Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 259 The Function of Light Bulbs

On the premise that both sides were willing to negotiate peace, the meeting between Carlo and Ambassador William ended quickly.

The Dutch were not willing to have a more intense dispute with Spain at this time. After all, the change of regime in the Netherlands requires a stable environment, and the Netherlands did not have enough strength to confront Spain.

As for Carlo, he did not want to be too high-profile and attract the attention of the British.

In fact, this conflict was entirely caused by the Dutch themselves. If the Dutch had not committed suicide, Carlo would not have had much idea about the Dutch East Indies.

Although this colony also has high economic value, the problem is that in addition to Spain, the other country that is paying attention to this colony is Britain, which actually controls the Indian colony.

Britain regards India as a treasure, which also means that Britain must ensure the stability of the areas surrounding India to ensure that there will not be too many problems in the Indian colonies.

Southeast Asia is neither close nor far from India, so it is normal for it to attract the attention of the British.

Not to mention that East Asia also has an extremely large market, which has attracted the attention of many powers.

According to the preliminary contract negotiated between Carlo and Ambassador William, the so-called riot in the Kutai Sultanate would be quelled by troops sent by Spain and the Lanfang Republic, and the division of land after the quelling would naturally have nothing to do with the Netherlands.

In addition, the Netherlands also needs to pay a certain amount of compensation to Spain. After all, the riots in Kalimantan have affected the local Spaniards.

In addition, the Netherlands needs to transfer at least 30 immigration settlements in New Guinea to Spain within three months, and these immigration settlements must be close to Spain's existing settlements.

The Dutch were very sincere in their apology, and because of this, Carlo personally promised that Spain would never hold the Netherlands responsible for anything, nor would it use this as an excuse to wage war against the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies.

Even if the Netherlands was willing, Spain could sign a non-aggression treaty with the Netherlands, stipulating that both sides would not invade each other's colonies and respect each other's ruling rights in the colonies.

After reaching an agreement with Ambassador William, the events on Kalimantan Island came to an end.

After the army of the Lan Fang Republic occupied the entire territory of the Kutai Sultanate, the Spanish colonial garrison stationed in the Burungan Sultanate could move south to take over this land.

After all, it is a piece of land with an area of ​​more than 100,000 square kilometers, so Spain will naturally be rude about it.

What Carlo is currently considering is whether to completely incorporate this land into the Philippine colony, or whether it would be most appropriate to re-establish a large colony on the island of Kalimantan.

The current area of ​​the Philippine colony has reached 44 square kilometers, which is the largest colony controlled by Spain except for the Congo territory.

If the Kutai Sultanate is included, the area of ​​the Philippine colony will exceed 50 square kilometers, which is larger than the area of ​​Spain itself.

The indigenous population of this colony was not small at all. The indigenous population of the Philippines alone was as high as several million. If the indigenous population of Kalimantan was added, the indigenous population of the entire Philippine colony would be close to 10 million, making it more difficult to rule.

Considering that establishing new colonies would increase Spain's colonial investment costs, Carlo temporarily decided to incorporate the Kutai Sultanate into the Philippine colony and suspend the colonial expansion of the Philippine colony.

Next, with the exception of New Guinea, the Philippine colony will honestly develop the occupied lands, have no interest in the lands outside the colony, and will not take any colonial actions.

Now that the issue on Kalimantan has been resolved, Carlo's attention has shifted to the popularization of electricity.

Last Christmas, Madrid, the city that never sleeps, became the hottest news in the whole of Europe, and many media have mentioned it repeatedly to this day.

The most important reason is that so far no other country has been able to build a city that never sleeps like Madrid. Madrid is still unique among scorpion poops.

While European powers led by Britain, France and Germany are following up on the city that never sleeps project, Spain has already started projects to fully popularize electricity in Madrid and Barcelona.

Although electricity can only be used for lighting, lighting can also provide a lot of convenience for humans. Whether it is used in daily life or in industrial production, more efficient lighting is very useful.

Carlo's emphasis on electricity was vividly demonstrated. After Madrid became the city that never sleeps, all the royal family's factories and enterprises signed an order with the power company, not only connecting the companies and factories to electricity, but also purchasing large and small light bulbs for lighting.

