Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 172 The Problem of Military Expansion

It is not possible to describe the achievements of the Spanish government in 1874 in just a few words. Even in the colonial field, Spain made considerable breakthroughs.

The construction of railways in the East Indies went very smoothly. The annexation of several indigenous sultanates was carried out openly, and the subsequent colonial rule and railway construction could naturally be carried out openly.

The railway in the Congo River Basin needs to be concealed in the early stages of construction, which is also the biggest challenge in railway construction. After all, laying railways requires a large number of rails, and the transportation of these rails is not so easy.

The fastest-growing railway currently under construction is the railway from the Guinea colony to the upper reaches of the Congo River basin, with a total length of nearly 100 kilometers.

However, this kind of railway is a bit simpler than the railways built in Spain. It is just a single-track railway, so it will be much simpler to build.

With the help of this newly constructed railway, the colony of Guinea has been able to transport a large amount of supplies to the lands along the Congo River.

Once the colonial outposts in this land have expanded to a certain extent, Spain can declare that it has established its own territory and rule this land.

Even if Portugal, Britain and France reacted, they would not be able to compete with Spain for colonization on this land. Unless they were willing to start a local war with Spain for this land, no one could threaten Spain's rule here.

Although the development of Spain and its colonies was smooth, this was achieved at the expense of a large amount of government funds.

In terms of finance, the Spanish government's total fiscal revenue in 1874 reached 7.317 million pesetas (approximately 2812 million pounds), a significant increase compared to 1873.

The main reasons for this are the tremendous achievements brought about by the first five-year plan and the economic improvement promoted by large amounts of government funding.

The first five-year plan supported a large number of private enterprises. Although most of them were small and medium-sized enterprises, there were also a few that gradually became medium and large leading enterprises.

The tax revenues contributed by these enterprises to the Spanish government were not small figures. Together with the taxes paid by the royal enterprises, the Spanish government's fiscal revenues reached a new high in 1874.

Although the total fiscal revenue in 1874 was close to the fiscal expenditure in 1873, Carlo was obviously not happy about the revenue figures.

The reason is the Spanish government's fiscal spending, which is described in the next line. Revenue has been greatly increased, and so has fiscal spending.

In 1874, the Spanish government's financial expenditure on foreign operations reached 2.7 million pesetas, more than twice the expenditure on foreign operations in the previous year.

At the beginning of 1874, Prime Minister Primo discussed the annual fiscal budget and, quite forward-lookingly, raised the fiscal budget to 8.972 million pesetas.

But it is clear that Prime Minister Primo underestimated the economic burden of the full development of the Spanish government. The fiscal expenditure level for the whole year of 1874 exceeded this figure by a large margin, even breaking through ten figures.

10.552 billion pesetas. When Carlo saw this level of expenditure, he couldn't help but be shocked.

This amount of funds is equivalent to 4055 million pounds. Considering that the construction cost of an ironclad ship is about 50 pounds, the total fiscal expenditure for that year can build more than 80 ironclad ships.

Although the actual situation cannot be calculated in this way, it can prove how exaggerated this fiscal expenditure is.

No wonder all departments have achieved good results. This is entirely due to the money spent by the Spanish government. In simple terms, it is the result of spending huge amounts of money.

Obviously, the Spanish government is not rich. Therefore, in the future, it is basically impossible to achieve good results by spending a lot of money.

The biggest reason why Spain was able to afford high fiscal expenditures of more than 10 billion pesetas was that it obtained a large amount of financial loans from Italy, Austria-Hungary and France before the economic crisis.

Loans from Italy and Austria-Hungary were modest, amounting to 7500 million lire and 1.2 million crowns respectively (£300 million and £500 million).

Together with the 5 million francs in cash that can be obtained from the 2 million francs low-interest loan provided by the French, there are more than 4 million pesetas of funds that can be misappropriated.

Together with the additional currency issued by the Monetary Board through gold from Indian temples, the Spanish government had the confidence to spend more than 10 billion pesetas to promote national development during the economic crisis.

In 1874, the Spanish government's fiscal deficit was as high as 3.235 million pesetas, and in 1873 the fiscal deficit was also as high as 2 million pesetas.

