Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 94: Negotiations

“Planning for the future development of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry?” Echegaray did not rush to answer Carlo’s question, but carefully pondered and organized his thoughts in his mind before speaking: “The purpose of Your Majesty establishing the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry should be based on Spain’s thirst for talent in physics and chemistry.

In Spanish universities, physics and chemistry majors are not highly valued, which also leads to Spain currently lacking excellent graduates in physics and chemistry.

I have three considerations for the future development plan of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry.

First, hire as many excellent professors and experts in physics and chemistry from across Europe as possible, and use their professional knowledge to cultivate more excellent graduates for us.

Second, Spain’s education situation dooms our school’s future student sources to be limited. I believe the academy’s scale cannot be large, at least not until Spain’s education situation improves.

I suggest limiting the annual enrollment quota of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry to around 400 people. Although 400 spots are not many, if we focus on cultivating these 400 people, perhaps the level of graduates from the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry will be higher than that of ordinary universities.

And after Spain’s education situation improves, it won’t be too late to increase the annual enrollment numbers in stages, allowing Spain to have more talent.

The third point is to provide certain subsidies and attention to the academy’s students.

In fact, not just in Spain, but in many countries and universities, there are situations where students cannot afford tuition and are forced to drop out.

Once such a situation occurs, we are very likely to miss out on a promising physicist or chemist. It would be better to directly subsidize the students in the academy, waive their tuition fees, and thereby ensure that talented students receive better cultivation.” After hearing Echegaray’s opinion, Carlo became even more satisfied with appointing him as the dean of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry.

Today’s universities are not like future universities, with frighteningly large areas and countless graduates each year.

Today’s universities are more oriented toward small scale, with Spanish universities averaging 200-500 students enrolled annually, and even worldwide, few universities have annual enrollments exceeding a thousand.

Why was Carlo so urgent and expectant about cultivating university students? Because in this era, a university diploma is almost already the top education level.

Not to mention a university diploma, even primary school education in Spain is considered educated, and secondary school education is a group preferentially recruited by factories and companies.

As for university graduates, they generally have no trouble finding jobs. Including Echegaray himself, current university students after graduation can choose to stay at the school as professors, continue research related to their major, or find a higher-paying job, and becoming middle class is still quite easy.

As for the reason there are so few university students, for countries with relatively high education levels, the high tuition fees of universities is a main reason.

While for a country like Spain with a relatively low education level, besides high university tuition fees, another reason is that most of the public are illiterate or have only primary school education—surely not expecting these illiterates and primary school educated people to apply to university?

The Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry limiting initial student enrollment to 400 people as Echegaray said is actually not much different from the 500 people Carlo had considered, and this is also something Carlo is quite satisfied with.

If Echegaray had boasted about enrolling over a thousand, Carlo would instead suspect and question it.

Limiting the enrollment of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry to under 500 people is the best choice; for a university still under construction, too many enrollees would instead be an extra burden.

What Carlo wants are graduates from the university who possess rich knowledge reserves and certain hands-on ability in physics and chemistry, not university students who only have a diploma.

Having rich knowledge reserves and hands-on ability is the most important; as for university students’ education level, it’s merely an add-on from studying at university.

“Very good.” Carlo nodded in satisfaction, smiling at Echegaray as he said: “From now on, you are the dean of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry. I hope this academy under your leadership becomes Spain’s highest institution in physics and chemistry, the holy land for physics and chemistry talent across Europe.

Regarding the academy’s construction, if there are fund-related issues, you can apply for higher funds from Butler Loren. I look forward to the results of the academy’s construction and to what heights the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry will reach under your leadership.”

“This is my honor, Your Majesty.” Echegaray stood up, looking honored and excited as he said: “I absolutely will not fail your trust. The Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry will become the cradle of Spanish scientists, providing you with a steady stream of scientific talent.”

The pleasant meeting ended just like that. After enjoying a breakfast in Carlo’s private dining room that was not luxurious but very sumptuous, Echegaray bid farewell to Carlo and returned to prepare for the construction work of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry.

After all, as a newly constructed university, the difficulty of serving as dean of the Royal Academy of Physical Chemistry exceeds that of principals at other universities.

