Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 176: Railroad Synchronization

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, it was time to discuss serious matters.

Queen Sophie was very clever. Feeling that the time was right, she invited Queen Maria, Carlo’s sister, to tour the gardens and other attractions in the royal palace, giving Carlo and King Louis ample private space to discuss what needed to be talked about.

The two queens left the banquet hall one after the other, and the conversation between Carlo and King Louis then became more formal.

After all, Carlo and King Louis had no blood relationship, and they were not close, so they could only converse relatively formally.

“Your Majesty Carlo, the changes in Spain over these past few years have been remarkable. Perhaps in a few years, Spain truly has hope of achieving revival under your rule, and Spain will once again become one of Europe’s six great powers alongside Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria.” King Louis I of Portugal first praised the changes in Spain over recent years, complimenting Carlo.

In Louis I’s view, at Carlo’s age of less than 24, even if he did not feel much fondness for such flattery, he certainly would not show obvious opposition.

After all, who does not like to hear good words? Especially a young king.

“This is the result of Prime Minister Primó’s efforts; it is his reforms that have created today’s powerful Spain.” Carlo said with a smile.

Spain’s revival was indeed the result of Prime Minister Primó’s reforms, and Carlo’s contribution to it was not great. By saying this, besides affirming Prime Minister Primó’s merits, it was also to tell Louis I that he did not have much power in the current Kingdom of Spain, so the Portuguese royal family should not have too many expectations of the Spanish royal family.

“The prime minister is also under the king’s leadership; the king is the master of a country.” Louis I smiled and offered an opposing opinion, which was also what he truly believed. For traditional European nobles like Louis I, they always believed that the king was the master of the country. Even if constitutionalism had taken away most of the power, as long as the king existed, the country belonged to the king’s property.

This could be seen in Carlo’s sister, Queen Maria. Although Queen Maria had a very good reputation in Portugal and was even called the angel of charity and the mother of the poor by the Portuguese.

But Queen Maria’s extravagant spending and some rather stubborn ideas still faced opposition from some people, particularly some officials.

Several small stories passed down in posterity also proved this. At a certain masquerade ball, Queen Maria changed outfits three times in one evening, with each outfit costing hundreds of pounds sterling, equivalent to wearing gold and jewelry on her body.

This was not exaggerated at all, as one pound sterling at the time was equivalent to 33 grams of gold. An outfit costing hundreds of pounds sterling was actually equivalent to several kilograms of gold.

When the Portuguese Parliament discussed the queen’s enormous expenses, Queen Maria gave her attitude: “If you want a queen, you must spend money on her.”

Queen Maria also adhered to this principle. Most of the interior decorations of Lisbon’s Ajuda Palace were carried out under Queen Maria’s leadership, and the funds spent by the Portuguese royal family and government combined had already exceeded the cost of an ironclad ship.

Queen Maria’s stubborn attitude and ideas toward absolute monarchy were embodied in an incident that Carlo had heard directly.

In the year Carlo came to Spain, Queen Maria had a minor conflict with the current Duke of Saldanha in Portugal.

Conflict between the queen and nobles was inevitable, but Queen Maria expressed a very tough and firm attitude, threatening the great Portuguese noble, the Duke of Saldanha: “If I were king, I would shoot you directly!”

The reason Queen Maria had such a tough attitude was naturally that her father Vittorio Emanuele II was the King of Italy, her brother Carlo was the King of Spain, and her husband Louis was the King of Portugal.

In fact, Queen Maria’s way of acting and thinking was not wrong, as many nobles and kings at the time thought the same way.

There were nobles more extravagant than Queen Maria, and even more stubborn and autocratic nobles were plentiful.

The only problem was that Portugal faced the same severe weakness as Spain, and Portugal itself was not strong, which also intensified domestic changes.

After King Louis’s death, Maria remained active in Portugal as queen dowager and even served as regent.

Under her guidance, the succeeding Carlos I also showed a relatively autocratic attitude and carried out quite harsh and autocratic rule.

The long-term autocratic rule made the Portuguese quite dissatisfied, and after 270 years of rule, the House of Bragança in Spain ultimately collapsed.

The responsibility for the demise of the Kingdom of Portugal could not be placed on Queen Maria’s head, but some of Queen Maria’s actions did indeed accelerate the demise of the Kingdom of Portugal.

But for Carlo, this was not bad news; it might even evolve into an opportunity for Spain to re-annex Portugal.

Yes, in Carlo’s future plans for Spain, annexing Portugal was always an extremely important part for Spain, second only in importance to Gibraltar.

These two things were actually one and the same; whether they could be accomplished depended on the attitude of the British. On the day Spain no longer feared the British, perhaps recapturing Gibraltar and annexing Portugal could be done simultaneously.

