Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 187 National Flag Amendment Plan
Although existing carbon filament light bulbs can also be used commercially, there will obviously not be much of a market for them before the power plant is built.

In order to solve this problem and to speed up Spain's electrification process, Carlo decided to build a thermal power plant on the outskirts of Madrid to provide a certain amount of electricity for the Royal Palace of Madrid and parts of the city.

The good news is that the only electrical appliance in the world is the light bulb, which does not consume much electricity. Although the power of the generators currently available for building thermal power plants is not large, it is still possible to meet the lighting needs of electric lights.

Gramm himself is very knowledgeable about generators. The ring-shaped electric drive he developed can be used not only for hydroelectric power generation, but also for thermal power generation.

According to Gram's calculations and estimates, the current set of ring-shaped electric drive engines is expected to generate 5.5KW of power, which will become one of the largest power stations in Europe.

Gramm manufactured two different sized light bulbs. The smaller one had a power of about 15 watts, while the larger one had a power of 35 watts.

This also means that even if this thermal power plant, which can reach 5.5KW, is operating at full capacity, it can only illuminate about 300 small bulbs or about 140 large bulbs at most.

This is without considering the loss of electricity during transportation. Even if the power plant is close to the Royal Palace of Madrid, the loss of electricity is inevitable.

Fortunately, the biggest function of this thermal power plant is to provide lighting for the royal palace, and at the same time demonstrate the convenience brought by electricity to the Spanish nobles and capitalists.

It is difficult to rely on the royal family to promote the development of electrification in Spain. But if the nobles and capitalists work together, the process of electrification in Spain will be much faster.

At least the first step can be to make these nobles and capitalists interested in electric lights and electricity, and let them invest a certain amount of money in the power industry.

Electric lighting is still very important. It can not only illuminate the castles and manors of the nobles, but also the factories of the capitalists.

What the nobles want is concrete convenience and technology that reflects their status, while what the capitalists want is a way to allow factories to work in two shifts and make more money.

I believe that some people can see the business opportunities in electricity and light bulbs. Anyway, Carlo is sure to make money with his electricity laboratory. More people participating in the power industry means that the speed of technological progress in the power industry will be faster.

In addition to asking the Electrical Laboratory to build a thermal power station on the outskirts of Madrid, close to the royal palace, Carlo also assigned new tasks to the Electrical Laboratory.

First, continue to invest in the research of light bulbs to increase their lifespan and brightness as much as possible. Small light bulbs are not a big deal, but the lifespan of large light bulbs is too short at more than 100 hours.

Considering that large light bulbs are generally used in wider places such as factories or streets, the lighting time will also last for a long time.

Therefore, the life of the headlight bulb must be increased to at least 300 hours. Otherwise, the cost and trouble caused by frequent replacement of headlight bulbs may discourage some people who were originally interested.

The second is to continue to vigorously develop generators and related power generation ideas. The power generation power of 5.5KW is too small and can only illuminate a few hundred light bulbs. How can this promote the electrification of Spain?
We can't build dozens or hundreds of power stations to meet a city's power generation needs. Not only will it occupy a large amount of land, it will also cause greater pollution.

Carlo's request is to gradually increase the power of the generator to at least 30KW in the next five years. If a power plant builds several more generators and increases the power generation to hundreds of KW, it may be able to barely meet the electricity needs of a street or a small city.

Only when the power generation capacity exceeds 100 can we try to replace the steam engine in the factory with an electric motor. It is better to stick to the old steam engine than to rely on the current that can only light up the light bulb.

The third is to study more efficient ways of transmitting electricity. This is not like later times, when there is a fairly mature power transmission system.

Even before the battle between Tesla and Edison over direct current and alternating current had begun, the way electricity was transmitted in this era was simply to pull wires, nothing more.

Although it is very simple to pull wires, a lot of electricity is lost during the transmission process. The power of the generator in the power plant is originally small, and a considerable part of the power is lost during the power transportation process, which makes the power that a power plant can provide even less, or even negligible in a distant place.

If we want to promote electricity, we must have a more effective way to achieve long-distance transmission of electricity while minimizing power loss.

Only in this way can electricity be successfully popularized. However, considering the development of the power industry in history, Carlo did not have too high expectations.

At present, the research results of the Electric Power Laboratory have exceeded Carlo's expectations. As for Carlo's subsequent requirements, regardless of whether they can be completed or not, Carlo will not reduce the research funds of the Electric Power Laboratory.

In order to build a thermal power plant, Carlo also asked Butler Loren to establish the Spanish Royal Electricity Company.

Although the Royal Electric Power Company is currently just a shell subsidiary, Carlo is still optimistic about the future development prospects of the power company.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Royal Electricity Company will be crucial to the smooth progress of Spain's electrification process and may even become Spain's largest power giant in the future.

In addition to building thermal power plants, the Royal Electricity Company also has another task of recruiting electricity-related talents across Europe.

