Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 161: The Second Five-year Plan

The split of the Ministry of Industry was just a minor interlude for Prime Minister Primó and Carlo, and it would not sabotage their current fairly tacit cooperative relationship.

The previous Minister of Industry Ruiz also smoothly became the first Minister of Transport after the establishment of the Transportation Department, preserving his position as a Cabinet Minister.

After the Minister of Transport was selected, the full roster of members of Spain’s new Cabinet Government was freshly unveiled.

According to Spain’s constitution, after the Prime Minister nominates candidates for ministers of various departments, he needs to submit the final list to the King of Spain.

Only after the King of Spain personally signs the appointments of the Cabinet members can those nominated by the Prime Minister officially become Cabinet members.

Of course, as the King of Spain, Carlo naturally also has the power to reject nominees for Cabinet members and demand that the Prime Minister reselect Cabinet members.

However, such power is generally not exercised, after all, the Cabinet ministers nominated by the Prime Minister are basically his confidants, and directly rejecting them would be equivalent to falling out with the Prime Minister.

After the Cabinet selections were confirmed, Prime Minister Primó promptly publicly announced the expectations for the Second Five-Year Plan to the Cabinet Government and required various departments to make adjustments within a certain scope to the work tasks of each department in the Five-Year Plan based on their actual situations.

Conducting practical discussions with various departments is very necessary, after all, the detailed content of the Five-Year Plan still needs to be actually implemented by various departments.

If this step is missing, the goals of the Five-Year Plan may become empty slogans, either the goals cannot be achieved at all, leading to people in the lower departments engaging in falsification, or the goals are too easy for Spain to achieve, rendering the Five-Year Plan meaningless from its original purpose. The Second Five-Year Plan in Prime Minister Primó’s plan is even more important than the First Five-Year Plan, serving as a key goal with a transitional role.

Looking at the expressions of the ministers of various departments after receiving Prime Minister Primó’s Second Five-Year Development Plan, one could tell how exaggerated this Second Five-Year Plan from Prime Minister Primó was.

“Prime Minister, is it somewhat unreasonable to raise the railway scale to 11,000 kilometers before 1879?” Although he did not want to stand up and oppose Prime Minister Primó, in order for the Transportation Department to smoothly complete its tasks in the next five years, Ruiz could only stand up and voice his differing opinion.

Spain’s current total railway mileage is just over 7,500 kilometers, which was only achieved under the vigorous railway construction by the Industry Department last year.

There is still a shortfall of 3,500 kilometers to reach 11,000 kilometers of railway mileage. To build more than 3,500 kilometers of railway in five years would require an average of over 700 kilometers of railway mileage built per year.

700 kilometers does not seem like much, but the problem is that in the previous Five-Year Plan, Spain only built a total of 2,100 kilometers of railway, averaging just over 400 kilometers per year.

This was still achieved under the frenzied railway construction by the Ministry of Industry in If based on the level of the first four years of the Five-Year Plan, the average annual railway construction was actually only just over 300 kilometers.

Yet the Second Five-Year Plan proposed by Prime Minister Primó requires building over 700 kilometers of railway on average per year, almost approaching twice the railway construction speed of the First Five-Year Plan.

Moreover, the Transportation Department has just become independent from the Industry Department, and whether it can quickly reach the previous railway construction speed of the Industry Department is still an unknown.

Prime Minister Primó had long anticipated that someone would raise differing opinions. He nodded calmly and looked at Minister Ruiz, saying, “Does the Transportation Department have any other opinions?”

“Prime Minister, I believe that the goal for the Transportation Department should be to raise our total railway mileage to 10,000 kilometers within the Five-Year Development Plan.

Our current railway construction speed cannot meet the requirement of 11,000 kilometers, unless the government is willing to increase funding input and simultaneously start more railway construction.” Minister of Transport Ruiz said through gritted teeth.

“Considering the difficulty for various departments to complete their tasks, this year’s fiscal budget will be increased. As for other issues besides funding, you various departments need to figure out solutions yourselves.” At this point, Prime Minister Primó’s expression became even more serious, showing no mercy even to subordinates from his own faction: “

If you feel unable to complete such tasks, then it’s better to speak up early. So I have more time to report to His Majesty the King and replace the Cabinet Minister’s position sooner.”

“Understood, Prime Minister. The Transportation Department will exert every effort to complete your tasks.” Ruiz immediately understood that Prime Minister Primó was killing the chicken to warn the monkey, nodding very solemnly and no longer daring to raise any opinions.

With Ruiz’s example, which other Cabinet Minister would dare to raise differing opinions? They could only nod along, indicating that they understood.

Prime Minister Primó nodded satisfiedly, and the new Five-Year Development Plan was officially confirmed.

Although this development plan had even more ambitious goals compared to the previous one, it was not an unattainable dream for various departments.

