Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 622 New Development Plan

Throughout 1920, the Spanish government's task was actually quite simple: to develop industry at full speed, build infrastructure, and develop agriculture.

With industrial and economic development stagnating across Europe, now is indeed the best time for Spain to widen the gap with other European countries.

In order to achieve faster and more effective development, Carlos ordered the Spanish government to develop a brand-new national development plan, and various government departments set initial goals.

This new development plan, which will begin in 1920, aims to greatly develop Spain's industry, economy, and agriculture, and significantly improve the current educational and medical environment.

To achieve this goal, various government departments have taken significant actions since the development plan was officially announced.

The major moves in the agricultural sector are primarily focused on agricultural mechanization. For Spain today, both domestically and in its colonies, the development of arable land has reached a bottleneck.

Although it is still possible to cultivate a large amount of arable land, it is no longer realistic to increase agricultural output by cultivating arable land.

This approach can achieve some growth, but the amount is negligible and clearly insufficient to support the agricultural sector in achieving its development goals.

After much deliberation, the agricultural sector concluded that there were only two ways to significantly increase grain production: full mechanization of agriculture and the widespread use of chemical fertilizers.

The latter has been largely completed in Spain, where agricultural production is now inseparable from chemical fertilizers, which is why Spain has been able to quickly become a major exporter of agricultural products in Europe.

As for the former, namely the full mechanization of agriculture, Spain has not yet made effective progress.

The reason for the lack of effective progress is simple: there is simply too little machinery available for agriculture, and technology has not yet developed to that point.

To improve agricultural mechanization, the agricultural sector is collaborating with many machinery manufacturers in Spain to develop a variety of mechanical equipment that will benefit agricultural development.

Although the effects may not be significant in the short term, Spain's agricultural mechanization rate is destined to increase substantially in the future.

As Spain's agricultural mechanization rate increases, not only will Spain's grain output increase, but farmers' incomes will also rise.

Machinery can replace a large amount of manual labor, and the saved labor costs are an additional source of income. As for those who lose their jobs because machinery takes away their work, they can also cultivate their own land with the help of the government.

If they are unwilling to continue in agriculture, the numerous industrial zones built in Spain can provide them with enough jobs to ensure that Spain's unemployment rate is not affected.

With multiple safeguards in place, Spain's grain production is expected to increase significantly in the future. For a major power, grain production is of paramount importance.

This is also why Carlo strongly agrees with the plan proposed by the agricultural sector; agricultural mechanization is necessary, as is increasing grain production.

Although agricultural mechanization will face a painful period, for Spain, once it weathers this storm, the future will be brighter.

Compared to the agricultural sector, the transportation sector faces a more challenging task.

Including Morocco, which has been incorporated into the mainland, Spain's territory is now second only to Russia in Europe.

However, in terms of railway mileage, Spain lags behind not only Germany and Russia, but also France.

By the beginning of 1920, Spain's total railway mileage reached 7.1 kilometers, ranking third in the world, after the United States and the United Kingdom.

If we only consider the total mileage, Spain's achievements in railways are quite remarkable, and it is certainly not weak to rank third in the world.

The problem is that, as a colonial empire, Spain distinguished between its domestic and colonial railway mileage.

Excluding railways in all colonies, the total length of railways in mainland Spain was only 4.05 kilometers, slightly ahead of the 3.8 kilometers of railways in mainland Britain.

Although it appears to be ahead of the UK in terms of domestic railway mileage, the vast difference in domestic land area between the two countries must be taken into account.

After losing Ireland, the area of ​​the British mainland has shrunk to 23 square kilometers, far behind countries such as France, Germany, and Spain.

Today, the Spanish Empire's mainland area is 105.76 square kilometers, more than four times the size of Great Britain.

Under these circumstances, Spain's railway mileage is only slightly more than that of the United Kingdom, which shows the inadequacy of Spain's railway network.

Of course, this is not due to negligence on the part of the transportation sector. Despite Spain's vast land area of ​​105.76 square kilometers, the usable land is actually reduced by half.

The Meseta Plateau in mainland Spain and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco have significantly reduced the amount of land available for development in both regions, meaning that only certain areas can be developed.

This is also why Spain has relatively few railway lines today; after all, railways connect cities, and it's impossible to build them in remote, uninhabited mountainous areas.

Another reason for Spain's relatively short railway network is the Meseta Plateau and the Atlas Mountains.

The Meseta Plateau, in particular, contains several densely populated cities. The railway needed to traverse the plateau and mountains, making its construction extremely difficult, time-consuming, and labor-intensive.

For some smaller mountain ranges, railways can be built by digging tunnels. However, for larger mountain ranges, detours are the only option.

According to the new development plan, the transportation sector's future goal is to increase the total length of railways in Spain to 5 kilometers and the total length of railways in Spain to 8.5 kilometers.

In addition to railway construction, highway construction is also an important task for the transportation sector.

However, compared to railway construction, highway construction is easier and requires less government funding.

According to the transportation department's plan, Spain is expected to build 1.7 kilometers of roads in the future, including 4000 kilometers of national main roads, 6000 kilometers of state main roads, and 7000 kilometers of secondary urban roads.

Carlos takes the transportation sector's plans quite seriously. The large-scale construction of railways and highways will not only rapidly stimulate Spanish industry and the economy, but will also create a large number of jobs.

Carlo quickly approved the Ministry of Transport's construction plans and specifically instructed Transport Minister Tal Carlson to strictly control quality in the construction of railways and highways, ensuring that no project had quality problems. As one of the few ministers in the current Spanish cabinet to have served three consecutive terms, Transport Minister Tal Carlson was quite familiar with Carlo's temperament.

