Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 250 Reform of the Political Donation System
Carlo had just been happy because the gold rush had brought more population to the Congo territory, but suddenly the Spanish mainland was faced with a problem that made Carlo frown.

This problem can also be attributed to the influx of French capital into Spain. Not all capital is willing to operate within the scope prescribed by Spain.

The greed of capital is well known. Marx's Capital also mentioned the greed and evil of capital: when faced with 10% profit, capitalists will be ready to move; when faced with 20% profit, capitalists will become active; when faced with 50% profit, capitalists will take risks; when faced with 100% profit, capitalists will trample on the law; when faced with 300% profit, capitalists will even dare to commit any crime.

French capital in Spain has not yet reached the point of committing any crimes, but they have indeed begun to become active and want to obtain more privileges and preferential treatment in Spain.

In order to expand its own voice, some French capital began to invest in Spanish political parties, trying to use political parties to change the current situation where capital is unwelcome in Spain.

Although the actions of French capital cannot temporarily change the political situation in Spain, this is indeed what Carlo does not want to see.

Political activities require a lot of money, which is why most political parties cannot develop in Spain. The Spanish government does not have too strict requirements for the establishment of political parties. As long as you have at least one seat in the regional parliament, you can apply to the Senate to establish a political party.

Due to lack of funds, most political parties are destined to fail to develop even if they are established.

Only political parties that truly gain the support of the people can obtain political donations from the people and thus have the capital to engage in political activities.

Because the capital in Spain was not strong before, the political parties that received more political donations were basically those supported by the people. To put it bluntly, they relied on political cash accumulated in quantity.

But with the intervention of French capital, some political parties that are not supported by the people also have the opportunity to obtain more political cash and engage in more political activities.

Among the many political parties in Spain, the first party that French capital came into contact with was the Liberal Party, which was also the party that Carlo was most wary of among the existing parties in Spain.

The Liberal Party has a history of supporting the republic, and France is a republican country, which makes people suspicious and cautious.

Carlo does not want French capital to interfere too much in the affairs of the Spanish government, so the best way is to change the current system and relevant regulations for Spanish political parties to receive political donations.

Currently, there are no restrictions on the political donation system in Spain. As long as someone donates political donations to a political party, the party can obtain the entire amount of funds and use it for political activities.

If this system continues, French capital can easily cultivate a large political party that will pose a threat to Spain's current ruling Conservative Party.

The current slogan of the Liberal Party is the pursuit of democracy and freedom. If there is intervention from French capital, will it become the pursuit of a democratic republic?
Carlo does not believe in the integrity of capital. If Spain becoming a republic can allow French capital to make more money, French capital will definitely do so.

Therefore, Carlo must reduce the opportunities for French capital to gain more political influence at the source and prevent them from gaining more political power by controlling a political party.

The simplest way is to change the political donation system so that the money donated by French capital goes into the pockets of all political parties, rather than just one political party that is funded by French capital.

Once you have a plan, the rest will be easy.

Cano and Prime Minister Canovas discussed for several days and finally came up with a new political donation system plan.

Originally, political donations donated by the public to political parties went directly into the pockets of the political parties, but according to the new system, political donations donated by the public to political parties must first be handed over to the party management body of the House of Lords, and then distributed to the various parties by the party management body.

This political donation will be divided into two parts, 40% of which will be directly distributed to the donated political party as political activity funds. There are no requirements or prerequisites for this part, and any legal political party can obtain it.

The remaining 60% will be distributed to all political parties with seats in accordance with the proportion of seats they occupy in the House of Commons, so as to achieve the goal of dividing the political donations among all political parties.

The advantage of such a system is obvious, which is that it ensures that all political parties can get a share of the profits and will not be forced to disband due to lack of public donations.

The disadvantage is also obvious, that is, a certain political party cannot obtain all political donations, and the final proportion obtained depends on the proportion of seats occupied by the party in the House of Commons.

Take the Conservative Party, the largest party in Spain, as an example. If someone donates 100 pesetas to the Conservative Party as a political donation, the Conservative Party can directly get 40 pesetas, and based on the seats it has won in the House of Representatives, it can get 60% of the remaining 49 pesetas, which is 29.4 pesetas.

Under the previous system, the Conservative Party could get all 100 pesetas of funds. But under the new system, the Conservative Party can only get 69.4 pesetas of funds, and the remaining 30.6 pesetas will be divided among other parties in proportion.

This also means that for every donation the Conservative Party receives, 30.6% of it will be shared by other political parties. Although it seems to be a loss, we must also consider the political donations received by other political parties.

