Chapter 123: Inspecting the Industrial Base

At the Seville industrial base, Carlo met with the person in charge of the industrial base, as well as the person in charge of royal industries in the Andalusia region.

Because of the vast scale of the royal industries, in addition to Steward Luo Lun managing the overall situation from Madrid, a primary person in charge was appointed for every region in Spain.

They would regularly report the expansion of royal industries in their respective regions to Steward Luo Lun, and the corresponding income and expenditures would be compiled into reports, submitted once a month.

The person in charge of the Andalusia region was Jose Isis Goras, a tall and thin middle-aged man.

Jose Isis Goras was an authentic Spaniard; he not only possessed a university degree but had also served as a manager at a certain bank.

However, after the Royal Union Bank was established, the bank where Jose Isis Goras worked quickly went bankrupt, and the entire bank was acquired by the royal family and converted into one of the branches of the Royal Union Bank.

This was also the reason why the Royal Union Bank expanded so rapidly; while large banks expanded, many small banks often went bankrupt due to the loss of clients.

The Royal Union Bank would then acquire these bankrupt banks, and after renovations, they would become new branches of the Royal Union Bank.

As the manager of the previously bankrupt bank, Jose Isis Goras's ability was recognized by Steward Luo Lun, and he was eventually promoted step by step to the person in charge of the Andalusia region.

Of course, what Jose Isis Goras was mainly responsible for managing were the factories within the industrial base and the two Royal Union Bank branches in the Andalusia region.

Other businesses outside of this were managed by other people in charge; Steward Luo Lun would not attach too much power to any one person, as that is the easiest way to breed corruption.

Unlike Jose Isis Goras, who was tall, thin, and had the image of an intellectual, the person in charge of the construction of the Seville industrial base looked more like someone with a military background.

But this was also normal. The Seville industrial base was not only the first industrial base ordered to be built since Carlo became King, but it was also the first industrial base ordered to start construction since Primo became Prime Minister.

Whether the Seville industrial base succeeded or not was very important; it was not only the first step in Spain's large-scale industrial construction, but also the first step for Prime Minister Primo to push for reform and for Carlo to begin his own rule.

In order to supervise the construction of the entire industrial base, the person in charge of the industrial base, Leonardo Areso, was transferred from the military, and the industrial base would also have a small-scale military force to protect and supervise the construction.

Being responsible for the construction of the entire industrial base was also a huge achievement for Leonardo Areso. Although Leonardo Areso was Prime Minister Primo's man, Carlo still encouraged him and stated that the nation and the royal family would not forget his contribution to the industrial base.

A few words of encouragement from the King naturally left Leonardo Areso extremely excited. Although Carlo was only a young King, so far, no one could ignore Carlo's influence in Spain.

As the person in charge of the industrial base, Leonardo Areso certainly knew how grateful the workers in the royal factories within the industrial base were to the King.

But this was also normal. If anyone could provide jobs like the ones the King provided, where one could earn more salary while working fewer hours, he believed these workers would also be grateful to him.

To put it bluntly, the reason these workers felt gratitude was not because of Carlo's status as King, but because of the benefits and treatment Carlo provided to these workers.

The overall scale of the Seville industrial base was not large; it only took Carlo a little over an hour to basically tour the entire industrial base.

Of course, during the process of touring the industrial base, a team of soldiers accompanied and protected Carlo, and at the same time, the industrial base's workers and other staff were not allowed to get within 100 meters of Carlo.

But this could not hinder the workers' enthusiasm. Especially when arriving near the royal factories, those workers had already gathered together, and they shouted words of gratitude to Carlo one after another, occasionally interspersed with cheers of "Long live Your Majesty the King!"

Carlo naturally smiled and waved in response while touring the entire industrial base under the guidance of Jose Isis Goras and Leonardo Areso.

Although he appeared calm on the surface, in reality, Carlo was quite satisfied and pleased with the cheers of these workers.

At the very least, this proved that Carlo's layout so far had not been in vain, and a considerable portion of Spaniards already highly approved of him as their King.

What Carlo needed to do now was to turn the crowd that supported him from a minority into a majority, ideally into the vast majority.

As long as he could accomplish such a grand goal, Carlo's layout in Spain could be considered completely finished, and in the future, he could relatively easily lead the Spanish government and the Spanish people forward together.

