Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 198: General Elections And Industrial Development

From December 1875 onwards, the election atmosphere in Spain’s regions was unusually lively.

Because the election results from the regional councils determine the regional members of parliament, the electoral competition in each region was extremely fierce.

For Spain’s current three major parties, this election was also quite important. Only by securing more than 60% of the seats in the lower house could the three major parties form a government and appoint a prime minister on their own strength.

If they could not obtain more than 60% of the lower house seats, the three major parties would have to consider cooperating with other parties to form a coalition government.

During Prime Minister Primó’s rule, Spain’s lower house was controlled by the Progressive Party. Of the total 208 lower house seats, the Progressive Party held more than 51% of them, a full 106 seats.

Next was the Conservative Party, holding 25% of the total lower house seats, with 52 seats. The Liberal Party had the fewest seats among the three major parties, but still exceeded 20%, with 42 seats.

The control of the lower house seats by the three major parties was evident. Apart from the three major parties, only 8 of the 208 lower house seats ever belonged to other parties and independents not among the three major parties.

The reason for such a stark gap was largely due to the results of the revolution at that time.

The revolution promoted Spain’s constitutional government and established a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with parliament as the main body.

Prime Minister Primó, in order to push reforms, could only strengthen control over the government and parliament. This also led to the lower house having a large number of Progressive Party and Liberal Party members, with the Conservative Party relegated to second place, its seats roughly equal to those of the newly established Liberal Party. But according to Spain’s actual situation, the Conservative Party had more members than independents.

As the largest power class in Spain, the nobility, the vast majority of whom were Conservative Party members or independents leaning towards the Conservative Party.

This also meant that in Spain’s new lower house, the proportion of Conservative Party and independents would see a certain degree of growth, thereby widening the gap with the Liberal Party.

In Carlo’s own estimation, the Progressive Party and Conservative Party proportions should both be around 30%, that is, about 100 seats each.

The Liberal Party’s proportion should be around 10%, and having 30 seats would be quite good.

The number of independent members of parliament might be more than Liberal Party members, occupying about 20% of lower house seats, roughly 58 seats.

Although the three major parties had varying levels of support in the regions, such proportions were a reasonable estimate of Spain’s overall political environment.

After all, Prime Minister Primó, who was supported by the Progressive Party, had announced his withdrawal from the political arena, and Spain’s current prime minister Grand Duke Serrano and deputy prime minister Count Cánovas were both Conservative Party members.

The reason Carlo believed the Liberal Party would hold no more than 10% of lower house seats was that the current Spanish Liberal Party lacked an important figure to lead overall.

The Progressive Party had Prime Minister Primó, the Conservative Party had Grand Duke Serrano and Count Cánovas.

But the Liberal Party currently had no particularly outstanding leadership figures. The only one with some prestige in the government, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, although a Liberal Party member, had behavioral stances more like the Progressive Party, or rather the progressive Liberal Party under Prime Minister Primó’s rule.

Mateo was also quite famous in Spanish history. He had formed cabinets seven times and was on par with Cánovas.

Especially from 1884 to 1897, over nearly 13 years, the position of prime minister of Spain rotated back and forth between Cánovas and Mateo, achieving Mateo’s pursuit of establishing a limited monarchical regime, where the king and parliament shared power to ensure political stability and peace.

During the period when he and Cánovas alternated in governing, it was also a relatively stable development phase for Spain.

Unfortunately, both Cánovas and Mateo died around the arrival of the 20th century. Cánovas died in 1897, Mateo in

After their deaths, Spain’s regime gradually descended into chaos, ultimately leading to the birth of the Second Spanish Republic.

Carlo quite admired Mateo. He was not extreme and instead supported establishing a limited monarchical regime.

On this point, Mateo’s attitude was consistent with Prime Minister Primó’s. The government in their ideal was not completely controlled by parliament, but one where the king and parliament shared power, with the government rotating among several parties to ensure no single party or force controlled politics, preventing dictatorship in the Spanish government.

Precisely because of this, Carlo ultimately decided to let the Liberal Party continue to exist, and hoped Mateo could lead the Liberal Party to become truly one of Spain’s three major parties on par with the Conservative Party and Progressive Party, not just scraping by as the third largest party by supporting reforms.

