Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 120: Agriculture has no financial appeal

Since March 1872, a vigorous military reform has officially begun in Spain. In order to prevent a major impact on the army, the military reform will be implemented in batches throughout the Spanish army.

The first to be put into the reform are naturally the garrisons around Madrid. The good news is that the troops defending the capital are the elite of all the Spanish armies. Most of the soldiers and officers in this army have certain abilities, and there are not many officers and soldiers in the scope of layoffs, so the impact on the army itself will not be too great.

The reason why this army is chosen as the primary target of reform is naturally because it is less affected by military reform.

After the reform of this army was completed, we could boldly and confidently promote military reforms in other armies across Spain.

With this army protecting the capital of Madrid, and the guards stationed near the royal palace, it can be ensured that the Spanish government will not face any danger and military reforms can be carried out stably.

When Spain officially launched large-scale military reforms, Carlo learned in detail about the various organizational structures and troop deployments of the current Spanish army.

目前西班牙的所有军队加起来一共有28个线列步兵团、11个轻步兵营、12个骑兵团、1个工兵团和14个殖民地守备团。

The total number of soldiers exceeded 7, of which about 3 were stationed in mainland Spain and more than were stationed in various Spanish colonies.

It is worth mentioning that there is no separate artillery regiment in all Spanish military organizations.

Of course Spain has artillery, but they are in the form of artillery companies within infantry and cavalry regiments.

Moreover, all the artillery pieces of Spain added up to only a little over 200 pieces, which was a big gap compared with the great powers during the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War.

But this is understandable. In terms of artillery technology and the scale of artillery equipment, it is only in the past decade that major changes have occurred.

Especially after Prussia used a new steelmaking method to smelt steel and then used steel cannons to deal a fatal blow to the French army, countries gradually began to pay more attention to artillery.

This is not the World War I decades later, when countries have already equipped themselves with numerous machine guns and artillery. In this era, infantry and cavalry were still the mainstream of each country, and machine guns had not yet been invented.

In order to enhance the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, in addition to carrying out military reforms and improving the military quality of officers and soldiers, it is also necessary to equip it with artillery on a large scale and, in the future, machine guns on a large scale.

On the premise of improving the military quality of officers and soldiers, we can also improve the advancement of weapons and equipment. This is the only effective way to improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army.

However, these are obviously not what Carlo can promote now. Although Prime Minister Primo does not object to some of Carlo's opinions, he will certainly not allow Carlo to continue to dictate the government and the army.

Fortunately, this military reform will effectively improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, and it is not too late to talk about other things later.

As time entered April 1872, the Spanish government became busy. Prime Minister Primo not only had to focus on the reform of the army, but also had to devote a lot of energy to the reform of the Spanish government and the development of the economy.

At the same time, after the marriage with the Austro-Hungarian royal family, Spain also had to make some moves at the diplomatic level. At present, the alliance between Spain and Austria-Hungary is already under negotiation, which also diverted some of Prime Minister Primo's energy.

For Primo, who is about to turn 60, such a busy government affairs has indeed brought a lot of pressure. At present, all aspects of Spain's development have entered a critical period, which makes it almost difficult for Prime Minister Primo to sleep well.

Unlike the busy and stressed Prime Minister Primo, Carlo, as the King of Spain, was leisurely and contented during this period, living his carefree life as a king.

After the wedding, Carlo and Queen Sophie began their honeymoon.

Carlo and Queen Sophie first lived in the Royal Palace of Madrid for a while, and then went to cities such as Toledo, Valladolid, Seville and Valencia, enjoying the beautiful scenery of Spain while traveling.

However, the areas that Carlo passed through were all central and southern Spain, which are under the control of the government and safety can be guaranteed.

Of course, during Carlo's tour, the Guards sent cavalry and infantry battalions to follow and protect him. Under the protection of these soldiers, Carlo's safety was basically guaranteed.

Even if faced with thousands of rebels, the Guards Cavalry Battalion and the Guards Infantry Battalion could hold out until the Spanish government troops arrived. Unless faced with tens of thousands of rebels, nothing could threaten Carlo's safety.

Carlo still attaches great importance to his own safety. In addition to using these guards to follow and protect him, the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, which has already been established, will also accompany him for protection.

The Royal Security Intelligence Service was established on May 1870, 5. After a year-long probation period, Carlo affirmed the ability of Cardinal Bruno, the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, and officially appointed him as the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, becoming his confidant.

After nearly two years of development, the Royal Security Intelligence Agency has already become a huge organization hidden in the dark.

To date, Carlo has invested more than 240 million pesetas in the Royal Security Intelligence Service.

Director Kadir did not waste Carlo's investment. The 240 million pesetas bought Carlo more than 400 intelligence personnel and hundreds of secret agents who cooperated with the intelligence agency.

These agents were not even aware of the existence of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, which was known as the Royal Military Liaison Group and was nominally responsible for communication and cooperation between the various Spanish armies during the war.

But in fact, the Royal Security Intelligence Service has evolved into Carlo's eyes, helping Carlo to find out all kinds of major and minor events happening at home and abroad, and investigating any candidates Carlo wants to investigate.

It is worth mentioning that the reason why Carlo was sure of Kadir's ability was that the Royal Security Intelligence Agency found out the murderer who assassinated Prime Minister Primo within less than a year of its establishment.

When Carlo learned that the real culprit behind the assassination of Prime Minister Primo was the Duke of Osuna, a prominent member of the Spanish aristocracy, he was reluctant to believe it at first.

But when Director Cardil provided more complete evidence, Carlo had to believe that Duke Osuna was the real culprit behind the assassination.

