Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 333 High Birth, High Death

If it were in the future, there would be world-famous songs such as the "Aranjuez Concerto" to enhance the fame of Aranjuez. But now, the Aranjuez Palace really has little presence in the whole of Spain, and even in the town there are only a few Spaniards.

Such a quiet environment is a good place for Carlo to travel. The royal family members have a special status, and this quiet environment not only protects the privacy of the royal family members, but also ensures that the royal family members' travel will not disturb the lives of ordinary Spaniards.

Indeed, when Carlo arrived at the National Palace of Aranjuez, he immediately felt the tranquility and peace of the palace and the surrounding town.

This is definitely a precious environment for the royal family. The little ones can play here leisurely, and Carlo can also enjoy a relaxing time without having to worry about Spanish politics.

Carlo was more relieved to leave the affairs of state to Prime Minister Canovas. Maybe he was not as capable as Prime Minister Primo, but fortunately he was more loyal to Carlo and more obedient.

After living in the Aranjuez Palace for half a year and spending the hot summer, Carlo returned to the Royal Palace of Madrid with his family.

Although the view from the Aranjuez Palace was indeed nice, Carlo could not stay away from Madrid, the political center of Spain, for long.

Starting from 1886, the focus of Spain's colonial work shifted from the development of colonial territories to the development of colonies.

A large number of immigrants were transported to the colonies from all over Europe and Spain, and some colonial populations who passed the assessment were transported to mainland Spain and became real Spaniards.

Throughout 1885, the net population growth in Spain was close to 70. The most gratifying thing was the birth rate of newborns. According to statistics on the newborn population by governments at all levels in Spain, there were about 1885 newborns in Spain in 92, with a birth rate of 40‰.

There were 92 newborns alone, which is enough to give us an idea of ​​how exaggerated Spain's population growth was in 1885.

Of course, before calculating population growth, it is also necessary to take into account the inflow and outflow of population as well as the scale of population deaths.

Due to the relatively poor medical technology of this era, European countries all have the characteristics of high birth rates and high death rates.

Especially in agricultural countries, where the birth rate is among the highest in the world, the death rate is also among the highest in the world.

This was indeed the case in Spain before reform and industrial renaissance, but after reform and a series of medical subsidies issued by the government, Spain's population mortality rate, especially the neonatal mortality rate, has declined significantly.

According to the government's retrospective statistics on babies born in 1885, more than 92 of the 80 newborns survived, with a newborn survival rate of 87%.

Although there are still 12 newborns who unfortunately die due to various reasons, in this era of relatively backward medical technology, it is quite difficult for nearly % of babies to survive.

It is worth mentioning that the death rate of the elderly population over 65 years old in Spain is even lower than that of infants.

The main reason is that the average life expectancy in this era is not long, and only 100 or 3 out of 4 people can live to be over 60 years old.

Due to industrial pollution and poor medical conditions, Spain's population mortality rate is also as high as 21.7‰, and the total death toll is close to 50.

The number of newborns minus the number of deaths means that the population growth in Spain is only about 42. Although the population growth is only 92 for 42 births, this is actually quite good in Europe.

Even other European countries with a population of 30 to 40 million may not necessarily achieve as much net population growth as Spain.

The main reason is that other European countries have more developed industries, so they have more workers. There is a clear characteristic among European countries, that is, the population growth in agricultural countries is greater than that in industrial countries.

The main reason is that farmers can manage most of their time by themselves, except for planting. In other words, they can choose a more relaxed way to spend their time outside of work, and having children is an important form of entertainment.

But workers are different. Although workers earn more than farmers, they also work longer hours. In addition, workers have fixed work locations and need to travel far away from their hometowns and even their families to work in big cities.

This also means that workers of this era do not have much free time to use as they please. They are already very tired after a day at work and have no mood to have children.

In addition to the net population increase of 42 in the local area, Spain also received a large influx of foreign immigrants.

As Spain expanded its colonies, many Spaniards chose to go to the colonies to seek more opportunities to make money. This also led to more arable land per capita in Spain as the local population grew.

The local economic prosperity has increased its attractiveness to immigrants, with Italy, Germany and Austria alone providing a large number of immigrants to Spain.

If these countries want to travel to Africa or America, they must pass through the Mediterranean outlet and cross the Atlantic Ocean.

This also means that Spain is a must-stop for them. Many people choose to immigrate and become Spanish citizens because they saw various local welfare conditions for immigrants when they stopped at Spanish ports.

Because of the population trade with Russia at that time, Spain attracted a wave of transport fleets. Although Spain only had a few military shipyards, it actually had quite a lot of civilian shipyards.

In addition, Spain is located at the western entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, which gives it a natural geographical advantage. Currently, Spain controls almost one-third of the transport fleets heading to North and South America along the Mediterranean coast.

This also leads to these Spanish-controlled fleets making multiple stops at Spanish ports. They basically cooperate with local governments with the aim of attracting some immigrants to stay in Spain and eventually become part of the Spanish population.

Since Spain's administrative division reform, the cabinet government and parliament have become more stringent in evaluating the performance of governments at all levels.

From the cabinet government to the state and city governments, they all undergo annual performance assessments, with the most important assessment criteria being the growth of population size, industrial scale and total economic output.

Although these assessment criteria are somewhat general, for this era, officials who can achieve simultaneous growth in population, industry and economy, even if they are not particularly outstanding, are at least above the passing line.

In this environment, governments at all levels have become very concerned about the population growth in their own territories. However, the Spanish government also has very strict restrictions on population introduction, and governments at all levels cannot introduce population at will.

First of all, all blacks are not included in the scope of Spain's population introduction. Of course, this rule is currently limited to Spain, and blacks still have the opportunity to join Spain's colonies and become local residents.