The complete Iberian Peninsula was extremely perfect land, surrounded by sea on all sides, bordering France only on the northeast side.

It would only be necessary to deploy troops and build fortresses on both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains to keep enemies out of the Iberian Peninsula.

If the large plains region of Portugal was added, Spain would gain a large arable land area, strengthening Spain’s agricultural strength.

The complete Iberian Peninsula could easily accommodate over 70 million people. Plus the Moroccan region that Carlo planned to localize, the land alone could accommodate nearly 100 million people.

Although not comparable to vast countries like the United States with large expanses of land and plains, compared to other European countries, such population capacity was not weak.

Coupled with control of the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain would become the controller of the traffic arteries of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and the hegemon of the western Mediterranean, potentially gaining the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with great powers like Britain, France, and Germany.

Although such ideas were very appealing, realizing them would be quite difficult. At least for the current Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, and Morocco were all bombs that could not be touched.

Gibraltar was guarded by the British, and the British would not allow Portugal and the Moroccan region to be annexed by Spain.

Moreover, for the current Spain, even if there was an opportunity to annex Portugal, Carlo would not allow Spain to do so.

Although Portugal’s area was not large, Portugal had over 5 million people. These people already approached a quarter of Spain’s population, making assimilation quite difficult.

Moreover, the Portuguese were proper Europeans, so relatively harsh assimilation methods could not be used. Annexing Portugal was a very arduous process that required waiting for a very opportune moment, at least until the Portuguese were not so opposed internally.

Before that, the relationship between Spain and Portugal still needed to be maintained at a certain level. Both countries were weakening colonial powers and could to some extent achieve cooperation.

At least, Portugal could not be allowed to completely side with Britain, as that would increase the difficulty of annexing Portugal and make Spain’s other plans more difficult.

“Your Majesty Carlo, Portugal and Spain are neighboring countries on the Iberian Peninsula. I believe it is necessary for us to maintain peace on the Iberian Peninsula and jointly confront enemies outside the Iberian Peninsula.

The Portuguese Government is very willing to sign relevant treaties with the Spanish Government to build a solid Iberian defense line, allowing us both to focus outward, on the management of our colonies.” King Louis I of Portugal said with a smile.

As two former colonial powers, the colonies of Spain and Portugal had one characteristic in common: they were scattered around the world.

Spain had many colonies in Africa and Asia, and Portugal was the same.

But the overall strength of both Portugal and Spain had weakened by more than half, and Louis I’s meaning was very clear: he hoped that Spain, like Portugal, would focus mainly on the overseas colonies rather than internal matters on the Iberian Peninsula.

After all, colonies could produce a steady stream of wealth, and many places, including Africa, had vast colonies waiting for development by Portugal and Spain.

Carlo had no ideas toward Portugal in the short term, but that did not mean Carlo would easily agree to King Louis’s request for cooperation.

The current Portugal was the weaker party, and to exchange for a mutual non-aggression treaty with Spain and further cooperation, it would certainly have to pay something.

In a strict sense, Portuguese and Spaniards were not very different, and their languages could barely communicate.

If a portion of high-quality Portuguese talent could be brought in, it could not only test the possibility of assimilating the Portuguese in advance but also fill the gaps in Spain’s talent shortage again.

There was also the matter of Spain’s industrial products entering the Portuguese market. Because they were on the same Iberian Peninsula, transportation costs between Spain and Portugal were very low.

If Spain’s industrial products could enter the Portuguese market, although it was only a small-scale market of a few million people, its purchasing power would be stronger than that of colonial markets with tens of millions.

A large influx of industrial products into the Portuguese market could also destroy Portugal’s industrial system. By the time Portugal reacted, its industry would have long been destroyed by cheaper industrial products.

Controlling Portugal’s economy in this way could also influence the Portuguese Government’s decisions in certain situations. If the time was right for annexing Portugal, it could also accelerate the annexation of Portugal.

Carlo nodded but did not directly agree to King Louis’s proposal. Instead, he changed the subject with a smile: “The problem of different railway track widths has troubled us for a long time. The current Spanish Government is considering modifying the train tracks to align with the mainstream European train track width, facilitating better economic exchange between Spain and the European Continent.

Your Majesty Louis, what do you think of the proposal to modify the railway track width?”

Although countries around the world were vigorously building railways, the railway widths built by different countries were also different. Britain, as the earliest country to build railways, constructed railways with a width of 1435 millimeters, which was also the standard width used by most countries.

The benefit of using 1435 millimeters as the standard railway track width was that railways could easily achieve cross-border connections, strengthening railway transport capacity and avoiding unnecessary transshipment and connection processes.

