Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 182 Carlo's Day

When the first telegram from Andrew, the head of the Lanfang Military Guidance Group, was sent back to Spain, it was already July 1875, 7, exactly two months after Prince Juan Fernando was born.

Since the birth of his first child, Carlo's mood has become extremely wonderful, and he even wishes he could be with his child all the time.

But unfortunately, Carlo had to deal with more and more government affairs. Since Prince Juan Fernando was one month old, Carlo could spare no more than five hours of free time every day.

The main reason for this is that Carlo has begun to get involved in more government affairs and exert his influence on the government as the King of Spain.

Some important documents from various government departments require Carlo's personal review and approval before they can be approved. Some large construction and engineering projects even require Carlo's personal signature.

This was a manifestation of the king's power, and also a concession by Prime Minister Primo to Carlo. Although neither side said it explicitly, a tacit understanding had been formed about the transfer of power.

Prime Minister Primo is letting Carlo get involved in more government affairs, and Carlo is also carefully cultivating his own power, preparing to take over the new government after Prime Minister Primo's second term as prime minister ends.

Although Prime Minister Primo limited his power in the early stage, Carlo would not do such a thing as abandoning the donkey after it has done its work. For Spain, Prime Minister Primo certainly has merits, and they are great merits.

If it were not for Prime Minister Primo who pushed for reform in Spain at all costs, Spain's development would not have been so rapid.

Although a certain amount of royal power was sacrificed in the early stages, the resulting upward development of Spain was what Carlo was willing to see.

Carlo already had an idea of ​​what would happen to Prime Minister Primo after his term ended. Like Archduke Serrano, Prime Minister Primo would be granted the title of Grand Duke and spend his later years in Madrid.

Gradually being involved in more government affairs is a good thing for Carlo, but it also means that his previous leisurely life is no longer there.

In the past, Carlo had plenty of time every day to arrange whatever he wanted, whether it was sightseeing, hunting, or arranging sumptuous dinners and banquets, he just followed his mood.

But after he started to get involved in more government affairs, Carlo's free time every day did not exceed five hours. At the most extreme times, he did not even have any free entertainment time.

After getting up at 8:30 in the morning, Carlo has an hour and a half to wash and eat. Every day's breakfast is ordered a day in advance, and Carlo can enjoy food from all over Europe and even the world.

Carlo never treats himself badly when it comes to food. There are more than 20 chefs in the Royal Palace of Madrid, coming from various European countries and all over the world.

It is no exaggeration to say that all the delicacies in the world can be enjoyed in the Royal Palace of Madrid, unless they are ingredients that are difficult to transport or seasonal delicacies.

From 10 a.m. to 11: p.m., Carlo meets with government officials and other personnel. If there is nothing urgent, he can also use it to handle government affairs.

The hour and a half from 11:1 to : is Carlo's lunch time. Generally, Carlo will choose to have lunch with Queen Sophie, and sometimes he will have lunch with some officials.

1点钟到2点半的一个半小时是午休时间，2点半到6点半的4个小时则会用来处理政务，参加会议以及其他各种活动等等。

Carlo would have his own private time after 6:30 p.m. But if there were not many government affairs to attend or government officials to meet, he could get off work as early as 3 or 4 p.m.

Although these days were very busy, Carlo was quite satisfied. After all, this represented the growth of his power, which was completely different from the previous free days.

On the afternoon of July 7, Carlo was dealing with a few government affairs when he received the telegram from Andrew.

It is called government affairs, but in fact it is some things reported by various departments of the cabinet. After discussion by the cabinet government, a preliminary solution has been reached, and it only waits for Carlo's signature and approval.

Carlo finished all the government affairs in a short time, and then concentrated on reading the telegram from Lan Fang.

The task that Carlo gave to Andrew was to form an army of more than 20,000 people in the Lan Fang Republic, so that the Lan Fang Republic would have enough strength to resist the Dutch colonial war.

According to Andrew's investigation results on the Lan Fang Republic, the Lan Fang Republic has sufficient capacity to form an army of 20,000 people, and the formation of the army has already begun.

According to Andrew's estimation of the current situation, the formation of the army is expected to be completed within three months and have a certain combat effectiveness within half a year.

After discussions between Andrew and the Lan Fang Republic, the Lan Fang people will account for half of the 20,000-strong army, which is about 10,000 people.

The remaining less than 10,000 people will be filled by local natives. Although these natives are not very reliable, they are suppressed by the same number of Lan Fang people, so there is no need to worry about problems with the army.

Anyway, the Dutch army was composed of almost the same people. There were actually very few real Dutch people, and most of the Dutch colonial army was a mixture of Dutch, mixed-race people and local indigenous people.

The proportion of real Dutch soldiers was definitely less than half. Even in some unappreciated armies, only middle and high-level officers were Dutch, and the other middle and low-level officers were all local natives.

Compared with such Dutch colonial troops, half of the new army of the Lan Fang Republic was Lan Fang people, which was a much higher proportion than the Dutch army.

Although these new troops were equipped with outdated muzzle-loading rifles, they were sufficient for the colony of Kalimantan.

"Report to Andrew. There is no need to rush to form the Lan Fang army, but a small-scale army should be dispatched as soon as possible to prepare for the subsequent colonization of New Guinea. Menotti has some experience in this area, and the preliminary work of exploring and colonizing New Guinea can be handed over to him.

In addition, during the formation of the Lan Fang Army, officers who are favorable to Spain should be trained as much as possible to exert more influence on this army.

I hope that this army will be pro-Spanish, and this is also the main point of their work in forming the army." After reading the entire telegram sent by Andrew, Carlo gave his orders to the guards. "Yes, Your Majesty." The guards nodded respectfully and went to convey Carlo's orders.

