.
The House of Representatives and the Senate are actually Spain’s lower and upper houses, combining to form the complete Parliament.
Spain’s current parliamentary system is quite complex, even extending to small parliaments in various cities. Members of Parliament elected by parliamentary elections in each city form a higher-level regional council, and the regional councils elect a very small number of members of Parliament, ultimately forming the House of Representatives with real power.
The real voting rights of the Spanish people are only reflected in the city councils of each city; they can elect members of the city council, and these city council members have the right to be elected to higher-level parliaments.
Elections at higher levels have nothing to do with the public. After all, public opinion can be controlled, and the votes of a large number of voters would increase the burden of vote counting, which is unnecessary for current Spain.
Unlike the House of Representatives, the election of the Senate has nothing to do with the public. According to the latest Spanish Constitution, the Spanish Senate is composed of those elected by the regions and colonial governments, plus Cabinet members, forming the complete Senate.
If the House of Representatives has legislative power, then the greatest power of the Senate is to conduct a second review of laws passed by the House of Representatives: those that pass are formally implemented, and those that do not are sent back for revision.
In general, aside from reviewing laws submitted by the House of Representatives, the Senate has no major events in other situations.
But when there are certain differences in major votes, the role of the Senate becomes apparent. When the House of Representatives and the Senate hold a joint meeting and vote together, the votes of these Senate members are still very influential.
If in an impeachment case the number of House of Representatives members agreeing to impeachment exceeds 40% but does not reach 60%, a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate will be initiated for a joint vote.
At that point, if the votes exceed 50% of the total number of people, the impeachment case can proceed; if the votes do not exceed 50% of the total number, it means the impeachment case ends.
Finally, if the number of agreements in the House of Representatives’ vote on the impeachment proposal does not exceed 40%, it similarly means the impeachment case automatically ends and the impeachment is void.
From this, it can be seen that although the House of Representatives has the power to supervise the government, actually dismissing a certain official or the entire government is quite difficult.
Compared to members of the House of Representatives, the Senate has no power to supervise the government. But this does not mean the Senate is unimportant, after all, whether a piece of legislation can ultimately be successfully implemented depends greatly on the Senate’s attitude.
Currently, the Spanish House of Representatives has the most seats, with a total of 208 seats, allocated to each region according to the proportion of population in the regions and colonies.
The Senate’s seats are relatively fixed, totaling less than Each region and colony has only one seat, basically held by the regional governor or colonial governor.
Besides that, the only ones who can enter the Senate are the Cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister, which actually means the Senate members are all high-level figures in the Spanish Government.
After all, these officials still have some right to express opinions on whether a piece of legislation is suitable for implementation across Spain. Members of the House of Representatives generally consider things from too narrow an angle and often overlook concerns in certain aspects of the government.
At such times, the Senate’s opinions become particularly important. Under the Senate’s guidance, the laws promulgated by the House of Representatives can be directed more toward directions suitable for Spain’s development, at least ensuring that the promulgated laws have a beneficial influence on Spain rather than a harmful one.
Returning to the Spanish Government’s 1872 annual government work report meeting, the scene was still quite grand.
All 208 House of Representatives members were present, plus the Cabinet ministers and Carlo, making the meeting site very lively.
Leading it was, of course, Prime Minister Primó, but his task was to set the tone for the government work report meeting and leave some space for the ministers of various departments to highlight their own political achievements.
For Prime Minister Primó, these merits were no longer important. As long as Prime Minister Primó was willing, he could still achieve victory in the next Cabinet parliamentary election.
After all, among the 208 members of the House of Representatives, more than half supported him and the Progressive Party. In such a situation, unless Prime Minister Primó voluntarily withdrew, it would be hard for him to lose the House of Representatives election.
“Your Majesty the King, esteemed members of Parliament. It is an honor to report on the Spanish Cabinet Government’s annual work for the entire year of 1872 here as Prime Minister of Spain.
In the whole of 1872, development across all sectors in Spain was very rapid. According to estimates from the Ministry of Welfare, by the end of 1872, Spain was projected to have a population of 45 million, an increase of at least 230,000 from the previous year.
Over the entire previous year, our gross national product reached 212 billion pesetas, an increase of 1% compared to the previous year.
Under the premise of growth in the overall economic scale, the government’s fiscal revenue also reached a new high, approximately 9 million pesetas.
However, our total fiscal expenditure still exceeded fiscal revenue, with the total fiscal expenditure for the entire year reaching 5 million pesetas, resulting in a fiscal loss of 6 million pesetas for the year.
By the end of 1872, our total railway mileage had broken through 6,900 kilometers, and it is expected to break through 7,000 kilometers of total railway mileage within three months.
From the second half of 1868 to the end of 1872, in just four years, the railway mileage we built had already exceeded the railway mileage built by the previous government from the second half of 1858 to the second half of 1868 over a total of ten years.
In the future, we will continue to prioritize the construction of the Spanish Railway and plan to increase Spain’s total railway mileage to at least 7,500 kilometers before February “
Prime Minister Primó’s report was only rough, but Spain’s progress in 1872 was very obvious. Almost all aspects had seen considerable development, and railway mileage was increasing at a speed of at least 300 kilometers per year.
Moreover, according to Prime Minister Primó, the total railway mileage would be raised to around 7,500 kilometers before February
Currently, there was only a little over a year until February 1874, yet more than 600 kilometers of railway journey needed to be built.
This was no small test for the Cabinet Government, but similarly, completing it would be no small political achievement.
Although the Five-Year Plan promulgated by the Spanish Government was after the establishment of the Cabinet Government, the timeline was calculated together with the establishment of the Cabinet Government.
It made sense upon thinking about it; if the Five-Year Plan could be completed, the political achievements it would bring to Cabinet members would be inestimable.