There was also a wave of electric heating in Spain, and everyone was proud to be able to use a light bulb for lighting.

Although this craze has not yet spread to the common people, the love of electricity and light bulbs among the Spanish nobility and capitalist class is already visible to the naked eye.

In fact, it is quite normal if you think about it. People in later generations are used to the bright lights of the city at night, so when there is a power outage in the city one day, people will not be able to adapt.

When people of this era feel the brightness and convenience brought by electricity, they will naturally try their best to enjoy this convenience.

If we talk about the busiest company at this time, if the power company is second, then no company dares to claim to be first.

Carlo had long ago reminded the general manager of the power company, Gram, to start producing various types of light bulbs and wires before the Madrid City That Never Sleeps plan, so as to prepare for the popularization of electricity in Spain.

Gram did obey Carlo's orders and produced a large number of light bulbs and wires in advance. Since its establishment, the power company has also actively recruited staff in order to prevent such busy times.

But Gramm greatly underestimated the people's love for electricity, or rather, he greatly underestimated the nobles and capitalists' enthusiasm for enjoying electricity.

When enjoying electricity and light bulbs became a new fashion, the nobles actually had no choice.

Other nobles are using electricity and light bulbs. Should other nobles, who are also members of the aristocracy, remain indifferent?

After Christmas, the power company has been in a state of oversupply. For Gram, this is a time of both pain and joy.

Although electricity at that time could only be used for lighting, it is undeniable that lighting also played an extremely important role. As a pioneer in the power industry, Gram was very happy that the people paid attention to his research.

But the problem is that the Spanish National Electricity Company's orders are currently scheduled for a year later, and there are still orders coming in every day.

Based on the current production of Spanish power companies, it may take more than two years for the power companies to meet the electricity needs of the two large cities of Madrid and Barcelona.

There was no other choice, so Gram could only find Carlo and ask Carlo to recruit more employees for the power company, and at the same time help the power company expand its production scale and improve the efficiency of its power supply.

Carlo naturally nodded repeatedly in response to Gram's request.

The good news is that Carlo has always attached great importance to the development of electricity. Some universities in Spain also have electricity majors, but they are not very popular. Although not very popular, it is no problem for all the universities to bring more than 100 talents to the power industry every year.

If we add the technical workers in the field of electricity trained in technical schools, the so-called electricians, the number of technical talents related to electricity trained in Spain every year may be as high as hundreds.

If these talents are not enough, Spain can also recruit some talents from other countries. However, because all countries have begun to pay attention to the development of electricity, it is not so easy to recruit talents now.

Fortunately, Spain had already poached a lot of talent from abroad before this, which is why Spain is at the forefront of the power industry.

Carlo not only attaches great importance to the development of electricity and invests a lot of money every year, but also continuously introduces foreign talents when other countries do not pay much attention to the development of electricity.

Under such circumstances, it is normal for Spain's electricity to develop rapidly. Without interference from other external factors, it is easy for a country to fully develop a certain industry.

What's more, Spain is not a small country. With sufficient capital investment, it is natural to make progress in electricity and other industries.

There is also good news for Spain, that is, through cooperation with Prussia, Spain's metallurgical technology has been improved to a certain extent.

Metallurgical technology also includes the technology of refining brass, which is the most reliable material for electrical wires. It not only improves power transmission efficiency, but is also safer than other metals.

Due to the improvement of metallurgical technology, Spain's annual copper production has also increased to a certain extent. As copper production increases, copper prices naturally fall.

The drop in copper prices has led to a slight reduction in the production cost of electrical wires, which has contributed a lot to the development of electricity in Spain.

Spain has a small population, which means that currently only two cities with larger populations, Madrid and Barcelona, ​​have access to electricity.

But it's not all bad news. Compared with populous countries like Britain, France and Germany, Spain can spend less money on popularizing electricity because of its smaller population. Isn't the city of Madrid the best example?

Something like a city that never sleeps must be placed in the capital. If it is not the capital, it must be a city with relatively developed economy and industry.