Elections in Spain’s regions were proceeding hotly, while in the Spanish power center, the government building, a cabinet meeting that had lasted a long time was also underway.

This cabinet meeting was requested by Grand Duke Serrano, acting as prime minister, and Carlo, as King of Spain, also attended this meeting.

Unlike during Prime Minister Primó’s administration, at that time Carlo only had the power to listen to the meeting content and had no power to issue orders to the cabinet government and cabinet ministers.

But during Grand Duke Serrano’s administration, Carlo already possessed such power; at least the other cabinet ministers did not dare ignore Carlo’s opinions.

In the stalemate phase of the meeting discussions, Carlo’s opinions even became an important way to end the stalemate. Although this meeting was convened by Grand Duke Serrano, the person speaking in the meeting had become Carlo.

“Your Majesty, Prime Minister. Based on the latest news from European countries, I believe the economic crisis is very likely to return in the new year.” Ewald Barthel, the then Finance Minister of Spain, expressed his opinion at the meeting, saying with a very serious expression.

Carlo nodded and looked at this Finance Minister who was deeply trusted by Prime Minister Primó and quite capable, asking: “Is there relevant evidence?”

Carlo of course knew this economic crisis erupted in two waves, affecting European and American countries for years.

But having someone else bring it up versus Carlo bringing it up led to completely different results. Carlo did not need such precognition to add mystery to himself; preventing it early and avoiding impact on Spain was what Carlo should do.

Ewald nodded, took out the materials he had prepared long ago, handed them to Carlo, and then continued: “

This is the industrial production scale and market prices in European countries; from this aspect, a certain connection can also be seen.

Although the impact of the economic crisis this year has weakened compared to the previous two years, this does not mean the economic crisis has ended.

On the contrary, I believe the UK economy is very likely to have a trend of collapse. If they cannot save the London market before the economic crisis returns, the next outbreak may be the London economic crisis.

In the economic crisis, European countries had at least a quarter of their steel mills and factories and enterprises forced to shut down, with severe cases reaching a third.

But in London, the affected factories were far from reaching this number. Considering the UK’s distance from the European continent, I believe the impact of the economic crisis has latency.

And this year, factory bankruptcies in the UK are still continuing. For the UK, a country with extremely developed industry, the impact from the economic crisis is the most severe.

If it ignites the crisis, it is very likely to evolve into a new round of economic crisis no less than the last one. I believe we have a great need to prepare in advance to cope with the very likely new wave of crisis that could affect Europe.”

Carlo looked at the data materials prepared by Ewald; it was indeed as he said. In the previous economic crisis, the most severely affected were Germany and Austria. （ US data incomplete）

But theoretically, as the country with the most developed industry, the UK should have been the most affected.

The reason the UK had not yet suffered impacts on the scale of Germany and Austria was partly because the UK’s industrial and economic development in recent years had not been as rapid as Germany’s and the United States’.

Another reason was that the UK had more vast colonies, representing a huge market. The UK would not face overproduction problems as severe as Germany and the US, naturally allowing it to withstand the early stages of the economic crisis.

But the impact of the economic crisis is comprehensive; the UK’s industry and economy are Europe’s strongest, so it is naturally impossible to escape unscathed.

The outbreak of the economic crisis caused a sharp decline in Europe’s industrial manufactured goods. Especially metal products related to steel, with price drops that were extremely exaggerated.

The overall price decline in Europe forced greater pressure on UK factories. Either they lower selling prices, or they face competition from low-priced European industrial products.

Plus, countries shrinking import scales during the economic crisis also posed certain risks to UK industry.

With several risks accumulating together, even though the UK’s industrial development was not as inflated as Germany and the US, this did not mean complete safety.

Although Carlo’s attitude was to endorse preparing for the second economic crisis, this did not mean Carlo would directly express his views.

As King of Spain, what Carlo needed to do was not bluntly state his views, but let the cabinet meeting express attitudes on handling this matter.

On one hand, to mobilize the enthusiasm of cabinet members. Carlo issuing direct orders was fundamentally different from discussing a solution with cabinet ministers.

Solutions proposed by themselves would have more motivation in execution. If Carlo issued direct orders, it might be fine short-term, but long-term it could cause dissatisfaction among some cabinet ministers.

