Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 140 Investing in a Shipyard

The treaty signed between the French and Spanish governments was not of a military nature, so there was naturally no need to conceal it.

In fact, the French need to make this treaty public to help themselves recover from the bad diplomatic situation. After all, anyone with a discerning eye can see how difficult France is now, and there are no friendly countries around.

Spain naturally had no need to hide anything. Even cooperation with the French could serve as a smokescreen to confuse the British and make them more cautious in their foreign policy toward Spain.

After signing the cooperation treaty with France, the Spanish government immediately sent a diplomatic delegation from relevant parties to France.

Their main purpose is to conduct a practical investigation of the industrial equipment and related technical experience that France can export to Spain, select the materials and technologies that Spain needs or have higher strategic value, and find ways to transport them to Spain.

Regardless of whether the French loan has arrived, it is also important to go to France in advance to inspect the relevant industrial systems. The experience accumulated by the French in industry can also serve as a valuable asset, allowing Spain to avoid detours when developing its industry.

Spain has made great progress in military industry at present, but these advances are basically about army weapons.

The Vitali M1872 rifle owned by Spain can be said to be one of the best breech-loading bolt-action rifles in Europe, and the artillery technology obtained from Austria is also first-class in Europe.

Therefore, in purchasing French military equipment and technology, Spain mainly focused on the introduction of naval technology, followed by French artillery technology, and basically ignored the introduction of rifles.

After all, after the invention of smokeless gunpowder in the future, the rifle technology of various countries will be further improved. Carlo's future goal is to develop a rifle similar to the British Lee Enfield rifle and the German Gew.98 rifle, which is the predecessor of the famous 98K rifle.

These two rifles were the pinnacle of rifle technology for Britain and Germany during World War I, and were also standard weapons equipped in large quantities by the two countries during World War I.

In fact, if we must say, the Lee Enfield rifle is relatively more advantageous. The advantage of this rifle is its fast firing rate. More skilled veterans can even fire at least 30 bullets per minute.

However, the disadvantage is also the high rate of fire. The hit rate on the battlefield cannot be guaranteed. Such a high rate of fire means a large amount of bullets are consumed, which is a great test for the military production capacity and logistical supply capacity.

But if Spain's military production capacity and logistical supply capabilities can keep up with the consumption of rifles on the front line, the Lee-Enfield rifle will play its greatest role and become the most powerful rifle during World War I.

The long rifle version (MLE) of the Lee-Enfield rifle was born in 1895. After the Boer War, it was improved into the short rifle version (SMLE) and was in service until 1965.

The fact that this rifle has been purchased and used by the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries for more than 70 years, and more than 7100 million have been produced, is enough to show how powerful it is.

The Gew. 98 rifle developed by the Germans is slightly inferior to the Lee-Enfield rifle in terms of performance, but it is more famous.

The short gun version of the Gew. 98 rifle is the famous Kar98 rifle, also known as the 98K rifle.

The Gew. 98 rifle is not without its advantages. In terms of operability and accuracy, it is slightly better than the Lee Enfield rifle.

As a standard infantry firearm, the Lee Enfield rifle is definitely better. But if it is used for special purposes, such as long-range precision sniping, the Gew. 98 is not inferior to the Lee Enfield rifle.

A lower rate of fire also means less pressure on military production and logistics. For some countries with insufficient military production or logistics capabilities, a rifle with a slower rate of fire is sometimes a better choice.

Rifles must be used with bullets. A rifle without bullets is no better than a fire stick. Only with sufficient bullets can the full power of a rifle be demonstrated.

But both the Lee Enfield rifle and the Gew. 98 rifle were invented more than years later.

At that time, smokeless gunpowder had been invented, and the military production capacity and industrial background of various countries were much stronger. It was natural to develop a more powerful rifle on this basis, and the same phenomenon applied to warships.

The history of military ships is very long, and hundreds of years ago, sailing warships dominated the world.

But up to now, the most powerful main battleships of various countries have become ironclad ships, and industrial strength is also giving ironclad ships more powerful speed and firepower.

In the future, when the industrial scale of each country becomes stronger,
Battleships with larger size, thicker armor, more powerful firepower and faster speed, also known as pre-dreadnoughts, will also be born.

