Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 187: National Flag Revision Proposal

Although the existing carbon filament light bulbs can also be used commercially, before the power plant is built, light bulbs obviously won’t have a large market.

To solve this problem and at the same time to accelerate Spain’s electrification process, Carlo decided to build a thermal power plant on the Madrid outskirts to provide a certain amount of electricity to the Royal Palace of Madrid and parts of the city.

The good news is that currently, looking across the world, the only electrical appliance is the light bulb, and light bulbs don’t consume much electricity. Although the generator power currently available for building thermal power plants is not large, it can still meet the lighting needs of light bulbs.

Gramme himself has a lot of research in generators. The ring-shaped electric drive he developed can be used not only for hydroelectric power but also for thermal power generation.

According to Gramme’s calculations and estimates, the current complete set of ring-shaped electric drive engines is expected to achieve a power generation capacity of 5KW, which will become one of Europe’s largest power stations.

The two sizes of light bulbs manufactured by Gramme have the smaller light bulb at about 15 watts, while the larger light bulb is improved to 35 watts.

This also means that even if this thermal power plant capable of reaching 5KW enters full operation, it can at most light up about 300 small bulbs or about 140 large bulbs.

This is without considering electricity transmission losses. Even if the power plant is relatively close to the Royal Palace of Madrid, electricity losses are inevitable.

However, the main role of this thermal power plant is to provide lighting for the palace, and by the way, to showcase to Spain’s nobles and capitalists the convenience brought by electricity.

It is very difficult to promote the development of electrification in Spain relying on the royal family alone. But if nobles and capitalists work together, Spain’s electrification process will also accelerate a lot. At least the first step is to make these nobles and capitalists interested in light bulbs and electricity, and get them to invest certain funds into the electricity industry.

Lighting from light bulbs is still very important. It can not only light up the nobles’ castles and manors but also light up the capitalists’ factories.

What nobles want is concrete convenience and technology that embodies their identity and status, while capitalists want ways to make factories run two shifts to earn more money.

Some people will surely see the business opportunities in electricity and light bulbs. Anyway, Carlo is guaranteed to make a profit with the electricity laboratory. The more people participate in the electricity industry, the faster the technological progress in the electricity industry will be.

In addition to building a thermal power station near the palace on the Madrid outskirts for the electricity laboratory, Carlo also assigned new tasks to the electricity laboratory.

First, continue to invest in light bulb research, and improve the lifespan and brightness of light bulbs as much as possible. Small bulbs are okay, but the lifespan of over 100 hours for large bulbs is really too short.

Considering that large bulbs are generally used in factories or streets and other relatively spacious places, the lighting time will also be very long.

So the lifespan of large bulbs must at least be improved to over 300 hours. Otherwise, the cost and trouble caused by frequent replacement of large bulbs may make some originally tempted people hesitate.

Second, continue to vigorously research generators and related power generation ideas. 5KW power generation capacity is really too small; it can only light a few hundred bulbs. How can this promote Spain’s electrification?

It can’t be that we build dozens or hundreds of power stations to meet a city’s power needs, right? Not only will it occupy a lot of land, but it will also cause greater pollution.

Carlo’s requirement is to gradually increase the generator power to at least 30KW or more within the next five years. A power plant can build several sets of generators to raise the power generation capacity to over 100KW, which might barely meet the electricity needs of a certain street or small city.

Only with power generation capacity over 100KW can we attempt to replace steam engines in factories with electric motors. Relying on current that can only light light bulbs is better off sticking to old steam engines.

Third, research more effective electricity transmission methods. At this time, unlike posterity with a fairly mature electricity transmission system.

Even the DC vs. AC battle between Tesla and Edison hasn’t started yet. The electricity transmission method of this era is simply pulling wires, that’s it.

Although pulling wires is very simple, it loses a lot of electricity in the transmission process. The power plant’s generator power is already small, and a considerable portion is lost in electricity transmission, making the electricity a single power plant can provide even less, even negligible in farther places.

To promote electricity, there must be a relatively effective way to achieve long-distance electricity transmission while minimizing electricity losses.

Only then can electricity successfully achieve popularization. However, considering the historical development of the electricity industry, Carlo doesn’t have too high requirements for this.

The current research results of the electricity laboratory have already exceeded Carlo’s expectations. As for the several requirements Carlo has for the future, whether they can be completed or not, Carlo will not reduce the research funding for the electricity laboratory because of it.

To build the thermal power plant, Carlo also specifically had Butler Loren establish the Spanish Royal Electric Company.

Although the current Royal Electric Company is just a shell subsidiary, Carlo is still very optimistic about the future development prospects of the electric company.

It can even be said without exaggeration that the Royal Electric Company will be crucial to the smooth progress of Spain’s electrification process and may become Spain’s largest electricity giant in the future.

In addition to the task of building thermal power plants, the Royal Electric Company has another task: to widely recruit electricity-related talent across Europe.