Carlo is willing to fully support the government and cabinet ministers, provided that the officials can carry out Carlo's orders in a timely and effective manner.

Since Carlo said that quality and quantity must be guaranteed, there can be no quality problems in the construction of railways and highways.

This is no joke. Carlo has always taken quality issues very seriously. Once a quality problem occurs, all those in charge of the project from top to bottom will be held accountable, and even the officials who supervise the project will be implicated.

Officials had no intention of risking their political careers by deceiving Carlo. They might tamper with the prices of building materials, but they would never compromise on quality, as the consequences of doing so would be far more severe.

As for the former, Carlo usually doesn't care too much about the quality and quantity of the project as long as it can be completed.

As the saying goes, "If you want a horse to run, you must first feed it." Carlo doesn't expect all Spanish officials to be wholeheartedly dedicated to serving the country and its people. A certain degree of greed is a good thing, but only if it doesn't hinder the country's development and construction.

The development of railways and highways inevitably drives rapid industrial development. After all, building railways requires a large amount of steel rails, manufacturing steel rails requires a large amount of steel, and steel is refined from pig iron.

The process from pig iron to steel rails involves three major aspects: iron ore mining, steel smelting, and machinery manufacturing. The economic development it can drive goes far beyond what is apparent on the surface.

One thing is certain from the transportation sector's plans: Spain's industrial scale is destined to grow at an extremely rapid pace in the future.

For this reason, the goals set by the Spanish industrial sector are quite ambitious.

According to current data, in 1919, Spain's annual steel production reached 982 million tons and its annual pig iron production reached 1057 million tons, both ranking among the top three in the world.

Today, Spain's steel production is only slightly inferior to Germany's.

As for Britain, it has fallen far behind Spain in both steel and pig iron production.

Given Spain's current level of industrial development, the industrial sector has formulated a plan to gradually surpass Germany in the future, with heavy industry, led by the steel industry, making Spain the world's second-largest industrial power after the United States.

Germany's steel production reached 1157 million tons, which means that if Spain wanted to surpass Germany's steel production, it would have to increase its annual steel production to more than 1160 million tons by 1925.

As for pig iron production, we have already taken the lead over Germany, so such a large increase is not necessary.

According to industry estimates, pig iron production only needs to be increased to around 1100 million tons to ensure that Spain's industry remains the world's second largest.

The reason why the industrial sector has such a grand plan is actually because of the significant decline in industry in various countries around the world before and after the flu.

Compared to 1917 before the flu outbreak, the scale of industry in countries around the world decreased to some extent. Steel production in Britain decreased from 970 million tons to 917 million tons, steel production in the United States decreased from 4070 million tons to 3600 million tons, steel production in France decreased from 187 million tons to 164 million tons, and steel production in Germany decreased from 1217 million tons to 1157 million tons. The United States was the most severely affected.

The total reduction in U.S. steel production was greater than the combined steel production of France and Austria-Hungary.

This not only demonstrates the severity of the impact of the flu on the United States, but also proves just how powerful the US industry was before the flu.

There is another piece of good news for Spain: the industrial production environment in the United States is not stable.

During the flu outbreak, steelworkers and meatpacking workers in the United States have staged numerous protests.

Due to the impact of the flu, many steel mills and meat processing plants in the United States went bankrupt, resulting in a large number of steelworkers and meat processing workers losing their jobs.

Although the flu season has ended, the situation of these workers has not improved in any way, given the current domestic situation in the United States.

What is certain is that US industry will experience some degree of decline in the coming years. While this decline is not enough for Spain to surpass the US, the narrowing gap between the two countries is definitely good news for Spain.

If the industrial sector can achieve its predetermined goals, it will not only mean that Spain's industry will surpass Germany to become the world's second largest, but also that Spain's industrial scale will far exceed that of the United Kingdom, and Spain will truly have the strength and confidence to become the hegemon of Europe.

Achieving all this was no easy feat. Decades ago, Spain was a pseudo-power with virtually no industrial base.

Compared to other departments, the department responsible for people's livelihood is probably the easiest in this new plan.

According to statistics from the Spanish government, as of early 1920, Spain's total population was approximately 6026 million.

Regarding Spain's population, the goal of the Ministry of Civil Affairs was to increase Spain's total population to 6700 million by 1925.

Before the flu season, achieving an annual population increase of over a million would have been quite difficult.

After all, Spain still needed to transport large numbers of immigrants to its colonies, and no matter how rapidly the local population grew, it could not withstand the drain of a large number of immigrants.

However, after the flu, it is actually quite easy to achieve an annual population increase of more than one million.

The United States was completely overwhelmed by this flu, while Spain's attractiveness to immigrants increased significantly.

The number of immigrants Spain received after the flu season also shows that the number of immigrants received by Spain nearly doubled compared to the same period before the flu.

Based on Spain's population growth data from previous years, with the support of such a large number of immigrants today, Spain's annual population growth could reach over 150 million.

This figure represents net population growth after accounting for deaths and immigration. It simply shows that people in Europe are indeed struggling, which is why they choose to emigrate to other countries in search of a better life.

Spain, on the other hand, maintained a relatively stable domestic situation, whether during world wars or the flu pandemic, and its economy and industrial development were not significantly affected.

This kind of environment is something that Europeans greatly desire, which is why many choose to abandon the United States and immigrate to Spain.

　Third update of 4,000 words, please vote with monthly tickets!
　　Today's daily target of 10,000 was successfully achieved; two more days' worth of daily targets still need to be met!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)