Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 183: Land Swap

The total assets of the Spanish Royal Family’s enterprises have already broken through the scale of 500 million pesetas, with annual net profits approaching 100 million pesetas.

Carlo was still quite satisfied with this, after all, the total assets of the enterprises did not include the treasure value obtained from the Indian Temple. If those treasures’ value were added, all assets in the hands of the Spanish Royal Family would already approach 1 billion pesetas.

The scale of these assets was certainly enormous; if converted to the currently most valuable currency, the pound sterling, it would be approximately 432 million pounds sterling, or 7 tons of gold.

Aside from historically longstanding royal and imperial families like the British Royal Family and the Habsburg Family, few noble families in Europe had assets exceeding Carlo’s.

Of course, the royal assets that appeared to exceed 1 billion were mostly immovable properties such as factories, enterprises, and land, as well as temple treasures that could not be quickly liquidated.

The cash that the royal family held and could use at any time was only less than 200 million pesetas, or just over 7 million pounds sterling.

Although the Spanish Royal Family had become one of the richest royal families in Europe, this was not Carlo’s ultimate goal; it was merely a small achievement he casually accomplished in the process of realizing his own goals.

For a king with power, money was indeed something that could be obtained at will. It was not that having money was bad, but money did not represent everything—power was something far more important than money.

Although Prime Minister Primó had already allowed Carlo to engage in more government affairs, Carlo was not in a hurry to extend his hand into the cabinet government; instead, he paid more attention to church matters.

For the country of Spain, religion still held considerable power. The history of Spain’s establishment was also a history of blood and tears, recounting the brutal rule of the Arabs over Spain and the courageous struggle of Catholicism. The time when Spain completely drove the Arabs and Muslims out of the Iberian Peninsula was 1492, whereas the Arabs had ruled the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 700 years prior.

The 700-year rule of the Muslims had an influence on the Iberian Peninsula that could not be underestimated, which also made the process of de-Muslimization quite difficult.

During this process, the Catholic Church played an extremely important role, which also gave the Spanish Catholic Church considerable power, making it the second largest force after the nobility.

Although for present-day Spain, the church’s influence had already diminished greatly, religious influence could not simply disappear; the Spanish Catholic Church remained a major force in Spain, with extremely high influence in the hearts of certain more fanatical Catholic believers.

Even in the highly technologically advanced posterity, people’s faith in religion still existed. Although some people were indeed atheists, a considerable portion still believed in religion.

For Carlo, the Spanish Church was a force that absolutely had to be mastered in his hands. The church could brainwash believers and propagate its own doctrines and canons.

If utilized well, the Catholic Church could become a sharp blade in Carlo’s hands, while also strengthening his own ruling power and status.

In the Madrid Royal Palace, Carlo met again with Pedro, the current Chief Archbishop of the Spanish Church.

This archbishop, already streaked with white hair, was extremely respectful in his attitude when meeting Carlo. He was a smart man; he knew that after bowing his head to Carlo last time, he no longer had any choice.

The Spanish Archbishop had formally become the Chief Archbishop of the Spanish Catholic Church; this position, along with the Archbishop of Toledo, was appointed by the King of Spain.

This also meant that if Carlo was dissatisfied with him, he could appoint a new Spanish Archbishop at any time to compete with him for control of the Spanish Catholic Church.

Although the Archbishop of Toledo had a longer history in Spain and greater influence, in the end, the current church was at a disadvantage and could not win against Carlo and the Spanish Government in a power struggle.

“Your Majesty.” Archbishop Pedro bowed respectfully to Carlo in greeting.

Carlo nodded and said with a smile, “Long time no see, Archbishop Pedro. How has the church been lately?”

“Everything is fine, Your Majesty.” Archbishop Pedro nodded and answered Carlo respectfully: “In Catalonia and the Basque Country, several Spanish language schools have already been successfully established, enrolling thousands of children and adolescents learning the Spanish language.

We are also vigorously promoting the use of the Spanish language, striving to make Catalonia and the Basque Country into administrative regions that only use the Spanish language in a short time.”

Carlo nodded, very satisfied with the church’s cooperation. In certain situations, the church’s role was indeed greater than that of the government.

For example, in promoting the use of the Spanish language, if the government were to forcefully promote it in these two regions, it would instead provoke opposition from certain Catalans and Basque people.

But if done through the church, by modifying the Catholic Church’s canons and expanding the usage scenarios of the Spanish language through subtle influence, it would neither provoke opposition from Catalans and Basque people nor fail to effectively increase the local usage rate of the Spanish language.

“That’s good. I didn’t call you here for anything else this time. I have decided, in the name of the royal family, to donate 5 million pesetas in funds to the church for the construction of a new Iberian Cathedral. What is Archbishop Pedro’s opinion?” Carlo asked with a smile.

As a new archbishop position created by Carlo, it certainly needed its corresponding cathedral. The cathedral corresponding to the Spanish Archbishop would be named the Iberian Cathedral, located in the southern part of the Madrid region, north of Toledo.

