Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 244 The Achievements of the Second Five-Year Plan
As time came to 1879, the Philippine colony was busy sending colonial teams to New Guinea to establish a colonial outpost, while in Spain, Carlo was busy holding relevant meetings with the cabinet government.

Of course, this is not an ordinary government annual work report meeting, but a report meeting on the Spanish government’s second five-year plan.

It goes without saying how important the five-year plan is to Spain. If the first five-year development plan formulated by Prime Minister Primo stopped Spain's decline, then the second five-year development plan is to put Spain back on the fast track of rapid development, with its industry and economy moving towards becoming a first-class power.

Because the first five-year plan achieved good results, the second five-year plan attracted great attention from the public.

As early as the end of last year, people were discussing how much of the second five-year plan had been completed and how Spain had changed in the past five years.

The implementation of the first five-year plan was quite smooth. With Prime Minister Primo at the center of the coordination, Spain did not encounter any major problems during the implementation of the first five-year plan.

However, only in the second year of the implementation of the second five-year plan, Prime Minister Primo was assassinated, and Carlo took the opportunity to form a provisional government until now.

The performance of various departments in the second five-year development plan is related to whether all cabinet members can remain in the cabinet, the highest political institution in Spain, and also to the Spanish cabinet government election to be held this year.

It is for this reason that people across Spain, from cabinet ministers to ordinary Spanish citizens, are paying attention to the government's upcoming five-year development plan summary report meeting and the details of the work completed by various departments that the government will announce after the meeting.

Since the promulgation of the official recruitment and assessment system, whether it is the five-year development plan or some tasks assigned by the royal government to the regional governments, whether they are completed or not and the related results are related to the future and destiny of the officials.

Those who complete their work quickly and perform well will naturally have the possibility of further promotion. However, if an official completes his work slowly or even fails to complete his work at all, he will either receive a poor score in the performance evaluation and will not be promoted in the next year, or he will be held accountable or even dismissed from office.

Carlo attaches great importance to this aspect. Even the House of Lords and the Cabinet government organize corresponding assessment results reviews every year to ensure that the assessment results of officials reported by regional governments are correct and there is no cheating.

If cheating occurs during the performance appraisal of officials, all participants will be dismissed from their posts and held accountable. In serious cases, those involved may even face public punishment.

Spain has not abolished the death penalty. Carlo's attitude towards some officials who have angered the public is very clear, that is, to publicly execute them to appease public anger.

Facts have indeed proved that in addition to hanging capitalists, street lamps in Spain can also hang some corrupt officials who extort money from the people.

Since the official evaluation system was promulgated, more than 30 officials have been sentenced to death, and more than 20 of them were transferred to the square in the center of Madrid for public execution.

The public execution of criminal officials also made people admire Carlo and the current government.

If a king kills innocent people, the people will definitely panic. But if the king only kills corrupt officials and corrupt elements, the people will definitely not panic, and may even applaud.

Any grassroots citizen will hate officials who are corrupt and abuse their power. Especially since Spain has experienced the dark period of Queen Isabella's reign, naturally they have no good feelings towards such officials.

Not to mention that it took several years to execute 30 officials. Even if Carlo executed more than 300 officials in a year, as long as there was enough evidence to prove that these officials deserved the death penalty, the people would not have the slightest opposition or dissatisfaction.

Facts have proven that this approach is very effective. Especially after some officials were publicly executed, the official assessment results reported by the various regional governments would not be too far off, even if there were slight deviations.

It is for this reason that major newspapers and most Spanish citizens pay close attention to the official performance evaluation results announced annually by governments at all levels.

Officials who have achieved excellent results will naturally be featured in newspapers to publicize their achievements. After hearing such news, the public will also spontaneously support these officials who have achieved excellent results and regard them as good officials among the Spanish official group.

As for those officials who receive poor results, the public will glare at them and regard them as corrupt officials without a second thought, and will never support such people in future elections.

Precisely because the public has great trust in the performance of officials, Carlo has more say in Spanish politics.

After all, Carlo controls the Senate, which is the highest institution in the Spanish official performance evaluation system and can directly determine the future political destiny of an official.

For Carlo, he could decide the life or death of an official with a single word. As long as Carlo believed that an official was corrupt, he would be condemned by everyone in a short period of time, and then he would be dismissed from office due to public outrage, be investigated and held accountable.

But if Carlo feels that a certain official has good abilities, he can make this official be praised by newspapers and media and loved by the people in a short period of time.

Although popular support does not affect the election of a cabinet government, it can affect the election of the House of Commons.

In other words, Carlo was able to control the elections to the House of Commons through the advantages attached to the official evaluation system.

If there really were some parties or individuals in Spain that endangered the royal power, Carlo could use this method to instantly ruin this person's reputation and prevent him from being elected as a member of parliament.

