Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 136 Implementation of the Bill
Although there are obviously some people in the parliament who have different attitudes towards this official performance evaluation bill, it is obviously impossible to hinder the implementation of this bill at this time.

More than 50% of the seats in the Spanish Parliament are held by Prime Minister Primo's Progressive Party, and the pro-reform Liberal Party also has nearly 20% of the seats.

The sum of these two equals more than 70% of the seats in parliament. According to the Spanish Constitution, when more than 70% of the votes are in favor, the bill can be established and implemented.

However, Prime Minister Primo did not intend to completely offend the conservative parties. Although a corresponding performance evaluation system has been established for the existing bureaucratic system, the department responsible for the evaluation is composed of the parliament and the cabinet.

At the same time, the parliament also has the power to supervise the cabinet. Cabinet members must also complete the so-called performance evaluation. In the case of poor performance for many consecutive times, the parliament has the power to impeach all cabinet members, including the prime minister, and will decide whether to keep or leave the cabinet member based on the final result of the cabinet meeting.

This obviously strengthens the power of Parliament, which is why the bill was eventually passed by Parliament.

However, for Prime Minister Primo, there is actually not much difference whether it is strengthening the power of the cabinet government or strengthening the power of parliament.

Prime Minister Primo has a firm control over Spain's cabinet government and parliament. It is not so much the growth of parliament's power as it is the growth of Prime Minister Primo's power.

This bill did not have much impact on the Spanish people, and the public even applauded it.

But for the Spanish officialdom, the promulgation of this bill is no less than a small earthquake.

But neither Carlo nor Prime Minister Primo planned to carry out a large-scale cleanup of the Spanish officialdom at this time.

This bill is actually aimed at those officials who have a corrupt style and no political ability. These people will only cause harm to the country if they stay in office, without any benefit at all.

Those who are honest but lack ability, or those who have certain ability but are corrupt, will not actually be on Prime Minister Primo's liquidation list.

After all, to put it bluntly, these officials all have their own value in existence. Officials who are less capable and honest will also have other positions that do not test their abilities as much.

Officials who have certain abilities but are corrupt can also be used temporarily. To a certain extent, these people can also become livestock kept by the Spanish government, and they can be slaughtered when fattened to fill the country's finances.

We are not afraid of officials' corruption, but we are afraid of officials who are incompetent and can only engage in corruption. As long as they can do something practical for the cities and regions and promote the development of local industry or economy, Carlo and Prime Minister Primo will not pay too much attention.

After all, everyone has his or her own little thoughts, and Carlo cannot expect all Spanish officials to be honest and upright.

As long as the embezzlement is not so outrageous, for example, embezzling tens of thousands of yuan out of a million yuan is not a big deal.

But if someone can embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars with a fund of one million, no matter how capable he is, he will definitely be included in Prime Minister Primo's liquidation list.

Of course, corruption also has its own methods and means. Direct corruption from the Spanish government's appropriations must be resolutely eliminated, but if it is to find ways to squeeze the old nobles and the church, more tolerance is not impossible.

Before announcing the bill, Prime Minister Primo made a special statement to the vast majority of Spanish officials through word of mouth among Progressive Party members, stating that previous acts of corruption would not be punished.

As long as the previous acts of corruption were not so extreme and the amount of money involved was less than one million pesetas, the Spanish government would let bygones be bygones and would not pursue past mistakes.

If the embezzled funds exceed one million pesetas, it is also easy. As long as most of the stolen money is paid to the government in time, it can be done by missing a name from the list.

In short, this is Prime Minister Primo’s attitude, or it can be said that this is the common attitude of Carlo and Prime Minister Primo.

As long as you have some ability, a little flaw is acceptable. If you have no ability and are full of flaws, it is better to give up your position to others as soon as possible.

Of course, the exceptions are the rebels and traitors. No matter how capable the rebels and traitors are, once they are found to be rebelling or betraying the country, they will be severely punished to ensure the stability of the Spanish government.

The limit of 100 million pesetas was the result of careful consideration by Prime Minister Primo. This would allow most people to escape punishment while catching a few typical cases of serious corruption.

If these people are sensible, they can also clear their names and avoid being liquidated by handing over the stolen money to the government in a timely manner.

At the same time, it is also explaining to other officials that the government does not have the intention of settling past issues and will let everyone off the hook.

But if these people don't know what's good for them, Prime Minister Primo doesn't mind letting them understand the harshness and cruelty of Spanish law and what the final fate of corrupt officials will be.

In fact, if we talk about the impact, the forces affected by this bill are still mainly the old-style aristocrats.

There is no way. Spain was too corrupt in the past, and the government and the army were almost controlled by the nobles. How did these nobles get so many properties? Isn't it because the nobles did everything they could to annex them from the Spanish peasants when they controlled the whole of Spain?

Since the nobles were able to accumulate large amounts of land during this time, they were naturally able to engage in corruption through a variety of means.

The former American colonies provided Spain with a large amount of gold, silver and treasures. Only a portion of these materials went into the pockets of the royal family and the government, and a large amount of them became the private property of the nobility and the church.

Among these properties there is certainly property obtained through legal operations of the nobility and the church, but it is probably not necessarily true that all of it was earned through legal means.

In any case, this bill did affect a large number of old-style nobles, after all, they were the most likely to embezzle millions of pesetas from the government.

Although a million pesetas was nothing to the Spanish government, it was still a huge sum of money, close to 40,000 pounds, which was quite valuable in that era.

If converted into gold, it would weigh 290 kilograms, or nearly half a ton of gold.

As the largest noble, Carlo naturally noticed the impact of this bill on the old nobility.