The reason why Spain gave up the development of its navy in a short period of time was to give priority to the development of industry and economy and to prepare for the birth of pre-dreadnought battleships in the future.

The British Empire is currently firmly the world's number one naval power, and other countries have no chance of catching up under normal circumstances.

The size of the British navy is determined based on the world's second and third naval powers. The size of their navy has always remained larger than the world's second and third largest naval powers combined, which is also the guarantee for the Royal Navy's dominance in the world.

If we simply compare the number, no country can compare with the British Empire. Because the British have the whole of India and can exploit it unscrupulously, and the wealth provided by India allows the British to spend their military expenses without worry.

One of the few opportunities to surpass the British Navy, or to pose a greater threat to the British Navy, may be to replace the main battleships.

At present, the main warships of various countries are ironclad ships. There will be two more naval upgrades in the future, namely, the upgrade from ironclad ships to pre-dreadnoughts, and the upgrade from pre-dreadnoughts to dreadnoughts.

The pre-dreadnought battleship was born more than ten years later. At that time, Spain had an industry and economy of a certain scale, and could also increase its investment in the expensive navy.

The dreadnought was born in 1906, which is more than 30 years away. 30 years is enough time for Spain to become an industrial and economic power. As long as it can lay out the dreadnought in advance, Spain will become one of the naval powers in the 20th century.

Although the British navy has always maintained its position as the world's number one navy, the French are also closely behind, firmly occupying the world's second place.

This is also the reason why the French were able to become the overlord of Europe. Before the Franco-Prussian War, the French were the most powerful country on the European continent in terms of both the army and navy.

But after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the French shifted their focus from building a combined navy and land force to focusing on the army.

Although there were related naval construction plans, the naval competition with Britain was not as important compared to the Germans who had already insulted France once.

Of course, more importantly, France has no chance of winning in the naval competition with Britain. Anyway, France is firmly in the second place in the world's navy, and no country can surpass France at present.

Although the Germans posed a great threat on land, their navy was almost nonexistent. The French government also estimated Germany's development potential and was convinced that even if they were given another ten years, Germany would not necessarily be able to surpass France in terms of navy.

Not to mention overtaking France, even if the Germans were given five years, the size of their navy might not necessarily match that of Spain.

Yes, Spain is currently also among the naval powers.

The reason is very simple. In the early 19th century, Spain was the third largest colonial empire in the world in terms of the size of its colonies. Mexico, Argentina and other large American countries were all colonies of Spain.

Spain's colonies were spread across Central America, South America, Africa and Asia, so it naturally needed a strong navy to protect these colonies. In the early 19th century, Spain's navy could even be ranked among the top three in the world. However, amid political turmoil and the loss of its American colonies, Spain could no longer afford the expenses of a large fleet.

In the past two or three decades from the mid-19th century to the present, Spain has not invested much in the navy, and has also dropped from the third largest naval power to the top five.

Although it claims to be one of the top five naval powers in the world, there is still a big gap between naval powers like Spain and Britain and France.

It is undeniable that as the former empire on which the sun never sets, Spain has extremely strong naval foundation.

During its heyday, Spain had an invincible fleet that dominated the world, and the Spanish navy at that time was the best in the world.

However, after being defeated by the British, the Spanish navy continued to weaken and the title of Invincible Armada disappeared.

Most of the warships in the Spanish Navy are old and dilapidated. There are very few ironclad ships, and many of them are even sailing warships.

However, Spain still has a very good foundation in the shipbuilding industry. The reason why Carlo believes that Spain can become a new naval power when the main warships of the navy are replaced in the future is that he has seen Spain's rich foundation in the shipbuilding industry.

Moreover, Spain has now received industrial assistance from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and cooperation intentions from France.

If the experience of these two countries in military shipbuilding can be integrated, Spain's military shipbuilding sector will also see significant improvement.

Although the current Spanish government has no need to build warships, this does not mean that other countries around the world have no need to build ships.

Carlo's expectation for the Spanish military shipbuilding sector is to explore more military ship orders from other countries around the world when there is no demand in Spain.

This will not only allow Spanish shipyards to earn more income, but also allow them to accumulate more experience in the field of military shipbuilding and prepare for the future large-scale construction of the Spanish Navy.

