Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 121 The Development of the Royal Family's Industry

Carlo currently does not have much power in the Spanish government. Spain's executive, legislative and military powers are basically concentrated in the Spanish government and parliament.

This has both advantages and disadvantages for Carlo as a monarch. The disadvantages are obvious. Carlo will not have too much power, and it will be impossible for him to develop Spain as he wants.

But there are also benefits. First, Carlo can be independent of the government and parliament, avoiding any unexpected impact.

Whether it was a reform or a victory in the war, Carlo as a king could still share some of the credit. But if the reform or the war failed, the government and parliament would naturally bear the main responsibility, and Carlo and the royal family would have little to do with it.

It's even that the royal family just makes gestures under appropriate circumstances. Basically, those accidents will not affect the status of the royal family, and the people naturally will not blame the royal family for having no power and being unable to influence the government.

For monarchs who prefer to maintain the status quo and have no great ambitions, it is naturally good for them to have no power.

But for an ambitious monarch like Carlo, this situation may not be a good thing.

More importantly, the current development of the Spanish government is somewhat distorted.

During the reign of Queen Isabella, although power was concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister, the King had the power to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister, and could greatly limit the Prime Minister's power.

But in the current Spanish government, although on the surface the cabinet government and the parliament have dual powers, in reality the parliament has no supervisory or restrictive role over the cabinet government at all.

The party that wins the majority of seats in parliament has the power to form the Spanish cabinet government, which resulted in Prime Minister Primo being in charge of the entire cabinet government while also controlling the majority of seats in the Spanish Parliament.

It is no exaggeration to say that the current Spanish government is ruled by Prime Minister Primo. As long as the policies are decided by the cabinet government, there will not be much opposition in the parliament. And the laws made by the parliament will soon be implemented by the cabinet government.

If it were not for Defense Minister Serrano who controlled Spain's military power, he would probably have achieved a rare achievement - controlling the military, politics and law all at once.

This is also the reason why Prime Minister Primo's reforms have been very successful so far. The cabinet government is composed of reformists promoted by Prime Minister Primo, and most of them are members of the Progressive Party to which Prime Minister Primo belongs.

The Progressive Party also holds the majority of seats in Parliament, and the Liberal Party is also very supportive of reform. Although the Conservative Party opposes reform, the problem is that they are not in power, and because Carlo also publicly supports reform, there is no resistance to reform in the government and Parliament.

But this situation must be changed. Prime Minister Primo is capable and loyal to the royal family.

The reason why he came to power was more to promote reforms in Spain. But such a huge power is not suitable for every Spanish prime minister.

For Carlo, it was because he wanted to see the reform succeed that he allowed Prime Minister Primo to have such great power.

It is impossible for any prime minister after Prime Minister Primo to have such great power. Even Prime Minister Primo had to give up some of his power after the successful reform.

Prime Minister Primo certainly understood his situation, and the saying that he was more powerful than his master was not just a saying. Although Carlo could gain some credit and public favor after the reform was successful by publicly supporting the reform, it was ultimately not as great as the great reputation that Prime Minister Primo, who actually promoted the reform, gained.

If Prime Minister Primo, who successfully promoted reforms, still holds considerable power, even if Carlo can sit still, the members of the royalist party will not be able to sit still.

However, the success of reform is still a long way from Spain. Carlo also saw the changes in various parts of Spain through this honeymoon trip. Although the overall changes are for the better, there is still a big gap between Spain and other European powers.

One of the main goals of this trip is the Seville industrial base previously established by the Spanish government.

Although the importance of the Seville industrial base is currently lower than that of the Barcelona industrial base, it is also one of the few medium and large industrial bases in Spain so far.

More importantly, the Seville Industrial Base is the first industrial base officially launched and built in Spain since Carlo became king, and it is also of commemorative significance to Carlo.

Of course, in addition to inspecting the construction and production of the Seville Industrial Base, another purpose of coming to the Seville Industrial Base is to check the construction of the steel mills and other factories under the royal industry in the industrial base.

Speaking of the royal family's industry, the person in charge at the beginning was only Butler Loren. But up to now, Butler Loren has several talents in charge of managing the royal family's property. They control various industries and assets, and all of these add up to the total property of the royal family.