However, Carlo had to show up. After all, these nobles were still loyal to the royal family on the surface, and Carlo could not just ignore them.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the shareholders' meeting of the Royal United Bank, Carlo held talks with many Spanish nobles and discussed the recently announced "Spanish Officials Performance Evaluation Act" and the handling of previous corruption.

Carlo secretly expressed his true attitude towards the bill, but also provided protection to the nobles. Carlo said that nobles who had embezzled more than one million pesetas in the past only needed to donate one million pesetas to the Royal United Bank, and Carlo would forgive them.

The reason why it was a free donation to the Royal United Bank was that the Royal United Bank was a bank jointly founded by the royal family and the nobility.

These corrupt nobles donated money to the Royal United Bank, but the royal family and the nobles were the ones who actually benefited.

Carlo's decision was supported by other nobles. After all, for most nobles, they could get actual benefits without doing anything.

As long as one noble donated money to the bank, the nobles could share 25 pesetas with their shares. If more nobles donated money to the bank, the remaining nobles who were not implicated would receive more funds.

It was obvious during the meeting that several nobles had ideas, but they would not express their willingness to donate to Carlo in public.

In fact, this was true. After the meeting, several nobles found Carlo privately and expressed their willingness to wash away their previous sins by making donations.

But most of the nobles were indifferent. After all, the wealth of the nobles was accumulated over hundreds or even thousands of years, and it was not possible for a single generation of nobles to create such wealth.

The amount of embezzled funds by most individual nobles did not reach 100 million pesetas, and it was impossible for Carlo to settle accounts with the deceased nobles of the previous generation.

But no matter what, the final result was in line with Carlo's expectations. This incident was also a wake-up call for these old-style nobles, letting them understand that the current Kingdom of Spain is not the previous kingdom government, and the royal family will not allow these old-style nobles to exploit the lower-class people of Spain at will.

Prime Minister Primo obviously attaches much more importance to the implementation of the official performance appraisal bill.

Since the Spanish Parliament passed this bill, Prime Minister Primo has asked regional governments to formulate performance appraisals of officials throughout the region within one month and submit them to the official appraisal department established by the parliament and the government.

Assigning reasonable tasks to all officials in the region has become the primary task of the district heads. If they complete the tasks well, it will be their political achievements, and if they do not complete them well, they will naturally be deducted points.

The Spanish government has begun assessing all officials from the day the bill was promulgated.

Prime Minister Primo has no patience for those incompetent and unethical officials. It is his job to remove these incompetent and corrupt officials from the government as quickly as possible.

In order to motivate officials, Prime Minister Primo also asked the department responsible for evaluating officials' performance to set up a specific reward and punishment system.

Although getting a poor score in the assessment may lead to government punishment or even dismissal from office, if the assessment results are good, it can also increase one's salary, accumulate certain merits and get promoted.

Accumulating military merits can earn you a title, and accumulating political achievements can certainly earn you a title. Knowing that simply promoting you and raising your salary would not attract all Spanish officials, Prime Minister Primo specifically consulted Carlo and made it clear that accumulating political achievements could also earn you the opportunity to be awarded a title.

Even if one is born a commoner, if one has made considerable achievements in his official position and has performed well in government assessments, he will have the opportunity to be awarded a title.

As long as you work diligently all your life and don't make any serious mistakes, it is relatively easy to obtain the title of baron.

It is no different now than before. Nobility is indeed very common in Spain, and barons are not a rarity.

Even for Spain, the title of Count is like an honorary title and has become commonplace.

There are even quite a few dukes, which is why Carlo has always been troubled by the old-style nobles, because there are so many of these old-style nobles in Spain, the number is simply terrifying.

Being granted official titles and promoted to higher ranks was not that attractive to the great nobles. After all, they were already at the top of the Spanish nobility, and it was difficult for them to move up in rank.

Only Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano, who hold the highest positions in Spanish politics and the military, can go further and gain room for advancement in their titles.

For most dukes, it is good enough if they can keep the family's existing property and go further on its basis.

As for the title of Grand Duke, which is higher than the title of Duke, in order to obtain it one must have made considerable achievements, which is not so easy.

In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of a large number of officials of civilian origin, Prime Minister Primo also assigned a large number of relatively simple tasks, such as reducing illiteracy rates in various places, promoting the use of Spanish on a larger scale, etc., which can be achieved with a little effort.

It’s not a free gift, but it is definitely something that can be accomplished easily.

For example, reducing the illiteracy rate is something the government is vigorously promoting. As long as local officials are not stupid and actively cooperate with the government's policies, the reduction of illiteracy rates is inevitable.

As for the promotion of Spanish, the main target is still officials in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

If officials want to achieve political achievements, they have to promote the use of Spanish in these areas and reduce the use of local languages.

Previously, it was the Spanish government that fought against these nationalists, and now it is up to the governors of Catalonia and the Basque region to do these things.

The promotion of the use of local languages ​​by nationalists will harm the political achievements of local officials. Even if they are reluctant, they must reduce the use of local languages ​​as much as possible for the sake of their own future.

The officials in these areas are basically from local ethnic groups. In this way, it can also create a confrontation between local nationalists and officials, and reduce the threat of local separatism through division.

The officialdom reform caused a great sensation, but in reality only a small number of officials were affected.

In the two months from July to August 1872, the assessment department severely punished at least two hundred officials, including the mayor and heads of minor government departments.

Fortunately, Prime Minister Primo carried out a major cabinet reshuffle after taking office. Currently, all cabinet ministers are from the Progressive Party or the Liberal Party who support reform. These people may not be so loyal to Carlo, but they have good abilities, at least they are not incompetent.

Two-in-one chapter, I will make up for the 1,000 words I owe tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)