Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 199 Political Examination Bureau and Anti-Corruption Bureau
At this cabinet meeting, the Spanish government set the development theme for the new year as steady progress, primarily pursuing industrial and economic stability and secondarily pursuing certain progress on the existing basis.

If a second round of economic crisis breaks out again, Spain will be lucky enough to maintain its current industrial and economic scale.

If we still want to develop rapidly during an economic crisis, even if we can achieve it successfully, we will easily be targeted by other powerful countries.

From this cabinet meeting, it can be seen that Carlo's influence in the Spanish government is gradually deepening. One of the obvious signals is that after the cabinet meeting, Carlo signaled the Royal Senate, the upper house, to strengthen the supervision of officials, strictly review and eliminate the existence of corrupt and incompetent officials.

If the official performance appraisal bill promoted by Prime Minister Primo at the time was a relatively mild means of examining officials, then the anti-corruption process promoted by Carlo was a tougher measure.

The Senate has the power to supervise the cabinet government and other officials, so it is natural for it to promote anti-corruption actions.

Starting from December 1875, while Spain was holding elections for the House of Commons, it was also vigorously promoting anti-corruption supervision and verifying the rationality and accuracy of the performance appraisals of regional government officials over the past year.

Although Prime Minister Primo controls the cabinet government, it does not mean that the officials under him have no way to deal with it. Under the general trend of the official performance evaluation law being implemented throughout Spain, there will still be some cases of tampering with the evaluation results and changing the original poor results to better results.

You should know that the annual performance evaluation results of officials will be reported to the cabinet government and regional parliament, and will serve as an important basis for promoting officials.

Such tampering of officials' performance evaluation results will allow more corrupt and incompetent officials to enter the upper echelons of regional governments and even the cabinet government in Spain.

Carlo has a certain tolerance for corruption, but he cannot tolerate corruption and incompetence at all.

For this group of people, what Carlo has to do is to conduct regular inspections and purges every year. Only when the Spanish government is composed of capable or non-corrupt people can the Spanish government be full of vitality, instead of being lifeless like during the reign of Queen Isabel.

In order to improve the efficiency of reviewing the performance of regional officials and to strengthen supervision over regional and cabinet government officials, at Carlo's suggestion, the House of Lords voted to establish the Performance Assessment Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Bureau to specifically handle the above two matters.

As important departments of the House of Lords in exercising its power to supervise the government and officials, the Political Examination Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Bureau are of great importance.

The director of the Political Examination Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Bureau is the Speaker of the Senate. There are three deputy directors, who are elected by the Senate and may not be members of the ruling party or the coalition ruling party.

The Speaker of the House of Lords was elected not long ago, and the candidate was Duke Jacopo, whom Carlo was quite familiar with.

In fact, since a large number of nobles joined the House of Lords, it was destined that the House of Lords would be controlled by the nobles. The speaker elected by the nobles must be one of their own. Duke Jacobo is not only a duke with a long history in Spain, but also deeply trusted by Carlo. Naturally, he is the most suitable candidate for the speaker of the House of Lords.

From this point, it can also be seen that Spain's bicameral system has begun to imitate the United Kingdom, rather than being a special existence as before.

The official names of Spain's upper and lower houses are the Royal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Originally, neither was under the control of the king, and the parliament held greater power.

But after Carlo dissolved the parliament and announced the reconstruction of the parliament, this situation was immediately rewritten. The Senate, which was originally composed of representatives from the regions, was changed to the Royal Senate, which was composed of representatives from the regions and the nobles. It changed from a Senate system more like the United States to a House of Lords system more like the United Kingdom.

As we all know, the titles of nobles are hereditary, so their seats in the House of Lords are also hereditary, which is the same as the House of Lords system in the UK.

Since December 1875, Duke Jacobo, who served as director of the Political Examination Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Bureau, has been so busy that he is almost invisible.

Since being elected Speaker of the House of Lords, Duke Jacob has gained great power, and he is quite happy about it.

But because Carlo demanded a strict investigation into the performance appraisals of officials in each region and a nationwide anti-corruption campaign, he, as the director of the two major bureaus, naturally needed to travel all over Spain.

Although the official performance appraisal system implemented by Prime Minister Primo has effectively alleviated some corruption, it has only alleviated some of it.

The rampant corruption across Spain will be difficult to eradicate unless there is extremely strong and rigorous supervision and scrutiny.

During the half month that Duke Jacob traveled around Spain, he discovered more than a dozen cases of modifying performance evaluation results.

This is just the case of investigating the regional governments. If the investigation is carried out in-depth into cities and even towns, the phenomenon of modifying assessment results and corruption will definitely be more serious.

After Duke Jacob reported such data to Carlo, he received a brief order from Carlo, which was to deal with it seriously and serve as a warning to others.