Now that the real culprit behind the assassination has been found, the next things will be much easier.

Considering the stability of Spain and the possible impact on the aristocracy, it would be better to handle this matter in a low-key manner.

After all, it did not have much impact on Prime Minister Primo. The assassination ended in complete failure, and even Primo's pistol was not damaged.

When the intelligence agency sent the complete chain of evidence to the Duke of Osuna, the Duke, who was full of confidence when he launched the assassination, finally panicked. However, he also knew that Carlo was able to send the chain of evidence to him instead of handing it over to Prime Minister Primo to arrest him, which proved that there was still room for maneuver in this matter.

Carlo had no good feelings towards people like the Duke of Osuna. However, considering that the Duke of Osuna had a relatively high status and influence among the Spanish aristocracy, if he was treated too cruelly, it might make some of the already shaken nobles even more disloyal.

After final thought, Carlo offered the Duke of Osuna two options.

Alternatively, the chain of evidence will be kept by the Duke of Osuna himself, at the cost of selling at least 60% of his land property to the royal family at market price, and donating the proceeds to the government.

Otherwise, the evidence will be submitted to Prime Minister Primo, and the government will arrest and try the Duke of Osuna, and ultimately decide whether the Duke of Osuna's property will remain or go away.

The first option at least left Duke Osuna with less than 40% of his property, so it would not be a problem for him to become a wealthy nobleman from now on.

If the second option is chosen, even if the title of Duke of Osuna can be retained, it may not be on the head of the current Duke of Osuna.

More importantly, the government would not be too polite to the nobles. Especially for a traitor like the Duke of Osuna who plotted to assassinate the Prime Minister, most of his property would probably be confiscated by the government.

Without much thought, the Duke of Osuna chose the first method and willingly sold more than 60% of his property to the royal family.

There was no way. Facing the Spanish government and royal family at that time, he did not have many means to resist.

Moreover, the royal family already has enough evidence in their hands. Resistance at this time will not have any effect. Instead, it will put the Duke of Osuna and his family in greater crisis.

This matter was more like an exchange of interests. Duke Osna used more than 60% of his land to exchange for a chance to survive, and the funds from the sale of these lands were handed over to the government in exchange for Prime Minister Primo's forgiveness.

Carlo was also able to purchase land to make the royal family's land the largest among European nobles again. From then on, the Spanish royal family would no longer be a family with a lot of money but little land.

Although the land in Spain is not as fertile as that in other countries, the income from farming is not as high as imagined.

But for those more traditional nobles, the amount of land owned by the nobles can determine their influence to a certain extent.

For example, the nobles and dukes in Spain who have greater influence must hold the most land and property in their hands.

Those marquises and earls with less influence certainly do not have as much property and land as the duke.

This matter was also discussed with Prime Minister Primo. Compared with the Duke of Osuna, Prime Minister Primo is definitely more important to Carlo.

Prime Minister Primo also agreed with Carlo's idea of ​​​​a cold treatment. After all, the government can also gain a certain amount of funds from this incident. The only one who loses is the Duke of Osuna.

In addition to losing more than 60% of his property, all the armed forces he trained had to be abolished, and would need to be under long-term government supervision.

If it were not for the stability of the country, Prime Minister Primo even planned to execute the Duke of Osuna directly.

But this is a good thing. First of all, it can stabilize the aristocracy, which is helpful for the stability of Spain.

Secondly, it can also make some people in the major Spanish forces think carefully about the consequences of standing up against the government. The Duke of Osuna has a lot of property to compensate, but other nobles may not have it.

The Duke of Osuna was one of the most influential nobles in Spain. After losing more than 60% of his property, it was a huge blow to the entire ducal family.

After all, the biggest income for these more traditional nobles came from agriculture. They would rent their land to farmers, who would not only pay them rent, but also taxes.

Of course, this may also be the reason why the Duke of Osuna assassinated Prime Minister Primo. Although the lands of these dukes are not relatively autonomous territories, nobles like this have the right to collect taxes on their own lands.

The government's reduction of agricultural taxes would actually affect their income, especially for the nobles who own a lot of land. The actual reduction of agricultural taxes would be a huge sum for them.

This also makes one have to sigh at the church's tact. If the reduction of agricultural taxes affected some of the nobles, then the abolition of the tithe tax was a major blow to the church.

One of the major sources of income for the Spanish Church was the tithes paid by farmers, and another major source of income was agricultural taxes from church land.

One of these two major sources of income was directly abolished by the government, and the other was also significantly reduced due to the government's tax reduction policy.

In other words, Archbishop Pedro was sensible, otherwise it would be hard to say whether the Spanish Church would rebel.

In fact, this also shows how many forces were affected by Prime Minister Primo's reforms. Even the nobles who openly supported the royal family were affected, but many people were still able to see the situation clearly.

The reason why Carlo established the Royal United Bank was naturally to bring the nobles together to make money and let them find new income in industries other than land.

If the focus is only on land taxes and other income, the nobles will always be aware of the impact of government tax cuts on them.

But if you focus on the financial industry and industry, the nobles will also find that in Spain, finance and industry are the real ways to make money.

The land in Spain was originally very poor, so the landlords could not make much money. A very simple example can show this. When German nobles and Spanish nobles owned the same amount of land, the income of German nobles was often several times that of Spanish nobles.

The gap in soil fertility has already doomed Spain to never become a strong country in agriculture. Being able to meet the needs of the domestic population is already good news. Expecting to make a lot of money from agriculture is simply a pipe dream.

Today I will update only once, CK3 has been updated, I am itching to update it. Also, King of Glory has a new season, so I will play some games today.

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(End of this chapter)