Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 99: Future Agricultural Plans

The good news is that because most Cabinet Ministers know Carlo does not interfere much in government political affairs, few ministers personally come to the Royal Palace at the beginning of each year to seek an audience with Carlo to strive for more departmental fiscal budget.

The bad news is that every beginning of the year when competing for budget, those ministers seem to actively forget Carlo. This is a huge blow to Carlo’s influence in the government, and it also means that many ministers in the Cabinet Government do not have such high loyalty to Carlo.

Everyone seems to be serving Prime Minister Primó, only because Prime Minister Primó supports Carlo’s monarchical rule, which makes them indirectly support Spain’s monarchy.

Fortunately, the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture Antonio Cánovas del Castillo still knows his limits. With the arrival of 1871, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo arrived at the Royal Palace on time to seek an audience with Carlo, first to report to Carlo on the achievements of the Agricultural Department last year, and by the way, to express loyalty to Carlo.

Second, to seek more fiscal budget for the Agricultural Department through Carlo. Whether successful or not, this trip is definitely necessary.

Because Antonio Cánovas del Castillo’s position as Minister of Agriculture was personally recommended by Carlo, he has been labeled as Carlo’s faction from the beginning.

If he tries to curry favor with Prime Minister Primó at this time, not only will there be no good results, but it will offend both Prime Minister Primó and Carlo.

It is better to be wholeheartedly loyal to Carlo. As the Minister of Agriculture personally appointed by Carlo, Prime Minister Primó cannot make things difficult for him unless he decides to turn against Carlo.

Moreover, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo himself is ambitious. He served as a Cabinet Minister during Queen Isabella’s reign, so he is naturally not satisfied with a mere Minister of Agriculture.

To be honest, seven years ago his position had already surpassed that of Minister of Agriculture. At this time, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo is thinking more about how to take another step up and become Prime Minister of Spain. Reasonably speaking, this is completely achievable. First, Cánovas is more than ten years younger than Primó and Serrano, so even by waiting it out, he can outlast Primó and Serrano’s retirement.

Through the previous contact with Carlo, Cánovas had long understood that Carlo could not be content to be a constitutional king with no power.

A strongman Prime Minister like Primó and a young and ambitious king like Carlo together would not end well. Even if Carlo does not ultimately settle accounts with Prime Minister Primó, it is certain that he will gradually take control of the government’s right to speak after Prime Minister Primó.

As the first piece Carlo inserted into the government, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo deeply knows his own importance to Carlo.

As long as he does not betray Carlo, it is certain that he will be reused in the future. After all, what Antonio Cánovas del Castillo represents is not just himself, but also many veteran ministers who entered the political arena during Queen Isabella’s reign.

The loyalty of these veteran ministers to the monarchy is beyond doubt. Carlo previously doubted their loyalty to him, but as long as Cánovas continuously expresses his loyal attitude and uses his influence to make these veteran ministers return to Carlo’s rule, he can leap to become Carlo’s confidant.

These veteran ministers who once served Queen Isabella also have considerable influence in the political arena. By uniting them, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo can achieve his goal, which is to run for the position of Prime Minister of Spain after Prime Minister Primó and become the head of Spain’s national government, above one person and below ten thousand.

Although Carlo does not show it on the surface, he is quite satisfied with Cánovas’s perceptiveness. If Cánovas cannot even figure out who he truly needs to be loyal to, then Carlo would have to start reconsidering the candidate for Minister of Agriculture.

Employ people without doubt, doubt people without employing. Once he suspects someone’s loyalty, the best choice is to directly discard him.

If he suspects while still reusing, unless that person holds real power and cannot be discarded, otherwise it is dancing on the tip of a knife, and it could easily lead to a lose-lose situation.

“Cánovas Minister, are you still adapting to the identity of Minister of Agriculture?” Carlo smiled and looked at Cánovas, whose face was full of unwavering loyalty, and asked with a smile.

“It’s fairly adaptable, Your Majesty, thank you for your concern. Under your and Prime Minister Primó’s leadership, all developments in the current Spanish Government are steadily advancing, and the Agricultural Department is the same.

So far, the Agricultural Department has no particularly thorny problems. Farmers’ income is steadily growing, and our grain yield is also experiencing small-scale growth.” Antonio Cánovas del Castillo hurriedly replied.

Although Carlo only asked if he was adapting to the Agricultural Department, he still reported the current situation of the Agricultural Department as well.

Although Carlo did not actively ask about some things, the best way is still to report the situation of the Agricultural Department truthfully in chronological order.