Although these funds have brought about rapid development in all walks of life in Spain, it is clear that Spain is no longer able to continue such financial expenditures.

Since the gold from the Indian temple was transported to Spain, the Currency Board has issued more than 2.5 million pesetas of currency.

Coupled with loans from the three countries, Spain has sufficient funds to maintain its vigorous development in recent years.

However, the available funds in the Spanish treasury are less than 1 million pesetas. Development in 1875 still needs to take into account the balance between fiscal expenditure and revenue.

Although the Monetary Board can still create sufficient available funds for the Spanish government by issuing more currency, if the Spanish market is not taken into consideration and banknotes are released to the market at a high frequency, it is likely to affect the actual value of the peseta.

Moreover, Spain's development has gradually been back on track. The most important thing next is to seek stability. Allowing Spain's economy and industry to make steady progress is what the government should do most.

Thinking of this, Carlo had to be thankful for the corruption during Queen Isabel's reign. It was because the Spanish government ignored development and pursued pleasure at that time that the Spanish government did not have too much debt.

Currently, the total debt of the Spanish government is only about 7 million pesetas, which is still within the acceptable range for the Spanish government.

Moreover, the shortest debt repayment period is more than ten years, and the longer one is even more than twenty years.

With less debt pressure, the Spanish government's future development is indeed bright. Even without relying on financial support, the growth rate of industrial and economic development will be steady in the next few years.

It’s no wonder that due to the economic crisis, Spain’s agriculture also saw significant improvements in 1874.

After acquiring large tracts of land from the nobility and the church, these lands were provided to farmers for cultivation in various ways.

Combined with newly reclaimed land, Spain's total arable land area has reached a new high, and grain production is also rising steadily.

Although there are no more detailed statistics, it is certain that the cultivated land area in Spain has exceeded 1800 million hectares, and most of the million Spaniards are engaged in agricultural work on this land.

Yes, Spain's population has exceeded 1800 million. Although this data is a simple estimate of the birth and death of the population in each region, the actual situation should not be much different.

As Spain's per capita annual income increases, the birth rate is also growing. After all, only when people have spare money in their hands will they consider more things.

If you don't have enough food to eat, not many people will consider the issue of passing on the family line. Unfortunately, among the large number of babies born in Spain every year, some will die prematurely.

There was nothing that could be done about it, and Carlo was powerless to change it.

Ultimately, it is because the medical technology of this era is too backward, resulting in a very high risk factor in the production process.

Even if they can survive the birth safely, caring for infants and young children is still a big problem. Various diseases that are invisible to the naked eye can endanger the lives of infants and young children, which also makes the infant survival rate in Spain always low.

This problem also exists in other European countries, and even European royal families are no exception.

If we want to improve the survival rate of infants and young children, we can only hope for the improvement of subsequent medical environment and related medical equipment and technology.

"Your Majesty, the government's total fiscal budget this year is approximately 7.22 million pesetas. Here are the fiscal budget reports of various departments, please take a look." After reading the Spanish government's work report for 1874, Prime Minister Primo handed over a brand new fiscal budget report and introduced it to Carlo.

"7.22 million pesetas?" Carlo was curious and looked at Prime Minister Primo, asking, "Will reducing the fiscal budget by more than 3 million pesetas at once have any impact on the construction plans of various departments this year?"

"Based on the current situation, reducing the budget will have an impact, but the impact should not be significant." Prime Minister Primo explained: "Last year, our total fiscal expenditure exceeded 10 billion pesetas, the main reason is that the expenditure on external actions was close to 2.7 million pesetas.

That is why even if our fiscal budget is reduced by 3 million pesetas this year, the impact on various departments will not be too great.

Moreover, our military expansion has ended, and military spending can be appropriately reduced. It is for these reasons that this year's fiscal budget will be reduced by 3 million pesetas compared to last year."

Hearing what Prime Minister Primo said, Carlo nodded, and naturally there was no problem.

Indeed, the reason why the fiscal budget exploded last year was largely because the industrial sector spent a large amount of money purchasing foreign companies and industrial equipment.