However, there are many benefits as well. After completing the task well and gaining Carlo’s trust, there will be more rewards for Echegaray.

Not long after Echegaray left, Prime Minister Primó came to request an audience with Carlo to report on the construction situation of the South Morocco Colony.

After the peace treaty was signed, the Spanish Army began taking over all land south of the line from Agadir to Tata.

With the British Government as witness, the Moroccan Government was quite sensible. Although it hurt a lot, it obediently withdrew from these regions and handed over control to the Spanish Army and Government.

Currently, the Spanish Army has smoothly taken over this area, and it is time to discuss the establishment of the South Morocco Colony, as well as the selection of the colonial governor.

Prime Minister Primó still remembered that Carlo had previously seemed to intend for Primó himself to recommend the colonial governor candidate.

This visit to report work also carried the intention to probe Carlo, to see what Carlo’s purpose really was, in order to decide his next moves.

Carlo was also quite expectant about the establishment of the South Morocco Colony. The history of the Spanish Empire on which the sun never sets has long passed; currently, besides the two relatively large colonies of Cuba and the Philippines, Spain’s remaining colonies are all small-scale territories.

After the South Morocco Colony is established, it means that not only did Carlo not let the Spanish Government lose colonies, but he also gained a colony very close to home.

Although in this colony, Agadir has a certain scale, while the other lands are basically uninhabited, it is at least a colony.

More importantly, the establishment of the South Morocco Colony also means that during Carlo’s rule, the focus of Spanish colonial expansion has officially shifted to Africa.

In the future, once the situation stabilizes and there is a suitable opportunity, Carlo will consider selling Cuba and the Philippines to other countries in exchange for some other interests.

Actually, based on Spain’s current situation trajectory, the Spanish-American War is still nearly 30 years away, and Spain has ample opportunity to develop into a great power level country before the Spanish-American War arrives.

As long as Spain possesses great power level strength, the United States in 1898 would not dare to wage full-scale war with Spain.

But if it’s just Cuba, is there a need to keep dragging it out with the Americans?

This is a question worth considering.

Cuba does bring positive profits to the Spanish Government, but the problem is that Cubans are not peaceful. Although Cuba’s population is not large, its desire for independence is not much less than that of Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Moreover, it is separated from Spain by the Atlantic Ocean, but only tens of kilometers from the American mainland.

Rather than generating conflicts with Americans over Cuba, it would be better to sell Cuba off early, exchange it for some other colonies that can also generate profits, and at the same time provoke relations between other countries and the United States.

Whether selling to the United States or other countries, theoretically it’s not much of a loss. After all, this land of Cuba is hard to localize; Spain can hold it for a day, but not necessarily for a lifetime.

Carlo remembers that in history, before the Spanish-American War broke out, the United States had proposed to the Spanish Government to purchase the Cuban Colony for one hundred million US dollars.

But how could the proud Spanish Government agree to America’s request? In Europeans’ eyes, America is just a parvenu; its great power status is entirely based on economy and industry, while militarily it’s laughably weak.

But Spaniards did not expect that after the Spanish-American War broke out, not only the Cuban Colony worth one hundred million was lost, but even the larger colony of the Philippines was lost along with it.

Spain’s glory became thoroughly the past; after this war, Spain completely degenerated into a second-rate country in Europe, no longer qualified to become a great power.

Although Spain in this world does not fear America’s threats, dragging it out with America is not cost-effective either.

If those costs of dragging with America were invested in seizing African colonies, it might be possible to take some colonies more profitable than Congo.

Morocco dare not be provoked in the short term, but the Guinea region and Congo region can still be planned for.

Carlo has even already planned decisions for Spain’s future development. Using massive resources from colonies to build Spain’s industry and economy, the produced industrial products can be shipped to Central America and South America for sales.

Although Spain has lost most of its colonies in America, many countries in Central America and South America, including Mexico, still have large numbers of Spanish mixed-race populations, and they speak the Spanish language.

Quite a portion of these people remain close to Spain; if economic actions are taken, it should be possible to pull in some countries to form a customs union to dump Spain’s industrial products.

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