Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 171: 1875

Time can never be paused, and when people are busy, time also seems to speed up.

The latter half of 1874 was quite busy for the Spanish government, causing time to fly by, and it quickly arrived at 1875.

It is worth mentioning that at the end of October 1874, Queen Sophie finally became pregnant.

The Spanish Royal Family was about to welcome their first prince or princess, and Carlo was in a very good mood.

Carlo and Queen Sophie got married in 1872, so why did they only conceive their first child at the end of 1874?

The biggest reason was Carlo’s protection of Queen Sophie. The production conditions of this era were not very developed, and giving birth represented a considerable risk.

By the time her pregnancy was confirmed at the end of 1874, Queen Sophie was nearly 20 years old, which was a relatively suitable age for pregnancy.

Queen Sophie’s pregnancy was no small matter; it not only surprised the Spanish Royal Family but also the Italian Royal Family and the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Family.

Carlo’s father, King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy, personally sent a telegram filled with joy and happiness, stating that he would personally come to Spain after the child’s birth.

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary was also very excited about this. After all, Queen Sophie was his eldest daughter, and the child in her womb would be his first grandchild. From the relationship between the Spanish Royal Family, the Italian Royal Family, and the Austro-Hungarian Royal Family, it could be seen that this yet-to-be-born little one would certainly be the center of attention in the future.

Whether it was a prince or a princess, they would receive the affection of three royal families, giving them a significant head start over the vast majority of people from birth.

Carlo was also very excited about the upcoming birth of his child.

Although he had transmigrated to this world several years ago, Carlo did not feel a strong sense of belonging to this world.

Having his own child was also increasing Carlo’s sense of belonging to this world. If Carlo’s previous goal was only to develop Spain into a powerful country, completing his objectives like in a game, then Carlo’s current goal was to create better conditions for his descendants, so they would possess an incomparably strong Spanish Empire.

Carlo and Queen Sophie were still young and would undoubtedly have more children in the future. Regardless of whether they were princes or princesses, Carlo would make good arrangements for them.

Even if their abilities were insufficient, they would be ensured a stable and incredibly wealthy life as nobles, happily living out their days.

Besides the good news of Queen Sophie’s pregnancy, there was much other good news, encompassing various aspects.

As time entered 1875, Spain was about to enter a new era.

The colonial rule in the East Indies colony had been initially stabilized. The colonial defense division transferred to the East Indies would continue to remain there, specifically on Borneo, to help the East Indies with further colonial expansion.

In the future, the colonial expansion of the East Indies would have two directions: one was to the south to occupy the Sultanate of Brunai, bordering the Sultanate of Kutai controlled by the Netherlands.

The second was to set sights on the Lesser Sunda Islands and the even more easterly New Guinea, where Dutch colonial rule was unstable, and there were many indigenous sultanates outside the Dutch sphere of influence that could be targeted.

Further east, New Guinea had large areas that were blank territories; the disadvantage was having to engage in colonial competition with the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and even Germany.

This was unavoidable, as this region of Southeast Asia was only so large. Currently, most of the land was occupied by Britain, France, and the Netherlands, leaving Spain to find these blank territories to colonize from the gaps.

However, New Guinea was ultimately a backup option. The primary task for the Spanish East Indies colony was still to occupy more territory on Borneo.

To take care of the pregnant Queen Sophie, Carlo did not attend the government’s annual summary report meeting at the end of 1874.

However, Prime Minister Primó still reported the complete government work content to Carlo after the meeting concluded and sought Carlo’s opinion on the government’s new development plan for 1875.

With the passage of time, Carlo’s royal power was also becoming increasingly consolidated.

The most obvious point was that Prime Minister Primó was paying more and more attention to Carlo’s stance. In some matters, if Carlo explicitly opposed them, Prime Minister Primó might not be able to proceed with them.

Currently, royal power and prime ministerial power could only cooperate amicably; once competition arose between the two, it might lead to a situation where both were damaged.

After all, Prime Minister Primó supported the monarchy, and Prime Minister Primó’s efforts were instrumental in the continued existence of the Kingdom of Spain.