The Conservative Party can also receive 29.4% of the funds donated by the public to other political parties. If other political parties receive less political donations than the Conservative Party, the Conservative Party will lose some funds.

But if other parties receive more political donations than the Conservatives, then the Conservatives will get more money.

Under such circumstances, if French capital still wants to fund the Liberal Party, they must invest more money.

Of the funds donated by French capital to the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party can only obtain 45.4%, and the remaining 54.6% will be divided up by other political parties. The Liberal Party will not gain any advantage in terms of funds.

After careful discussion and determination that there were no major problems with such a system, Carlo decided to implement the new system immediately to prevent French capital from over-investing in the Liberal Party before then.

Following Carlo's order, the Spanish Parliament was also efficient and quickly passed the new proposal on the political donation system.

After the new political donation system was passed, French capital was stunned.

They had originally planned to gain more political power and influence by supporting the Liberal Party, but now they had to give up this idea.

Under Spain's new political donation system, they will have to pay at least twice as much as before, and the results achieved may not be effective.

After all, these funds are divided among the major parties. The Liberal Party, which actually received the investment, can only get 45.4%, while the Conservative Party, which did nothing, can get 29.4%.

The new system is hopeless for French capital, but for some small political parties with low support rates, it is indeed the hope and dawn that allows them to survive.

Although Spain's per capita income has increased a lot compared to ten years ago, because there are still a large number of farmers in the country, most people can only barely get enough food and clothing.

Under such circumstances, it is impossible for each party to receive too much political donations, even the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party.

As for those small parties that only have one or two seats, it goes without saying that the political donations they receive each year are very few, and if they want to engage in political activities they can only rely on donations from party members.

Under the new system, these political parties can also receive some political donations. Although not much, it is definitely much better than the previous situation where there was no income.

Because of this, these small political parties are quite welcoming of the new political donation system. They will basically not lose anything, but will gain more financial income.

As for the three existing political parties in Spain, their losses are huge, especially the Conservative Party, which is the largest party in Spain and also the party that receives the most political donations.

Because the Conservative Party has many aristocratic members, the amount of political donations to the Conservative Party is large, and it will lose more under the new system.

The Conservatives are a party that is completely loyal to Carlo and will not express clear opposition to orders that are detrimental to their own interests.

But because he is completely loyal to his party, he still has to compensate the Conservative Party to a certain extent. Carlo's compensation is very simple, that is, in the name of the fast food company under the royal family, he donates 50 pesetas in political donations to the Conservative Party every year.

The Conservative Party will receive 50 pesetas of the 34.7 pesetas in political donations, which is enough to make up for the losses incurred by the Conservative Party due to the new system, and it will also allow more political parties to obtain funds for their activities through the new system.

The reason why the donation was made in the name of the fast food company rather than in Carlo’s personal name was mainly because Carlo, as the King of Spain, could not support a particular political party too obviously.

For Carlo, whether it is the Conservative Party, the Progressive Party, or the defensive Liberal Party, they are actually the same. As long as they do not explicitly oppose the monarchy, these parties are all political forces that Carlo can use. If he only supports one of them, it means that Carlo will stay away from the rest.

This approach is not wise, and Carlo is even less likely to allow one party in Spain to dominate.

A truly reasonable political situation should be one in which several parties compete and cooperate with each other and work together for Carlo's benefit.

Only by doing so can Carlo be above the major parties and can easily use the competitive relationship between the parties to ensure that these parties are loyal to him.

In such a situation, once a party began to oppose the monarchy, Carlo would not even need to take action, as other parties would unite to oppose this party for their own interests.

If Carlo clearly supports a certain party, the remaining parties may unite to oppose the party supported by Carlo, or even oppose Carlo himself.

After the new system was promulgated and implemented, the problems existing in Spain were easily solved.

Without the support of French capital, the Liberal Party would not be able to pose a threat to the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party.

Carlo was also able to focus on the population growth in the Congo Territory and the changes that the gold rush brought to the Congo Territory.

During this period, the war between Britain and Afghanistan officially ended, and the two countries signed the Treaty of Gundamak. Britain officially gained diplomatic control of Afghanistan and stationed troops in the Afghan region.

However, the British were not happy for long. Instead, the treaty aroused anti-British sentiment among the Afghans and evolved into a long-lasting uprising.

Britain's deep quagmire in Afghanistan was actually good news for Spain, because Spain had enough time to develop its Congolese territory without having to worry about British intervention.

In later generations, there is a joke that oil gave birth to the American army. In fact, in this era, there is also a joke that gold gave birth to the British army.

