Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 110 Industrial Assistance
Things turned out just as Carlo had expected. For these passionate young people who were about to enter the army from the military academy, nothing could make their blood boil more than making their country greater.

Carlo's presence had already made these military academy graduates very excited. Under the instigation of this passion, the excitement and enthusiasm in the young men's eyes could no longer be suppressed, as if they were willing to sacrifice their lives for the greatness and rise of Spain at any time.

Of course, things haven't come to that point.

Carlo's goal was to ensure that these outstanding graduates from the Royal Military Academy would remember their mission and to whom they should be loyal.

Carlo certainly would not give up halfway. Before the end of this relatively short graduation ceremony, Carlo personally awarded the ranks of the Royal Spanish Army to more than 400 military academy graduates and personally issued graduation certificates.

Graduates who perform better in school can be awarded the rank of captain, and the rest of the graduates will all be awarded the rank of lieutenant.

Don't underestimate the rank of lieutenant. In the Spanish army, he generally serves as a platoon-level military commander.

These more than 400 graduates started their military careers as platoon leaders or deputy platoon leaders, and they still have great potential for the future.

Although there may not be many generals among the more than 400 people, a considerable number of them can still reach the threshold of colonel-level officers, that is, major.

But if you want to grow from an officer to a general, in addition to qualifications, certain merits are also necessary.

Carlo is full of expectations for these officers graduating from the Royal Military Academy, and will naturally fully support their promotion in the army.

As long as they do not cause trouble in the army and steadily accumulate their qualifications and merits, naturally no one will block their promotion in military rank.

After the graduation ceremony, Carlo personally inquired about the future whereabouts of more than 400 military academy graduates.

Considering the future development of his Guards, Carlo selected a dozen relatively outstanding talents from the more than 400 military academy students and promoted them to join the Guards.

Although the Guards currently only have a regiment in size, as the military force that Carlo can currently control, it will definitely be expanded in the future.

They certainly won't be able to serve as platoon leader-level officers if they go to the Guards now, but it will allow them to accumulate some qualifications and experience.

When the Guards are expanded in the future, it will be the time for these young officers to truly lead the army. The Guards will definitely be expanded to at least a division in the future. Recruiting some military academy graduates in advance is also a preparation for the officer vacancies after the expansion of the Guards in the future.

Those military academy graduates who had excellent grades and were given the opportunity to serve in the Guards were naturally excited.

Compared to the ordinary Royal Army, the Royal Guards are obviously the more elite army. Every expansion of the Guards is carefully selected from the army. It can be said that every soldier in the Guards is the elite among the elite.

In addition, the Guards are King Carlo's personal army, so the prospects of joining the Guards are definitely much better than staying in the Royal Army.

Although the Royal Military Academy will not forcibly brainwash every cadet, various subtle ideological influences are constantly occurring.

These military academy graduates have already deepened this impression through their long-term study in the military academy. For them, being loyal to His Majesty the King is a natural thing to do.

Of course, Carlo also encouraged the remaining military academy graduates who could not join the Guards.

Carlo said that no matter which army he served in, he was preparing for the greatness of Spain. Whether it was the Royal Guards or the Royal Army, there was no essential difference, they were both excellent Spanish armies that he could trust.

Seeing that this subtle brainwashing is indeed effective, Carlo even plans to adopt this brainwashing method in the entire education system of Spain, little by little, to make the next generation of Spain believe in the ideas of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism forever.

The so-called loyalty to the king and patriotism, of course, means being loyal to the king first, and then loving Spain as a country. It is still very important who comes first and who comes second, after all, Carlo does not want his layout to end up serving the government.

Of course, such brainwashing cannot be carried out in all schools at once. We can first select a few places for pilot projects, and then slowly expand it to the entire national education system, so as to achieve a process of penetration from point to surface.

While Carlo was worrying about the graduation ceremony of the first class of graduates from the Royal Military Academy, Prime Minister Primo of the Spanish government was also keeping a close eye on the future contact with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Since the royal families of the two countries have chosen to marry, the governments of the two countries will naturally gradually get closer in the subsequent diplomacy.