On January 1879, 1, a super-large meeting with hundreds of people was held in the giant conference room of the Spanish Parliament building.

Because the Spanish cabinet government is nominally responsible to the House of Commons, this five-year development plan summary report meeting was held in Parliament and a report must be made to Parliament.

In addition to hundreds of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, this large-scale meeting also included all members of the cabinet government, King Carlo of Spain, and a small number of invited newspapers and media.

Of course, these invited newspapers and media have one thing in common, that is, they are either controlled by the government or the royal family.

The existence of these officially controlled newspaper media can also ensure that they will not leak important data when reporting the news.

As for those newspapers without official backgrounds, they can only disclose information through parliamentary meetings, or find some hot topics that can be reported in the news released by newspapers with official backgrounds, and then produce their own newspapers.

Spain is still relatively strict in terms of newspaper distribution. After several severe crackdowns, basically no newspaper dares to publish news content that the government and the royal family do not allow.

Of course, news related to the five-year development plan is allowed to be reported, after all, this is also a time to publicize the achievements of government officials.

At a large meeting of parliament, Archduke Serrano, as Prime Minister, spoke first and reported to many parliamentarians and Carlo on the results of the Spanish government's second five-year plan.

“Your Majesty, fellow MPs, over the past five years, we have achieved considerable results and progress.

Before the implementation of the second five-year plan, our country's annual fiscal revenue was 5.451 million pesetas.

After the implementation of the second five-year plan, our country's annual fiscal revenue has reached 8.979 million pesetas, an increase of more than 3.528 million pesetas.

Before the implementation of the second five-year development plan, my country had a total population of 1745 million. By the end of last year, my country's population had exceeded 1912 million, with a net increase of more than 167 million.

Five years ago, my country's steel output was only 12.3 tons, and iron output was only 32.33 tons. After the completion of the second five-year development plan, my country's annual steel output has exceeded 20 tons, and iron output has exceeded 67 tons.

At present, my country's steel production has surpassed that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia. According to our forecast, my country's total steel production ranks fifth in the world, which proves that our efforts over the past five years have not been in vain.

Five years ago, our country's per capita annual income was only 115.32 pesetas, and more than half of the population could not achieve the goal of having enough food and clothing.

After the successful completion of the second five-year development plan, my country's per capita annual income has increased to 134.28 pesetas, and the per capita annual income of workers and farmers has reached 146.37 pesetas and 128.22 pesetas respectively, which are huge increases compared with five years ago.

We believe that what His Majesty Carlo said about making Spain great again has become a reality that is about to be seen. Perhaps in a few years, Spain will be able to achieve a life where everyone can have enough food and clothing, and our future will be even better. "

Although Archduke Serrano only briefly introduced some of the changes in Spain over the past five years, he still received warm applause from most of the congressmen attending the meeting. Of course, the main reason for this was that Carlo was the first to stand up and applaud. When Carlo stood up and applauded, the other congressmen could only smile and stand up and applaud even if they were reluctant in their hearts.

For Carlo, the cabinet government's work performance over the past five years is absolutely excellent. After the tempering of the second five-year development plan, Spain has officially returned to the ranks of European powers.

Although it is only a second-tier power, compared with the previous situation where it had fallen out of the ranks of great powers, Spain is undoubtedly much stronger now.

But this is only the first step to make Spain great again. Spain still needs more five-year plans to become a first-class power and have the qualifications to compete with superpowers such as Britain, France and Germany.

After Archduke Serrano’s concluding speech, the ministers of each department gave their own summaries of the five-year development plan.

The first to appear was Ewald Bartel, the Spanish finance minister. On paper, the finance department's performance was quite good.

The difference in Spain's fiscal annual revenue before and after the second five-year development plan reached 3.528 million pesetas, and last year Spain's fiscal annual revenue reached a rare 8.979 million pesetas.

Such data made Ewald Bartel, the Chancellor of Finance, quite proud, and he basically secured his position as Chancellor of Finance.

Considering the upcoming cabinet change, it is not appropriate to change such an important position as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This also means that Minister Ewald can easily continue his third term as a cabinet minister and then strive for a higher position of power.

The cabinet government in Spain is rather special in that the prime minister does not control all cabinet positions.

But the Spanish Prime Minister still has great power. Nine departments, including finance, industry, agriculture, people's livelihood, transportation, public security, health, education and foreign affairs, are directly appointed by the Prime Minister.

There is no term limit for the ministers of these nine departments. Anyone who is a member of the House of Commons or the House of Lords can be appointed by the Prime Minister as a minister of a cabinet department.

In addition to these nine cabinet departments, which are directly appointed by the prime minister, the defense minister is elected by the military council and has no term limit.

