Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 161 The Second Five-Year Plan

The split of the Ministry of Industry is just a minor episode for Prime Minister Primo and Carlo, and will not disrupt their current tacit cooperative relationship.

The previous Minister of Industry, Ruiz, also successfully became the first Minister of Transport after the establishment of the Transport Department, and retained his position as Cabinet Minister.

After the Minister of Transport was selected, all members of the new Spanish cabinet government were also announced.

According to the Spanish Constitution, after the Prime Minister nominates candidates for ministers of various departments, he needs to report the final list to the King of Spain.

Only after the King of Spain personally signs the appointment of cabinet members can those nominated by the Prime Minister be considered as cabinet members.

Of course, as the King of Spain, Carlo also has the power to reject the nominees for cabinet members and ask the Prime Minister to reselect cabinet members.

However, such power is generally not used. After all, the cabinet ministers nominated by the prime minister are basically his own confidants, and a direct rejection is tantamount to falling out with the prime minister.

After the cabinet members were confirmed, Prime Minister Primo immediately announced his expectations for the second five-year plan to the cabinet government, and asked each department to make certain adjustments to its work tasks in the five-year plan based on its actual situation.

It is necessary to have practical discussions with various departments. After all, the detailed contents of the five-year plan still need to be implemented by various departments.

Without this step, the goals of the five-year plan may become empty or impossible to achieve, which will lead to fraud in the departments below. Or the goals will be easy to achieve for Spain, and the five-year plan will lose its original meaning.

The second five-year plan planned by Prime Minister Primo is more important than the first five-year plan and has important goals that connect the past and the future.

Just look at the expressions of the ministers of various departments after they received Prime Minister Primo’s second five-year development plan, and you will know how exaggerated Prime Minister Primo’s second five-year plan is.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, isn't it a bit unreasonable to increase the scale of railways to 1879 kilometers before 1.1?" Although he did not want to stand up and oppose Prime Minister Primo, in order for the transportation department to successfully complete its tasks in the next five years, Ruiz had to stand up and express his different opinions.

Spain's current total railway mileage is only over 7500 kilometers, and this is the railway mileage it achieved last year when the industrial sector vigorously built railways.

Currently, there is still a gap of 1.1 kilometers to the goal of 3500 kilometers of railway mileage. If we want to build more than 3500 kilometers of railway in five years, the average annual mileage of railway construction will be more than 700 kilometers.

700 kilometers may not seem like a lot, but the problem is that Spain only built 2100 kilometers of railways in the last five-year plan, with an average of just over 400 kilometers built each year.

This was achieved despite the frantic construction of railways by the Ministry of Industry in 1873. If the level of the first four years of the Five-Year Plan was followed, the average annual construction of railways was only more than 300 kilometers.

The second five-year plan proposed by Prime Minister Primo requires the construction of more than 700 kilometers of railways per year on average, which is almost twice the speed of the first five-year plan.

The transportation sector has just become independent from the industrial sector, and it is unknown whether it can quickly reach the speed at which the industrial sector once built railways.

Prime Minister Primo had long anticipated that someone would raise different opinions. He nodded calmly, looked at Minister Ruiz and said, "Does the transportation department have any other opinions?"

“My Lord Prime Minister, I believe that the transport sector should aim to increase our total railway mileage to 10,000 kilometres within the five-year development plan.

Our current railway construction speed cannot meet the requirement of 1.1 kilometers unless the government is willing to increase capital investment and start more railway construction at the same time." Transport Minister Ruiz said gritting his teeth.

"Considering the difficulty of each department in completing its tasks, this year's fiscal budget will be increased. As for other issues besides funding, you need to find ways to solve them yourself." At this point, Prime Minister Primo's face became more serious, and he was not polite to his subordinates in the same party: "

If you feel that you are unable to complete such a task, you might as well raise it earlier. So that I have more time to report to His Majesty the King and replace the position of the cabinet minister earlier. "

"Yes, Prime Minister. The transportation department will make every effort to complete your task." Ruiz immediately understood that Prime Minister Primo was making an example of him, so he nodded very solemnly and never dared to raise any opinions again.

After Ruiz's move, the other cabinet ministers dared not express different opinions. They could only nod to show that they understood.

Prime Minister Primo nodded with satisfaction, and the new five-year development plan was officially determined.

Although this development plan has more ambitious goals than the previous one, it is not an unattainable dream for each department.

As long as the government increases its investment and officials from various departments work a little harder, there will be no problem in achieving the goal.

