Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 251 Health and Environmental Reform
1879 was a busy year for everyone. While the British were mired in the Zulu War and the Anglo-Afghan War, a new round of reforms was also underway in Spain.

Of course, compared with the comprehensive reforms promoted by former Prime Minister Primo, the reforms at this time are only small-scale and targeted reforms.

The reform was proposed by the Spanish Workers' Party with the goal of improving working conditions for workers in Spanish factories and providing them with some housing conveniences.

As mentioned before, hygiene is not taken seriously in Europe. Feces and garbage can often be seen on busy city streets, not to mention in the dark corners of factories.

Working in such an environment is a double torture for the workers both physically and mentally.

In addition, the living environment of some workers is quite poor. Dozens of people are crowded in a small room, making it difficult to turn over in sleep.

This was also a common phenomenon among workers of this era. The industrial process in Europe was actually a history of workers’ suffering, which eventually led to the birth of trade unions, an organization dedicated to seeking welfare and better living conditions for workers.

The proposal to improve workers' working and living environment was hotly discussed within the Workers' Party and also attracted the attention of Carlo, the behind-the-scenes controller of the Workers' Party.

Taking all factors into consideration, it is still necessary to improve the working and living environment of workers. Only when they work in a more hygienic and clean environment can workers have enough emotions to devote themselves to their work.

At the same time, only by getting enough rest and relaxation can workers have enough energy to work.

If you want to improve the working and living environment of workers, the method is very simple. The working environment of the factory can refer to the management of the streets in Madrid. By building public toilets and adding a certain fine system, the cleanliness and tidiness of the factory can be ensured.

As long as there is a public toilet nearby, I believe most workers will choose to go to the toilet instead of finding a dark corner in the factory.

At first, some workers may be fined for their previous habits, but as time goes on, most workers will adapt to the existence of public toilets.

At the same time, improving workers' living environment can also improve their mood and prevent them from becoming dissatisfied due to institutional changes.

The way to improve the living environment is also very simple, that is to build a large number of wooden houses around the factory.

With the development of African colonies, a large amount of cheap timber was shipped back to Spain. Both the Guinea colony and the Congo territory had a large amount of timber.

It would take very little time and effort to build a wooden house for workers to live in, but the effect might be to make the entire working class more satisfied with the government.

Improving the working and living environment of workers is also a good opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the working class.

After making a detailed plan, Carlo found Prime Minister Canovas, took out the entire detailed plan, and asked the government to reorganize the workers' living and working environment according to the plan.

After receiving Carlo's order, Prime Minister Canovas attached great importance to it and immediately issued relevant orders to various departments.

The Spanish government also acted quickly, issuing a related announcement the next day, stating that it would begin to rectify the living and working environment of factory workers from that day on, and requiring all factories in Spain to cooperate with the government's actions and rectify the environment within the factory.

Considering that improving the living environment of workers will be a huge expense, the expenditure will not be entirely borne by the factory owners. The government will also provide part of the subsidies for factories to purchase raw materials for building houses.

As soon as this announcement was made, the Spanish government immediately began relevant reforms and rectifications. The government's attitude was also very clear. It was not a consultation with the factory owners, but the government had already made a decision, and the factory owners and capitalists only needed to cooperate.

The Spanish government is also confident enough. Because of its pursuit of state capitalism, several large factories in Spain are in the hands of the royal family and the government.

Privately owned factories are mostly small and medium-sized. These factory owners have no ability to resist government orders and can only be forced to obey.

Furthermore, the government and royal factories have already taken the lead in making changes. If these small factories still resist, wouldn’t it prove that they are completely on the opposite side of the workers?

In such a situation, the Spanish government does not even need to take any action, the angry workers are enough to destroy those factories that are resisting stubbornly.

Facts have proved that if the power of workers is used properly, its influence on politics is infinite. For some factories that pretend to obey the government's orders but actually disobey them, it is only necessary to mobilize workers to go on strike to make these factory owners cooperate obediently.

After all, when factories go on strike, it is the factory owners who suffer losses. In the context of Spain's massive construction, every day these factories are shut down means one day less of income for the factory owners.

Following an announcement from the Spanish government, work on improving workers' working and living environments is in full swing.

Major newspapers also followed up with related reports, praising the new cabinet government and King Carlo for their attention to workers and civilians, and admiring that this is the government that people need and the king that people should love.

Houses made of wood can be built very quickly, of course, these houses are definitely not as strong as houses made of concrete and steel.

However, for Spain at present, houses made of wood are enough, and improving the living environment of workers is the main purpose.

As the first batch of wooden houses were built and put into use, the living environment of Spanish factory workers changed from dozens of people in one house to ten people in one house. Everyone's bed was also a little bigger, so at least they could turn over at will.

The Spanish workers are generally quite satisfied with the new dormitories. As the new dormitories were built, the safe water project was also put into use.

The so-called safe water project is actually to provide drinking water to cities, towns and factories through large water companies.

