Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 151 The Value of Treasures and National Integration

“Your Majesty, Prime Minister, after four days of counting, we have finally determined the contents of all the treasures in this treasure trove.

There were nearly 80 tons of gold and gold products alone, nearly 3 tons of various precious gemstones and precious metals, more than 500 kilograms of diamonds and other valuables.

According to our conservative estimate, if we only take into account the value of the property itself and not the added value of the antiques, the total value of this treasure is as high as 9 million pesetas.

Unfortunately, the only items that can be sold directly are gold and its products, as well as various gems, pearls, diamonds, etc. The value of the items that can be sold directly is about 6.2 million pesetas, and there are nearly 2.8 million pesetas that will take longer to sell. "Royal Palace Chief Roland respectfully reported the statistical results of the guarantee to Carlo and Prime Minister Primo.

Upon hearing that the total value of the treasure had exceeded 9 million pesetas, Carlo and Prime Minister Primo's faces changed significantly.

Prime Minister Primo was delighted and excited, and at the same time he admired Carlo for providing the intelligence.

Although the treasure is valuable, what is more important is that Carlo provided clues about the treasure, which gave the Spanish government the opportunity to obtain the treasure.

If there were no clues, the treasure would remain buried underground and would be discovered by the British colonial government or Indians several years later.

As things stand, although the government can only get half of the treasure, it is still worth nearly 4.5 million pesetas, which is almost close to the government's total fiscal revenue for one year.

This money is even more important to the Spanish government than the 5 million franc loan from the French government. After all, the French loan is interest-bearing, while this treasure does not require any interest or even repayment.

The only pity is that because many of the gold products have obvious Hindu symbols on them, they have to be re-melted.

This would destroy the value of many gold products, turning them from antiques that are hundreds or even thousands of years old into ordinary gold products.

But there was no other way. If these gold products with conspicuous Hindu symbols flowed into Spain or other markets, they would definitely attract the attention of the British.

After all, Hinduism is not very popular in other regions except India. Gold products with Hindu symbols are most likely from India. After the temple was stolen, the British will definitely pay more attention to the circulation of gold and jewelry in markets around the world.

Now that the value of the temple treasure has been roughly determined, the next most important thing is naturally the distribution between the government and the royal family.

Carlo was also very excited. According to the agreement with Prime Minister Primo, the royal family could get half of the treasure, which was about 4.5 million pesetas.

At present, the combined value of all the companies owned by Carlo is just over 100 million yuan, which means that just by this treasure hunt, Carlo's wealth has been expanded several times.

“Prime Minister Primo, since there are a lot of pearls, gems and diamonds in this treasure, why not distribute those without Hindu symbols to the royal family?

The royal family can take less gold and its products, which will be beneficial to both the royal family and the government. ”Carlo suggested.

For the government, the gold and gold products in these treasures are obviously more important. Those gems, pearls and diamonds that seem to be priceless are not of much use to the government.

It would be better to distribute these properties to the royal family as much as possible, so as to increase the storage of royal treasures, and to distribute more gold to the government, thereby expanding the Spanish government's gold reserves.

"Of course." Prime Minister Primo nodded without any intention of refusing.

He also knew that by doing this Carlo was giving more gold reserves to the government, and strictly speaking the government was making a profit.

After a simple distribution by Carlo and Prime Minister Primo, the proportions of gold and jewelry received by the royal family and the government were finally determined.

Of the more than 80 tons of gold and gold products, the government received a full 50 tons of gold to increase the government's gold reserves.

Although the royal family received only a little over 30 tons of gold, the good news is that the royal family received a total of more than 3.5 tons of gems, pearls, diamonds and other valuables, with the royal family receiving a full 3 tons.

The government got the 0.5 tons because there were obvious Hindu symbols on the property, so it was difficult to sell them for the time being. The royal family and the government split the money with Hindu symbols in a - split, waiting for the right time in the future to slowly sell them.

Although it is a 50-50 split, the specific distribution certainly cannot be detailed enough to be expressed in pesetas.

The government got a little bit of a profit from the overall distribution, but not too much. The total value of the treasure is about 9.3 million pesetas, and the total financial value obtained by the government is as high as 4.8 million pesetas.

The royal family received less, but it was still 4.5 million pesetas, which was enough to satisfy Carlo's expectations for the treasure excavation.

On the day when the specific financial allocation was determined, Prime Minister Primo sent people to quietly transfer the government's finances to a more confidential warehouse.

All the gold with obvious Hindu symbols was remelted, and all the gold without obvious symbols was put into warehouses as the government's gold reserves.

With this new batch of gold reserves, Spain's Monetary Board can also prepare to issue new currency.