The excuse given to the outside world was that the construction of the thermal power plant required a large number of power talents. Although it was only a small power plant, there was no upper limit on the recruitment of talents.

As long as you are an electricity-related talent and expert, you can easily join the Royal Electricity Company after passing certain background checks.

If you are a scientific researcher with relatively outstanding abilities, you may be recommended to the Electric Power Laboratory and the Royal Academy of Sciences to enjoy more comprehensive welfare benefits and preferential status.

At present, there are no useful results in Europe's electricity research, and Carlo does not have to worry that such blatant talent poaching will arouse opposition from other countries.

Before other countries paid attention to the power industry, it was a good time for Spain to absorb a large number of foreign talents. Although it could also rely on its own training to fill the vacancies, the training time in university alone would take four years. For Spain now, four years is enough to change a lot. At least Spain now can't wait.

Although the news of the Royal Spanish Electricity Company recruiting employees is sensational, it is ultimately just one of Spain's poaching efforts.

It is not just the Royal Electricity Company, but also the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, the Valencia United Shipyard, the Royal Steel Works and various other factories and enterprises that are aggressively recruiting employees from both inside and outside Spain.

Before the Spanish Reform, Spain was not very attractive to other European countries. After all, it was an absolute monarchy with backward systems and too harsh oppression on the people.

But after the Spanish reform, Spain's attractiveness has been further enhanced. Many domestic and foreign media have established post-revolutionary Spain as one of the representatives of constitutional monarchy, and have been promoting that only constitutional monarchy is the most advanced system and can bring progress and strength to the country.

This has also brought Spain a certain amount of attention, and the number of European immigrants it receives each year is also increasing, especially from Italy and Portugal.

In fact, relatively speaking, Italy's environment is not bad. However, Italy's industry and economy are mainly concentrated in the northern region, and the large area of ​​land south of Rome is still a backward area dominated by agriculture.

There are two main reasons for this. One is that southern Italy has fewer minerals and is not very suitable for industrial construction.

The second is that southern Italy once belonged to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and not to the Kingdom of Sardinia, the core area of ​​the Kingdom of Italy.

Although the population on the Apennine Peninsula has been merged into Italians, due to the huge gap in industry and economy between northern and southern Italy, southern Italians do not have a high level of recognition of the country as a whole.

This characteristic can also be seen in the immigration data of European countries. Before the unification of the two great powers, the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, the country with the largest number of emigrants was Britain.

But since this point in time, immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe have gradually replaced immigrants from Northern Europe and become the mainstream of European outbound immigration.

Italy is already showing this trend, and Spain, a country with a population of only 1800 million, is growing by more than 20 people each year.

Italy's population has long exceeded 2800 million, but its net population growth is only about 15 people per year.

Is it because Italy has a low birth rate? No.

This is because a large number of Italian farmers choose to emigrate every year, and the small Apennine Peninsula can't really support so many people. This is not the later era of highly mechanized and automated agriculture, but the 1875s when agriculture was entirely manual. In addition, due to the immature fertilizer technology, it is indeed difficult for the Apennine Peninsula to feed a population of nearly 3000 million.

Although Italy's population is still growing steadily at a rate of more than 15 people per year, the income of millions of farmers in southern Italy is not high, and some even live a life of hunger.

Currently, the number of Italian immigrants received by Spain each year has exceeded 10,000, and is about to exceed 20,000.

For Spain, the large number of Italian immigrants is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The vast majority of these Italian immigrants came from southern Italy, where the majority of people were farmers.

These Italian immigrants had low cultural literacy and only spoke the local Italian dialect, making it difficult for them to communicate with the Spaniards.

Precisely because of their low cultural level, they are willing to accept jobs with lower salaries than the Spanish average in exchange for more stable working hours.

For these Italian immigrants, a more stable working environment is more important than income, so they can sacrifice a certain salary in exchange for a stable job that will not be fired.

This is good news for Italian immigrants, who can get more stable jobs by giving up their income.

But for native Spaniards, this is not a good thing. The influx of Italian immigrants has led to many jobs that could have been taken by Spaniards being taken away. After all, capitalists prefer employees who require lower salaries and are less demanding.

That is, the continuous development of Spanish industry and its continuous development plans have led to the expansion and recruitment of factories and companies in various places.

Otherwise, the arrival of these Italian immigrants would definitely disrupt the calm of the Spanish Lake and provoke conflicts between Italian immigrants and local Spaniards.

Judging from the scale of talent introduction by Spanish companies and factories, Spain is still very attractive to the outside world.

Last year alone, the royal family’s companies and factories brought in more than a thousand foreign talents, including nearly 50 scientists who joined the Royal Academy of Sciences and other research laboratories.

At this rate of progress, before Spanish universities are able to train enough talent for Spain, Spain can obtain tens or even hundreds of thousands of talents simply by introducing foreign talent.

