Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 317 Barcelona's Development

Carlo's schedule in Barcelona was simple. He first went to the Barcelona City Government to inspect the establishment of the special city, and then went to the Barcelona Industrial Base to inspect the construction of the industrial base.

Speaking of which, it has been several years since the Barcelona Industrial Base was built, and Carlo has been here only a few times.

It’s not that Carlo doesn’t care about the development of Barcelona’s industrial base. It’s mainly because the situation in Catalonia was relatively chaotic in the past few years. In addition, Carlo has not completely taken power, so he rarely sets foot outside of Madrid.

So far, Carlo has only conducted three nationwide inspections of this nature.

After entering the Barcelona City Hall, the Mayor of Barcelona reported on the progress of the establishment of the special city so far, and also reported on the development of Barcelona in recent years.

As the second largest city in Spain, Barcelona's population growth rate is not much different from that of Madrid.

Madrid currently has a permanent population of 76, while Barcelona has a permanent population of 63. The gap between the two is not that big.

If the workers in the industrial zone are included, Barcelona's actual population is larger than that of Madrid. In addition, because it is located on the seaside, Barcelona also welcomes a large number of tourists every year, and the city size is not inferior to Madrid.

The convoy passed through the streets and alleys of Barcelona, ​​and Carlo was also carefully observing the situation in Barcelona.

At present, Barcelona is developing rapidly. The road construction in the city is not inferior to that in Madrid. When driving on the streets of Barcelona, ​​you can feel no bumps at all.

Speaking of road construction, perhaps many people would not think that in this era when asphalt roads were not widely used, the road construction in European countries was not mainly based on cement pavement. Most of the roads in various countries were paved with gravel and crushed stones or compacted soil.

These types of roads all have problems of one kind or another. Roads paved with gravel and crushed stone cannot be truly flat, and cars cannot drive at high speeds on such roads.

Not to mention the compacted earth road surface. It is fine on sunny days, but once it rains, the road becomes muddy and it is very difficult for pedestrians and vehicles to pass.

As the second largest city in Spain, Barcelona's urban development is better than Carlo expected.

On the road from Valencia to Barcelona, ​​Carlo saw too many rural dirt roads and gravel roads connecting major cities.

After the train entered Barcelona, ​​the dirt roads that were more dependent on the weather disappeared, and there were more roads paved with stones and gravel.

After entering the city of Barcelona, ​​the gravel and stone roads disappear, replaced by a small amount of concrete roads and a large amount of asphalt roads.

The so-called asphalt road is actually a road paved with asphalt.

Unlike the asphalt roads of later generations, the asphalt roads of this era were made with asphalt extracted from the resin of Cupressaceae plants, which is also the origin of the name asphalt.

Because asphalt is extracted from plant resin, the production of asphalt has always been low and asphalt roads have not been built on a large scale.

Currently, among all the cities in Spain, only large cities such as Madrid and Barcelona can see the construction of asphalt roads.

Although asphalt roads have the advantages of being smoother, stronger and more durable than gravel roads, stone roads and dirt roads, asphalt roads also have some disadvantages.

For example, asphalt will melt under high temperatures, and there is a risk of the road surface cracking, etc., which, like the production of asphalt, limit the popularity of asphalt roads.

After listening to the report from the Barcelona City Government on the establishment of the special city and its work in recent years, Carlo led a group of people to the Barcelona Industrial Zone.

The person in charge this time is not the mayor of Barcelona, ​​but the long-awaited director of the industrial zone, Baron Angelo Arcajo.

On the road from downtown Barcelona to the industrial zone, Baron Angelo Orcajo respectfully introduced to Carlo who was in the car with him: "Your Majesty, please look, this is the highway we built in cooperation with the Barcelona City Government to connect the industrial zone and the urban area.

The main road is 12.7 kilometers long and can ensure that people can travel between the urban area and the industrial area conveniently. The entire main road adopts a two-way six-lane design, with two lanes on the left for cars and one lane on the right for carriages and other vehicles.

On both sides of the main road, there are sidewalks for pedestrians. This also makes our main road more than 20 meters wide, making it the widest road in Spain. ”

Carlo nodded, looking at the extremely wide road in front of him, and vaguely found a sense of the afterlife.

In the days before cars, Spain's road planning was not so sophisticated. Even most of the roads were dirt roads, so naturally there was no such thing as lanes and lines.

But with the birth of the car, Spain's traffic laws and regulations have become more perfect.

Especially in cities, most roads have specific lane and route markings to help drivers of cars and carriages stay in their lanes.

The main reason for doing this is to avoid traffic accidents, or at least reduce the probability of traffic accidents.

There are few cameras and the Internet in this era, so once a traffic accident occurs, it is very easy to escape.

Unless someone is hit in plain sight, it is difficult to find the person who hit the car or person several hours after the accident.

Spain's approach is to station police at intersections with heavy traffic to facilitate the arrest of perpetrators as soon as traffic accidents occur.

These police officers who are stationed at intersections or other places to help cities manage traffic have now been separated from the public security department and are under the management of each city.

They also had a new name, called city traffic police, which were the traffic police of later generations.

Because Spain does not ban guns, even city traffic police are equipped with guns.

The power of the city traffic police is also much greater than that of the traffic police in later generations. In addition to being able to deal with traffic accidents at hand, the city traffic police also have the power to handle cases.

Unlike ordinary police under the jurisdiction of the public security department, urban traffic police are affiliated with the municipal governments of various cities. They are also the only armed force in various parts of Spain.

In order to prevent people with ulterior motives from using urban traffic police to achieve their own goals, Spain has imposed strict restrictions on the number of urban traffic police in each city. First of all, only cities with a population of more than 10 can set up urban traffic police stations. Only with urban traffic police stations can a certain number of urban traffic police be recruited.