Such great achievements would naturally not be left to the next administration by the Cabinet Government; even if it was just a few months shorter, they had to ensure the Five-Year Plan was completed during their term.
Even if achievements came a bit later after completion, the merit would not escape their palm. But if it was completed under the next government, the merit would have little to do with them.
The Cabinet Government’s ministers were not fools, which was why the Cabinet Government’s term was five years, and this development plan was also five years.
This phenomenon occurred frequently in various countries, and Carlo naturally would not stop it. After all, only when the development plan truly concerned their own political achievements and future prospects would these officials exert every effort to promote the plan’s completion.
What needed worry instead was the situation where governments changed frequently, and policies promulgated by one government were not implemented by the next.
In Spanish history, the period of Amadeo’s rule and the subsequent republic period were like this. Were all the prime ministers of Spain during this time incompetent? Probably not.
But the biggest problem was that the Spanish Government changed too quickly during this time; often, each Cabinet Government had just promulgated laws when the next government came to power.
A newly appointed Cabinet Government would definitely not continue the policies of the previous one, after all, even if such policies produced political achievements, the merit would have little relation to them.
Some governments even had completely opposite ideological attitudes to the previous one: some supported reform, others opposed it, so it would be strange if Spain developed during this chaotic period.
In history, Spain experienced nine governments during Amadeo’s rule. Even excluding the earliest periods of Serrano and Primó’s rule, there were still seven Cabinet Governments.
Amadeo’s rule over Spain lasted only two and a half years in total, and in two and a half years, it went through seven Cabinet Governments, with the average term of each Cabinet Government even less than half a year.
Such frequent government changes doomed Amadeo to being unable to rule a stable Spain.
However, this could not entirely blame Amadeo. After all, before he arrived in Spain, his greatest supporter, Prime Minister Primó, had already been assassinated.
Precisely because there was no greatest supporter, the Spanish Government frequently changed during Amadeo’s rule; the king had little power and naturally could not intervene in the government’s chaotic situation.
Carlo also fully understood the harms brought by frequent government changes, so he was quite cautious about government changes, even not planning to change the Prime Minister of Spain in the short term.
Of course, changing the Prime Minister now was impossible anyway. Unless Prime Minister Primó voluntarily withdrew from the Cabinet Prime Minister election, his victory was a matter of course.
However, considering Prime Minister Primó’s age, perhaps after the next Cabinet Government, Prime Minister Primó would no longer have the motivation to run.
After all, while the Prime Minister of Spain represented vast power second only to one person, it also represented considerable heavy responsibilities and obligations.
Prime Minister Primó’s goal was not to maintain Spain’s status quo, but to reform Spain into an advanced and developed European great power.
Above this goal, being Prime Minister of Spain brought more heavy burdens than the joy of possessing vast power.
After Prime Minister Primó’s brief work report, the subsequent meeting featured detailed reports from the ministers of the Cabinet’s various departments on their departments’ work.
Carlo also listened in detail to several departments he was more interested in, gaining a more detailed understanding of Spain’s current development status.
Spain’s population data was not just as simple as growing to 45 million. From the overall population growth rate, Spain’s newborn population was continuously increasing, which was good news for Spain.
At least it proved that the Spanish Government’s efforts had not been in vain, the public’s burdens were effectively decreasing, allowing them to have the mood, time, and energy to have children.
Because of this, the Ministry of Welfare estimated Spain’s future population growth rate and total population scale, projecting that by early 1875, Spain’s total population could hopefully break through 18 million.
If such a good population growth rate continued, Spain even had hope of raising its total population to over 20 million before 1885 arrived.
Although such data was only an estimate based on the current population growth rate, it was absolutely good news.
After all, 1885 was still nearly 30 years away from World War I; if Spain had hope of raising its population to 20 million by 1885, it naturally also had hope of reaching nearly 30 million before World War I.
However, this was indeed just an estimate, or rather a beautiful fantasy. Whether Spain’s population growth rate could maintain such a high level was a question worth deep thought; current high population growth did not mean the future would be the same.
But considering the childbearing encouragement policy the government had promulgated not long ago, regardless of the time to reach 20 million or 30 million, at least in the next few years, Spain’s population was definitely developing in a good direction.
Among the overall population data, another point worth attention was the increase in immigrant numbers. During Queen Isabella’s reign, the number of immigrants arriving in Spain each year was not large; there was even significant population outflow each year to other European countries, colonies, and those South American countries that were previously colonies.
In recent years, however, the scale of immigration to Spain had overall been increasing.
For the whole of 1872, Spain welcomed over 20,000 immigrants, most of whom were from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Carlo’s identity as an Italian was still quite important, at least in the hearts of Italians. Many Italians who could not make it on the Italian mainland would also consider Spain when immigrating.
However, they were ultimately a minority; more Italians still chose to immigrate outside Europe, after all, Spain and Italy were not much different.
For these immigrants, Carlo generally maintained a welcoming attitude. First, the number of immigrants was not large and could not have too great an impact on Spain’s overall ethnic proportions.
As long as Spaniards remained the dominant ethnic group in Spain and occupied the majority of the Spanish population, it was fine; Spain did not reject other ethnic groups.
Of course, African Blacks were impossible. Currently, European Whites’ discrimination against Blacks was still quite severe, and it was rare to see Blacks choosing to immigrate to Europe.
After all, immigrating to Europe would not give them a better environment; instead, they would face discrimination from the vast majority of Europeans.
Even some more extreme white supremacists would bully or even massacre Blacks without restraint, and as long as those Whites had money and power, local governments generally would not interfere much.
It would take Blacks a long time to gain true human rights; at least before experiencing World War, countries around the world did not lack population—Blacks were just labor, labor whose lives did not need to be worried about.
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