It appeared to be the royal family freely donating 5 million pesetas in funds to the church for building the cathedral, but in reality, it was Carlo reminding Archbishop Pedro that the church could only choose to submit to his rule; otherwise, his status in the church would also be replaced by others.

“Thank you, Your Majesty. I represent the church in thanking Your Majesty and the royal family for the donation. May Spain move toward greater greatness under Your Majesty’s leadership, and the church is also willing to contribute to Spain’s greatness.” How could Archbishop Pedro not understand the meaning in Carlo’s words? He quickly stated his position and said very respectfully.

Carlo nodded, his smile even warmer: “To make Spain achieve the goal of greatness again, it cannot be done without the joint efforts of the government, the royal family, the church, and all Spaniards.

Catholicism is Spain’s state religion; this point will never change and can never be changed. Archbishop Pedro, as the Spanish Archbishop and Chief Bishop of the Spanish Catholic Church, you need to lead the church to cooperate with the government’s actions and contribute together to Spain’s development.

Of course, I will also remember your contributions to Spain. The royal family will not mistreat any meritorious official of the country; the church is absolutely not just a sacrificer and giver—the church should be an enjoyer of Spain’s great achievements.”

The core content of this conversation was actually very simple: it was telling Archbishop Pedro that if the church cooperated with Carlo’s rule, it would continue to maintain its status as Spain’s second largest force.

But if it did not cooperate with Carlo’s rule, not only would Archbishop Pedro’s own status be challenged, but even the church’s status in Spain would cease to exist.

Fortunately, Archbishop Pedro himself was a very sensible person. He naturally understood the continuous weakening of the Spanish Catholic Church’s influence and would certainly not confront royal power and the government.

For Archbishop Pedro, rather than risking a power struggle with the king and the government, it was better to steadily hold onto the church’s current forces and peacefully be an archbishop with little power but vast assets.

Archbishop Pedro’s sensibility made Carlo very satisfied. In contrast, Spain’s aristocratic class was not as sensible as Archbishop Pedro.

As the saying goes, in a big forest, there are all kinds of birds—this described Spain’s vast aristocratic class very aptly.

Spain’s population ranked at the bottom among the great powers, but the number of nobles was no less than that of other European countries.

What was more fatal was that Spain’s nobles controlled a large amount of Spain’s land; some historically longstanding nobles held more land than Carlo currently did.

Precisely because they controlled so much land, coupled with their long history, some nobles had little support for Carlo as an outsider and even harbored some exclusion.

Although there were sensible people like Duke Jacopo who expressed support for Carlo from the beginning, most people maintained a wait-and-see attitude, and there were even nobles who expressed opposition behind the scenes.

Even at this moment, after Carlo had solidified his throne and grasped certain power, a considerable portion of nobles still stood outside Carlo’s Royal Council.

The Royal Council was the institution Carlo used to supervise the nobles; if the nobles stood outside the Royal Council, did that not mean they were unwilling to be monitored by Carlo?

For Spain’s domestic vast aristocratic class, Carlo had long made a decision: deal with them as soon as possible, at least solving part of the trouble among them.

The nobles owned too much land in Spain, using this land to control part of the agricultural population and thereby exert influence on the government.

If it were Spain’s mainstream nobles, that would be fine, but the fear was those nobles from Catalonia and the Basque Country—these people were one of the main sources pushing regional autonomy.

Holding Spain’s land in their hands while secretly pushing for autonomy in various regions of Spain was something Carlo absolutely could not accept.

Look at posterity’s Spain: the regions had all become autonomous regions, greatly diverting power from the Spanish Government. Fortunately, Spain could still maintain its unified jurisprudence through the monarchy, and with Spaniards comprising the majority of the domestic population, it barely maintained national stability and unification.

But this still allowed the Catalans to exploit a loophole, even holding a referendum in the 21st century to declare independence.

Facts proved that being merciful to these nobles and separatists was completely unacceptable. Give them autonomy, and their next step would be complete independence from Spain.

Even Spanish nobles would breed corruption and other acts harmful to the country. Carlo had no goodwill toward those nobles not standing with him; his only thought was to find a suitable opportunity and reason to deal with them.

The current colonization of the highlands in the Congo River Basin was indeed a good opportunity, at least allowing the reclamation of some land from the nobles’ hands.

How to reclaim the land?

Of course, through mutual land exchange between Spain’s land and the land in the Congo River Basin. The Congo Territory was Carlo’s property, so Carlo could naturally promote land exchanges between nobles and the royal family.

Spain’s main base was still the Iberian Peninsula; having the government and royal family control more land in the Iberian Peninsula would certainly be a good thing for national development.

Exchanging more Congo land to nobles would not cause Carlo a loss, as this land was originally obtained through colonization, and Carlo had not paid too high a price.

On the contrary, it could utilize the nobles’ energy to reclaim this land, accelerate the colonization of the Congo River Basin, and speed up the construction of the Congo Territory.

