Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 155 Warship Design and Acquisition Plan

While other countries were suffering from economic crisis, Spain was carrying out a large-scale construction campaign in full swing.

Under the orders of Prime Minister Primo, the Spanish government acted quickly. It took only a few days to develop a specific plan for the major construction and allocate funds for its implementation.

Among them, the Spanish government pays more attention to the construction of road traffic and the transformation of slums.

Spain does not have vast plains like Britain, France and Germany. Most of the land in the country is mountains and hills.

Building roads in such places is much more difficult than building roads in plains. This is also the reason why Spain’s transportation environment has always lagged behind European powers such as Britain, France and Germany.

Taking advantage of the economic crisis, the Spanish government plans to invest more than 5000 million pesetas to build a nationwide road network connecting various regions and important cities in Spain.

The government has made a detailed division of the existing highway system in Spain, which is divided into national highways with four lanes in both directions, regional highways with two lanes in both directions, and urban roads with single roads and two-way traffic.

The widest two-way four-lane national highways are naturally the ones that connect various regions and important cities. Because cars had not yet been invented, the demand for highway width was relatively low.

In later times, a two-way four-lane highway could not even meet the traffic needs of an urban area. But in this era, a two-way four-lane highway is already a fairly wide highway for Spain, and can at least meet the traffic needs of the next 30 years.

During these 30 years, the Spanish government will certainly further expand the transportation system and even build a wider two-way six-lane highway.

Not long ago, Benz just reported to Carlo the good news of research and development. They have successfully developed a four-stroke gas engine and are developing engines that use other fuels as energy.

Although the birth of the engine does not mean the birth of the car, the two are closely related. After having a four-stroke engine, it is possible to make a relatively simple car for experimentation.

However, in order to solve the engine stability and related power problems, Benz and three others need to conduct more research on the engine and improve the existing engine.

In order to manufacture a car and put it into commercial use, the safety and affordability of the car must also be taken into consideration.

In short, this is not a problem that can be completely solved in a short period of time. In the next ten years at least, even if cars are invented, they will only be a luxury transportation that only the rich can afford.

However, considering that there are countless nobles in Spain, if cars could be developed earlier, these nobles alone could provide a lot of sales.

Moreover, cars have indeed significantly helped improve the traffic environment. A journey that would take several hours for a horse-drawn carriage could be completed in less than an hour for a car.

Horses also cause additional damage to the environment by urinating and defecating everywhere, but apart from exhaust emissions, cars are generally not that harmful to the environment.

Exhaust emissions are not a problem that Spain can consider now. The most important thing is to develop cars as soon as possible and effectively improve the existing traffic environment through cars.

With cars, the transportation of supplies and the mobilization of personnel would be much more convenient. The troops in Madrid could reach various cities and towns more conveniently via roads, further strengthening the government's control over various regions.

Under such circumstances, it will become extremely difficult for Catalonia and the Basque region to cause trouble.

The results of the engine research were impressive, but they pale into insignificance when compared to the drawings submitted to Carlo by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

Yes, after more than half a year of design and discussion, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard finally improved the design of a warship that satisfied all experts.

This warship design was also submitted to Carlo's office, along with relatively detailed parameters and design ideas.

Just by looking at the design parameters of this warship, Carlo was basically satisfied.

Although the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard did not fully achieve what Carlo said about the world's most advanced ironclad ship with faster speed, stronger firepower and stronger armor protection, it does not mean that this design lags behind other countries.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has been silent for more than 20 years, but some of the shipyard's experts are still well versed in the designs of warships from around the world.

After Carlo gave the order, the shipyard's design experts used all their life's knowledge to design an ironclad ship that would satisfy Carlo and win more opportunities for the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

The design of this ironclad ship can be said to be a combination of the strengths of many countries. Although it looks a bit like a patchwork at first glance, and its overall appearance is somewhat similar to that of British ironclad ships, it is also full of new concepts in Spanish warship design.

First of all, Carlo is most concerned about the power of the warship. The warship is expected to use the most advanced reciprocating expansion steam engine as its power, equipped with two steam engines, with a maximum output of more than 6000 horsepower.

Although this power output capability is not the best, it is definitely excellent among the ironclad ship designs of countries around the world.

In terms of the warship's firepower, this new ironclad ship will fully adopt breech-loading 12-inch 305mm steel cannons, making it one of the first warships to adopt breech-loading cannons.

At present, the pursuit of warship firepower by various countries is obviously more inclined to the caliber of cannons. The caliber of the main gun of the British ironclad warship has reached 318 mm, which also means that the power of the cannon is much greater than the 305 mm steel cannon used by the new Spanish warship.