The outward excuse is that building the thermal power plant requires a large number of electricity talents for employment. Although it’s just a small-scale power plant, there is no upper limit on talent recruitment.

As long as they are electricity-related talents and experts, after a certain background investigation, they can easily join the Spanish Royal Electric Company to work.

If they are particularly excellent research personnel, they can be recommended to enter the electricity laboratory and the Royal Academy of Sciences, enjoying more comprehensive welfare benefits and preferential treatment in identity and status.

Currently, Europe’s electricity research doesn’t have much useful results yet, so Carlo doesn’t have to worry that such open poaching of talent will cause opposition from other countries.

Before other countries pay attention to the electricity industry, it’s the perfect time for Spain to massively absorb foreign talent. Although talents can also be cultivated domestically to fill the gaps, just university cultivation time requires four years, which is enough to change a lot for current Spain; at least current Spain can’t afford to wait four years.

Although the news of the Spanish Royal Electric Company recruiting employees is making a big splash, it is ultimately just one of Spain’s outward poaching efforts.

It’s not just the Royal Electric Company; including the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, Valencia United Shipyard, royal steel mill, and various other factories and enterprises, all are massively recruiting employees domestically in Spain and abroad.

Before Spain’s reforms, Spain’s attractiveness to other European countries wasn’t high. After all, it was a monarchical dictatorship with overly backward systems and too much oppression of the public.

But after Spain’s reforms, Spain’s attractiveness has further improved. Many domestic and foreign media have established post-revolution Spain as one of the representatives of constitutional monarchy, and widely propagandize that only constitutional monarchy is the most advanced system, which can bring progress and power to the country.

This has also given Spain some attention, and the number of European immigrants received each year is growing, especially from Italy and Portugal.

In fact, relatively speaking, Italy’s environment isn’t bad either. But Italy’s industry and economy are mainly concentrated in the northern region, and large areas south of Rome are still backward regions dominated by agriculture.

There are two main reasons for this: first, southern Italy has fewer minerals, not very suitable for industrial construction.

Second, southern Italy once belonged to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and was not part of the core region of the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Although the population on the Apennine Peninsula has been merged into Italians, due to the huge gap in industry and economy between northern and southern Italy, southern Italians have low recognition of the entire country.

Immigration data from European countries also shows this characteristic. Before the unification of the two great powers, the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, the country with the most outward immigrants was the United Kingdom.

But since this time point, immigrants from southern Europe and Eastern Europe have gradually replaced northern European immigrants, becoming the mainstream of European outward immigration.

Current Italy has indeed shown this trend. Spain, as a country with a population of only 18 million, has annual population growth exceeding 200,

While Italy’s population has long exceeded 28 million, Italy’s annual net population growth is only about 150,

Is Italy’s birth rate low? No.

It’s because large numbers of Italian farmers choose to emigrate outward every year, and the small Apennine Peninsula really can’t support so much population.

This is not posterity with highly mechanized and automated agriculture, but the 1870s when agriculture relies entirely on manual production. Plus, fertilizer technology is not mature, so the Apennine Peninsula really struggles to support nearly 30 million people.

Don’t think that Italy’s population is still steadily growing at over 150,000 per year, but millions of farmers in southern Italy have low incomes and even live without enough to eat.

Currently, the number of Italian immigrants received by Spain each year has exceeded 10,000 and is about to surpass the 20,000 mark.

For Spain, a large number of Italian immigrants is a good thing, but also a bad thing.

These Italian immigrants mostly come from southern Italy, where they are generally farmers.

These Italian immigrants have low culture and only speak local Italian dialects, making it hard to communicate with Spaniards.

Also because of their low culture, they are willing to accept jobs with lower than average Spanish salaries in exchange for more stable working hours.

For these Italian immigrants, a more stable working environment is more important than income. For this, they can sacrifice certain salaries to get a stable job that won’t be fired.

This is a good thing for Italian immigrants; they can gain more stable work through concessions in income.

But for native Spaniards, this is not a good thing. The influx of Italian immigrants has led to many jobs that Spaniards could have taken being snatched, after all, capitalists like employees with lower salary requirements who don’t make demands.

It is precisely because of Spain’s continuous industrial development and successive development plans that factories and enterprises everywhere are expanding and recruiting.

Otherwise, the arrival of these Italian immigrants would surely break the calm of Spain’s lake surface and stir up conflicts between Italian immigrants and local Spaniards.

From the current scale of talent introduction in Spain’s enterprises and factories, Spain still has great attractiveness outward.

Just last year alone, the royal family’s enterprises and factories introduced over 1,000 foreign talents, including nearly 50 scientists who joined the Royal Academy of Sciences and other labs.

At this rate, before Spain’s universities have the ability to cultivate enough talents for Spain, relying solely on introducing foreign talents can obtain tens of thousands of talents.

Of course, introducing foreign talents is just one way to solve the talent gap; cultivating domestically is the method that treats both the symptoms and the root cause.