Nobles building large plantations in the Congo River Basin would not only fully utilize the local indigenous labor but also produce large amounts of crops and other economic crops to transport back to Spain domestically or sell to other European countries and regions.

This would not only promote Spain’s economic development, but the land obtained by the royal family and government could also be rented or sold to commoners, increasing Spain’s per capita arable land area—a case of multiple benefits.

Of course, land exchange would definitely be a long process. The Congo River Basin had enough land to exchange with the nobles, but this did not mean the nobles were willing to exchange the Spanish land they had reclaimed for many years for unreclaimed Congo land.

Even if they could get several times more land, it would take a long time to reclaim and make the land fertile. It could be foreseen that in the short term, few nobles would be willing to exchange land—scarcely any.

But why did Carlo think this method could solve the problem of nobles occupying the majority of national land? The main reason was still that Spain’s land was mostly desert, and with many mountainous areas, there were not too many fertile plains that could be reclaimed into arable land.

Coupled with Spain’s gradual industrialization, a large number of agricultural population were destined to enter cities to become workers or other staff.

With the agricultural population decreasing, the value of the vast land in the nobles’ hands would also decrease. Moreover, due to Spain’s geographical environment, the arable land was mostly scattered here and there, making it difficult to conduct centralized mechanized agriculture.

Rather than that, it would be better to exchange for large contiguous tracts of Congo land, hire cheaper local indigenous people as labor, and establish various crop plantations.

Coupled with a large amount of public opinion propaganda and certain guidance, there would surely be many nobles tempted at that time to exchange their Spanish land for more Congo land.

As long as that day came, the entire land exchange plan would succeed. The royal family and government, having obtained more land, could better carry out industrialization and agricultural centralization, mechanization.

The entire process might take ten to twenty years to complete, but once the land exchanges were nearly done and Spain’s land underwent centralization and mechanization, Spain’s comprehensive national strength would rise to a higher level.

If these arable lands were held in the hands of farmers and nobles, the grain produced could at most support 25 million people. But if the land were centralized and mechanized, the grain from these lands could at least support over 50 million people.

Coupled with Portugal’s land and Morocco’s land, in the future, Spain could easily support over 80 million to nearly 100 million people with these three major regions.

These arable lands and grain yields would also serve as Spain’s capital to stand in the Western Mediterranean, as well as the guarantee for Spain to compete for regional hegemon.

To accelerate this progress, Carlo decided to lay out in advance. This would also require the efforts of newspapers and the church; after all, to make Spain’s nobles believe that the Congo had vast fertile land, mere words from the royal family would not convince them.

Only if both the church and newspapers propagated such things, and some nobles took the lead in entering the Congo and made fortunes from plantations, would it arouse the interest of other nobles.

Fortunately, some nobles had already sided with Carlo’s rule; the first noble to go to the Congo and “eat the crab” could be selected from these more loyal nobles.

In fact, the nobles would not lose out in exchanging for Congo land. The Congo was a piece of undeveloped land from which vast fertile arable land could be reclaimed. In addition, the Congo had extremely rich mineral resources; nobles coming to this land could not lose money even if they managed it carelessly.

After all, the indigenous labor here was abundant and of the kind that did not need to be treated as people. Casually exploiting these laborers would yield profits incomparable to farming in Spain.

“Archbishop Pedro, you must already know about the establishment of the Congo Territory, right?” With a sufficient plan in place, Carlo turned his gaze back to Archbishop Pedro and asked with a smile.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Archbishop Pedro nodded, waiting for Carlo’s further instructions.

He knew Carlo would not mention the Congo Territory without reason; there must be a specific task.

Carlo continued, “Through the exploration team’s exploration, the highlands upstream of the Congo River are a piece of unreclaimed fertile land. It has extremely rich mineral resources, large numbers of natural rubber trees, and other materials.

If the church is interested, I suggest the church can organize personnel to reclaim land in the Congo River Basin and establish plantations, etc. It can also understand this land by dispatching missionaries. Believe me, this is a treasure-filled undeveloped land.” Carlo said with a smile.

Although Carlo could directly order the church to dispatch personnel to reclaim land along the Congo River, the church people might not be willing if done that way.

Although not openly defiant, they would certainly slack off. It was better to let the church personally understand the vastness and fertility of the Congo River Basin land, so they would spontaneously go to reclaim land and manage the Congo Territory.

As long as it promoted the development of the Congo Territory, it was acceptable to Carlo. The church wanting to develop land in the Congo Territory would certainly not be free; for the fertile land in the Congo River Basin, they would also have to pay something, such as the less fertile arable land in Spain domestically.

The church’s covert actions, plus the part of nobles who “ate the crab” first, along with public opinion propaganda, would definitely attract the attention of most other nobles.

Once they noticed that the church and some nobles had made fortunes in the Congo River Basin, they would naturally be tempted.

At that time, there would be no need for Carlo to take the initiative; nobles would naturally want to join the development of the Congo Territory through land exchange.

And through the sovereignty over the Congo Territory, Carlo could steadily sit back and wait for these fish about to bite the bait to take the hook.

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