Such cities will have a larger population, especially the three major powers, Britain, France and Germany, whose capitals all have a population of over one million.

Compared to Madrid, they have to spend at least twice as much to replicate a city that never sleeps. This does not include the cost of power generation and electricity consumption. If it is included, their cost may be more than three times that of Spain.

This is actually the reason why Britain and France did not follow up in time. Although it did not cost Spain too much to build the city that never sleeps, if the cost is multiplied by three times, the cost will be huge.

Wouldn't it be good to use this money to build a huge fleet? Even if it is used for the army, wouldn't it be possible to build a large-scale elite army?
Investing a large amount of money in a field like electricity, which has not yet shown sufficient effect, does require sufficient courage for the two old powers, Britain and France.

If Germany had not followed suit too early, the British might have been able to delay for a while longer. If Britain had not followed suit at the same time as Germany, the French might have been able to delay for even longer.

The popularization of electricity is of course a good thing for mankind. Only when electricity is popularized in major cities and industrial areas can electricity-related equipment continue to appear and innovate generation after generation.

This includes not only electric motors, but also various other electrical and mechanical equipment that also require electricity to drive.

The popularization of electricity is like a good start, creating a bright future for the development of electricity. As a country leading in the progress of electricity popularization, Spain is more likely to achieve more achievements in electricity-related technologies and fields.

Benz's car company is the best example.

In fact, several years ago, Benz had already developed a prototype of a car that was barely usable.

But such cars have too many defects. It is okay for the government and the royal family to purchase a few, but it is completely impossible to put them into commercial use.

It is impossible for people to buy a car that may break down at any time. Moreover, the cost of such a hand-made car is very high and ordinary people cannot afford it at all.

Benz and others have conducted research for several years, but have not yet solved the problem of internal combustion engine instability.

But this is normal. If the stability of the internal combustion engine is solved, it means that the steam engine will be replaced.

With current technology, it would be impossible to significantly improve the stability of steam engines without more than 20 years.

Because of this, Carlo did not expect the commercial use of cars for the time being. It would be a good idea to build a few such cars and provide them to the royal family and the government. At least the cars specially provided to Carlo were much more comfortable to ride than horse-drawn carriages, and there would be maintenance personnel accompanying the cars at all times to ensure that the cars would not break down halfway, or if they did, someone would repair them in time.

After Spain vigorously promoted the popularization of electricity, Benz suddenly had an idea and decided to add two large light bulbs in front of the car model he made to provide lighting.

The benefit of doing this is obvious, which is to enable the car to drive at night.

When people were riding in a horse-drawn carriage, it was difficult to provide lighting at night. Whether it was a kerosene lamp or a torch, it was impossible to fully illuminate the road in front of the carriage.

What's more, horses and humans have completely different vision. Just because humans can see clearly doesn't mean horses can see clearly. Animals are naturally afraid of fire. It's better to expect the bright full moon to reflect more light than to expect torches or kerosene lamps to provide lighting for horses.

But cars are a different story. If you can fit at least two light bulbs in the front of your car, there's hope that you'll be able to provide enough light for the person driving it.

The car does not need to see clearly, but the driver can see clearly. This will not only improve the efficiency and safety of the car at night, but also enable the car to have functions that the carriage does not have.

It was unrealistic to expect to install lighting equipment on a carriage. After all, light bulbs require electricity to illuminate, and carriages are always moving.

If a small power generation device is installed, the carriage will become more cumbersome, and an ordinary carriage cannot be modified in this way at all.

Perhaps only the carriages specially provided by the royal family and the government can be modified in this way. After all, the royal carriages are originally inlaid with steel plates and are much larger than normal carriages.

It is possible to install a simple power generation device on such a carriage. Although the power is not large, it can still provide lighting for a few light bulbs.

In the past, when the power generation was not large, it was difficult for the generator installed on the carriage to illuminate the larger wattage bulb. But now, with the increase in the power of the generator, there is indeed hope that such simple generators can be installed on carriages and cars to provide lighting for electric lights.

This is exactly the role of electricity. As long as it can facilitate people's lives, this role will be very useful.

(End of this chapter)