As long as the government increases investment, and the officials of various departments make a little more effort, achieving the goals should not be a problem.

Take the Transportation Department’s 3,500 kilometers of railway as an example. Although Spain constructed over 2,100 kilometers of railway in the previous Five-Year Development Plan, only 1,500 kilometers were built in the first 4 years, and over 600 kilometers in the last year.

Based on the development trend, it is not difficult for the Transportation Department to achieve an annual average of 700 kilometers of railway construction—at least there is hope of realization.

The situations in other departments are similar. Although the goals are challenging, as long as they make an effort, there is still great hope.

After the Cabinet departments confirmed the final Five-Year Development Plan, Prime Minister Primó submitted the complete plan document to Carlo.

Because this is just a plan document, there is no need to submit it to the Senate for a vote. In fact, it is more like a target set by the Cabinet Government for itself, to spur the Cabinet Ministers to strive for realization.

But if the goals in the Five-Year Plan can be smoothly achieved, it would absolutely be a great achievement, and beneficial for the re-election of the Cabinet Government in five years.

Even if not elected as Prime Minister, it can serve as a demonstration of one’s political achievements and abilities, shown to the Prime Minister of the next Cabinet Government, thereby gaining the opportunity to be re-promoted as a Cabinet Minister.

Spain has specific requirements for the Prime Minister’s term: each term is five years, and can only be re-elected for two consecutive terms.

But there are no specific requirements for other Cabinet Ministers. As long as they have ability and have gained the Prime Minister’s trust, they can serve consecutively until death without issue.

The reason there are no specific requirements for Cabinet Ministers’ terms is entirely to better utilize these capable talents.

If someone is very capable but has to leave the Cabinet Government at a young age because of the Cabinet Minister’s term limit, that would be Spain’s loss.

When Carlo saw the Five-Year Development Plan formulated by Prime Minister Primó, his first reaction was some surprise, but he soon understood Prime Minister Primó’s thinking.

Although the overall goals of the Five-Year Plan are more ambitious than before, the current Spain is absolutely not the Spain of five years ago.

Moreover, the economic crisis is still ongoing. Spain’s buying spree and digging spree are still in progress, with large amounts of foreign equipment and technical data being transported to Spain every day, then transferred to other enterprises and factories.

Perhaps no results will be seen in one or two years, but after three or four years, when Spain’s enterprises and factories have fully absorbed these foreign equipment and technical data, and can independently produce and conduct research and development, Spain’s industry and other sectors will experience explosive growth.

In other words, such grand goals may seem quite difficult now, but considering that the time to achieve them is five years, there is actually great hope.

Besides, national development is inherently a process of tackling difficulties head-on. If development were really that smooth and easy, wouldn’t that mean that anyone could perfectly execute the Cabinet Government’s positions?

What are these Cabinet Ministers for? Isn’t it precisely to have them tackle difficulties, lead various departments to promote Spain’s development?

Carlo overall reviewed the Five-Year Development Plan formulated by Prime Minister Primó and was quite expectant of Spain in five years.

If all goals in the Five-Year Plan can be properly achieved, Spain can proudly call itself a powerful great power in five years.

Why say that? Because after completing this Five-Year Plan, Spain’s total industrial scale, heavy industry scale, and military industry scale will thoroughly catch up with Italy.

In terms of economic scale, it may not match Italy, after all, Italy has a larger population. Plus, Spain’s army expansion will be thoroughly completed, and the total combat effectiveness and scale of the navy and army will surpass Italy.

If Italy can be called a great power, why can’t Spain be called a great power?

What Carlo looks forward to most is still the population situation in Spain. In the First Five-Year Plan, Spain’s population growth exceeded 15 million people.

For the population growth scale in Spain during the Second Five-Year Plan, Prime Minister Primó’s initial expectation is around 5 million people.

This is not blind imagination. First, the increase in newborns due to the growth in Spain’s population scale. A country with a larger population will definitely have more newborns than one with a smaller population.

Second, immigrants from various countries amid the economic crisis. Although Spain mainly digs for technical talent and research talent, there are still large numbers of European population immigrating abroad due to the economic crisis.

Spain is quite special in this economic crisis, plus the massive digging and buying spree has attracted attention from many countries and the public, so it is estimated that it may be welcomed by European immigrants in the future.

However, for these European immigrants, their numbers still need to be controlled. This is also why Prime Minister Primó initially estimated the population growth scale in the Five-Year Plan at 5 million.

If the number of immigrants is not restricted, Spain’s population could even hope to rise to 20 million in five years.

But such blind population increase is not a good thing. Spain’s dominant ethnic group is the Spaniards, and the proportion of Spaniards in the total population will also determine stability in Spain.

The most obvious example that illustrates this is the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire’s population is not small, at least over 37 million people, ranking second only to Germany among the European Powers in population, more than France and the United Kingdom.