At present, there are still water companies in big cities like Madrid and Barcelona, ​​but there are no water companies in factories in the suburbs and villages and towns farther away.

People usually rely on groundwater wells for drinking water, but some people also get water directly from rivers and drink it directly.

When Spain had no industry, the water in the rivers was relatively clean. But no matter how clean it is, there will be bacteria, and Carlo himself does not recommend drinking raw water.

What's more, with the construction of Spanish industry, some rivers have already been polluted.

This was not the era of sustainable development that was advocated in later generations, and the existing industrial technology was completely unable to achieve low-pollution industry.

It is no exaggeration to say that the industry of this era is highly polluting. If a country wants to make its industry strong, it must bear the risk of polluting its land and water sources.

In such circumstances, it becomes very important to ensure that people's drinking water is filtered and disinfected.

When deciding to improve the living and working environment of the workers, Carlo also thought of using tap water to replace the previous drinking water method of the Spanish people, and let regular companies supply water to the Spanish people in a unified manner.

Of course, it will be a very long process to make all the drinking water for Spanish people become tap water.

Carlo decided to use Madrid and Barcelona as pilot cities. These two cities already had small water companies and had large populations, making them ideal for the first step in promoting tap water in Spain.

Of course, the first to provide comprehensive tap water would definitely be the factories on the outskirts of the two cities.

The construction of wooden houses for the workers was a good opportunity to provide them with running water instead of the previous method of drawing water from wells and rivers.

The industrial department has also issued specific regulations for this purpose, requiring all factories outside Madrid and Barcelona to provide tap water to workers. If it is discovered that workers' drinking water is river water or underground well water, the factory will be punished.

Considering that the two cities do not have enough water plants to supply water to all factories, the factories can use boiled well water instead of tap water to provide water to workers until the water supply from the water plants meets the demand.

Safe water projects are still necessary, at least they can reduce the disease rate among Spaniards.

Drinking boiled water and tap water cannot completely prevent Spaniards from getting sick, but drinking river water and well water will definitely cause Spaniards to suffer from corresponding diseases.

In order to make the Spaniards accept the concept of drinking boiled water and tap water, Carlo also asked newspapers to publish a large amount of news about the spread of diseases, drinking water, and sanitary environment, and achieved very good results.

The workers went from being reluctant to drink boiled water to urging the factory to provide boiled water, and they also urged the government to build a water plant as soon as possible to provide tap water to the factory.

Because of the pressure from the workers, it was impossible for the factory owners not to provide boiled water. Once they refused to provide boiled water to the workers, the workers would accuse the factory owners of deliberately spreading the disease, and the factory would even be at risk of shutting down. In such a situation, the factory owners dared not to cooperate. Fortunately, providing boiled water is also very simple and does not require the factory owners to make any big expenditures.

With the promulgation of two consecutive government decrees, Baron Angelo Arcajo, the general manager of the Barcelona industrial base, immediately became the busiest person in Spain.

At the beginning of this year, the third phase of construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base was successfully completed, and the three phases were merged into the Barcelona Industrial Zone.

Baron Angelo Arcajo, as the general manager of the industrial base, naturally became the first mayor of the Barcelona Industrial Zone.

As an industrial zone vigorously developed in Spain, the political status of Barcelona Industrial Zone is equivalent to that of a city, and it even has its own district council and district government.

Baron Angelo Orcajo, the mayor of an industrial zone, is more important than a city mayor in Spain.

Only the mayors of the two major cities of Madrid and Barcelona could surpass Baron Angelo in status and importance.

From his home to Zhongluo and then to serving as the district chief of the industrial zone, Baron Angelo Orcaho certainly understood who helped him.

Therefore, after the government issued the decree, Baron Angelo Orcaho immediately mobilized all departments of the industrial zone government to supervise all factories in the industrial zone to complete the reform.

The good news is that because the Barcelona industrial zone was built not long ago, the living and working environments of most factory workers are at an acceptable level.

Baron Angelo Orcaho only needs to pay extra attention to those small factories and ensure that they carry out the government's orders dutifully.

Those who were able to move into the industrial zone were basically factories with some strength. These factories were still capable of completing the government's reform decrees, and Baron Angelo Orcajo was quite relieved about this.

In addition to completing the government's decrees, Baron Angelo Orcaho also set up a large number of large garbage bins in the industrial area to collect the garbage generated by the workers' lives and destroy them in a centralized manner.

This has already been achieved in some streets of Madrid. Spain's thermal power plants can also burn these garbage to generate electricity. Although the exhaust gas emitted by burning will pollute the environment, it is better than letting these garbage pile up randomly in every corner of the industrial zone.

The downside is that it takes some manpower to clean these trash cans regularly, which also represents an additional expense.

Fortunately, the industrial zone is not short of money, and it is no problem for it to bear this expenditure alone. According to the Spanish tax system, all factories in the industrial zone must pay taxes to the industrial zone government on time.

