Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 142: Slum Rectification (Two Chapters in One)

By the end of November 1872, new problems arose facing the Spanish government.

At present, the development and construction in various parts of Spain are going smoothly. The development of Madrid and Barcelona is far ahead of others, and they are known as the twin stars among many cities in Spain.

Of course, the main reason is that Spain’s overall population is too small, and there is not even a city in the entire country with a population of over one million.

Currently, among all the major powers, the United Kingdom's capital London is the most populous city, with a population approaching 400 million.

This population size is extremely exaggerated, and is not much different from small countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium. However, the actual population of the United Kingdom is not as large as that of Germany, France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This also shows how exaggerated the industrial and economic development of London, as the core city of the First Industrial Revolution, was.

Although the reputation of the foggy city is not good, London at that time is indeed the most dazzling city in the world and a truly international metropolis of this era.

Compared with London, Paris's star is a little dimmer. According to current data, the population of Paris is about 200 million, which is slightly more than half of London's population.

However, compared with the capitals of other powers, Paris still ranks at the top in terms of population. Berlin and Vienna, which follow, have a population of only one million, and are inferior in both size and economic volume.

The United States is a special country. Its capital is not the most developed city in the country. The most developed city in the United States is New York, but the capital is Washington.

New York’s population is currently approaching one million, and will experience a population explosion along with the rapid development of the United States.

New York today is not as popular as London and Paris, but in a few decades, New York will have developed into an international metropolis second only to London, easily surpassing many European cities with a longer history.

Madrid’s current population has just exceeded 40, which is considered a big city in Spain, but it can only be considered a relatively large city in the whole of Europe.

Barcelona, ​​another twin city, also has a population of over 36. Apart from Madrid and Barcelona, ​​the other cities in Spain are relatively small. Even Seville, which has a small industrial base, has a population of just over 10.

This also explains why the new industrial base was chosen to be located in Barcelona, ​​because apart from the capital Madrid, only Barcelona has a population that can afford the construction of a medium-sized industrial base.

The industrial base currently being built in Barcelona will provide at least 5 jobs. If Barcelona did not have a population of nearly 40, it is likely that these 5 jobs would not be filled.

Even the current population of Barcelona is far from enough. With the construction of industrial cities, more people will definitely be absorbed from the surrounding villages and small cities.

Large cities like Madrid and Barcelona will have an increasing population in the future, while the population of small cities will not experience much growth or may even remain in a state of negative growth.

This phenomenon is inevitable and will happen frequently now and in the future.

The rise of a super-large city means the decline of several small and medium-sized cities. After the industrial base of Barcelona is built, it will definitely absorb the population of the rural areas and small cities around Barcelona.

It is foreseeable that Barcelona’s population will experience a period of rapid growth in the next decade, but the population of towns surrounding Barcelona will not necessarily increase, and may even decline.

But this is also an unavoidable problem in urban development. For the development of Madrid and Barcelona, ​​it is necessary to appropriately sacrifice some small cities.

Because only such large cities can support the construction of industrial bases, and the construction of large industrial bases can improve Spain's industrial scale and environment.

Now let's go back to Madrid. As the largest city in Spain, Madrid has a population of over 40 and is the shining pearl of the Iberian Peninsula.

But this does not mean that Madrid is an extremely prosperous city. Apart from a few busy streets in the center of Madrid, there are not many high-rise buildings in the city, and there are even many slums.

The Spanish government during the reign of Queen Isabella only focused on the construction of prosperous streets and did not care at all about the slums where the lower-class civilians lived.

This also makes the originally integrated Madrid have two scenes. The streets in the city center are extremely prosperous, and the flow of people seems to be no less than other major European cities.

But outside the city center, there are a large number of slums everywhere, and even many dirty and dilapidated buildings.

This not only seriously damaged the image of Madrid, but also increased the possibility of disease transmission. The sanitary conditions in these slums are extremely poor, and some people even urinate and defecate in public places.

Precisely because the sanitary conditions here are extremely poor, dignitaries are simply unwilling to go to the slums, and this place has become a paradise for criminals with a very poor security environment.

Speaking of development, the development of Madrid is particularly important.

After all, it is the capital of Spain and its largest city. Madrid is one of Spain's business cards and a means of attracting immigrants.

If Madrid were to develop a reputation as a dirty, messy city, it would also be a blow to Spain's immigration work itself.

Barcelona is still the territory of the Catalans for the time being, so the government should not carry out large-scale rectification. At present, the most suitable city for rectification is Madrid. If it succeeds, it can be promoted nationwide. If it fails, it will not have much impact.

On November 1872, 11, a member of parliament submitted a bill to the parliament on the rectification of order in the urban area of ​​​​Madrid, which aroused heated discussion throughout the Spanish Parliament.