After dealing with the affairs of the Lan Fang Republic, Carlo had almost finished all his government affairs for the day.

After thinking for a moment, Carlo called Butler Loren and asked about the current development of the royal property.

In fact, the last time Carlo knew about the size of the royal family's assets was before the economic crisis. After the economic crisis, Carlo instructed Butler Loren to purchase excellent assets from bankrupt foreign companies as appropriate and to develop other industries of the royal family as much as possible. After that, he did not pay much attention to the royal family's assets.

The main problem is the huge amount of royal property. Simply put, the royal family has countless money, so much that Carlo cannot spend it all.

Yes, it is that exaggerated. According to the annual expenses of the royal palace, the royal family's property can last for at least a hundred years even if there is no profit.

The expenses of the royal palace are divided into three parts: the maintenance of the palace buildings, the salaries of the palace staff and the annuities of the royal family members.

As one of the three largest palaces in Europe, the daily maintenance costs of the entire palace are a huge sum. According to the current annual maintenance funds required for the Royal Palace of Madrid, Carlo's average annual expenditure in this regard is nearly 100 million pesetas.

But this was only a small expense. The palace's hundreds of servants and maids, guards, guards and a host of other positions cost more than two million pesetas a year.

There is also the pension of the royal family members. Although there are only three members of the royal family at present, the pensions of these three people are not small.

When Carlo was in Italy, he received an average annual pension of about 26 lire, which he thought was a huge sum of money, worth nearly pounds, which was an astronomical figure in that era.

But after Carlo became the King of Spain, he realized that this amount was not enough. In addition, the Spanish royal family's wealth continued to expand, and Carlo also increased the annuity of royal family members several times.

As the King of Spain, Carlo can receive an annual pension of up to 100 million pesetas, which is also the highest annual pension that any member of the Spanish royal family can receive.

As Carlo's wife, Queen Sophie received an annual pension of 80 pesetas, which she could spend as she pleased, which also proved how extravagant the lives of European nobles and royal families were in that era.

Although Juan Fernando Jr. is only a two-month-old child, according to the provisions of the royal pension for members of the royal family, he can still receive an annual pension income of up to 50 pesetas.

Fortunately, there are only three people in the Spanish royal family, and the annual pension expenditure is only 230 million pesetas, which is less than pounds when converted into pounds. It is only a drop in the bucket compared to the royal family's property.

It's not surprising that members of the Spanish royal family receive higher pensions than members of the Italian royal family.

After all, the Italian royal family is a huge family, and the Spanish royal family is just a small branch of the Italian royal family. The number of people determines the difference in annuities between the two sides.

Carlo only had to pay an annuity for his own family, while Vittorio Emanuele had to pay an annuity for the huge Italian royal family. The gap and cost between the two were huge.

Fortunately, the Savoy family had been running the Kingdom of Sardinia for a long time, and the family's wealth was huge. Especially after the unification of Italy, the Savoy family's wealth expanded again, and the Italian royal family's wealth and the per capita wealth of royal family members were no longer in the middle and lower ranks among European royal families.

"Your Majesty." Butler Loren was waiting outside Carlo's office. When he heard Carlo's summons, he hurried in and waited for Carlo's orders with a respectful look on his face.

"Butler Loren, please tell me about the recent development of the royal property. How is our business developing? What is its scale? What is the current total value of the royal property?" Carlo smiled and motioned Butler Loren to sit down, while asking his own questions.

Butler Loren's loyalty is completely sufficient, and Carlo regards him as his absolute confidant and is very confident in him.

Butler Loren took out a thick account book and gave Carlo a detailed introduction to the Spanish royal family's property: "Your Majesty, after the outbreak of the economic crisis, we used more than 1.2 million pesetas to purchase excellent foreign companies, and we have achieved very good results.

Our steel mills have been well expanded, and the total amount of steel produced by the steel mills controlled by the royal family now accounts for nearly two-fifths of Spain's total steel production.

At your request, we have also increased our investment in the experimental zone. This year our total expenditure has reached 1.7 million pesetas, of which more than 3500 million pesetas have been invested in various research projects of the Royal Academy of Sciences and experiments in the experimental zone.

According to the current research progress of the Royal Academy of Sciences, some projects are expected to make certain progress this year and even achieve certain research results.

In the automotive sector, the value of the automobile company and engine company we invested in reached 500 million pesetas and 300 million pesetas respectively. This year, the research and development funds invested in automobiles and engines reached 220 million pesetas and 170 million pesetas respectively.

Mr. Benz reported that the car you saw last time has now become a second-generation experimental model, and it is expected to be a finished product within this year.

The stability and speed of the finished product will be improved, and the appearance will also be changed. This is also based on the progress made in the engine, which has promoted the change of the entire car.

In terms of power experiments, the power laboratory is currently exploring power storage devices. The power laboratory has conducted in-depth research on the generation and use of electricity. This year, we have invested more than 300 million pesetas in the power laboratory's R&D funds, which is also the project with the highest R&D funds in the entire experimental area.

Compared to the expenditure of 1.7 million pesetas, the total income of all royal enterprises remains at a relatively stable level. Last year, our income was about 2.3 million pesetas, with a net profit of 6000 million pesetas. In the first half of this year, our income has reached 1.33 million pesetas, and we are expected to set a new record in terms of income. "Butler Loren respectfully reported on the various enterprises and project research invested by the royal family, as well as the total income and expenditure of the royal industry.

In fact, from the income and expenditure of the royal enterprises, it can be seen that after such a long period of development, the royal enterprises have become the leaders and giants among Spanish enterprises.

Especially in the military and heavy industries, the companies controlled by the royal family have occupied the majority of the Spanish industry. As long as Carlo stamps his feet, the military and heavy industries in Spain will be shaken.

(End of this chapter)