Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 176 Train Track Synchronization
After a brief greeting and pleasantries, it was time to get down to business.

Queen Sophie was very smart. When she felt that the time was about right, she invited Carlo's sister, Queen Maria, to visit the gardens and other attractions in the palace, giving Carlo and King Louis enough private space to talk about the business they needed to talk about.

The two queens walked out of the banqueting room one after another, and the conversation between Carlo and King Louis became more formal.

After all, Carlo and King Louis are not related by blood, and they are not familiar with each other, so naturally they can only have a more formal conversation.

"Your Majesty Carlo, Spain has changed tremendously in the past few years. Perhaps in a few years, Spain will indeed have the hope of achieving revival under your rule, and Spain will once again become one of the six major powers in Europe, alongside Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria." King Louis I of Portugal first praised the changes in Spain in recent years and complimented Carlo.

In the eyes of Louis I, Carlo was less than 24 years old, and even if he did not like such compliments very much, he would certainly not have any obvious objection.

After all, who doesn't like to hear good words, especially from a young king?

"This is the result of Prime Minister Primo's efforts. It is his reforms that have created the strong Spain we have today," Carlo said with a smile.

Spain's revival was indeed the result of Prime Minister Primo's reforms, and Carlo's contribution was not great. In addition to affirming Prime Minister Primo's contribution, this also told Louis I that he did not have much power in the current Kingdom of Spain, so that the Portuguese royal family should not have too many expectations of the Spanish royal family.

"The Prime Minister is also under the leadership of the King, and the King is the master of a country." Louis I smiled and expressed his objection, which was also what he thought in his heart.

For traditional European nobles like Louis I, they always believed that the king was the master of the country. Even if most of the power was divided away by the constitutional system, as long as the king was still there, the country was the king's property.

This can also be seen from Carlo's sister, Queen Maria. Although Queen Maria has a good reputation in Portugal, she is even called the angel of charity and the mother of the poor by the Portuguese.

However, Queen Maria's extravagant behavior and some stubborn ideas were opposed by some people, especially some officials.

Several stories passed down in later generations also prove this point. At a masquerade, Queen Maria changed her clothes three times in one night, and each costume cost hundreds of pounds, which was equivalent to wearing a body full of gold and jewels.

This is not an exaggeration, after all, 1 pound was equivalent to 7.33 grams of gold at that time. The cost of clothing was as high as hundreds of pounds, which was actually equivalent to several kilograms of gold.

When the Portuguese Parliament discussed the huge expenses of the queen, Queen Maria gave her attitude: "If you want a queen, you have to spend money on her."

Queen Maria also implemented this. Most of the interior decoration of the Ajuda Palace in Lisbon was carried out under the leadership of Queen Maria, and the Portuguese royal family and government spent more money on this than an ironclad warship.

Queen Maria's stubborn attitude and thoughts towards absolute monarchy are reflected in an incident that Carlo heard with his own ears.

In the same year that Carlo arrived in Spain, Queen Maria had a small conflict in Portugal with the current Duke of Saldanha.

The conflict between the queen and the nobles was inevitable, but Queen Maria expressed a very tough and firm attitude, threatening the Portuguese nobleman, the Duke of Saldanha: "If I were the king, I would shoot you directly!"

The reason why Queen Maria has such a tough attitude is naturally that her father Vittorio Emanuele II is the King of Italy, her brother Carlo is the King of Spain, and her husband Luis is the King of Portugal.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with Queen Maria's way of doing things and thinking. After all, many nobles and kings had the same idea at that time.

There were also nobles who were more extravagant than Queen Maria, and there were even more nobles who were more stubborn and authoritarian than Queen Maria.

The only problem was that Portugal faced the same serious weakness as Spain, and Portugal itself was not very strong, which also exacerbated the changes in the country.

After King Louis' death, Maria continued to be active in Portugal as the Queen Mother and even served as regent.

Under her guidance, her successor, Carlos I, also showed a more autocratic attitude and ruled in a rather harsh and autocratic manner.

The long-term autocratic rule made the Portuguese quite dissatisfied. After 270 years of rule in Spain, the Braganza dynasty finally collapsed.

The responsibility for the demise of the Kingdom of Portugal cannot be attributed to Queen Maria, but some of her actions did exacerbate the demise of the Kingdom of Portugal.

But this is not bad news for Carlo, and it may even turn into an opportunity for Spain to re-annex Portugal.

Yes, in Carlo's plans for Spain's future, annexing Portugal has always been an extremely important part of Spain, second only to Gibraltar in importance.

These two things are actually one thing, and whether they can be accomplished depends on the attitude of the British. When Spain is no longer afraid of the British, perhaps the recovery of Gibraltar and the annexation of Portugal can be carried out at the same time.