The reason for the heated discussion is the scope of the rectification, which includes most of the areas outside Madrid, with a large number of slums and the lower-class people of Spain, numbering at least tens of thousands.

To renovate these slums also means to provide new housing for these hundreds of thousands of people, otherwise it will definitely cause chaos.

This is a considerable expense, and it will also require replanning of Madrid's urban area to build relocation sites for these slum dwellers, which should not be too far from where they work.

There are many benefits to doing this. Not only can the urban area of ​​Madrid be replanned, allowing Madrid to accommodate as many people as possible while maintaining its current size, but it will also become cleaner and tidier, and look more like a modern metropolis.

But there are also many disadvantages. First of all, it will require considerable investment to re-plan the city and provide adequate living space for the people in the slums.

On this basis, it is also worth considering whether all the people within the scope of the rectification are willing to relocate, and whether there are enough construction teams to build more buildings for these people to live in within a short period of time.

Because of the huge interests involved, this proposal was voted on in parliament for several days and sparked extensive discussion among members of parliament, but no clear result was reached.

The hot topic in the parliament also attracted the attention of Prime Minister Primo and Carlo. Regardless of Prime Minister Primo's attitude, for Carlo, it is necessary to clean up the slums in Spain.

The housing conditions in the slums are very poor, and the sanitary conditions are extremely bad, which not only destroys the urban image of Madrid, but also affects the health of the people in the slums.

Slum cleanup is an additional expense for the government, but it has no bad effects other than spending money. If the number of slums in Spain can be effectively improved and the people living in the slums can all live in houses made of reinforced concrete, it will be supported by these people.

But houses must not be distributed for free. This is not fair to those people who are not within the scope of the rectification. For those who get houses for free, they may not necessarily be grateful to the government and the royal family.

There is a saying that what is easily obtained is often not cherished. If the government distributes houses to people in slums for free, they will certainly be grateful to the government and the royal family in the short term, but it may not be the case in the long run.

Compared to distributing houses for free, Carlo actually has a better solution, which is the low-rent housing of later generations. The so-called low-rent housing is actually cheap housing built by the government to provide to the poor. The rent of these houses is generally very low, ensuring that the poor can also afford it.

Because these houses are specially provided for the poor, they do not need to be built too exquisitely. The area and space of the houses can be reduced, which in turn results in lower rents.

Thinking of the low-rent housing policy of later generations, Carlo decided not to hesitate any longer and pushed Spain to build similar low-rent houses to meet the housing needs of the slum population.

However, such a proposal cannot be made by Carlo himself. After all, low-rent housing also requires rent, and the slums will be rectified, and there will definitely be people who are unwilling to change their existing lives.

Fortunately, after coming to Spain for a few years, Carlo has more and more people available to him. At present, most seats in the Spanish Parliament are controlled by Prime Minister Primo, but there are still many seats that do not belong to the Progressive Party to which Prime Minister Primo belongs.

The Spanish Conservative Party mentioned earlier also has seats in parliament. Their ideas are more royalist, so naturally some people will choose to side with Carlo.

Jovillar Soler is such a person. His party, the Conservative Party, is more supportive of the monarchy, but it does not have much opposition to Prime Minister Primo's reforms.

It may seem strange that the Conservatives are not against reform, but it is actually quite normal when you think about it. Because the truly conservative and pedantic Conservatives were eliminated long ago during the revolution, the remaining Conservatives are more conservative in supporting the monarchy than in supporting reform.

Those pedantic conservatives disappeared in the history of Spain along with the Bourbon dynasty. As long as Prime Minister Primo's reforms did not experience complete failure, or Carlo experienced several relatively failed wars during his reign, it would be basically impossible for the Bourbon dynasty to be restored.

The pain that Queen Isabella and her father brought to the Spanish people was too deep to be healed in just a few decades.

The reason why the Bourbon dynasty was restored in history was that Amadeo, who was elected by the king elect, failed to promote reforms in Spain, and the Republican Party that overthrew the monarchy performed worse than the monarchy, which eventually allowed the Bourbon dynasty to be restored.

If Amadeo or the Republicans had performed less badly, Spanish history would have been completely rewritten.

On December 1872, 12, Jovillar Soller resubmitted a proposal to the Spanish Parliament, which included building a large number of low-rent housing in Madrid, saving some expenses by collecting rent, and trying to clean up the slums in Madrid at a lower cost.

In addition, the proposal also includes measures such as encouraging people from ordinary areas to work in factories outside Madrid and effectively increasing the actual income of people living in slums to reduce the impact of slum remediation.

Although the new industrial zone is being built in Barcelona, ​​Madrid itself also has industrial zones. However, the industry in Madrid is more dispersed, with factories everywhere in the suburbs, and the overall industrial scale is even higher than that in Barcelona.