Duke Jacob had no hesitation in receiving the order, but this also made him a butcher in the eyes of Spanish officials, and he was even awarded the title of Jacob the Cruel.

Over the next week, Duke Jacobo dealt with more than 20 regional officials, including high-ranking officials such as the governor of La Rioja.

Any official who tampers with the official assessment results will be given a poor assessment result in 1875 and will be prohibited from promotion or running for parliament for two years.

Those who commit serious corruption will be removed from office and required to hand over all embezzled funds within three months.

If the total amount of embezzlement cannot be handed over within three months, all property will be confiscated and the offender will be sentenced to at least ten years in prison.

Duke Jacobo set a bottom line, which was the red line of 1500 pesetas. If the amount of corruption was less than 1500 pesetas, the punishment could be exempted at the discretion of the court.

Especially those officials with certain abilities, as long as the amount of corruption does not exceed 1500 pesetas, they can be given a chance.

For those who have embezzled more than 1500 pesetas, if they have had relatively good political achievements in the past or have certain abilities, they may be considered for lighter punishment, such as poor assessment results and recovery of embezzled funds.

But if he has neither political achievements nor ability, and the amount of corruption exceeds 1500 pesetas, he will have to be dealt with seriously to deter other Spanish officials with corrupt ideas.

It’s no wonder that some regional governments in Spain really have little ability and have committed a lot of corruption.

The amount of corruption of an official in the Valencia region reached an exaggerated amount of more than 10 pesetas, which is also the largest embezzler caught since the official performance evaluation system was introduced.

Now that the tiger had been caught, there was nothing to say. After several days of searching for evidence, the corrupt official was publicly executed on the streets of Valencia and hung on a wooden pole.

By confiscating the property of the corrupt officials, Duke Jacobo recovered more than 12 pesetas. These funds will be reinvested in the construction of Valencia to make up for the impact of the corrupt officials on Valencia's development.

Not to mention, this action of examining a large number of officials and publicly dealing with corrupt officials quickly made the Spanish interim cabinet gain prestige and brought Carlo more support.

Duke Jacobo's reputation among officials is not very good, but among the Spanish people, Duke Jacobo has been described as a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of officials and has been praised by many media.

Although a large part of the credit goes to the guidance of the newspapers controlled by the royal family, it is true that the Spanish people currently express great approval and concern for the anti-corruption campaign launched by Carlo.

Duke Jacobo is a sharp sword, and the sword-wielder is naturally King Carlo of Spain. The people praised Duke Jacobo in every possible way, and naturally they would not forget Carlo, the protagonist who truly promoted this anti-corruption campaign behind Duke Jacobo.

Since when, the Spanish newspaper media has begun to publicize that Carlo is the wise ruler that Spain has been waiting for a hundred years.

At first, the Spanish people did not agree with this view too deeply. But after more than six years since Carlo came to Spain, more and more Spanish people have agreed with this view, and even accounted for the majority of the Spanish people. For the Spanish, whoever can lead Spain to greater heights is the true ruler of Spain.

It happened that Carlo's predecessor and predecessor were both famous tyrants in Spain. Under such circumstances, it was natural that Carlo, the wise monarch, was quickly recognized by the Spaniards.

If we take Carlo alone, he may not be considered a wise monarch. But compared with Isabella II and the irritable King Ferdinand VII, Carlo is as wise as can be.

Why do you say that?
Needless to say, Isabella II was stupid and debauched. She triggered the Spanish Revolution and ultimately destroyed the Bourbon dynasty.

If his successor Amadeo I had not been very capable, and if the Spanish Republic had not been in great chaos, there would probably have been no relationship between Spain and the Bourbon family.

Such a king who lost his country must be extremely stupid.

Although his father, the violent King Ferdinand VII, was not the king who destroyed the country, he directly led to decades of chaos in Spain.

Ferdinand VII's incompetence was simply too numerous to count. He and his daughter Isabella II were the direct culprits that led to Spain's decline from a great power to a second-rate country in Europe.

When Napoleon invaded Spain, Prince Ferdinand VII led the French army and forced his father, Carlos IV, to abdicate and make him the new King of Spain.

But Napoleon, who took control of France, directly ended Ferdinand VII's dream, detained him in France, and appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as the new King of Spain.

During the French invasion, the Spanish people spontaneously resisted the French invasion and supported their detained Prince Ferdinand.

But after Fernando returned to Spain, he directly overturned the liberal constitution adopted by Spain, implemented a cruel and bloody dictatorship, and stabbed the people who supported him in the back.

It was also because of Ferdinand VII's brutal dictatorship that Spain lost most of its colonies in the Americas during his reign, and completely fell from a powerful colonial empire into the abyss.