The entire Iberian Peninsula is an extremely perfect land, surrounded by the sea on all sides and bordering France only in the northeast.

Simply by deploying troops and building fortresses on both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains, the enemy could be kept out of the Iberian Peninsula.

If Portugal's large plain areas are added, Spain will gain a large amount of arable land, strengthening Spain's agricultural strength.

The entire Iberian Peninsula can easily accommodate more than 7000 million people. Adding the Moroccan region that Carlo plans to localize, the population that these lands can accommodate is close to 1 million.

Although it is not as big as the United States and other large countries with vast land and plains, compared with other European countries, this population accommodation capacity is not weak.

In addition to controlling the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain will become the controller of the important transportation routes between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and the overlord of the western Mediterranean, and may have the opportunity to stand on an equal footing with major powers such as Britain, France and Germany.

Although this idea is beautiful, it is quite difficult to realize. At least for Spain now, Portugal, Gibraltar and Morocco are all bombs that cannot be touched.

Gibraltar is guarded by the British, who also do not allow Portugal and Morocco to be annexed by Spain.

What's more, for Spain at that time, even if there was an opportunity to annex Portugal, Carlo would not allow Spain to do so.

Although Portugal is not very big, it has a population of over 450 million, which is close to a quarter of the Spanish population, and it is very difficult to assimilate.

Moreover, the Portuguese were orthodox Europeans, so it was impossible for them to use tough assimilation methods. The annexation of Portugal was a very difficult process, and one had to wait for the right time, or at least make sure that the Portuguese were not so opposed.

Before this, the relationship between Spain and Portugal had to be maintained at a certain level. Both countries were weak colonial powers and could achieve cooperation to a certain extent.

At least Portugal cannot be allowed to completely side with Britain, which would make it more difficult to annex Portugal and make Spain's other plans more difficult.

“Your Majesty Carlo, Portugal and Spain are Iberia’s neighbors. I think it is necessary for us to maintain peace in Iberia and jointly deal with enemies outside of Iberia.

The Portuguese government is happy to sign relevant treaties with the Spanish government to build a solid Iberian defense line, so that we can all focus on the outside and the management of the colonies. "King Louis I of Portugal said with a smile.

As two former colonial powers, the colonies of Spain and Portugal share one characteristic: they are spread all over the world.

Spain had many colonies throughout Africa and Asia, as did Portugal.

The comprehensive strength of Portugal and Spain had been weakened by half, and Louis I's intention was very clear, that is, he hoped that Spain, like Portugal, would focus on the colonies outside, rather than the affairs within the Iberian Peninsula. After all, colonies can generate a steady stream of wealth, and there are large colonies in many places, including Africa, waiting for Portugal and Spain to develop.

Carlo has no ideas about Portugal in the short term, but that doesn't mean Carlo will easily agree to King Louis' request for cooperation.

Portugal is currently the weaker party. If it wants to exchange for a non-aggression treaty and further cooperation with Spain, it must pay something.

Strictly speaking, there is not much difference between the Portuguese and the Spanish, and their languages ​​are barely mutually intelligible.

If we can introduce some high-quality Portuguese talents, we can not only test the possibility of assimilation of the Portuguese in advance, but also fill the gap of Spanish talents again.

In addition, Spanish industrial products entered the Portuguese market. Because both countries are located on the Iberian Peninsula, the transportation costs between Spain and Portugal are very low.

If Spain's industrial products could enter the Portuguese market, although it was only a small market with a population of several million, its purchasing power would be stronger than the colonial market of tens of millions.

A large number of industrial products entering the Portuguese market can also destroy Portugal's industrial system. By the time Portugal reacts, the industry has already been destroyed by cheaper industrial products.

Controlling Portugal's economy in this way can also influence the Portuguese government's decision-making in certain situations. If the time is right to annex Portugal, it can also speed up the annexation of Portugal.

Carlo nodded, but did not directly agree to King Louis' proposal. Instead, he changed the subject and said with a smile: "The problem of different widths of train tracks has troubled us for a long time. The Spanish government is currently considering modifying the train tracks to align with the mainstream European train track widths to facilitate Spain's better economic exchanges with the European continent.

Your Majesty, Louis, what do you think of the proposal to change the width of the train tracks?

Although countries around the world are vigorously building railways, the width of railways built by different countries is also different. As the first country to build railways, the width of the railways they built is 1435 mm, which is also the standard width built by most countries.

The advantage of using this as the standard width of railway tracks is that railways can easily achieve cross-border connection, enhance railway transportation capacity, and avoid some unnecessary transfers and connection processes.