If these factories on the outskirts of Madrid can be effectively utilized to provide more jobs for people in the slums, it will also be possible to change the opinions of people in the slums and make them more supportive of policies to renovate the slums.

Overall, providing housing for hundreds of thousands of Spaniards living in slums requires a lot of financial budget, but it is not as much as you might think.

After all, housing prices in this era were not that expensive, and Madrid was just a small city with a population of just over 40.

When there is enough land and building materials, the buildings built are very simple, like low-rent housing, and the overall cost of each house is very cheap.

Considering the actual needs of these people, a family of four needs a housing area of ​​about 50 square meters. There is no public area in Spain, so although 50 square meters is not large, it is indeed enough for the daily life of a family of four.

As for toilets, 1 to 2 public toilets can be built on each floor to meet the hygiene needs of the people. In addition, a certain number of large public toilets can be built in each area to effectively improve the sanitary environment of public areas.

According to this demand, the cost of building a building is much lower. For the Spanish government, this is not an unaffordable budget.

After all, the 5 million francs loan promised by the French will soon arrive. With the help of this loan, the budget for renovating the Madrid slums will only be a small part of it.

After Jovillar Soller submitted the proposal to Parliament, Prime Minister Primo already knew who was behind it.

Prime Minister Primo knew exactly who these Conservative MPs had joined. Since the young King was interested in promoting the cleanup of Madrid's slums, Prime Minister Primo was naturally happy about it.

After all, this was originally part of the reform, it just happened ahead of time. Since the king actively supported such a plan, he naturally could not oppose it.

With Prime Minister Primo's signal, the Progressive Party members expressed their support for the proposal, and the Conservative Party members, persuaded by Jovillar Soller, also voted in favor.

With the promotion of the two major parties, the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party, the proposal was quickly passed in Parliament. After all, other opposing parties and MPs were only a minority.

Although the proposal to renovate the slums has been passed, the specific way to do it still needs proper discussion.

For the government, cleaning up Madrid is a must, but it cannot be done all at once. The cleaning up of all slums should be prioritized, with those areas with dangerous buildings being the first priority, those areas with dirty and messy conditions being the second priority, and those areas with only relatively dirty and messy conditions being the last priority.

After such a distribution, there are actually not many slums that need to be renovated first, and there are only tens of thousands of people living in them.

However, the overall construction volume is still very large, and it is difficult for the Spanish construction team to complete it in a short period of time. The rectification of the slums must be completed quickly. In order to achieve this goal, the Spanish government decided to open a tender to find foreign construction companies to help Spain build more low-rent housing faster.

There is nothing much to say about the construction of low-rent housing. The requirements for such housing are very low, as long as it is strong enough and can be lived in.

Compared with the houses in the slums, the solid buildings made of reinforced concrete are warmer, more spacious and brighter places.

What the government needs to study is not how to build low-rent housing, but how to distribute it to people in slums after it is built.

Again, it is impossible to give it away for free, and Prime Minister Primo's attitude is the same. Just like the previous land, it is still rented out.

However, considering that those who really need these low-rent houses are extremely low-income people, the rent of these low-rent houses must not be too high.

Based on Spain's current per capita income, the government finally set the rent of low-rent housing at 2 cents per square meter per month.

Generally, a family of four needs about 50 square meters of living space, and the monthly rent is 100 centavos, or 1 pesetas. The annual rent is only 12 pesetas, which is about one-tenth of the current average annual income.

Such rent is definitely affordable for most families. Take the later generations as an example, assuming that the per capita income is 4000 yuan per month, the annual income is 4.8 yuan. The rent of a 50-square-meter low-rent house is 400 yuan per month, which is not too high.

Of course, considering that there are indeed a small number of extremely poor families, such rents are not completely fixed. If there are families with a lack of labor and whose income is far below the average income, the government can reduce or exempt the rent of low-rent housing for the first three years, or provide such families with a certain amount of rental subsidies to ensure that these low-income people have a place to live.

In addition, the environment of these low-rent houses cannot be too good, and each individual house is not equipped with a toilet. This is not because the Spanish government is unwilling to provide a better living environment for low-income people, but to prevent higher-income people from occupying the housing of low-income people.

Most of the people who need low-rent housing are low-income people. If the living environment of low-rent housing is built too well, it will definitely attract the attention of some non-low-income people.

The government loses money to build low-rent housing, so the fewer low-rent housing units it builds, the better. If these middle- and high-income groups come to scramble for low-rent housing, either many low-income people won’t be able to get housing, or the government will be forced to build more housing, causing more middle- and high-income groups to scramble for it, creating a vicious cycle.

Please support this two-in-one chapter of 5,200 words!


(End of this chapter)