If Carlo were asked to directly tell how much the royal family's property was, he really didn't know. Although he had only arrived in Spain for two or three years, the development of the royal family's property could no longer be simply described as rapid.

The Royal Union Bank alone is enough to make the Spanish royal family one of the top five richest families in Spain, not to mention the National Bank established a year ago, in which the royal family also holds a 5% stake. These two banks ensure that the royal family's industries are no longer short of funds, and they can easily borrow enough funds from the two banks for development.

The two super-large official banks also directly rectified the Spanish banking industry. Although they did not directly suppress those small and medium-sized banks, these small and medium-sized banks were completely unable to resist the expansion of the two large banks.

Currently, Royal United Bank has established a total of 15 bank branches in 26 mainland regions of Spain. The total number of bank depositors exceeded 31 at the beginning of the year, and the total savings funds reached more than 8500 million.

Of course, with the expansion of banks and the continuous increase in users, the average deposit size of each user will be greatly reduced.

At present, the per capita deposit in the Royal Bank is only about 270 pesetas, while the per capita income counted by the government in 1872 has exceeded 107 pesetas. The per capita deposit is roughly equivalent to two and a half years of per capita annual income.

These data can show two pieces of news. One is that the average annual income of Spanish people is growing. The policy of reducing agricultural taxes and abolishing the tithe is definitely an important reason. The increase in the income of farmers, who make up the majority of the Spanish population, is actually good news for Spain.

Moreover, with the construction of industrial bases, state-owned factories and private factories, the number of workers and their income will increase in the future.

This will also drive the growth of per capita income in Spain and become a booster for Spain's economic growth.

As long as Spain's infrastructure and other industrial construction does not stop, the corresponding per capita annual income and economic growth will not stop either.

Although it cannot catch up with other powerful countries in a short period of time, it is already a significant improvement compared to Spain a few years ago.

Before the revolution, the average annual income of Spaniards was less than 87 pesetas. This data does not include a large number of low-income people, so the actual figure must be even lower.

The current per capita annual income has exceeded 107 pesetas. Although only four years have passed compared to 1868, the per capita income has increased by at least 4%.

The speed of this increase is still relatively slow, because the main factor driving the increase in per capita income is still the growth in farmers' income.

Next, the growth of workers' income will be a greater driving force for the increase in per capita income, and the changes it can bring will also be more obvious.

According to the Spanish government's estimates, the average annual income of the Spanish people would rise to at least 1875 pesetas around 145. It would rise to more than 1880 pesetas in 160, which was almost twice that of 1868.

By around 1880, the various reforms promoted by the Spanish government were basically completed. Whether in the industrial or economic fields, Spain could proudly call itself the number one country among the great powers. In other words, it was the goalkeeper of the great powers.

Those who are stronger than Spain are naturally qualified to be called a great power. Those who are weaker than Spain are naturally unworthy of being called a great power.

The good news is that Carlo has already started his own plan for the African colonies. This also means that after the reforms are completed in the future, Spain will not miss the great opportunity to divide Africa because of the slow progress of the reforms.

African colonies were still very important. Not only did they have a large indigenous population that could serve as free labor, but the colonies also had a lot of resources that could be used by Spain.

Apart from the relatively big problem that most of the African population is black, the African colonies can basically only bring benefits.

After all, the indigenous people of Africa are still very backward, and most African tribes have no ability to resist the colonization of European powers.

Italy's colonization of the Abyssinian Empire was an accident after all, and they did succeed in the end. As for other parts of Africa, the natives could only tremble helplessly under the steel guns and cannons of the great powers.

Carlo's arrival caused a sensation throughout the Seville industrial base. More than one-third of the factories in this industrial base were built by the royal family, and the factories would naturally publicize events related to Carlo.

The workers in the royal factory enjoyed more relaxed work requirements than those in other factories and earned more income than those in other factories, which naturally made these workers grateful to Carlo, the real owner of the factory.

While the working hours in other factories are generally as high as more than 14 hours, the working hours in the royal factory are basically maintained at around 12 hours, and there is a fixed day off every month. Such a job is simply the dream of other workers outside.

As for Carlo who provided such a working environment, the workers naturally had no other thoughts. All they had was endless gratitude and curiosity about the young king.

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(End of this chapter)