Considering that the officers trained in the military academy have not yet grown into the level of senior officers, the position of Minister of Defense can only be given to Archduke Serrano for now.

The Minister of Royal Affairs, who is appointed directly by the King, also has no term limit, making this the last position without a term limit besides the Prime Minister.

The remaining Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Secretary of State for Justice and the Deputy Prime Minister all have term limits.

The re-election period for these three positions is two terms, and the term of office is three terms. After two consecutive terms, the candidates must withdraw from the election and appointment of these three positions. After serving three terms, they cannot serve in full-term positions again.

Spain's current cabinet is quite special. It is a temporary cabinet established after Prime Minister Primo was assassinated.

This also means that the interim cabinet is not counted in the terms of office of cabinet members. Currently, all ministers in the Spanish cabinet have only served two terms in office.

The three positions of Secretary of State for the Colonies, Secretary of State for Justice and Deputy Prime Minister were all established during the interim cabinet period.

This also means that all ministers in the current cabinet have not exceeded their term of office and can continue to hold their positions.

Of course, this depends on whether the new cabinet government's prime minister is willing to do so. The prime minister controls the power to appoint ministers in nine cabinet departments and can completely change the composition of the cabinet on his own.

Although the finance department reported good news, this does not mean that Spain's financial situation is very good.

In fact, Spain's fiscal revenue and expenditure were in deficit for eight of the ten years between 1869 and 1878.

The only two years of fiscal surplus were only 970 million pesetas and 580 million pesetas respectively.

Over the past decade, Spain's total fiscal revenue has reached 62.0358 billion pesetas, while its fiscal expenditure has reached 68.531 billion pesetas, and the total fiscal deficit has reached 6.4952 million pesetas. The average annual fiscal loss is close to 6500 million pesetas, which is enough to build four or five of the most advanced ironclad ships.

If the Spanish government had not obtained loans from Italy, Austria-Hungary and France, and then obtained a large amount of unexpected wealth from the treasures of Indian temples, the Spanish government's finances would probably have been unable to support such a huge fiscal deficit.

Especially during the implementation of the first five-year plan, Spain's annual fiscal losses exceeded 1 million pesetas, and the fiscal loss in 1873 was close to 2 million pesetas.

Fortunately, although the second five-year plan was in a loss-making state for most of the time, the fiscal loss has been reduced to less than 2000 million, which is completely acceptable.

After Finance Minister Ewald finished his report, it was the turn of Industry Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Canovas.

In addition to reporting on the growth in Spain's total steel production, Canovas also reported on the construction of the Barcelona industrial base.

According to estimates by the industrial sector, the third phase of construction of the Barcelona industrial base is expected to be completed between mid- to late 1879.

This also means that starting from 1880, Spain's industry will enter a state of rapid growth. It may be difficult to catch up with the three industrial powers of Britain, Germany and the United States, but it is still very hopeful to catch up with France, the former European hegemon whose industrial growth has obviously slowed down.

Although France has not announced its total steel production for the whole year, according to intelligence personnel's investigation and estimates of French factories, France's steel production last year was at most just over 30 tons.

Although it is 10 tons more than Spain, this is also because France's industrial base is much better than Spain.

Judging from the current slow growth rate of French industry, as long as the Barcelona industrial base can be fully built, Spain's industry may have the hope of catching up with France in the next five years.

Although it seems simple, it took Spain at least 15 years to reach this point.

This is because the total industrial output of European countries is not huge at present, and even the steel production of each country was only a few hundred thousand tons.

When the steel production of future industrial powers reaches millions of tons, it will not be easy to catch up with them.

After all, it is very difficult to produce millions of tons of steel, and it is even more difficult to consume this steel. If we only focus on increasing steel production without considering domestic steel consumption needs, we will definitely face a serious economic crisis.

Although Spain's industrial development is fast, it is also carried out after comprehensive consideration of Spain's demand for industrial products.

In addition, since Spain owned two large colonies, Cuba and the Philippines, exporting some industrial products was not a problem.

Spain can even export economic products to Portugal. Portugal's industry is vulnerable to Spain, which also facilitates the faster consumption of Spain's industrial products.

At least so far, Spain's industrial product output and demand remain in a healthy ratio, which is enough to ensure that Spain's industrial development will not be troubled by the economic crisis.

With the future growth of Spain's population and expansion into colonies, Spain's domestic capacity to consume industrial products will increase again.

This is also the reason why Spain regards France as its target in terms of industry. Because Spain, with its vast colonies, is qualified to build larger-scale industries, at least it will not expose itself to bankruptcy due to blind development.

5000 words two-in-one chapter, wishing you all a happy New Year’s Eve and a happy New Year!
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(End of this chapter)