Carlo’s attitude towards Prime Minister Primó was one of respect. Although competition between royal power and prime ministerial power was inevitable, Prime Minister Primó had indeed done a lot for Spain.

Even the expansion of Carlo’s royal power to its current extent was closely related to Prime Minister Primó’s concessions.

If Prime Minister Primó had been more ambitious at the time, Carlo might not have obtained such high power.

Considering the situation of the Spanish government at the time, Prime Minister Primó could have sidelined Carlo at any moment, or even turned Carlo into a figurehead with no power.

However, Prime Minister Primó did not do so, which was also why Carlo was willing to wait for Prime Minister Primó to retire after completing his achievements rather than directly clashing with him.

It was an honor for Spaniards to have a Primó emerge in Spain during this era. And it was also Carlo’s honor to face a politician like Primó, who did not cling to power, at the beginning of his reign.

The good news was that Prime Minister Primó’s reforms had already yielded some results, the first Five-Year Development Plan had been successfully completed, and the second Five-Year Development Plan was proceeding smoothly.

If nothing unexpected happened, Prime Minister Primó would retire after the completion of the second Five-Year Development Plan. His ten-year cooperation with Carlo, and the achievements brought to Spain by the two five-year plans, might become a widely celebrated chapter in Spanish history.

This was not an exaggeration; some newspapers were already publicizing such matters.

Some newspapers referred to Prime Minister Primó and Carlo as the Wilhelm I and Chancellor Bismarck of Spain, and called the cooperation between Prime Minister Primó and Carlo the Great Revival of Spain.

The existence of such news was also partly related to the slogan Carlo had put forward at the time: “Make Spain Great Again!”

The public’s eyes were sharp, and they could naturally discern whether the country was developing for the better. At present, Spain was not powerful, but for Spaniards, the period since Carlo was crowned King of Spain and Prime Minister Primó took office was great for Spain.

“Your Majesty, in the past year, we have achieved unimaginable results.” On January 1, 1875, Prime Minister Primó entered the Madrid Royal Palace with a complete and organized government work report, reporting this good news to Carlo with a joyful smile.

Carlo had already anticipated the significant improvement in Spain in 1874.

After all, so many things had been purchased from abroad, and if these items brought about such great improvements to Spain. Not to mention that Spain had also strengthened its development plans and increased investment in various departments.

It was no exaggeration to say that the railways built in 1874 alone exceeded the total length of railways built in Spain in 1870 and 1871 combined.

Carlo naturally took over the report, his face showing little expression as he carefully examined its contents.

Before long, Carlo showed a look of satisfaction, and his whole body relaxed.

1874 was a year of leapfrog development for Spain, and also a year to narrow the gap with the great powers. It could be said that 1874 was a dividing line for Spain.

Before 1874, Spain could only be described as a country in need of extensive rebuilding, a greatly weakened great power, and it was even debatable whether it could be considered a great power at all.

However, after 1874 concluded, Spain’s existing industrial and economic scale, as well as its army size, confirmed its status as a powerful great power.

Compared to Spain, only the five traditional European great powers of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria still held an advantage; other great powers like the United States and Italy did not possess such a significant advantage over Spain.

The industrial and economic scale of the United States was indeed vast, and its population was larger. However, the current United States was not a military powerhouse, even after the experience of the Civil War.

Before the outbreak of the Civil War, the total size of the US Army was only over 20,000 men. Although the total number of soldiers involved in the Civil War reached millions, the composition of these soldiers was self-evident.

Perhaps the Civil War forged some elite troops, but it had been about ten years since then, and it was uncertain how much combat effectiveness these elite troops could maintain.

Italy was even less to be said. Although Italy had not yet produced any major events, the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army had always been weak.

The unification of Italy had a lot to do with Garibaldi. Garibaldi’s Redshirts were the truly powerful Italian force, but this army was not under the control of the Italian government.

In fact, it was also because the Italian government and Vittorio Emanuele II were wary of Garibaldi.