But not all countries adopt the standard width of 1435 mm. The two countries on the Iberian Peninsula each have their own railway track width standards.

The width of Spain's railway is 1674 mm, which is a true wide-gauge railway. There are many benefits to wide-gauge railways. First, wider carriages make trains more comfortable to ride, and also enhance the transportation capacity of train carriages.

Whether used to carry passengers or freight, trains running on wider tracks can transport more total tonnage and have greater transportation capacity.

Wider tracks are also more stable, greatly enhancing the safety of trains and making them less likely to derail.

But this does not mean that broad-gauge railways have no disadvantages. Broad-gauge railways occupy a larger area, require more rails and other materials to build the railway, and the corresponding cost is higher.

Especially in countries with more mountainous areas like Spain, building railways requires digging tunnels, which greatly increases the cost of railway construction.

Why did Spain resolutely choose a wide-gauge railway that is very different from that of mainstream European countries even though it knew that building railways in this way would increase its costs infinitely?

The main reason was to guard against France in the north. As Spain's only neighbor besides Portugal, France had always been very powerful.

Since the Napoleonic Empire, France has always been the hegemon on the European continent. During the Napoleonic Empire, France also occupied Spain, which made Spain increasingly defensive against France.

When France was strong, the French army could easily break through the Pyrenees and enter the Spanish mainland.

If the railway tracks were exactly the same as those in France, the French could easily use the railways built by Spain and greatly enhance their logistical supply capabilities.

It is for this reason that the railways in the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula have completely different standard railway widths from those used in France, making it difficult for the French to use the railways in Spain and Portugal.

Similarly, in order to guard against the Spanish, Portugal also made some modifications based on the broad-gauge railway. Although Portugal and Spain also use broad-gauge railways, the width of Portugal's railway tracks is slightly narrower by nine millimeters, ensuring that the Spanish cannot easily use Portugal's railways.

Carlo suddenly raised the issue of connecting the Spanish and French railways, but it was impossible that he really wanted to connect the Spanish and French railways.

Spain's industry is not as strong as imagined. Connecting with the railways of continental Europe will only allow industrial products from industrially powerful countries such as Germany and France to enter the Spanish market quickly.

This is not a good thing for Spain and will also increase France's influence on Spain.

The reason why the issue of railway tracks was raised at this time was actually to tell King Louis that if he wanted to sign a non-aggression treaty between Spain and Portugal, Portugal must connect its railways with those of Spain, and the two Iberian islands must adopt the same railway track standards.

To a certain extent, it is beneficial for both countries to adopt the same railway track standards.

The train lines between the two countries can be easily connected, and trains can pass smoothly from the Spanish railway to the Portuguese railway without any special steps.

This will greatly facilitate the movement of population and the transportation of goods, and the economies of Portugal and Spain will also be rapidly boosted.

But this is ignoring the impact of industrial products flooding into the Portuguese market on Portuguese industry. Doing so can indeed promote economic growth, but the sacrifice may be Portugal's industry.

Spain's industrial scale is not large compared with superpowers such as Britain, France and Germany. Compared with the last-ranked powers like Italy, Spain's industry is still very competitive.

For Portugal, a country that is not even considered a great power, if Spanish industrial products enter the Portuguese market, it could be a devastating blow to Portugal's industry.

The larger the scale of industry, the lower the price of industrial products. The small-scale Portuguese industry cannot compete with the Spanish industry unless the government can vigorously support the development of local industry, such as raising tariffs, restricting imports, etc.

But wouldn't that just negate the effect of having synchronized train tracks? Would the Spanish allow that?

It turned out that Louis I was not a stupid king. He immediately understood the meaning of Carlo's words, but because of this, he was very hesitant.

With the authority of Louis I, there would be basically no resistance to synchronizing the railway tracks between Portugal and Spain.

But the impact of doing so on Portugal requires careful consideration. Is it really worth it for Portugal to pay such a price just for a non-aggression treaty?
"Your Majesty Louis, our country has achieved a complete victory in the colonial war in the East Indies. I believe your country has already learned of this news?" Seeing that Louis I had no response, Carlo changed the question and asked with a smile.

"Of course." Louis I nodded, with a hint of envy in his eyes, and said: "The powerful combat capability of your army is enviable, and Spain's colonies have expanded a lot."

Carlo smiled. King Louis obviously didn't know that Spain had already begun secretly colonizing the larger land in the Congo River basin.

Portugal's West African colonies happened to be located in the lower reaches of the Congo River, and it could be said that they were only separated from the land of the Congo River by a wall.

This act of secretly colonizing the land in the Congo River basin without the knowledge of the largest colonizer near the Congo River even made Carlo feel like he was committing a crime against his husband.

(End of this chapter)