However, because the British warships were equipped with muzzle-loading guns, their firing speed and range were far inferior to those of breech-loading cannons.

Although the 318mm gun is far more powerful than the 305mm gun, both types of guns are powerful enough to penetrate the steel armor of existing ironclad ships.

In this case, the breech-loading gun with faster firing rate and longer range is obviously more advantageous. The design data also mentioned in detail that although the power of this warship can only be regarded as first-class, its firepower has indeed reached the world's top level.

Britain, France and Germany can also achieve this level of artillery, but they will not be able to surpass it in a short period of time. Just relying on the four 4mm breech-loading guns on the warship, the comprehensive combat capability of this warship designed by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has already ranked first among ironclad ships.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard estimates that the 305mm main gun can reach a firing range of more than 7 kilometers.

Such a range is still quite good and will have a considerable advantage in naval battles.

Because of the continuous increase in Spain's steel production, this ironclad ship will adopt an all-steel structure and be equipped with a large amount of steel armor for protection.

The armor thickness on the front of the turret reaches 16 inches, and the armor thickness on the side reaches 14 inches, making the entire battleship look a bit bloated.

Although the armor protection capability of the warship was taken into consideration, the conventional displacement of the entire ironclad ship reached an astonishing 8600 tons (estimated).

When fully loaded, the warship's displacement will even be close to 10,000 tons, which is definitely in the first tier among all current ironclad ships.

However, this design obviously has not gone beyond the inherent ideas of existing ironclad ships. The two turrets are located on both sides of the main chord. Compared with the design of the later pre-dreadnought battleship, this cannot fully exert the firepower of the main guns.

However, Carlo didn't know much about this, so he couldn't make any suggestions to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

However, as long as the design of this warship is above the current world level of ironclad ships, it will meet the needs of the development of the Spanish Navy.

What's more, for Spain today, it is still unknown whether this warship is built to equip the navy or for export.

Taking into account the huge tonnage of the warship, the designers of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard estimated the speed of the warship to be around 12.5 knots to 13.5 knots.

To put it simply, the maximum speed this warship can reach is about 25 kilometers per hour.

However, the maximum speed can only be the maximum speed. During the normal navigation of a warship, the maximum speed will basically not be maintained.

Because doing so would cause immeasurable damage to the steam engine, the equipment of this era was not that stable.

It is said that the maximum speed is about 13.5 knots, but in fact the speed that can be achieved during daily cruising is only less than 10 knots, and it will generally remain at around 7-8 knots.

There is nothing that can be done about it. Before the relevant power technology was greatly improved, large-tonnage ships like warships would sail at such a slow speed in the sea. The speed of those small cruise ships is much faster than that of warships. After all, these ships do not need to take into account both armor protection and firepower output, they only need to ensure stable sailing at sea.

Looking at the relaxing warship design drawings in front of him, Carlo pondered for a moment and finally decided to personally solicit orders for the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard worldwide.

For Spain, there are still many things to do during the economic crisis, and it is not suitable to build ironclad ships on a large scale.

What's more, the cost of building such an ironclad ship is not low. Because all the equipment and technology are relatively advanced, the cost of the entire ironclad ship is close to 50 pounds.

Even if it is building a warship for the Spanish Navy, the shipyard certainly cannot make no profit. In the proposal of the Royal Dockyard, if the Spanish Navy is willing to purchase this warship, it can provide the Spanish Navy with an internal price of 55 pounds.

But if the warships are exported, the price will have to be increased to at least 60 pounds.

This also means that the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard can earn at least 10 pounds in net profit for every warship sold.

As long as the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard can obtain orders for one or two ironclad ships, it will not only be able to obtain sufficient research and development funds and completely revitalize the entire shipyard, but it will also allow the shipyard to gain a lot of experience in building the most advanced ironclad ships, preparing for the Spanish Navy to build its own ironclad ships in the future.

The bad news was that both Europe and America were affected by the economic crisis, and it was difficult to find customers with sufficient financial resources to purchase ironclad ships.

But the good news is that Asia has not been greatly affected by the economic crisis, and there may be countries here that can become customers for Spain's new ironclad ships.

In fact, this Spanish ironclad ship with strong comprehensive combat capability is still quite cost-effective, and Carlo did not intend to ask for a high price.

If there is a suitable customer, the price can be lowered to around 55 pounds, which is about the same level as the internal price of the Spanish Navy.