就拿交通运输部门的3500公里铁路来举例。虽然西班牙在上一次五年发展计划当中建设了超过2100公里的铁路，但前4年建设的铁路只有1500公里，最后1年建设的铁路超过了600公里。

According to the development trend, it is not difficult for the transportation department to achieve the annual railway construction target of 700 kilometers, or at least it is possible to achieve it.

The situation in other departments is not much different. Although the goal is difficult, there is still great hope as long as we work hard.

After the cabinet department finalized the five-year development plan, Prime Minister Primo submitted the complete plan to Carlo.

Because it is just a plan, it does not need to be submitted to the Senate for a vote. In fact, it is more like a goal set by the cabinet government for itself to spur cabinet ministers to work hard to achieve it.

However, if the goals of the five-year plan can be successfully completed, it will definitely be a great achievement and will be beneficial to the re-election of the cabinet government five years later.

Even if one cannot be elected as prime minister, he can still show his achievements and abilities to the prime minister of the next cabinet government, thereby getting the opportunity to be promoted to a cabinet minister again.

Spain has specific requirements for the prime minister's term of office. Each term is five years and he can only be re-elected twice.

But there are no specific requirements for other cabinet ministers. As long as they are capable and have the trust of the prime minister, they will have no problem remaining in office until their death.

The reason why there are no specific requirements for the term of office of cabinet ministers is entirely to make better use of these capable talents.

It would be a loss for Spain if a very capable person had to leave the cabinet government at a young age because of his term as a cabinet minister.

When Carlo saw the five-year development plan formulated by Prime Minister Primo, his first reaction was a little surprise, but then he quickly understood Prime Minister Primo's ideas.

Although the overall goals of the five-year plan are more ambitious than before, the problem is that Spain today is by no means the Spain of five years ago.

Moreover, the economic crisis is still going on. Spain's buying spree and digging spree are still going on, with a large amount of foreign equipment and technical data being transported to Spain every day and then transferred to other companies and factories.

We may not see any results in the next one or two years, but after three or four years, when Spanish companies and factories have completely absorbed these foreign equipment and technical data and are able to independently produce and develop, Spain's industry and other sectors will experience explosive growth.

In other words, such an ambitious goal may seem difficult to achieve now, but considering that there is five years to complete the goal, there is actually great hope.

Besides, national development is a process of overcoming challenges. If development is really that smooth and easy, doesn't it mean that anyone can perform the duties of the cabinet government perfectly?
What are these cabinet ministers for? Isn't it to let them face challenges and lead various departments to promote the development of Spain?

Carlo took a general look at the five-year development plan formulated by Prime Minister Primo and was quite looking forward to Spain in five years.

If all the goals in the five-year plan can be properly completed, Spain will be able to proudly call itself a powerful country in five years. Why do I say that? Because after the completion of this five-year plan, Spain's total industrial scale, heavy industrial scale, and military scale will completely catch up with Italy.

In terms of economic scale, it may not be as good as Italy, after all, Italy has a larger population. In addition, Spain's military expansion will be completely completed, and the total combat power and scale of the navy and army will exceed that of Italy.

If Italy can be called a great power, why can't Spain be called a great power?
Carlo is most looking forward to the population situation in Spain. In the first five-year plan, the population of Spain increased by more than 115 million.

Prime Minister Primo's initial expectation for the specific scale of Spain's population growth in the second five-year plan is around 150 million.

This is not blind imagination. First of all, the increase in the number of newborns is due to the growth of Spain's population. A country with a larger population will definitely have more newborns than a country with a smaller population.

The second reason is immigration from various countries during the economic crisis. Although Spain mainly recruits technical and scientific talents, a large number of Europeans still immigrate abroad due to the economic crisis.

Spain is relatively special in this economic crisis. In addition, its large-scale digging and buying has attracted the attention of many countries and people. It is expected that it may be welcomed by European immigrants in the future.

However, the number of these European immigrants still needs to be controlled, which is why Prime Minister Primo initially estimated the scale of population growth in the five-year plan at 150 million.

If the number of immigrants is not restricted, Spain's population may even increase to 2000 million within five years.

But such blind population growth is not a good thing. The main ethnic group in Spain is Spanish, and the proportion of Spanish people in the total population will also determine the stability of Spain.

The most obvious example of this is the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had a population of at least 3700 million, second only to Germany among the European powers and larger than France and Britain.

However, the comprehensive national strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was obviously inferior to that of Britain and France. One of the main reasons for this was that the ethnic distribution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was too complex, and the majority of the people, the Austrians, or the South Germans, did not account for a very high proportion.