Even if Garibaldi himself had no ambitions or ideas, the Redshirts, as a powerful army, were terrifying, and it was impossible for the Italian government not to guard against them.

Compared to Italy, Spain did not have this kind of trouble. The revolutionary army that initially resisted Queen Isabella had already been reorganized into the Kingdom Government Army, and this Kingdom Government Army was further reformed into the new Royal Army, under the control of the Spanish Government. Naturally, no one had any concerns.

Back to the topic, how rapid was Spain’s development speed in 1874?

Thanks to the purchased industrial equipment, Spain has made significant progress in the industrial aspect.

Minister of Industry Cánovas had reported this to Carlo in advance, and had received Carlo’s praise and encouragement.

The more achievements the Ministry of Industry had, the more prestige Cánovas could gain. The more prestige Cánovas had, the greater his chances of running for Prime Minister in the next Cabinet Government election would be.

This concerns the rotation of the cabinet government after Prime Minister Primó’s retirement, which Carlo considered quite important.

Don’t forget, the largest party in Spain currently is the Progressive Party. Although under Prime Minister Primó, the Progressive Party did not exhibit too radical an attitude.

But who can guarantee that after Prime Minister Primó leaves politics, the Progressive Party will not become a radical party under the leadership of someone else?

The reason for Carlo having this idea was naturally due to the attitude of Ruiz, the second most important figure in the Progressive Party.

Ruiz was originally a relatively radical fellow, but it was precisely because of his strong support for reform and his prestige in the revolutionary army that Prime Minister Primó appointed him Minister of Industry.

When serving as Minister of Industry, Ruiz displayed exceptional ability and completely secured his position as the number two figure in the Progressive Party.

After Cánovas became Minister of Industry, Ruiz completely opposed Carlo. Although he did not explicitly oppose Carlo’s royal power, his attitude was quite clear: he did not approve of Carlo gaining power and hoped to strengthen the constitutional system, concentrating power in the hands of the cabinet government and parliament.

If Prime Minister Primó retires in the future, the contest for prime minister will very likely be between Ruiz and Cánovas.

Of course, if Grand Duke Serrano wanted to run for Prime Minister, he could be considered one.

Currently, only these three individuals in Spain are qualified to run for Prime Minister. Beyond them, others indeed lack the necessary prestige, and prestige alone may not be enough to suppress others.

In 1874, the total industrial scale of Spain increased by approximately 30% compared to 1873.

This level is quite exaggerated, as Spain’s industrial scale has already grown considerably after the first Five-Year Development Plan.

Although Spain was not an industrial power at the time, its industrial scale was of a certain magnitude, at least much stronger than those small and medium-sized countries.

The ability to improve by nearly one-third in just one year was due not only to the significant impact of industrial equipment and production materials purchased during the economic crisis, but also to the government’s increased investment in the industry department.

With so much money invested, it would be strange if industry didn’t see large-scale growth.

After all, Spain is not special to Europe; there are no blockades on industrial production from various countries. The current situation is that as long as the Spanish government is willing to spend money, the industrial scale can achieve a huge improvement.

There is good news and bad news for this. The good news is that a large amount of production equipment and production materials purchased has not been used yet.

Once these equipment and production materials are fully utilized, Spain’s industrial scale can achieve further growth.

The bad news was that the Spanish government bore too many expenses in 1874, and such fiscal expenditure could only be maintained for one year.

If such enormous fiscal expenditures continued in 1875, the Spanish government would face a relatively serious debt crisis, which Prime Minister Primó was unwilling to see.

Therefore, after 1875, apart from the industrial equipment and production materials that were purchased, the Industry Department could only rely on itself; it was impossible to rely on the government to throw money at it again.

The improvement in industrial scale also represents one thing, and that is the increase in the total scale of Spanish workers.

Although farmers still constitute the majority in Spain, workers have become a group that Spain cannot ignore.

The good news is that a considerable portion of Spain’s workers are employed by royal enterprises. Under Carlo’s specific instructions, the welfare benefits at royal enterprises are comparatively better than those at private enterprises, forming a natural contrast with the capitalists.