The British Empire owned the most extensive colonies in the world, but these colonies were not obtained peacefully, but through repeated colonial wars and wars of aggression.

The gold rush in the Congo territory had already begun. If the British had not been hindered by Afghanistan, they would probably have found a way to create some trouble for Spain or sent a colonial team to establish their own colonial outpost in the Congo River basin.

Now that the British are stuck, Spain has enough time to complete its plans.

In fact, the British had a lot of trouble. As early as January, a war broke out between Britain and the Zulu, an indigenous nation in South Africa.

A 1.3-strong British colonial army led by Lord Chelmsford crossed the Tugela River and launched a large-scale attack on the Zulu Kingdom.

The arrogant British underestimated this indigenous nation and eventually paid a heavy price. The Zulus surrounded the British army under the cover of night and launched a night attack.

Under the astonished gaze of the British soldiers, the Zulus rushed into the British army camp despite the fierce British artillery bombardment and engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat with the British army.

The Zulu soldiers suffered more than 3000 casualties, but the British army also suffered more than 1600 casualties.

The main reason was that the Zulu soldiers rushed into the British camp, turning the battle between the two armies into a hand-to-hand fight. If the Zulu soldiers had not rushed into the camp, the British army could easily crush the Zulu army with firepower.

Britain lost more than 1000 rifles, 50 rounds of ammunition and several cannons in this war, and returned most of the occupied land.

But the Zulu did not end the war with this victory. Britain rejected any request for negotiation made by the Zulu and continued to send troops to South Africa.

As the most powerful country in the world, when the British were determined to invade a country, few countries could defeat the British attack.

Although the Zulus inflicted heavy casualties on the British army in the war and even killed Napoleon III's son Louis, this did not change the outcome of the war.

In July 1879, the British army easily defeated the Zulu army with its firepower advantage. Because of the experience gained from long-term battles with the Zulus, the British army prepared a large supply of bullets and artillery shells, which suppressed the Zulus outside their positions.

Because the Zulus could not get close to the British positions, they naturally could not engage in the hand-to-hand combat they were familiar with with the British army.

When the two sides were fighting at a long distance, the Zulus could only be forced to accept the fierce firepower of the British, and they would be killed in seconds if they showed their heads.

With the Zulus suppressed, the British cavalry moved out in force and easily defeated the Zulu army.

This victory also established Britain's advantage over the Zulu. The Zulu Kingdom was divided into 13 small chiefdoms by Britain, and all of them were brought under its rule.

Of course, the complete occupation of the Zulus did not mean the end for the British, but rather a new conflict.

Britain's South African colony was established by the Dutch, who founded Cape Town, which later developed into the Cape Colony.

But with the invasion of Britain, the Cape Colony was eventually taken over by Britain. The descendants of local immigrants were called Boers, who were forced to flee northward under the oppression of British colonists.

The Boers' destination for escape was the Zulu Kingdom, which not only had access to the sea, but also had relatively fertile land and a large number of indigenous people who could be used as slaves.

The British also set their sights on this land and eventually gained control of it.

But this actually deepened the conflict between the Boers and the British, and there was no buffer zone between the land controlled by the Boers and the land controlled by the British.

Compared with the technologically backward indigenous countries, the Boers, who evolved from European immigrants, are obviously more advanced and their combat effectiveness is also stronger.

The conflict between Britain and the Boers is bound to make competition in South Africa more intense.

The Boer War in history also proved that the British Army could only bully the natives of the colonies, and when facing more advanced armies, it did not have as much advantage as imagined.

Carlo certainly understood that the Boer War was a major opportunity for Spain, and there was even hope of taking this opportunity to annex Portugal and recapture Gibraltar.

But the problem is that there were two Boer Wars, and the second one was a real war. The first Boer War was more of a small-scale conflict between the British and the Boers than a war.

The Second Boer War broke out in the late 19th century and early 20th century, about 20 years ago.

This also means that Spain is at least 20 years away from its goal of annexing Portugal and regaining Gibraltar.

Of course, it’s still early which is good news.

Spain was able to complete its layout within these 20 years. In history, the British won the Second Boer War by a tragedy. Although they won, they also paid a heavy price.

If we could plan ahead, even if we couldn't change the outcome of the war, we would definitely make the British pay a heavier price.

The greater the losses of the British, the greater the chance that Spain would take the opportunity to annex Portugal and recapture Gibraltar. Even if the British were mired in the Boer War, Spain would have the opportunity to annex Portugal and Morocco and take the opportunity to establish a great empire spanning Europe and Africa.

5000 words two-in-one chapter, please vote for me!



(End of this chapter)