Another aspect was to mobilize the enthusiasm and thinking of cabinet ministers on solutions, preventing the Spanish government from becoming too rigid.

Although Carlo could bluntly propose his opinions on the economic crisis, this did not mean he could decisively find reasonable solutions for every issue.

The active discussion among cabinet members became particularly important. Not only could it pool wisdom to find better solutions, but through such pooling, it could also give cabinet ministers more sense of participation, shaping a more democratic Spanish government.

Of course, another quite important point was finding someone to take the blame if things failed.

Proposals put forward by the king himself would definitely make the king responsible. But if proposed by other cabinet ministers, even if execution ultimately failed, the king would not bear too much responsibility.

This was also the way of ruling as monarch that Carlo had comprehended. Although Carlo wanted to shape a government that obeyed his orders, this did not mean the Spanish government should run entirely on Carlo’s commands.

Carlo would only lead in a relatively correct direction; the specific detailed execution still depended on the cabinet government itself.

Seeing Carlo had not expressed an opinion, Grand Duke Serrano paused, then turned his gaze to Secretary of State Cánovas, asking: “Count Cánovas, what do you think?”

Grand Duke Serrano was really not good at economic development. Since Carlo had no intention of expressing an opinion, Grand Duke Serrano could only ask the deputy prime minister who had more experience and ability in this regard.

Anyway, the official title of deputy prime minister was Secretary of State, which boiled down to the cabinet minister assisting the prime minister in handling state affairs.

Since Grand Duke Serrano could not make up his mind, asking Count Cánovas was also quite reasonable.

“I think there is some necessity.” Count Cánovas expressed his opinion but did not give a relatively affirmative attitude, instead saying more tactfully: “I think we can conduct a vote. If everyone feels it is necessary to prepare for the second economic crisis, then naturally preparing is best.”

In the nearly two years Cánovas had served as Minister of Industry, he had deeply recognized the impact of the economic crisis on industry and had some understanding of the losses suffered by European countries in the economic crisis.

But understanding was understanding; Cánovas would not be foolish enough to make decisions directly in front of Carlo. Carlo had not expressed an opinion; for him as a deputy to decide directly would be inappropriate.

Having cabinet ministers vote was clearly the most conservative choice, but also the best choice. Regardless of whether the vote result was in favor of preparing early or simply not believing there would be a second economic crisis, in any case, this vote involved all cabinet members and would not seem like overstepping authority in front of Carlo.

The cabinet members quickly voted, and the majority supported preparing early for the economic crisis.

There was actually nothing to vote on, as responding to the economic crisis did not require the Spanish government to pay too high a price.

It was mainly because Grand Duke Serrano could not make up his mind on this, plus Count Cánovas did not want to overstep too much in front of Carlo, that led to this originally unnecessary vote occurring.

But the result was still good, which also met Carlo’s expectations.

“Although there may be a threat of a second economic crisis in the new year, for us it is not all bad news.” Secretary of State Cánovas stood up with a smile after the vote ended, saying to Carlo and the other cabinet ministers: “

As long as we can avoid the impact of this economic crisis, we can take advantage of it to accelerate development, thereby narrowing the gap with countries like the UK, France, and Germany.

Based on our current industrial and economic growth rate, this is easily achievable. We currently have sufficient funds to cope with the risks brought by the economic crisis; for us, this may not be a crisis, but an opportunity for accelerated development.”

The other cabinet ministers also nodded, quite agreeing with this statement.

Although the economic crisis affected Spain, the impact was not great, or rather not fatal. During the economic crisis when the industrial production of the European powers was severely affected, Spain’s industrial production was not overly severely impacted.

When the economic crisis erupted, Spain’s industrial scale was truly limited, with bankrupt factories few and far between.

Even in the economic crisis, Spain’s industry achieved positive growth. This was quite rare during the period when other countries’ industrial production scales continuously declined due to the economic crisis, also proving that the Spanish government’s efforts during the economic crisis were not in vain.

“Being able to avoid the impact of this economic crisis, the cabinet government should take prime credit.” Carlo also nodded, praising the cabinet government’s efforts: “

After this economic crisis ends, I will reward everyone according to merit. But before that, we must prepare for the second economic crisis, while seeking opportunities in the economic crisis as much as possible to make up the gap between Spain and other European powers.”