This was another new gain for the government and the royal family. After all, there were only two banks in Spain that could legally issue currency, namely the National Bank controlled by the government and the Royal United Bank controlled by the royal family.

In fact, if you calculate it this way, Carlo makes more money. After all, the government does not have shares in the Royal United Bank, but Carlo does have shares in the National Bank.

In order to ensure the stability of Spain's currency, the newly issued currency will definitely not flow into the market quickly, but will be slowly put into the market in batches.

经过货币发行委员会短暂的讨论之后，决定在未来三年内共计增发5亿比塞塔的货币，其中1873年发行1亿比塞塔，1874年和1875年发行2亿比塞塔。

If the economic crisis occurs this year, then the next three years will definitely be the time when the impact of the economic crisis is most severe.

The purpose of issuing more pesetas in the past three years is actually very simple. It is to allow Spain to catch up and narrow the gap with European powers at a time when countries around the world are suffering from the economic crisis.

When other European powers gradually emerge from the impact of the economic crisis, they will be surprised to find that Spain's industry and economy have grown to a large extent and are even approaching the level of a great power again.

While the government was planning its development plan for the next three years, Carlo was also counting the property obtained by the royal family in this treasure hunt, and together with Butler Loren, he was making a more detailed plan for the future development of the royal enterprises.

Of the approximately 4.5 million pesetas that the royal family received, only less than 3 million pesetas can be easily sold. The remaining 1.5 million pesetas will have to wait for a more suitable opportunity to be sold, or even remain in their own hands for the next few years.

But it didn't matter. With 3 million Bietas to spend, the royal family's business would have no shortage of funds for future development.

Of all the royal enterprises currently, the largest is the Royal United Bank, which has dozens of branches.

The Royal United Bank currently has more than 30 branches and a total of more than 40 customers. The total savings of the Royal United Bank has officially exceeded million, bringing at least million pesetas of net income to the royal family every year.

Yes, that's how banks make money. Just by investing hundreds of millions of pesetas in industry, the annual income is already tens of millions of pesetas.

Not to mention that the bank also takes into account loans and other businesses, and its total annual income is even close to 2000 million pesetas. However, after deducting other expenses, the net profit has been reduced to about 1000 million pesetas.

Royal Union Bank also has the highest annual profit among all the companies that Carlo has a stake in. The Spanish National Bank is second only to Royal Union Bank, with annual revenue also exceeding 10 million pesetas.

However, after deducting various expenses, the National Bank's profit was only a little over 300 million pesetas. Carlo's 45% stake could earn him 140 million pesetas, which was a drop in the bucket compared to the Royal United Bank. There was nothing that could be done about it. Compared to the Royal United Bank founded by the royal family and the nobility, the internal structure of the National Bank was obviously more complicated.

Fortunately, Carlo does not need to worry about the operation of the National Bank. He only needs to wait for the National Bank to sort out its income and expenditure statements every year and then wait quietly for the dividends from the National Bank.

Compared to the two major banks, the income of major factories is lower. After all, factories are not like banks that have branches all over the country. Basically, all factories are calculated separately.

But if all the factories are added together, the income is also a non-negligible figure. The income of all the factories and enterprises currently controlled by the royal family is actually higher than the income loaned to Carlo by the National Bank.

1872年王室所有企业和工厂加起来的总收入接近2000万比塞塔，其中皇家联合银行贡献的收入占比超过51%，国家银行贡献的收入占比7%，所有工厂加起来的收入占比接近32%。剩下的不到10%的收入由各大报社和王室的土地出租获得。

The income ratio of the royal industry actually proves the eternal truth of this era, that is, the financial industry and real industry are always the most profitable.

Of course, another major reason is that the royal family does not own much land. Even though they have purchased a lot of land from the nobility and the church, the land owned by the royal family still does not rank among the major nobles.

But Carlo didn't care how much land the royal family owned. After all, farming didn't make much money in this era. The real money was in running factories and banks.

Because this treasure hunt brought huge gains, Carlo will not be stingy with the development of royal enterprises.

After discussing with Butler Loren, Carlo decided to allocate 1 million pesetas to promote the development of royal enterprises.

Considering that it would be difficult for the Royal United Bank to expand significantly in the future, Carlo focused his support on the industrial sector.

There are three main types of enterprises that receive support, namely heavy industry, chemical industry and military industry.

Needless to say, the military industry is a big deal. Carlo currently owns two major military enterprises, the Royal Arsenal and the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

With sufficient funds, Carlo's ambition began to grow. Regarding the future development of the Spanish navy, Carlo issued a new order to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, which was to use the entire shipyard's strength to design a world-leading ironclad ship with faster speed, higher firepower, and stronger armor protection.