Currently, according to public opinion among workers, the workers of the royal enterprises are quite satisfied with Carlo and the royal enterprises, as Carlo provides them with more generous rewards and other welfare benefits than private enterprises.

On the premise that private enterprises in Spain still adhere to the 11-hour workday, royal enterprises and some government enterprises have announced the implementation of a 10-hour workday in all their affiliated companies.

This is not the ten-hour workday as advertised by European countries; it is a strictly enforced ten-hour workday with not a single error.

Although European countries implemented the ten-hour workday earlier, the ten-hour workday has not yet become widespread across all of Europe.

As the saying goes, for every policy from above, there is a countermeasure from below. Although the government implemented a ten-hour workday, capitalists still had many ways to make workers “voluntarily” stay and work overtime.

In the royal enterprises of Spain, such voluntary action is virtually unseen. Even the most ordinary employee enjoys a ten-hour workday and two days off per month.

This also means that the Royal Family’s enterprises face extremely popular recruitment situations every time. Employees of the Royal Family’s enterprises have lower working hours and yet earn higher incomes than employees of some private enterprises.

Every worker who could enter a royal enterprise was grateful and devoted to Carlo, after all, they knew who provided their current working environment.

Within the royal enterprises and factories, large-scale discussions, exchanges, and group activities are organized at regular intervals.

This not only helps workers relieve the fatigue of their work, but also takes this opportunity to have heart-to-heart talks with them and, through subtle influence, brainwashes them into accepting the idea of loyalty to the monarch and love for the country.

For the existing working class in Spain, brainwashing them is quite easy. Since Carlo was crowned King of Spain, the workers’ wages and working conditions have been continuously improving.

They did not reject the idea of loyalty to the monarch and love for the country, after all, Carlo’s arrival indeed made their living environment better, which was an undeniable fact.

Under the efforts of many workers and the Spanish Government, Spain’s industry has seen great improvement.

102 By the end of 1874, Spain’s annual steel output had broken through 200,000 tons, a goal that was also part of the plan set by the Industry Department at the time.

Pig iron output was higher, already approaching 600,000 tons. Railway construction increased Spain’s domestic steel demand, and steel mills were continuously established in industrial bases, rapidly expanding their scale.

It is worth mentioning that of Spain’s total steel output exceeding 800,000 tons, the steel mills under the Royal Family contributed more than a quarter of the production volume.

These steel mills have different names, but they all share the same prefix, which is “Royal”.

The Royal Family’s steel mills are spread across Spain, the largest of which is the Royal Barcelona Steel Mill built in the Barcelona Industrial Base.

However, the scale of the Royal Seville Steel Mill and the Royal Madrid Steel Mill was not much different. These steel mills jointly contributed nearly 200,000 tons of steel output, and were an important part of the royal family’s industrial layout.

Carlo no longer had a concrete concept of the scale of the Spanish Royal Family’s existing assets.

It’s not that Carlo doesn’t care about the expansion of royal industry, but rather that the current royal layout across all industries is too exaggerated to allow for detailed statistics.

The assets of these steel mills alone are worth tens of millions of pesetas, and their annual income already exceeds ten million, something unimaginable for the former royal family.

The steel mill is just one of the royal family’s arrangements in the industrial aspect; there are many related factories, railway companies, mining companies, petroleum companies, and so on.

In addition to the two major banks and companies and enterprises in the agricultural sector, these enterprises bring in nearly 100 million pesetas in income to the Royal Family each year.

Besides steel output, Spain also achieved a huge improvement in coal output.

Actually, to put it bluntly, coal and iron are inseparable. An increase in steel output also represents an increase in the mining of iron ore and coal, as only coal and iron ore can be used to refine steel.

However, compared to the growth in steel output, the growth in coal output was not as significant. The main reason was the impact of the economic crisis, which led to a substantial decrease in the price of coal.

The export price of coal from European countries is already similar to the mining price of Spanish coal mines, so there is no need for additional mining.

After all, Spain’s domestic coal reserves are not large and need to be used sparingly. When the prices of the two are not very different, Carlo prefers to import coal from abroad rather than mine Spain’s domestic coal.