The number of traffic police that can be recruited varies depending on the population size of each city.

Currently, only Madrid and Barcelona are qualified to recruit 200 urban traffic police. The number of urban traffic police that other cities can recruit is much less than that of these two cities.

"Of course, the two main roads from Barcelona to the industrial base have been paved with asphalt. According to the feedback from the workers in the industrial base, the construction of these two roads has greatly facilitated the workers' travel between the city and the industrial base, and trains and trams have also increased their options." Baron Angelo Orcajo continued to introduce:
“There are currently no new construction plans for the industrial base, but according to our estimates, the production capacity of the industrial base will continue to grow to a certain scale in the next few years.

If the city government can allocate another sum of money, I am confident that the industrial base’s production capacity can be increased by at least 20% in the next five years, and at least 10 more jobs can be created in the industrial base.”

Hearing what Baron Angelo Olkaho said, Carlo's eyes immediately turned from the road outside to him, and asked with a little curiosity: "Are you sure, Baron Olkaho?

That’s a 20% increase in production capacity and 10 jobs, you know what that means for Barcelona.”

A 20% increase in production capacity may not seem like much, but this is the largest industrial base in Spain. To be able to increase production capacity by 20% without expanding the industrial base is already a very good result.

Not to mention the addition of 10 jobs, which will make Barcelona very popular among the people in the next few years. Many people will travel thousands of miles with their families to Barcelona in search of more job opportunities.

The Barcelona City Government only needs to pay a sum of money, and in the next few years the industry and economy will develop rapidly, and even the population will catch up.

One hundred thousand jobs represent not just one hundred thousand people, but a source of income for one hundred thousand families and hundreds of thousands of people.

If what Baron Angelo Orcajo said was true, Carlo even had reason to believe that Barcelona would surpass Madrid and become the first city in Spain with a population of over one million.

So far, there is no city with a population of one million in Spain, which is something Carlo feels a little regretful about.

Although Madrid has great potential to become the first city with a population of over one million, according to Madrid's current population growth rate, it will take at least five years for the population to exceed one million.

If Barcelona can add another 10 jobs in the next few years, it will have a real chance to surpass Madrid and become the most populous, industrially powerful and economically developed city in Spain.

"How much money do you need?" Carlo did not ask the mayor of Barcelona for his opinion, but asked directly to Baron Angelo Orcaho.

"Your Majesty, to achieve the results I mentioned, a conservative estimate is that at least 3500 million pesetas of funds will be needed. If 5000 million pesetas of funds were even better, I have full confidence that I can achieve the goals I mentioned within the next five years." Seeing Carlo's attitude of "if you dare to say it, I dare to lend you the money", Baron Angelo Orcaho was delighted and quickly stated the funding needs he had already calculated.

Baron Angelo Orcajo is not just talking. He has a long-term plan for the development of Barcelona's industrial base and believes that the Barcelona industrial base has not yet realized its potential.

Although the Barcelona industrial base has been established for several years, there are still a large number of workers who are still in the apprenticeship stage.

There was no way around it. After all, there were not so many workers in Spain at the time. These workers had to rely on short-term training in technical schools or self-teaching by factories to barely master a certain level of working skills.

The capabilities of these workers who have received short-term training are certainly not as good as those of the skilled workers in factories in other European countries.

But the good news is that as these workers accumulate working hours and gradually become familiar with the work at hand, they will also be able to grow into qualified skilled workers, thereby improving the production capacity of the industrial base in disguise.

Part of the increase in industrial output that Baron Angelo Orcaho mentioned comes from the growth of these workers.

As for jobs, it is mainly the support provided by industrial bases to some enterprises.

At present, the overall economic environment in Spain is still relatively good, and even the economic environment in the whole of Europe is gradually recovering.

After the last economic crisis was over, Europe's economy prospered again. However, all countries were still somewhat nervous, and the speed of development was not as exaggerated as before the economic crisis.

Among many European countries, Spain's current development speed is considered relatively rapid.

Under such a background, it is relatively easy for factories in the industrial base to make money. The Spanish government has various support and subsidies for these factories. If the industrial base promotes more support and subsidy policies and strives for more orders for them, the factories will definitely recruit more employees, which is also the origin of jobs.

In addition, the Barcelona industrial base has not yet reached the estimated number of workers.

Before the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base, the Spanish government expected the industrial base to be a super-large industrial base that could accommodate 50 workers.

But so far, the number of workers in Barcelona's industrial base is less than 40, which has not yet reached the original expectations.

There are many reasons why the initial expectations were not met. The first is that the population of Catalonia is not enough, which limits the development of the industrial base.

Although Catalonia was once the third most populous region in Spain, it only had 312 million people.

How exaggerated is the 50 jobs in Barcelona's industrial base? If only Catalans are recruited, this means that one out of every six Catalans works in Barcelona's industrial base.

Such a situation is obviously impossible to achieve, after all, Catalonia cannot invest all its manpower into the industrial base.

Even in Barcelona, ​​there are ports, education, medical care, agriculture and other industries that require a large amount of manpower.

In addition, factories have certain requirements when recruiting, either they have to have a certain level of education or they have to have received training in technical schools established by the government, which further limits the growth of the number of workers.

With Barcelona becoming a special city and with the resources from the whole of Spain being allocated to it, the Barcelona industrial base will be able to obtain a sufficient number of workers in the next few years, and it will naturally be easy to fill the remaining 100,000 job vacancies.

As the number of workers increases, the output value of each factory will also increase, and the output value of the industrial base will naturally increase significantly.

In this way, the goal mentioned by Baron Angelo Orcaho will be easily achieved, which will be a great political achievement for Baron Angelo Orcaho and a good improvement for Spain.

(End of this chapter)