The industrial zone government will retain a portion of the funds as the fiscal budget, and the rest will be transferred directly to the Spanish fiscal department.

In this regard, the financial level of the industrial zone government is equivalent to that of the regional governments. The taxes of ordinary cities are handed over to the regional governments, which then collect the taxes of all cities and hand them over to the royal government.

Because the fiscal budgets of regional and municipal governments come from part of the government's fiscal revenue, the financial situations of regional and municipal governments are completely different.

Big cities like Madrid and Barcelona, ​​or large industrial areas like the Barcelona Industrial Zone, have fairly ample financial budgets.

But some small cities and regions with smaller populations are not so lucky. If the cabinet government had not allocated part of the funds to support these regions with lower fiscal revenue, these regions would probably not even be able to complete the basic construction.

Last year, Spain's total fiscal revenue reached 8.979 million pesetas, of which nearly 8000 million pesetas were distributed to regional governments to help some regions with smaller populations or poorer economies ease financial pressure.

It is expected that more funds will be distributed to regional governments this year. After all, improving the living and working environment of workers requires a large amount of expenditure.

Fortunately, the development of Spain's twin cities and Barcelona's industrial zone is quite smooth, otherwise Spain would not be able to afford such a huge expenditure.

At present, Spain can be said to be fully committed to the development of twin cities and an industrial zone. The development of these two cities and one industrial zone is related to the development of Spain as a whole.

Only when the two cities and one industrial zone are adequately developed, and when the rich drive the poor, can other regions of Spain develop.

If there are no key development goals and the regions are allowed to develop blindly, no region in Spain will be able to develop.

This plan is still expected to be realized in the development of the various regions of the government. After all, with the cabinet government in control, these regions that have become rich first will not hide their wealth, and they will help other regions develop as much as possible when they are able.

As for other situations, it is hard to say. After all, human nature is always greedy, and not everyone is willing to use their own funds to help others.

Carlo plans to make adjustments to Spain's existing administrative divisions.

Spain has an area of ​​only 50.6 square kilometers and a population of less than 2000 million, but has 16 regional-level administrative divisions.

Among these 16 regional-level administrative divisions, only 6 have a population of over one million, and the remaining 10 regions have different population sizes, with some even having a population of over or .

In Carlo's opinion, such administrative divisions are unnecessary. What is the use of a region with a population of 100,000 or 200,000? It is nothing more than adding a government system and a regional parliament.

Apart from having more officials and parliamentarians, there is no benefit for Spain. These extra officials and parliamentarians will also increase Spain's financial burden. Why does a region with a population of only a few hundred thousand need so many officials?
In Carlo's view, Spain's 16 regional administrative divisions will eventually be reduced to about 12.

These 12 regional-level administrative divisions also include the Madrid Region and the Barcelona Region.

Yes, Carlo plans to set up Barcelona as a separate region, separate from Catalonia.

There are two reasons for setting up a separate Barcelona region. One is that the population of Barcelona is approaching 50. It should be noted that this only counts the population of the Barcelona urban area.

If the population of the suburbs and workers in industrial areas are included, Barcelona's population will exceed one million, making it the most populous city in Spain.

The population of Barcelona's urban area already exceeds that of some regions, which is one of the reasons why Barcelona is qualified to establish a region.

As for the second reason, it is naturally Carlo's intention to weaken Catalonia's influence. Barcelona is very important to Catalonia. If Barcelona can be allowed to establish a separate region, the importance of Catalonia will also be weakened, and the Catalans will not pose much of a threat.

If the population of suburbs and industrial areas is included, the proportion of Catalans in Barcelona has dropped to less than half. When Barcelona exists as a regional administrative division, it can radiate the entire Catalonia region just as Madrid radiates the entire Spain, ensuring the stability of the entire Catalonia region.

In the future, Madrid and Barcelona will become the two most dazzling pearls in Spain. Madrid will be the cultural center, political center and economic center of Spain. Barcelona will be the largest seaport, secondary economic center and industrial center of Spain.

The two cities complement each other, compete with each other and help each other, which can help Spain's industry and economy develop faster.

In the future, some officials that Carlo values ​​will also be assigned to these two cities to observe and train their abilities.

Although the election requirement for the Spanish prime minister is only to be a member of the House of Commons, the actual election is not that simple.

It is impossible to become the Prime Minister of Spain without a brilliant political resume or outstanding work experience.

Although the position of Prime Minister of Spain does not require outstanding abilities, Carlo does not want the leader of the Spanish government to be an incompetent guy.

Whenever Carlo issued a decree, he needed a smart person who could cooperate with Carlo and lead the Spanish government to fully implement Carlo's orders.

To sum up, the requirement for the position of Prime Minister of Spain lies more in loyalty than in ability, but ability is also very important.

The positions of mayors of Madrid and Barcelona will be very important in the future. Perhaps a considerable number of future Spanish prime ministers will have served as mayors of these two cities.

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(End of this chapter)