Prime Minister Primó handed Carlo a government work report that was nearly a hundred pages long, with the content submitted by the Ministry of Industry alone reaching dozens of pages.

The achievements of the Industry Department in 1874 were too dazzling, and the improvements in all aspects were quite rapid. Carlo took a long time to read this report, but after finishing the report from the Industry Department, the smile of satisfaction on Carlo’s face became even more brilliant.

The royal family also deserves considerable credit for the industry department’s immense achievements.

For example, the achievements in the shipbuilding industry submitted by the Ministry of Industry are the results obtained after the expansion of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

After a long period of decline, the largest dockyard retained by the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard can only build medium to large warships of 6,200 tons.

But the warships designed by the shipyard far exceeded this number, which also means that the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard must undergo a new round of expansion.

The shipyard is very important for Spain’s future naval expansion, and Carlo also attaches great importance to it.

In fact, before the warship design blueprints were released, Carlo had already decided to expand the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

After investing a large amount of capital, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard possessed two giant docks capable of building ten-thousand-ton giant ships, as well as one large dock for building 7500-ton medium and large warships.

If Spain previously needed 2 to 3 years to build an ironclad ship, then with two ten-thousand-ton class dockyards commencing construction simultaneously, building an ironclad ship close to ten thousand tons would only take one and a half years.

Of course, this is not something that can be achieved by simple superposition. The Royal Gualnizo Shipyard needs more skilled workers and relevant warship designers and engineers. The demand for talent is greater, and high-level talent is extremely scarce.

Fortunately, the Royal Family purchased a British shipyard during the economic crisis, and by accepting some of the excellent talent from this shipyard, they were able to alleviate the talent shortage at the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

Besides this, the Industry Department has achieved many results in other areas.

But these need not be mentioned again. In short, the Ministry of Industry was definitely the cabinet department that achieved the most political achievements in the Spanish government in 1874.

Aside from the Ministry of Industry, other departments also achieved great results in 1874, such as the Ministry of Education, which Carlo cared about quite a bit.

Of course, compared to the great achievements of the Industry Department, the Education Department’s results were more like steady progress.

In 1874, over a million people in Spain received literacy education, making it the year with the most people receiving literacy education since Spain began its literacy education efforts.

As for the reasons, in addition to the government’s increased investment in the education department, it is also due to people’s increased income, which has led a large number of school-aged children and youths to return to school.

The current Spaniards’ lives are much better than before the revolution broke out, so there is naturally no need for these children and young people who should be attending school to continue working in factories.

And precisely because of this, Spain’s illiteracy rate has officially dropped below 40%, to be exact, below 39%.

Although there isn’t an exact proportion, it can be confirmed that the illiterate population in Spain is less than 7 million people, and the majority of Spaniards have received basic education.

As the literacy work progresses, the difficulty of literacy is also continuously decreasing. Initially, Spain was relatively short of candidates for literacy teachers, but now there is no shortage of literacy education teachers.

Previously, Spain was replete with uneducated farmers, but currently, in small towns and villages, it is educated cultural figures who are seen everywhere.

Those who are truly uneducated either stay in factories to earn money through hard labor or are engaged in agricultural work; they really have no time to receive an education.

Although the declining illiterate population is a good thing, as literacy efforts progress, a bottleneck period will eventually be entered.

After all, not all illiterate populations can receive education. Some are the elderly and children, and some are the breadwinners of the family who must go out to earn money.

After carrying out their busy work, these people truly had neither the time nor the energy to conduct literacy education. Carlo also understood this, so Spain’s goal for literacy education was never to reach zero, but rather to reduce it to below 20%.

For those who truly cannot undergo literacy education, the government can only give up. However, more effort must be made in educating their next generation. Some of this generation of Spaniards are no longer suitable for education, but the next generation of Spaniards will have sufficient opportunities to receive education.

Literacy education was able to proceed so smoothly, one big reason being that Spain did not receive too many immigrant populations during this period.