Franz Joseph I still had a lot of prestige in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Relying on the marriage between the two royal families, Spain might also receive a lot of support from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Without much thought, Prime Minister Primo ordered the Spanish ambassador to Austria-Hungary to strengthen the relationship with the Austro-Hungarian government and try to promote a preliminary agreement on cooperation between Spain and Austria-Hungary. Compared with Spain, Austria-Hungary is naturally a country with stronger industry and more developed economy. Prime Minister Primo would not miss this good opportunity. He not only planned to ask for some industrial and technological assistance from Austria-Hungary, but also planned to borrow some funds from private capital in Austria-Hungary to help Spain's industrial development.

Simply put, the Austro-Hungarian Empire provided money and technology to help the Spanish government develop its industry and economy.

Would Austria-Hungary agree to this? In fact, there is a high probability that it would agree.

After all, industrial technology assistance and financial support are not free, and Spain also has to pay something.

The first is the interest on the loan, which is essential. It is basically impossible for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to provide Spain with an interest-free loan. After all, the attitude of domestic capital in the Austro-Hungarian Empire must also be considered.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire currently faces competition from Russia in the Balkans, so it naturally wants to win over more allies.

Although Spain was not that powerful, it still had some influence. The Austro-Hungarian Empire would naturally not reject an alliance with Spain.

After consultations between the two governments, the Austro-Hungarian government and the Spanish government quickly reached a cooperation agreement.

Prime Minister Primo also reported the cooperation agreement that had been reached to Carlo, which aroused Carlo's applause.

One has to sigh that the economy and industry of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were much stronger than those of Italy. In terms of funds alone, the Spanish government borrowed more than 1.2 million crowns from private capital in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The crown was the official currency of the Austrian Empire, and the exchange rate with the Spanish peseta was about 1:1.08. The loan from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was converted into Spanish pesetas, which was as high as 1.296 million, equivalent to one-third of Spain's total fiscal revenue last year.

Of course, this money is not so easy to borrow. The annual interest rate of the loan is about 3.1%, and the repayment period is 15 years. If it is repaid within the 15-year period, the accumulated interest on this loan will be as high as 6000 million pesetas.

Although the interest rate is a bit high, the good news is that there are no additional conditions attached. The Spanish government only needs to repay the loan and all interest within the specified time, and basically everyone is happy.

Of course, if the Spanish government is unable to repay the principal and all interest within 15 years, the annual interest rate will rise to 15% after 5.5 years, and an additional late payment fee of 550 million pesetas will be required for each year of delay.

This requirement is normal. After all, the Austrian capitalists do not want their money to be wasted.

Although the Austro-Hungarian royal family came forward, it was their own money after all, so it was necessary to be on guard.

Carlo had never worried about this. 1.296 million pesetas was indeed a large sum of money. If the interest of up to 6000 million pesetas was added, the Spanish government would need to repay a total of 15 million pesetas after 1.896 years.

But if you take into account inflation and Spain's economic development over the past 15 years, such interest is nothing.

The investment of 1.296 million pesetas will definitely bring far more benefits to the Spanish government than this money.

Carlo never thought that the Spanish government would not be able to repay the money, or even that it might be able to do so in the next few years.

After all, large-scale infrastructure construction brings extremely rapid economic development to the country. Spain's total fiscal revenue last year was only more than 3 million pesetas, but it will definitely increase this year, and it will not be a big problem to reach more than 4 million pesetas.

If the economic growth rate remains good, the Spanish government will not be short of money in a few years. At least domestic development will not need the help of foreign funds.

In addition to the financial aid of 1.296 million cestas, the Spanish government also signed an industrial technology assistance treaty with the Austro-Hungarian government.

In the next five years, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will provide the Spanish government with steel smelting technology, chemical technology and some military technology to help the development of Spanish industry.

In return, Spain's progress in these three technologies over the next ten years must also be reported to Austria-Hungary, and the two countries will jointly carry out research.

At the same time, the Spanish government also signed a trade agreement with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, encouraging import and export trade between the two countries and strengthening economic ties by reducing tariffs.

Spain's overall grain output is naturally not as good as that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it has a smaller population and its per capita resources are no less than those of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In addition, with a long coastline and abundant aquatic resources, it can export some grain to the Austro-Hungarian Empire every year, in exchange for foreign exchange income to purchase other technologies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and also strengthen economic exchanges between the two countries.

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(End of this chapter)