Even if large numbers of talents can be attracted every year, Spain will absolutely not abandon the means of building universities to cultivate talents itself.

It is worth mentioning that, according to the cooperation agreement reached between Spain and the Lanfang Republic, the Lanfang Republic will send at least 50 international students to various universities in Spain starting in September this year.

Their tuition fees are provided by the Lanfang Republic itself, and food, clothing, housing, and transportation are also handled by the Lanfang Republic side. Spain only dispatches round-trip transport ships to help them arrive in Spain and assigns universities according to their majors of interest.

Even these university international students are just the first step; there will be more international students cultivated from a young age in the future.

First, to help the Lanfang Republic better master some industrial knowledge and technology; second, to brainwash a group of intellectuals who have a good impression of Spain, even blindly adoring this advanced country, through cultivating international students.

Influence the Lanfang Republic’s decision-making through these intellectuals, or even control the Lanfang Republic through them.

In the next ten years or even decades, these international students may climb to high positions in the Lanfang Republic, becoming high officials or high-ranking military officers of the country.

Their influence on the Lanfang Republic government will also strengthen. As long as their adoration and fondness for Spain are ensured to remain, the entire Lanfang Republic can naturally be brought to Spain’s side.

Benefiting from the continuous influx of immigrants and population, Spain’s capital Madrid has hope of becoming Spain’s first city with a population breaking 500,000 within this year.

And Spain’s second largest city Barcelona broke through 400,000 population at the beginning of this year, becoming Spain’s second city with population breaking 400,

The rapid population growth of Madrid and Barcelona also reflects the rapid development of Spain in recent years. The combined population of these two cities has exceeded 900,000, accounting for over one-twentieth of Spain’s total population.

This is not an immigrant country like the United States. The characteristic of immigrant countries is that the population of large cities far exceeds small cities, even several large cities’ population combined exceeds the total of all other small cities.

Spain, as a traditional European country with a long history, naturally cannot have its entire population concentrated in big cities like Madrid and Barcelona.

Relying on just two cities to account for one-twentieth of the national total population also proves the prosperity of Barcelona and Madrid, and the problem that other cities in Spain are indeed not large in scale.

Besides the two presentable cities of Madrid and Barcelona, other cities like Seville, Valencia, Zaragoza have populations of only 100,000 or even less than 100,

Carlo, returning from the electricity laboratory, was in a very good mood, after all, the development of various industries in Spain has been very smooth so far.

Under the heavy investment from the royal family and government, Spain’s heavy industry will also usher in vigorous development. And the electricity industry has made obvious progress, perhaps Spain’s electrification process will achieve great progress on some day in the future.

In a relaxed mood, Carlo also had energy to pay attention to the development of other industries, such as culture and entertainment.

Since Carlo’s coronation as King of Spain, Spain’s flag has continued the flag since the establishment of the kingdom, that is, red top and bottom with a widened yellow horizontal bar in the middle, a two-color striped flag.

On the left side of the widened central horizontal bar is a vertical oval badge with a crown on the head. The badge is divided into left and right parts: the castle on the left represents the Kingdom of Castile, and the lion on the right represents the Kingdom of Leon.

Actually, such a flag is not problematic, after all, the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Leon are important components of the Kingdom of Spain.

But for Carlo, continuing to use the same flag as during the Bourbon Dynasty period inevitably causes confusion.

In history, the reason Amadio’s rule didn’t change Spain’s flag was first because Spain’s political situation was chaotic, and second because Amadio only ruled for three years.

But for current Carlo, designing a new flag is very necessary. A new flag must embody the House of Savoy’s ruling position over Spain, strengthen ties between various regions of Spain, and try not to make too many modifications to the original flag to avoid making the Spanish people too unadapted.

After various considerations, actually posterity’s Spanish flag fits the requirements quite well. It is still the familiar two-color horizontal striped flag, and the colors haven’t changed.

The only difference is that the central yellow horizontal bar representing Spain’s royal emblem changes from vertical oval to shield shape, and is divided into six parts.

The central area can place the House of Savoy’s family emblem, embodying the House of Savoy’s ruling position over Spain. Dividing the entire shield into four parts with the center point as the boundary, they can respectively place the badges of four historic Spanish kingdoms: Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre, which are also the four most important components forming Spain.

The sharp corner under the shield can place Granada’s flag, which is the last Muslim region annexed by Spain and also currently Spain’s most populous region.

Even the two Pillars of Hercules on both sides of the shield have great reference value, after all, they represent the two shores separated by the Strait of Gibraltar.

Current Spain has territory on both shores of the Strait of Gibraltar, so such a flag design is completely fitting for current Spain.

Considering this, Carlo decided to gather people to make certain modifications to the Spanish flag, modifying it into a flag that embodies the characteristics of modern Spain and distinguishes it to some extent from the original Kingdom of Spain.

5300-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!