The Ministry of Education only needs to focus on the more than 10 million Spaniards domestically. The work pressure is actually not that great.

If a large number of immigrants flowed in every year, it would be a heavy burden for the Ministry of Education. After all, most immigrants have not received a very good education, and these immigrants are scattered all over the country, with some not even understanding Spanish, making the popularization of literacy education very difficult.

Compared to literacy education, the construction of universities in Spain was also quite rapid.

The total number of university students enrolled annually in all of Spain’s universities combined now exceeds 7,000.

And compared to the situation where less than 1,000 talents chose majors related to physics and chemistry at the beginning, various universities in Spain currently attach considerable importance to majors related to physics and chemistry.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Education regarding the enrollment numbers of various universities, of the over 7,000 university students admitted by these universities in 1874, more than 3,000 students applied for majors such as Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry.

The number of university students in construction engineering also exceeded one thousand. After all, Spain was in a period of great development and really needed university students in construction engineering.

Before, Spain did not have very effective management over domestic universities, leading to university construction majors being decided based on students’ enrollment intentions.

At that time, students preferred to enroll in literature and art, which also led to most of the universities in Spain being related to literature and art, followed by architectural engineering and medical fields.

At present, Spanish universities have shifted from building majors that students want to building majors that the country needs. Majors related to Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry have become the most popular among Spanish university students due to Spain’s shortage of talent in these areas.

157 Carlo’s attitude towards universities was also simple: Spanish universities should cultivate more talent for the Spanish Government and the country.

Universities should cultivate talent that their own country needs, not talent that other countries need. If a country’s universities only think about cultivating talent for other countries, then what is the use of such universities? It would be better to abolish them directly and re-establish universities that the country needs.

159 It is worth mentioning that the Royal Academy of Sciences was established only a few years ago, but it has already become one of Spain’s most famous universities.

After all, it is a school heavily supported by the Royal Family and has invited many famous European scientists and related researchers, so it is easy to become famous within Spain.

Even the Royal Academy of Sciences has a certain reputation within Europe, attracting a small number of non-Spanish students to apply.

Currently, the Royal Academy of Sciences alone cultivates many talents in mathematics, physics, and chemistry for Spain each year. A large majority of these are practical, experimental talents, and there are also many who focus on theoretical aspects; these are areas Spain is lacking in.

To help students with talent but poor backgrounds, Carlo established royal scholarships in all universities in Spain.

As long as the three conditions of being a Spanish citizen, having excellent academic performance, and coming from a poor family are met, one can apply for the Royal scholarship.

Currently, the total number of university students in all of Spain is just over 20,000, while the Royal Scholarship Fund established by Carlo provides over 2,000 scholarships annually. Each scholarship is worth more than 100 pesetas, equivalent to more than half a year’s wages for an ordinary Spaniard.

Actually, this is not much, and all scholarships cost only 200,000 pesetas per year.

But this brought enormous prestige to Carlo, as one in ten university students could receive a scholarship, a considerable chance.

Although Carlo had the ability to provide scholarships to the vast majority of university students, or even every university student, doing so would not be a good thing.

Scholarships can only serve as assistance for some impoverished university students and, at the same time, allow everyone to understand the preciousness of scholarships.

If the majority had it, then naturally no one would cherish scholarships. After all, what one cannot obtain is the most precious, and only a minority can receive scholarships, which also reflects the preciousness of scholarships and the benevolence of Carlo who provides them.

In addition to this scholarship, the Royal Family’s investment in education was not low.

Every university has a university cafeteria, and the Royal Family provides extra subsidies for the university students’ three meals a day. These university students can eat more abundant meals at a lower cost, which is also one of Carlo’s methods to win over people’s hearts at the university.

University students are quite important for Spain. Through scholarships and meal subsidies at universities, these university students can develop a strong liking for the Royal Family and Carlo.

Among these university students, some will go on to hold high-level positions in the government, while others will enter various industries and become professionals in diverse roles.

But no matter what they are like in the future, as long as they have a favorable impression of Carlo in university, they are more likely to support Carlo’s rule in the future.

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