After the impact of this economic crisis, it is almost time for Spain to develop its navy. According to the current cost of ironclad ships in various countries around the world, the cost of building an ironclad ship in Spain is at least tens of millions of pesetas.

In addition to the training of naval soldiers on warships and the specific training of naval soldiers after the warships are launched, it will cost at least 1500 million pesetas for each warship to form combat effectiveness.

Considering that most of Spain's current navy consists of sailing warships from decades ago and outdated ironclad ships, if the Spanish Navy is to be stabilized at the fifth place in the world below Britain, France, Germany and Russia, more funds must be invested in the Spanish Navy in the future.

Fortunately, the government is now truly wealthy after this treasure hunt. Although Carlo and Prime Minister Primo did not have specific discussions, it is certain that Spain will develop its navy in the future.

Judging from Spain's current pace of development, once the Royal Guanizo Shipyard designs reasonable and powerful warships, it may be time for Spain to start building ironclad ships again and consolidate its position as the world's fifth naval power.

It doesn't matter whether Spain is a great power or not. As long as Spain can completely stabilize its position as the fifth most powerful navy in the world, the Spanish government can proudly declare that Spain is still a powerful European power, and no country will express opposition.

The rewards for all those who participated in the treasure hunt were actually funded jointly by the government and the royal family.

Carlo also considered awarding titles to the two commanders of the operation and several operatives who made significant contributions to the operation.

But considering that this operation needed to be kept strictly confidential, they finally gave up. However, when Spain awards titles on a large scale in the future, they will still be awarded corresponding titles according to their contributions in the operation.

It's just that they will have to endure it for a while, which is why Carlo increased the rewards for everyone.

Although the reward given to these people was nearly half a ton of gold, because the money was jointly paid by the government and the royal family, the royal family's actual expenditure was less than 50 pesetas.

Of course, the cost of this treasure hunt is not just the rewards for the operators, but also the transportation costs of the treasure, as well as the costs of disguise and equipment for all the operators.

All the expenses added up, even if only the royal part was counted, still amounted to millions of pesetas.

But the expenditure of millions of pesetas is obviously insignificant compared to the revenue of 4.5 million pesetas.

The changes brought by this batch of treasures to the royal family were not great, except for the expansion of the investment in the royal enterprises. But for the government, the effect brought by this treasure was extremely obvious.

The previously mentioned military expansion of Spain could also be carried out on a large scale after it had money. Considering that the Royal Arsenal could hardly meet the weapons production of Spain's large-scale military expansion, after comprehensive consideration, the Spanish Defense Department decided to purchase a batch of cannons from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to reduce the production pressure of the Royal Arsenal.

The rifles had to be produced by the Royal Arsenal itself, after all, the Italian Vitali rifles were not the same as the Spanish Vitali rifles.

For the convenience of logistical supply for the Spanish army, it is more cost-effective to use the same type of rifle throughout.

In order to accelerate the development of Spain's military industry, the Spanish government also decided to organize a group of military technology students to study in countries with relatively developed military technology, led by the United Kingdom and Germany.

When these international students complete their studies and return to Spain, they will be able to play a more critical role in the development of Spain's military industry and solve the problem of talent shortage in Spain's military industry.

The reason for sending students to study in this field was also because most of the military talents from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were divided up by the Royal Arsenal.

There is no other way around this. For the development of Spain's military industry, it is necessary to support a large military enterprise as the representative of Spain's military industry.

But doing so is not a good thing for small-scale military industrial enterprises. In order to improve the overall development level of the military industry, it is necessary to send international students to other countries to improve their military capabilities.

While formulating future development plans, Prime Minister Primo was also considering how to quickly promote national integration in Spain.

There is no doubt that this economic crisis is an opportunity for Spain to accelerate national integration.

When the economic crisis breaks out, countries around the world will have no time to care about other things, and this is also the best time for Spain to stabilize its economy.

How to promote national integration in Spain? In a conversation between Prime Minister Primo and Carlo, three plans were actually determined.

The first option is the most moderate, which is to promote the use of Spanish in Catalonia and the Basque region in a subtle way, and to build a large number of factories in these areas to promote economic exchanges between Spaniards and Catalans and Basques.

Judging from the results achieved so far, the first plan may be effective, but the progress is very slow.

If we rely solely on the first option to promote the great integration of the Spanish nation, it will take at least several decades to unify the small Catalans and Basques.

Prime Minister Primo pondered for a long time and finally decided to adopt the tougher second option when the economic crisis came, in order to truly promote the integration between Catalans and Basques and Spaniards.

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(End of this chapter)