Of course, introducing foreign talents is only one way to solve the talent shortage. Cultivating talents by ourselves is the fundamental solution.

Even though it can attract a large number of talents every year, Spain will never give up the means of building universities to cultivate its own talents.

It is worth mentioning that according to the cooperation agreement reached between Spain and the Republic of Lanfang, the Republic of Lanfang will send at least 50 international students to study in various universities in Spain in September this year.

Their tuition was paid by the Lanfang Republic itself, and their food, clothing, housing and transportation were also provided by the Lanfang Republic. Spain only sent transport ships to help them arrive in Spain and assigned them universities according to their majors of interest.

Even these university international students are just the first step, and there will be more international students who will be trained from a young age in the future.

The first was to help the Lan Fang Republic better master some industrial knowledge and technology. The second was to brainwash a group of intellectuals who had a good impression of Spain and even blindly worshipped Spain as an advanced country by training international students.

Use these intellectuals to influence the decision-making of the Lan Fang Republic, and even rely on them to control the Lan Fang Republic.

In the next ten or even dozens of years, these international students may climb to high positions in the Lan Fang Republic and become high-ranking officials of the country or senior members of the military.

Their influence on the government of the Lan Fang Republic will also be strengthened. As long as their admiration and goodwill towards Spain remain, the entire Lan Fang Republic will naturally stand on the side of Spain.

Thanks to the continuous influx of immigrants and population, Spain's capital Madrid is expected to become the first city in Spain with a population of over 50 this year.

Spain's second largest city, Barcelona, ​​had a population of over 40 at the beginning of this year, becoming the second city in Spain with a population of over 40.

The rapid population growth of Madrid and Barcelona also reflects the rapid development of Spain in recent years. The combined population of these two cities has exceeded 90, accounting for more than one twentieth of the total population of Spain.

This is not an immigrant country like the United States. The characteristic of an immigrant country is that the population of large cities is much larger than that of small cities, and even the population of some large cities combined exceeds the total of all other small cities.

As a traditional European country with a long history, it is naturally impossible for Spain's population to be concentrated in big cities like Madrid and Barcelona.

Just two cities account for one twentieth of the country's total population, which also proves the prosperity of Barcelona and Madrid and the fact that other cities in Spain are indeed small in scale.

Apart from the two notable cities of Madrid and Barcelona, ​​other cities like Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza have a population of only 10 or even less.

Carlo was in a very good mood when he returned from the electrical laboratory. After all, the development of all industries in Spain has been very smooth so far.

With the strong investment from the royal family and the government, Spain's heavy industry will also usher in a booming development. The power industry has made significant progress, and perhaps Spain's electrification process will make great progress one day in the future.

When he is relaxed, Carlo also has the energy to pay attention to the development of other industries, such as culture and entertainment.

Since Carlo was crowned King of Spain, the Spanish flag has continued to be the national flag since the founding of the kingdom, that is, a two-color striped flag with red on the top and bottom and a widened yellow horizontal bar in the middle.

On the left side of the widened horizontal bar in the middle is a vertical oval emblem with a crown on his head. The emblem is divided into two parts, the castle on the left represents the Kingdom of Castile, and the lion on the right represents the Kingdom of Leon.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with such a national flag. After all, Castile and León are an important part of the Kingdom of Spain.

But for Carlo, using the same flag as during the Bourbon period would inevitably cause confusion.

The reason why the Spanish flag was not changed during the reign of Amadeo was, firstly, the political situation in Spain was chaotic, and secondly, Amadeo only ruled for three years.

But for Carlo now, it is necessary to design a new flag. A new flag must reflect the ruling status of the House of Savoy over Spain, strengthen the connection between the various regions of Spain, and try not to make too many changes to the original flag, so as not to make the Spanish people too uncomfortable.

After all these considerations, the Spanish flag of later generations actually meets the requirements. It is still the familiar two-color horizontal striped flag, and the color scheme has not changed.

The only difference is that the yellow horizontal bar in the middle represents the royal emblem of Spain, which has been changed from a vertical oval shape to a shield shape and is divided into six parts.

The center area can be used to place the coat of arms of the House of Savoy, reflecting the ruling position of the House of Savoy over Spain. The shield is divided into four parts with the center point as the dividing line, which can be used to place the coat of arms of the four Spanish kingdoms with a long history, Castile, León, Aragon and Navarre, which are also the four most important parts of Spain.

The sharp corner under the shield can be used to place the flag of Granada, which was the last Muslim region annexed by Spain and is also the most populous region in Spain.

Even the two Hercules Pillars on both sides of the shield are of great reference value, after all, they represent the two sides divided by the Strait of Gibraltar.

Currently, Spain has territories on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, and this flag design is completely consistent with the current Spain.

Taking this into consideration, Carlo decided to gather people to make some modifications to the Spanish flag, to create a flag that could reflect the characteristics of modern Spain and be distinguished from the original Kingdom of Spain.

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(End of this chapter)