However, even in the colonies, the introduction of black population was quite strict. If a black person wanted to become a colonial resident recognized by Spain, he or she must either create great economic value for Spain or be a technical talent that Spain needed.

During the more than ten years that Carlo was the King of Spain, the number of black people who had the opportunity to become residents of Spanish colonies could be counted on one hand. The reason why these black people were able to become residents of Spanish colonies was because of their special status. For example, the chiefs and emirs of some indigenous African countries could obtain the status of residents of Spanish colonies.

This was also to divide the local black class and split the blacks from a whole into two factions: those who had common interests with Spain and those who were against it.

If these black people who became colonial residents recognized by Spain wanted to maintain their rights, they had to publicize Spanish colonial rule and reduce local resistance.

If an entire indigenous country clearly opposed Spanish colonial rule, then there would naturally be no need for the emir or chief of this indigenous country to continue to exist.

From this point we can also see that even if black people can be recognized by Spain, Spain is mostly using them.

When these blacks lose their usefulness, Spain will still not continue to recognize their rights, and the owners of this land will always be the Spanish.

According to the results summarized by various cities, the total number of immigrants received by all cities in mainland Spain in 1885 exceeded 30.

According to relevant information registered by the immigration departments of various cities, among the 30 immigrants, Russia and Italy ranked first and second respectively, contributing 12 and 8 immigrants to Spain.

The number of immigrants from Austria-Hungary ranked third, with a total of only about 3 people, followed by immigrants from many countries in the Balkan Peninsula, with a total of about 2 people.

Then there are the immigrants from Germany and France. The total number of immigrants from these two countries is just over 1. This also shows that Spain is not attractive enough to the immigrant population from Germany and France.

The remaining European countries together contributed several thousand immigrants, with Portugal having the largest number of immigrants, at over 3000.

If the Portuguese government had not issued policies to restrict immigration, Portugal alone would probably have contributed more than 2000 immigrants.

For the powerful countries, the loss of thousands of immigrants is not a serious problem. But for Portugal, a country with a population of only a few million, the loss of thousands of people every year will have a great impact on the country's development.

In fact, if we apply the formula of Spain's population growth rate and mortality rate to calculate Portugal's actual population growth, we can understand that for a country like Portugal with a population of less than 500 million, the actual population growth is less than 10 people per year.

Considering that Portugal's medical level and economic environment are worse than Spain's, perhaps Portugal's population growth is even smaller.

In this case, the loss of several thousand people every year is enough to make the Portuguese government feel painful. Moreover, these thousands of people flowed to its only neighbor, Spain. Doesn't this mean that the Portuguese government is aiding the enemy in disguise?
Although it has issued corresponding policies to restrict immigration, the Portuguese government still dares not openly restrict immigration to Spain due to the tyranny of the Spanish government, and can only carry out relevant prevention in various policies.

This is also the reason why, although the Portuguese government has enacted a policy to restrict immigration, more than 3000 immigrants still go to Spain every year.

The reason why these Portuguese people go to Spain is very simple, that is, they can get higher-paying jobs in Spain, and it is not difficult for Portuguese people to obtain Spanish citizenship.

The Portuguese can understand Spanish, and there is not much difference between the two sides in appearance and culture.

This also means that there is almost no cost for Portuguese people to become Spanish, which is also the reason why the Portuguese choose to go to Spain.

Perhaps the Portuguese government should be thankful that the Spanish state of Extremadura is an administrative region with a small population and not much industry.

If the positions of France and Portugal were swapped, and Portugal were adjacent to Catalonia in Spain, the Barcelona industrial base alone would be enough to attract a large number of Portuguese people.

Spain's current per capita income is in the upper-middle range in Europe, and is slightly higher than Portugal's.

The income of Spanish workers is higher than the average income, but where there is a large industrial base on the border between Spain and Portugal, these Portuguese simply cannot afford the temptation of high-paying jobs.

All European countries provided Spain with nearly 27 immigrants, and the remaining 3 immigrants came from Spain's colonies.

These 3 immigrants were mainly Moroccans, with a small number of native Filipino colonists and Lan Fang people.

Spain has established Spanish schools in both the Philippines and Lanfang, and also has corresponding immigration plans.

Currently, these two regions can provide Spain with thousands of immigrants every year. Although not much, it is considered a relatively stable source of immigrants.

The main reason is that these two regions are too far from the Spanish mainland, and immigrants need to pay for the boat fare themselves. Unless they meet Spain's talent introduction plan, Spain will not provide boat tickets to the mainland.

However, on the premise that they have to pay for their own shipping fees, Spain can still attract thousands of immigrants to mainland Spain every year, which also shows the appeal of Spain to the population of these two regions.

Although there is an influx of 30 people, this does not mean that there is no outflow of population from Spain.

According to statistics from customs and local cities, Spain lost about 1885 people in 3 alone.

However, nearly 2 of them were transported out by Spain on their own initiative, and a considerable number of them were Catalans or Basques.

Transporting them to the Spanish colonies would not only fill the gap in the Spanish population in the colonies, but also solve the problem of two ethnic groups in Navarre and Catalonia wanting independence. It was simply killing two birds with one stone.

In addition to these 2 people who were actively transported out of Spain, the remaining more than 1 people are real immigrants who actively chose to immigrate to other countries.

Carlo would neither retain nor stop those who wanted to leave Spain for other countries and lands.

The inflow and outflow of immigrants in this era is very normal. For Carlo, only those who are willing to stay in Spain and love and recognize this country are his people.

Naturally, Spain’s various welfare policies and subsidies are only aimed at these true Spaniards who are Carlo’s subjects.

Those immigrants who choose to leave Spain and go to other countries will of course no longer be able to enjoy Spain’s various policies and subsidies.

(End of this chapter)