novelraw Chapter 80: Cooperation Agreement
Chapter 80: Cooperation Agreement
Chapter 80: Cooperation Agreement
Empire Rise: Spain
Carlo was in high spirits after successfully winning over Menotti. Under Garibaldi’s hospitality, he enjoyed a lunch that, although not lavish, was very authentic Italian fare.
Caprera Island, though not a large island, was still an island after all and did not lack seafood.
In fact, Garibaldi’s life on Caprera Island mainly consisted of hunting and fishing, with reading as a supplement.
Due to his special identity, Garibaldi rarely received guests, which also made him seem very lonely.
The good news was that after publishing articles in the Sun Newspaper and earning royalties, at least his daily expenditures were not a worry.
Usually tending to the fields, fishing, and hunting, he had plenty of grain and meat, which could be considered carefree and leisurely.
Carlo could finally relax. After all, he had consecutively poached two of Garibaldi’s sons to work for him; if Garibaldi’s life was not going well, Carlo would truly feel some guilt.
Fortunately, Garibaldi had his wife’s company, and his daughter and son-in-law would visit from time to time, so it wasn’t exactly lonely, desolate, or cold.
Joyful gatherings are always brief, and Carlo could not stay on Caprera Island for much longer.
That afternoon, Carlo boarded the departing ship, taking Garibaldi’s eldest son Menotti with him.
For Menotti, Carlo actually had other arrangements.
As mentioned before regarding the African Expedition Team, Carlo wanted to form a formal African Expedition Team, and the expedition team must have an armed force, at least capable of protecting the expedition team as it traversed dangerous Africa.
At this time, the explored regions of Africa were only some coasts and outskirts, with vast lands not yet touched by the great powers.
These unknown lands surely harbored numerous indigenous tribes in Africa, and it was inevitable that some more xenophobic ones might even actively attack the expedition team.
However, the African Expedition Team was still highly dangerous. Although those indigenous people in Africa posed little threat, the unknown geographical environment and bacteria viruses that Europeans had never encountered were Africa’s true dangers.
So Carlo would not force it; if Menotti was willing, he would become the captain of the African Expedition Team. If not, the guard regiment also had positions available for him.
Returning from Caprera Island to Rome was already that evening.
Carlo had planned to go to bed early, but government officials quickly found him and reported on the negotiations with the Spanish Government.
The negotiations between both sides had progressed quite quickly, somewhat beyond Carlo’s expectations.
He had originally thought the negotiations might take several days or even ten days, but after just two days, preliminary results had been achieved, and as long as some details were ironed out, an agreement could basically be signed.
What the Spanish Government currently needed most was funds and some industrial aspect technologies.
On this point, the Italian Government was willing to cooperate with the Spanish Government. After all, Spain was not a great power country and posed no threat to Italy for the time being.
Cooperation between Spain and Italy could also help Italy alleviate threats from France, as Italy’s unification had successively seized Venice and Rome from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France.
It couldn’t really be called seizing; it was more like picking up a bargain.
But these two regions had indeed once been within the spheres of influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France, and Italy’s unification was bound to affect these two countries.
As Carlo had anticipated, the Italian Government agreed not to attach harsh conditions to the loan, but it would not provide an interest-free loan, only a low-interest loan.
The loan amount had not yet been finalized, but it probably wouldn’t be too much, as Italy’s economic situation was not that good either.
Carlo estimated that the loan Italy could provide to Spain would be between 50 million lira and 100 million lira, or about 2 million pounds sterling to 4 million pounds sterling.
This amount of money was easy for Italy’s capitalists to gather; it wouldn’t impact Italy’s development and would genuinely help Spain, a win-win.
As for Italy’s industrial technology, it could also be provided to Spain, but it required payment in real gold and silver.
Carlo had no objections to this; after all, no country’s industrial technology came for free—either develop it yourself or buy it at a high price from other countries.
Technologies like the latest steelmaking technology, steam turbine technology, and chemical industry production materials were what Spain lacked most.
Compared to countries like Britain, France, and Germany, Italy was not an industrial power, but for Spain, Italy had sufficient industrial aspect experience for Spain to learn from.
There was also Italy’s military industry technology, such as the rifles Italy had just introduced, and technology for producing ironclad ships.
Italy’s technology in naval construction was not inferior at all and could fully be called first-class in Europe.
By the 1880s, Italy already possessed the technological level to build ironclad ships of over 10,000 tons, which was absolutely top-tier for that era in history.
However, because Italy’s national strength had always been at the lower end among the great powers, coupled with its location in the Mediterranean Sea where naval development was severely restricted, the scale of the Italian Navy had never been very large.
This was also Italy’s greatest geographical defect: all its coastlines were in the Mediterranean Sea. Even if a massive navy was built, once the British blocked the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal respectively, the Italian Navy could only roam the Mediterranean and could not get out.
The good news was that ironclad ships had only been around for a little over ten years so far, and Italy’s technology in ironclad ships was not yet that mature.
The Italian Government had no strong opposition to Spain’s demand to introduce these industrial technologies, but it would not give them away to the Spanish Government for free.
Carlo was not entirely counting on these technologies from Italy. Carlo’s expectation for Spain was to introduce advanced technology from the European great powers, fully master it, and then research even more advanced technology on that basis.
At this stage, it was still just about introducing technology, so Carlo welcomed it all. After all, Italy’s technology was different from other countries, and learning more technologies would provide greater help for future research and development of new technologies on that foundation.
After glancing over the cooperation agreement with Italy, Carlo found no issues and instructed the reporting official to continue advancing the cooperation with Italy.
The purpose of this diplomatic visit had basically been achieved, and the visit had been quite successful. If they could also recruit some talent from Italy back to Spain, it would be even more perfect.
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