After all, if these military shipyards continue to be in deficit, downsizing and bankruptcy are inevitable.

If it has too much impact on Spain's military shipbuilding industry, the Spanish government may need to re-establish a larger shipyard when it wants to formulate a naval development plan in the future, which will undoubtedly waste a lot of time.

Before the 18th century, Spain's military shipbuilding industry was distributed in various regions, and there were no large-scale shipbuilding centers.

But after the 18th century, Spain's military shipbuilding industry had been integrated into various shipbuilding centers, and four representative large-scale military shipyards were formed.

The four shipyards are the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, the Cuban Havana Shipyard, the El Ferrol Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard.

Compared with these four major shipyards, any other private shipyard has a large gap in scale or government attention.

Among them, the Havana Shipyard in Cuba is the most special of the four major shipyards. The shipyard is located in Havana, the Cuban colony, and it is also the only large-scale shipyard in Spain located overseas.

Unfortunately, the Havana Shipyard was destroyed during the independence movement of the American colonies. Although the Spanish government later rebuilt the Havana Shipyard, since most of the American colonies had been lost, there was no need for such a large shipyard in America.

This shipyard, which was once capable of building large sailing warships, has gradually become the lowest tier among the four major shipyards and is no longer on the Spanish government's list of concerns for the future development of the shipbuilding industry.

The shipyard's last work was the heavy frigate Luisa Fernando, built in 1845 and equipped with 44 guns.

In the nearly 1845 years from 1872 to 30, the Havana Shipyard only undertook the construction of some small warships and civilian ships, and did not receive any orders for large ships.

Currently, the largest shipyard in Spain is the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

It is worth mentioning that although the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is an industry established by the Spanish royal family, because it belongs to the Bourbon royal family, most of the current shares actually belong to the government.

As a king, Carlo does not have many shares in the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. Coupled with the decline of Spain in the past three decades, the size of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has been reduced by more than half. It is currently running at a loss and faces a serious financial and bankruptcy crisis.

In addition to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard and the Havana Shipyard in Cuba, the remaining El Ferrol Shipyard and Cartagena Shipyard have also lost their glory days.

If the Spanish government does not intervene, it will probably be bankrupted and restructured sooner or later, or simply disappear into history.

Carlo and Prime Minister Primo reached an agreement for the future development of the Spanish shipbuilding industry.

The royal family will take back the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard from the government with very little money and rebuild it into the largest shipyard in Spain.

The government is mainly responsible for the maintenance of the El Ferrol Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard. With the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard as the leader of the Spanish shipbuilding industry, the El Ferrol Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard only need to maintain their current scale and do not require much effort from the government.

It only needs to ensure that these two shipyards can be quickly expanded to become shipyards capable of building main warships when necessary to meet Spain's shipbuilding needs.

It takes a lot of money for the royal family to invest and maintain the scale of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, so when acquiring shares of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, only a small amount of money is needed to complete the acquisition.

After that, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard became an entirely royal property. Whether it was profitable or loss-making was the royal family's business and had nothing to do with the government.

Carlo was still happy to acquire the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. As the largest shipyard in Spain, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard had rich experience in shipbuilding, especially in building military warships.

This also ensured that after investing in the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, the royal family could quickly restore the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to its former glory by relying on the shipyard's own foundation, assistance from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and French technology.

To repeat, even if there is not much demand for warships in Spain, it does not mean that all countries in the world do not have much demand for warships.

At present, there are still many countries that want to build new ironclad ships. If Spain can export the most advanced ironclad ships, it will definitely be able to attract some foreign orders.

The cost of building an ironclad ship varies, but the cheapest one costs more than 20 pounds. For each shipyard, the income from building one ironclad ship is at least 1 pounds, or even more.

Especially for those more advanced and powerful ironclad ships, the higher the cost, the higher the selling price will be.

Only a few ironclad ships need to be built each year, which can not only maintain the daily expenses of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, but also expand the scale of the shipyard through a steady stream of income and recruit more employees while waiting for the announcement of Spain's shipbuilding plan in the future.

At the same time, the shipyard can continue to accumulate experience in shipbuilding by accepting foreign orders. I think with the reputation of Spain as one of the top five naval powers, it is not a problem to attract some countries to place orders with Spanish shipyards.

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(End of this chapter)