At present, European countries have gradually emerged from the impact of the economic crisis, and the industrial sector's procurement plans have been completed, so there is naturally no need to spend any additional funds.

After deducting last year's 2.7 million pesetas for foreign operations, the Spanish government's annual fiscal budget is only about 8 million pesetas.

This year's fiscal budget has indeed been reduced compared to last year, but the reduction is not much, only a few tens of millions of pesetas at most.

"Did you encounter any problems during the expansion?" Carlo expressed his concern about the expansion of the Spanish army.

This military expansion was no small action, but rather expanded the size of Spain's original army several times.

After the military expansion was completed, the size of Spain's army has increased to the top eight in Europe. To be precise, it is second only to Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria, and is larger than Italy's regular army.

More importantly, the Spanish army also has strong combat effectiveness. As early as the British Empire, Spain was a world hegemon with strong land and sea power.

Although both the army and navy have weakened, the Spanish army does not have any major problems and can still become an elite force after careful training.

In addition to the new rifles and cannons equipped after the military reform, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, even if it is not as good as that of the great powers such as Germany and France that are famous for their army, is at least at the level of Britain and Austria, and is still slightly stronger than Russia and Italy.

Needless to say, Italy performed very poorly in both World War I and World War II. Although there are various reasons, it is an ironclad fact that the Italian army performed poorly overall.

There are too many complex reasons for the Russian army, but the biggest reason is the corruption of Russia as a country.

After all, it was an autocratic empire that had been established for hundreds of years, so it was normal for the empire to decay. Corruption and embezzlement were everywhere in Russia, and the combat effectiveness of the army was in a mess.

Whether in World War I or World War II, the Russian army relied on overwhelming numbers rather than combat effectiveness.

This also made Russia one of the countries with the highest casualties in the world war, with casualties of soldiers alone reaching tens of millions.

It is nothing to say that the army is stronger than Italy and Russia. Italy is the last of the great powers, while Russia has an extremely large territory and a dense population.

Spain has a population of only 1800 million at most. Under extreme circumstances, it can indeed recruit millions of troops, but this will cause irreversible damage to the country.

Let’s look at the great powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria. Any one of them can recruit an army of more than one million, or even several million.

Compared with these countries, Spain still has too many shortcomings, the biggest gap of which is in population.

Only by increasing the population to more than 3000 million, Spain will be qualified to confront these countries. Otherwise, the casualties in terms of population alone will be enough to make Spain feel painful, which is also the biggest gap between small and medium-sized countries and powerful countries.

"The expansion of the army has been very smooth, and basically there have been no problems." Prime Minister Primo first told the good news, and then mentioned the actual problems encountered in the expansion of the army:

If there is a problem, it should be that there is a certain difference between the number of artillery pieces planned for the military and the number of artillery pieces that can actually be equipped.

We expected that each infantry division would have more than 248 artillery pieces, but after actually equipping 248 artillery pieces, we simply could not meet the demand for artillery shells for these artillery pieces.

This will put tremendous pressure on the supply of the front line and slow down the advance of the infantry division.

After discussion, the Ministry of National Defense reduced the number of artillery pieces equipped to each infantry division to 112 pieces, which could barely meet the demand for artillery shells for these artillery pieces to fire simultaneously.

Artillery is indeed a good thing, but this does not mean that the more artillery there is, the stronger the army’s combat effectiveness will be.

Artillery needs shells to demonstrate its power. Once a war breaks out, the consumption of shells is astronomical.

Although the current artillery has a slow firing rate, if each infantry division is equipped with more than 200 artillery pieces, the six Spanish infantry divisions alone will have more than 1000 artillery pieces, almost catching up with the number of artillery pieces of Prussia and France during the Franco-Prussian War.

The six Spanish infantry divisions had less than 100,000 men. What does this mean? The number of artillery pieces equipped by each Spanish division was several times that of the Prussian and French armies. The logistical pressure can be imagined.

After discovering this problem, the defense department made timely modifications, changing the original 248 artillery pieces equipped in each infantry division to 112 artillery pieces, which barely solved the problem.

(End of this chapter)