Although Carlo’s age is not yet 20（2 birthday）, Cánovas will not simply see Carlo as a young man under

Although Carlo’s political tactics are still very immature, he is definitely a smart person. Since he has decided to be loyal to Carlo in exchange for the opportunity to reach a higher position, he should not have any other thoughts. This is also the experience from Cánovas’s long political career.

Do not treat others as fools, even a young king like Carlo who is under

Some political tactics may deceive Carlo in the short term, but once discovered by Carlo, what he faces may be the king’s anger and the accountability of royal power.

Never underestimate a king’s power, even a powerless king under constitutional monarchy. Targeting a faction may be troublesome, but if it is just targeting one person, there are simply too many methods available, and even without using one’s own means, one can achieve it by borrowing external forces.

Carlo nodded, very satisfied with his choice of Cánovas as Minister of Agriculture. Regardless of other things, Cánovas’s perceptiveness alone made Carlo quite satisfied.

As for those ministers who look down on him, although Carlo will not directly reveal his attitude, after Prime Minister Primó leaves the center of power, what awaits them will be Carlo’s reckoning.

“Your Majesty, the Agricultural Department’s plan for the new year does not have too many points, mainly focused on the popularization and promotion of chemical fertilizer, and the establishment of a state-owned grain company.

If chemical fertilizer is popularized on a large scale, it is expected to effectively increase our crop production volume without much change in total arable land area, with an expected growth of at least over 5%.

The state-owned grain company will take over bulk grain trade, such as handling import and export trade of grain and so on. After farmers’ tax revenue decreases, the next period will be the golden development stage for agriculture.

It is expected that within the next three years, our country’s total grain yield and total arable land area will both improve. We can seek a certain degree of grain export while completely achieving grain self-sufficiency.” Seeing that Carlo was still satisfied with his attitude, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo began his report on the Agricultural Department’s plan for the next year, seeking Carlo’s attitude.

Due to funding limitations, the Agricultural Department does not have too many actions in the next year, overall just promoting the application of fertilizer and researching and developing new fertilizer technology.

Although the technology of chemical fertilizer has been around for nearly 30 years, its true full commercial use will not come until nearly a century later.

Europeans at the beginning of the century did not even know how plants grew, and just 70 years later, it is impossible to fully popularize the use of fertilizer.

The current mainstream chemical fertilizers are superphosphate and potassium salts. The former has been around for less than 30 years, and the latter even less than ten years, with related technology still very primitive.

But Spain has no choice at this time. Compared to Britain, France, and Germany with numerous plains, although Spain’s territory area is large, most land is plateaus and mountains, and the areas suitable for planting are only the mixed zones of a small amount of mountainous plains in the eastern and southern coastal regions.

Poor land has already fallen behind other great power countries in terms of grain yield. Although occupying larger land, Spain’s per capita grain yield is not much better than that of great power countries.

If not for Spain’s climate being suitable for planting vegetables and fruits, whether it can achieve food self-sufficiency would be a problem.

Currently, the output of vegetables and fruits and such accounts for 7% of Spain’s total crop production volume. It is precisely because of such abundant vegetable and fruit output that Spaniards can seek more abundant cuisine while having enough grain to eat.

In addition, because Spain has a large coastline, it can harvest a lot of seafood products every year.

At this time, there is no need to worry about nuclear radiation affecting fish in the ocean;

seafood can basically be eaten with confidence.

Because the railway lines surrounding Spain have been fully completed, Carlo can also enjoy various seafood products from the seaside.

This also makes Carlo glad to be in Spain. If it were in a cuisine desert like the United Kingdom, even seafood probably would not taste good.

Hearing Cánovas’s report on the Agricultural Department’s plan for next year, Carlo nodded without any objection: “I agree with your plan, Cánovas Minister.

I hope Spain’s agriculture can achieve continuous growth under your leadership;

this is a good thing for both Spain and you.”

Cánovas respectfully nodded. Of course, he understands what good thing Carlo is talking about. As Minister of Agriculture, the steady growth of Spain’s agricultural situation will definitely be a political achievement for him.

Only by accumulating political achievements and prestige in the government can Cánovas seek higher Cabinet status, or even compete for the Prime Minister position.

After all, without political achievements and prestige, whether it is public votes or House of Representatives elections, competing with others will have no advantage.

To become Prime Minister, one must have ability and obtain support from the public and Members of Parliament in the House of Representatives.

If not winning popular support, even with Carlo’s strong support, it is doomed to be unable to sit on the throne of Prime Minister of Spain.

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