After all, what the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard needed at that time was the experience in building the latest ironclad ships, and the income of tens of thousands of pounds was not that important to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

In order to get enough orders for the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, Carlo specifically contacted the Spanish diplomatic department and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cooperate with the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and find partners throughout Asia who could purchase warships.

As the economic crisis continues to develop, more and more companies and factories in various countries are going bankrupt.

After waiting for a while, Carlo thought it was the right time to buy at the bottom. Factories and companies in European countries were now very cheap, and there were a large number of these bankrupt factories and companies that Carlo wanted to buy.

For example, there is a private shipyard in the UK, all the information of this shipyard has been clearly discovered by the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

Before the economic crisis, this private shipyard was one of the larger private shipyards in the UK and was quite famous.

Even the shipyards had the ability to build ironclad ships, as well as the relevant equipment and skilled workers.

Because of this, the total value of the shipyard before the economic crisis exceeded 150 million pounds, or 3900 million pesetas.

Such a large sum of money was a considerable expense for the royal family before the economic crisis, so the acquisition of this shipyard had never been carried out, and Carlo could only drool at the sight of this shipyard.

But now it is different. The economic crisis has affected not only railway companies and banks, but also all walks of life in European countries.

The impact on the shipyard as a military-industrial enterprise is not as exaggerated as imagined, but it is also quite serious.

This shipyard, which was originally worth 150 million pounds, was recently put up for sale for only 70 pounds.

Logically speaking, since the offered price is less than half of the original value, there should be a lot of people scrambling for it.

But in fact, many British capitalists were unable to take care of themselves, let alone come up with a full 70 pounds to buy this shipyard.

This also led to the fact that no one was interested in selling the shipyard, and the shipyard's offer price was getting lower and lower every day.

Although the owner of the shipyard knew that selling the shipyard would make him lose money, he had no other choice. If he did not sell the shipyard in time, it would only make him lose more money if it continued to rot in his hands.

As long as the economic crisis does not end, the prices of shipyards will continue to fall.

If you sell it early now, you can still get back hundreds of thousands of pounds. If you wait until the value of the shipyard depreciates to an extremely low number, it will be too late to sell it then.

After confirming that no one was interested in this shipyard, Carlo was no longer in a hurry.

The current situation is that the later Carlo acquires the shipyard, the less money he will have to pay.

Butler Loren suggested that we wait at least half a month. According to the current depreciation of the shipyard, we can buy it for about 50 pounds in half a month.

50 pounds is still a huge sum for capitalists, but it is nothing to Carlo.

This amount of money converted into pesetas is only 1300 million, which is almost the annual net profit of the Royal United Bank.

Spending 1300 million pesetas to purchase such a medium-to-large shipyard with experience and technology in building ironclad ships was certainly a good deal for Carlo.

After purchasing this shipyard, it can be merged with the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to build a truly large shipyard and compete with other European countries for the warship export business.

At the same time, the British shipyard's rich shipbuilding experience can also bring significant improvements to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

The British were still very good at shipbuilding during this era. Although the era of ironclad ships was pioneered by the French, the subsequent eras of pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts were all led by the British.

Even aircraft carriers were slowly evolved by the British based on battleships and cruisers.

The British shipbuilding experience remained world-leading for the next 80 years. For Carlo, this was more valuable than the shipyard itself.

Because of Gibraltar, the relationship between Spain and the British is destined not to be very good.

This also led to the fact that it was difficult for Spain to obtain the more advanced shipbuilding technology of the British. Either it could not afford it or the British took the initiative to blockade Spain.

The current economic crisis is the best opportunity, and Carlo also asked Butler Lauren to focus on Britain.

Of course, it is not only the royal family that is planning to acquire factories in other European countries. The Spanish government obviously also has this idea.

While Carlo and Butler Loren were discussing the scope of the acquisition, the Spanish industrial department also made a detailed list of companies that Spain needed to acquire and equipment that needed to be purchased.

"Mr. Prime Minister, this is the latest purchase list confirmed by the industrial sector. Please take a look." The Spanish Minister of Industry handed a detailed purchase order to Prime Minister Primo and asked for his opinion.

Prime Minister Primo took it and took a look, and was immediately shocked by the huge appetite of the industrial sector.

The industrial sector's procurement list covers almost the entire industrial system, with the most important directions being metallurgy, petroleum, chemicals, shipbuilding, machinery, engines and military industry.

"162 companies, a total of 5.2 million pesetas for acquisition funds?" Prime Minister Primo's face suddenly darkened as he looked at the Minister of Industry with a murderous look, and asked with a sneer, "Are you going to spend the entire year's government revenue on purchasing these companies?"

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(End of this chapter)