But the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s comprehensive national strength is clearly below that of Britain and France, one of the main reasons being that the ethnic distribution in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is too complex, and the dominant ethnic Austrians, or South Teutons, do not occupy a high proportion.

One of the main reasons for the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s disintegration after World War I was also that other ethnic groups had already gained considerable right to speak.

Although the estimated population growth is only around 5 million, Spain still has hope of reaching around 25 million people by

Although Spain cannot absorb too many immigrants, immigrants from one region are an exception, namely from countries that were once Spanish colonies.

Mexico, Argentina, and Chile in America are among them. Although the populations of these countries are not purely Spaniards, they absolutely all have Spanish bloodlines.

Plus, speaking the Spanish language and believing in Catholicism, they are easier for Spain to assimilate.

Attracting and accepting more immigrants from former American colonies, and assimilating them into Spaniards, may be the only way for Spain to quickly increase its population in a short time.

Unfortunately, the populations of these American countries are not too large at present, so the immigrants Spain can absorb ultimately have an upper limit.

Looking at Prime Minister Primó, who had been sitting very respectfully on the luxurious sofa since handing over the Five-Year Development Plan document, Carlo asked with a smile: “Prime Minister Primó, how is the government’s work on outward immigration progressing?”

This is not conventional outward immigration, but encouragement of outward immigration in the Catalan region and Basque Country, as well as other regions with non-Spaniards.

Simply put, it is to encourage these non-Spaniards to immigrate to other regions outside Spain through asset conversion.

After Spain promulgated the legislation on unifying ethnicity, religion, and language, the living environment for these other ethnic groups who shout every day that they are not Spaniards has not been so good.

According to Spain’s laws, those who do not acknowledge themselves as Spaniards are also not recognized as citizens by the Spanish Government.

Without Spanish citizen identity, they cannot take positions in government and royal family enterprises. It should be noted that although Spain also guarantees minimum income, the income and welfare benefits in government and royal family enterprises are obviously higher.

Unable to enter these enterprises means they lose many welfare policies. Some private enterprises also follow suit in rejecting non-Spaniards, making it very difficult for these groups who do not acknowledge themselves as Spaniards to find high-income jobs.

For most commoners, they already acknowledge themselves as Spaniards. For those who have been severely brainwashed, even turned into radical nationalists, they of course are unwilling to acknowledge themselves as Spaniards.

But this is just right, as Spain does not welcome these radical nationalists either.

The encouragement of outward immigration policy is precisely targeted at these radical nationalists, using relatively mild means to persuade them to immigrate abroad.

At this point, a problem arises: what to do with those radical nationalists who are unwilling to accept mild persuasion and unwilling to immigrate to other regions outside Spain?

This problem is also easy to solve: use stronger means to force them to immigrate or rebel.

“Your Majesty, the outward immigration in the Catalan region is progressing smoothly. Since we promulgated the policy of unifying ethnicity, at least ten thousand people have chosen to immigrate abroad.

Currently, most of the radical nationalists in Catalonia have already immigrated, and it is estimated that within the next five years, most of the more radical Catalans can be immigrated abroad.” Prime Minister Primó reported.

As a Catalan, Prime Minister Primó is still quite familiar with the situation in Catalonia.

Now, most Catalans still acknowledge themselves as Spaniards. As for why the independence tendency in Catalonia in posterity is so severe, the main reasons are long-term nationalist brainwashing plus Spain’s bloodsucking of Catalonia.

Yes, for a long time in posterity, Spain was bloodsucking Catalonia.

If assigning responsibility, it actually falls on the Bourbon royal family. Why did Spain weaken? There are many reasons, one of the main ones being the unstable situation in Spain since the Industrial Revolution, and missing two very important Industrial Revolutions.

The Carlist faction wars that plagued Spain for decades were actually caused by Queen Isabella’s throne inheritance.

Queen Isabella’s own inept rule also caused Spain to completely fall from the altar of great powers. Industry and economy in other regions of Spain did not develop much, whereas the Catalan region, under the development by the Republican faction and nationalists, became one of the most developed regions in Spain.

The developed Catalonia and Barcelona naturally became objects for the whole of Spain to bloodsuck. Catalans were already dissatisfied with this, and under the provocation of radical nationalists, intensifying independence sentiments is very normal.

Hearing that over ten thousand Catalans had already immigrated out, Carlo was still quite satisfied with the government’s progress.

Although the entire Catalan region’s population reaches over a million, the more radical nationalists number at most only tens of thousands.

As long as more than half of them can be sent away, the problem in the Catalan region will be solved by more than half. Without radical nationalists, assimilating Catalonia is also relatively simple.

Although it may not reach the depth in other regions, ensuring that the vast majority of Catalans acknowledge themselves as Spaniards and take pride in being Spaniards is not a problem.

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