During the period when Ferdinand VII established his dictatorship, the constitutionalists and republicans in the army once revolted. Ferdinand VII surrendered directly to the army and publicly swore to support the liberal constitution before the constitution, but then he went back on his word and used external forces to suppress the domestic uprising.

After the failure of Napoleon's restoration, France resumed the rule of the Bourbon family. In order to unite with France, Ferdinand VII, also a member of the Bourbon family, deliberately weakened the Spanish army by various means, so as to reduce the opposition forces in the army and facilitate the French army to interfere in the rebellion in Spain.

In addition, Ferdinand VII forcibly changed the law of succession, causing Spain to face decades of Carlist rebellion.

This rebellion cost Spain a great opportunity for development, and the country remained in chaos until before World War II. The Spanish-American War during this period caused Spain to lose its only two large colonies, and also directly led to Spain becoming a second-rate country in Europe, and it was not well-known in later generations.

When people in later generations mention the powerful countries in Europe, they will think of Germany, which single-handedly challenged the whole of Europe in World War I and World War II, the powerful British Empire in the Victorian era, France that swept across Europe during the Napoleonic era, Russia that was corrupt but could win by relying on numbers, and the most special Austrian-Hungarian Empire, but they will not think of Spain, the world's first empire on which the sun never sets.

There are many reasons for Spain's decline, and the Bourbon family cannot be blamed entirely. But it is undeniable that during the decades of the rule of Ferdinand VII and Queen Isabel, Spain quickly fell from a powerful colonial empire to a second-rate country with few colonies.

Ferdinand VII and Isabella II, two outstanding father-daughter monarchs, can definitely compete for the most incompetent father-son (daughter) king combination in Europe.

It was precisely because of the poor performance of the father and daughter that Carlo quickly won the support of the Spanish. In fact, the Spanish did not want much, they just wanted a stable and peaceful development environment, plus a glimmer of hope for the country's revival.

Since Carlo has brought them such a glimmer of hope, they are willing to hold on to this glimmer of hope and fight for the hope of national revival and for Spain.

While conducting a nationwide anti-corruption and performance appraisal screening, Carlo also reiterated the requirements regarding the performance appraisal of officials.

In fact, performance appraisal is very simple. It mainly examines the changes that have taken place in a department that an official is in charge of or a city that he manages during his term of office.

Whether it is industry, agriculture, economy, or education, as long as there is a certain level of growth, it will be considered the official's political achievement.

Although officials may place too much emphasis on paper data under such indicators, for Spain at present, it is better to have data than no data.

At least in the short term, vigorously developing industry, agriculture, economics and education will do more good than harm. Spain's development has not yet reached a bottleneck period. Under the current environment, great development will only make Spain stronger and stronger.

As time approached Christmas, the land seized from the rebellious nobles and officials involved in the rebellion began to be sold and rented to the peasants in batches.

The price of land in different regions is completely different. In some plain areas with more fertile land, the price of arable land is relatively expensive.

But if the land is not fertile or even relatively barren in mountainous areas or hilly areas, the price of arable land will be relatively low.

The same is true for land rent. The rent is not fixed, but will change according to the past harvest of the land, local grain prices and farmers' income.

The Land Rental Act also has relevant provisions for land rent. Regardless of whether it is fertile land or poor land, the rent of the land shall not exceed one-quarter of the income.

For peasant households whose income is lower than the average annual income, they can also apply for agricultural tax reduction subsidies of up to 30%.

If you are a family member of the Royal Army, you can apply for a one-year land tax exemption plus a three-year agricultural tax reduction subsidy of no more than 1%. If you are injured or die in battle, the agricultural tax reduction subsidy can be extended for 3 years.

The treatment of the Royal Guards is slightly better, but overall it is about the same.

There was no perfect pension system in this era, and the compensation a soldier could receive after his death depended entirely on whether the ruler was willing to give it.

Carlo was quite generous about this, at least he was willing to give certain subsidies and compensation to the soldiers who sacrificed for the country and the royal family.

Soldiers' families can also enjoy certain agricultural tax reduction subsidies and commercial tax reduction subsidies. In short, there are many benefits to being a soldier, and this is also to encourage Spaniards to join the army.

Under such a system, the Spaniards were not averse to joining the army, and some even hoped to join the army and get the opportunity to be awarded a title for military merit.

Even if you can't get a title, getting some land and financial subsidies is quite good. Especially for those peasant families, the more land they own, the higher their family income will be.

The land reward obtained for military merit can be changed. This will make your land connected, which is not only convenient for planting and harvesting, but also saves a lot of trouble.

Carlo and the Spanish government also encouraged those who received land grants to merge their land into one place through land exchange.

The merged and intact land will be conducive to the further development of agriculture in the future. Whether it is the use of fertilizer technology or the future mechanized agricultural cultivation, it will be more convenient than fragmented and scattered land.

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(End of this chapter)