But not all countries adopted the 1435-millimeter standard width; the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula each had their own railway track width standards.

Spain’s railway width was 1674 millimeters, truly a broad gauge railway. Broad gauge railways had many advantages: first, wider carriages made train travel more comfortable and also enhanced the transport capacity of train carriages.

Whether for passengers or cargo, trains running on wider tracks could transport more total tonnage, with stronger transport capacity.

Wider tracks were also more stable, greatly enhancing train safety and less prone to derailment.

But this did not mean broad gauge railways had no disadvantages. Broad gauge railways occupied more area, required more steel rails and other materials to build, and thus had correspondingly higher costs.

Especially in a country like Spain with more mountainous areas, building railways required digging tunnels, greatly increasing railway construction costs.

Why did Spain, knowing that building railways this way would infinitely increase its own costs, still resolutely choose a broad gauge railway that differed greatly from mainstream European countries?

The main reason was to defend against France to the north. As Spain’s only neighboring country besides Portugal, France had always been very powerful in previous times.

From the Napoleonic Empire period, France had been the hegemon on the European Continent. During the Napoleonic Empire, France had occupied Spain, which also deepened Spain’s wariness of France.

During France’s powerful period, French armies could easily break through the Pyrenees Mountains and enter Spain’s homeland.

If the train tracks were completely the same as France’s, the French could easily use Spain’s built railways, greatly enhancing their own logistics and supply capabilities.

It was precisely for this reason that the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula used railway widths completely different from France’s standard, making it difficult for the French to utilize Spain’s and Portugal’s railways.

Similarly, to defend against the Spaniards, Portugal made certain modifications on the basis of broad gauge railways. Although Portugal also used broad gauge railways like Spain, Portugal’s railway track width was slightly narrower by nine millimeters, ensuring that Spaniards could not easily use Portugal’s railways either.

Carlo suddenly raising the issue of Spain and France’s railways connecting was naturally not because he really wanted Spain’s and France’s railways to connect.

Spain’s industry was not as powerful as imagined, and connecting to the European Continent’s railways would only allow industrial products from industrially strong countries like Germany and France to rapidly enter the Spanish market.

This would not be a good thing for Spain and would also strengthen France’s influence over Spain.

The reason for raising the train track issue at this time was actually to tell King Louis that if Portugal wanted to sign a mutual non-aggression treaty with Spain, Portugal must align its railways with Spain’s, and the Iberian duo must adopt the same railway track standard.

To a certain extent, the Iberian duo adopting the same railway track standard had many benefits.

Train lines between the two countries could easily connect, and trains from Spain’s railways reaching Portugal’s railways would require no special steps and could pass through smoothly.

This could greatly facilitate population movement and cargo transportation, and the economies of Portugal and Spain could quickly improve.

But this ignored the impact on Portugal’s industry from industrial products flooding into the Portuguese market. Doing so could indeed promote economic improvement, but what was sacrificed might be Portugal’s industry.

Spain’s industrial scale was small compared to superpowers like Britain, France, and Germany, but compared to tail-end powers like Italy, Spain’s industry was still quite competitive.

And for a country like Portugal that did not even qualify as a great power, if Spain’s industrial products entered the Portuguese market, it might bring a devastating blow to Portugal’s industry.

The larger the industrial scale, the lower the price of industrial manufactured goods. Portugal’s small-scale industry could not compete with Spain’s industry at all, unless the government vigorously supported local industrial development, such as raising tariffs and restricting imports.

But wouldn’t doing so directly offset the effect of synchronizing train tracks? Would the Spaniards allow it?

Facts proved that Louis I was not a foolish king. He immediately understood the meaning in Carlo’s words, but precisely because of this, it made him very hesitant.

In terms of Louis I’s authority, promoting synchronization of Portugal’s and Spain’s train tracks would basically face no resistance.

But the impact this would have on Portugal needed careful thought. Was it really worth Portugal paying such a price just for a mutual non-aggression treaty?

“Your Majesty Louis, our country has achieved complete victory in the East Indies colonial war. I presume your country has already learned of this news?” Seeing that Louis I was slow to respond, Carlo changed to another question, asking with a smile.

“Of course.” Louis I nodded, a hint of envy in his eyes, and said: “The powerful combat effectiveness of your country’s army is enviable; Spain’s colonies have expanded by a large area again.”

Carlo smiled. King Louis clearly did not yet know that Spain had already secretly begun colonizing the even larger lands of the Congo River Basin.

Portugal’s West African colonies were right downstream of the Congo River Basin, so to speak, separated from the Congo River lands by only a wall.

This behavior of secretly colonizing Congo River Basin lands while hiding it from the largest colonizer near the Congo River even gave Carlo a sense of cuckolding right under the husband’s nose.