Mentioning rewards based on merit, everyone present also showed joy, expressing anticipation.

Spain was after all a monarchy, and nobles still held significant weight in Spain. Whether Progressive Party, Conservative Party, or Liberal Party, none rejected becoming a noble.

This not only represented an elevation in identity and status, but also an increase in political influence. Moreover, besides rewards of nobility titles, nobles could also obtain other rewards including land, funds, and factory shares.

The new-style nobles enfeoffed by Carlo, although unable to obtain the land, castles, and manors possessed by traditional landowner nobility, could still gain some funds and other benefits—plenty of advantages in any case.

Nobles were also the largest power in Spain domestically. Becoming one of the Spanish nobles meant becoming part of the upper echelons of the Kingdom of Spain.

“In that case, why not have various departments report this year’s achievements, and by the way, set next year’s tasks.” Grand Duke Serrano said with a smile: “

If there really is a second economic crisis next year, it also means next year’s development is very important for Spain.

It is very necessary to formulate development plans in advance, and I also hope each department can smoothly complete the development plans, making our country more powerful.”

The so-called reporting achievements was actually to let Carlo know exactly what each department had done, and by the way, understand the merits of each department’s ministers.

Cabinet ministers with more merits would receive richer rewards. Grand Duke Serrano was already at the pinnacle of Spanish nobility; he had no desire for rewards.

But other nobles were different. Most cabinet ministers were non-nobles and quite desired to become true nobles.

Excluding Ruiz from the current Spanish government, all ministers in the cabinet government supported the monarchy.

“Your Majesty, the development of the industry department is very good. Our Barcelona Industrial Base construction is going very smoothly and has hope of preliminarily starting production in the new year.

Up to now, the country has added over 786 large and small factories throughout the year, among which 472 factories have capital exceeding 50,000 pesetas, and 133 have capital exceeding 100,000 pesetas.

Currently, our country’s regions have 34 large factories with value exceeding 1 million pesetas or employing over 1,000 people, mainly concentrated in Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona.

The industry department plans to invest over 25 million pesetas in the new year to promote the development of factories and related enterprises nationwide, introducing more factories to the Barcelona Industrial Base.

Originally, without the economic crisis impact, the estimated number of new factories in our country next year would reach a new high. But since we must prepare for the economic crisis impact, perhaps the number of new factories next year will drop to around

But the industry department plans to invest over 15 million pesetas to help various factories cope with the possibly arriving economic crisis, which can further reduce the economic crisis’s impact on our industry’s production.

Currently, our country’s total steel output has cumulatively broken through 950,000 tons and has hope of formally breaking the million-ton scale in the new year.

Among them, our annual steel production exceeds 270,000 tons, annual pig iron production exceeds 680,000 tons, both showing good growth compared to last year.

But considering the economic crisis impact, the industry department has set the estimated growth target for steel output next year at 1 million tons, with steel production at 300,000 tons and 700,000 tons respectively.”

Cánovas detailed the industry department’s situation and next year’s development, setting a good example for the other cabinet ministers.

In the two years since Cánovas took over the industry department, its development had been relatively rapid.

This was also the reason Carlo was satisfied with Cánovas and planned to have him serve as the new cabinet prime minister of Spain. Although a Conservative Party member, Cánovas’s personal ability was quite good.

With Carlo setting the broad direction for Spain’s development, plus Cánovas controlling the details of the smaller directions, Carlo had confidence to witness a new golden development period for Spain.

Of course, the Spanish prime minister could not always be Cánovas. For talents like Mateo, Carlo did not mind giving them some growth time.

If truly capable people competed with Cánovas, and under the premise of confirmed loyalty, Carlo would of course be willing to see more people competing for the prime minister position, avoiding one person sitting in the prime minister seat too long.

Carlo’s intention in maintaining Spain’s three major parties was actually to have the prime minister selection alternate among these three parties, letting the three parties compete and supervise each other.

The three parties could also avoid the phenomenon of the British government where two-party strife opposed for the sake of opposition. Plus with Carlo controlling from the center, it could ensure the King of Spain had sufficient power, not being sidelined into a figurehead by the prime minister or parliament.

6100-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!