One of the main reasons for the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I was that other nations had already gained considerable voice.

Although the estimated population growth was only about 150 million, Spain still had hope of reaching a population of around 1879 million by 1925.

Although Spain cannot absorb too many immigrants, there is one exception: immigrants from countries that were once Spanish colonies.

Mexico, Argentina, Chile and other American countries are among them. Although the population of these countries is not purely Spanish, they definitely have Spanish ancestry.

In addition, they speak Spanish and believe in Catholicism, which makes it easier for them to assimilate into Spain.

Attracting and accepting more immigrants from former colonies in the Americas and assimilating them into Spaniards may be the only way for Spain to quickly increase its population in a short period of time.

Unfortunately, the population of these American countries is not too large at present, and there is a limit to the number of immigrants that Spain can absorb.

Looking at Prime Minister Primo, who had been sitting respectfully on the luxurious sofa since handing over the five-year development plan, Carlo asked with a smile: "Prime Minister Primo, how is the government's work on foreign immigration going?"

This is not regular emigration, but encouraged emigration in Catalonia and the Basque Country, as well as other regions with non-Spanish populations.

Simply put, by converting assets, these non-Spanish people are encouraged to immigrate to other areas outside Spain.

After Spain enacted a law on the unification of ethnic groups, religion and language, the living environment of these other ethnic groups who kept shouting that they were not Spanish was not so good in Spain.

Under Spanish law, those who do not recognize themselves as Spanish are not recognized as citizens by the Spanish government.

Without Spanish citizenship, they cannot work in the government and royal enterprises. You know, although Spain also has a minimum income guarantee, the income and welfare benefits of the government and royal enterprises are obviously higher.

Not being able to enter these companies means they lose a lot of welfare policies. Some private companies will also formally refuse to allow non-Spanish people to join, which makes it difficult for these groups who do not admit that they are Spanish to find a high-paying job.

For most civilians, they already admit that they are Spanish. For those who have been severely brainwashed and even turned into radical nationalists, they are certainly unwilling to admit that they are Spanish.

But this is just as well, as Spain does not welcome these radical nationalists.

The policy of encouraging outward immigration is specifically aimed at these radical nationalists, using relatively gentle means to persuade them to immigrate abroad.

At this point, there is a question: what should be done with those radical nationalists who are unwilling to accept gentle persuasion and are unwilling to immigrate to other regions outside Spain?

This problem is also easy to solve, which is to use tougher measures to force them to immigrate or rebel.

"Your Majesty, currently the immigration from Catalonia is going smoothly. Since the promulgation of our policy of national unification, at least tens of thousands of people have chosen to immigrate abroad.

At present, most of the radical nationalists in Catalonia have emigrated, and it is expected that within the next five years, most of the more radical Catalans will be able to emigrate abroad. "Primo reported.

As a Catalan, Prime Minister Primo has a relatively good understanding of the situation in Catalonia.

Most Catalans now still recognize themselves as Spanish. As for why Catalonia's independence tendency is so serious in later generations, the main reason is the long-term brainwashing of nationalism and Spain's bloodsucking of Catalonia.

Yes, Spain has been sucking blood from Catalonia for a long time in later generations.

If we want to talk about the responsibility, in fact, it should be attributed to the Bourbon royal family. Why did Spain weaken? There are many reasons, one of the most important reasons is that Spain has been unstable since the Industrial Revolution and missed two very important Industrial Revolutions.

The Carlos Wars that plagued Spain for decades were actually caused by Queen Isabel's succession to the throne.

Queen Isabel's incompetent rule also led to Spain's complete fall from power. The industry and economy of other parts of Spain did not develop much, but Catalonia became one of the most developed regions in Spain under the development of republicans and nationalists.

The developed Catalonia and Barcelona naturally became the target of Spain's blood sucking. The Catalans were not very satisfied with this, and it was normal that the independence sentiment intensified under the instigation of radical nationalists.

After hearing that tens of thousands of Catalans had emigrated, Carlo was quite satisfied with the government's progress.

Although the population of the entire Catalonia region is as high as millions, the more radical nationalists only number tens of thousands at most.

As long as most of them can be sent out, most of the problems in Catalonia will be solved. Without radical nationalists in Catalonia, assimilation will be relatively simple.

Although it is not as deep as other regions, there is no problem in ensuring that the vast majority of Catalans recognize themselves as Spanish and are proud to be Spanish.

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(End of this chapter)