If he could lead the Spaniards to recover Gibraltar in the future, that would go without saying. Carlo would directly become one of the greatest monarchs in Spanish history, with contributions to Spain comparable to the unification of Castile and Aragon.

If he could complete this step of the plan, it was estimated that the Spanish people's recognition of the royal family would shift to recognition of the House of Savoy.

Only to that extent could Carlo completely eliminate the influence of the Bourbon family's 100-plus years of rule in Spain, allowing all Spaniards to support the new royal family—that is, the rule of the House of Savoy—from the inside out.

After touring the Seville industrial base, Carlo also practically inspected the transportation situation of the Seville industrial base.

Because the industrial base was not near the sea and had no rivers that could be used for sea transport, this meant that a relatively complete railway environment had to be built around the Seville industrial base to help the industrial base transport in the mineral resources it needed, while simultaneously transporting out the finished industrial products for sale.

The good news was that as the southernmost region of Spain, Andalusia's capital, Seville, was also relatively close to the ocean.

This meant that the transportation environment of the Seville industrial base was not that difficult. One only needed to transport industrial raw materials and finished industrial products by rail to the seaside port, and they could very conveniently be transported to all parts of Spain and even abroad by sea.

Furthermore, Spain's current railway construction situation was not as bad as imagined. Although it could not compare to the railway mileages of other countries that easily reached tens of thousands of kilometers, the current 5, 00-plus kilometers of railway mileage was already enough for Spain.

As the capital city of the Andalusia region, Seville was naturally within the planning of Spain's railway loop. One only needed to connect the railway lines to the area around the industrial base, and various materials could be transported on the railway loop to various cities or ports.

Actually, there was nothing much to inspect; the Seville industrial base would most likely not have any problems. If even this industrial base, which had only been built for a few years, had problems, then the Spanish government would not need to talk about any industrial construction topics.

Long before the industrial base began construction, the Spanish government had invited a relatively professional team to plan the construction of the entire industrial base.

In any case, the scale of the industrial base was not particularly large, and there was no need to worry about attracting the attention of other great powers. Such a small-to-medium-scale industrial base was already quite common in other great powers, and they also possessed relatively complete construction experience, which could naturally be utilized by the Spanish government.

In fact, Europe did indeed have such construction teams that possessed quite rich construction experience. The transportation of materials was one of the main factors considered in the construction of the industrial base, and it had naturally already been considered when the industrial base was planned.

This included the Barcelona industrial base, which was currently being built as a main force; it had also considered various conditions before construction.

However, the Barcelona industrial base was close to the seaside, so the transportation of materials would be more convenient compared to the Seville industrial base.

Moreover, the city scale of Barcelona was also larger than Seville, and it was closer to other European countries. Except for being too close to France and being close to the seaside, which made it easy to suffer strikes from naval fleets, it had no flaws in other aspects.

Of course, Madrid was actually also suitable for building an industrial base. Madrid was located in the center of all of Spain, and transporting materials from here to every region of Spain was relatively close.

But considering the damage current industry caused to the natural environment, Carlo still placed the location of the industrial base in Barcelona.

Madrid, as the capital, was also a strategic plan for Spain and could not be changed in the short term.

If the natural environment of Madrid were damaged too badly, or even if a "fog city" were created, then Carlo, who would need to live around Madrid in the future, would suffer.

Moreover, Madrid's advantage was mainly in road transportation. Barcelona, as a port city, also had sea transportation as one of its advantages.

Regarding the inspection process of the Seville base, Carlo was quite satisfied. This was not only a new starting point for Spanish industry, but also the first step in the plan for Spain's rise under Carlo's rule.

Currently, the construction of the industrial base was very smooth. The major factories within the industrial base had already entered a production state, and the several steel mills and other factories invested in and built by the royal family were also already full and were working overtime to produce.

Before the Barcelona industrial base was completed, the Seville industrial base would serve as one of the few "large-scale" bases for Spain's heavy industry, providing Spain with the steel and other important materials needed for industrial development.

Finally, after encouraging the person in charge of the industrial base, Leonardo Areso, and the person in charge of royal industries in the Andalusia region, Jose Isis Goras, Carlo took Queen Sophie and many servants and soldiers and set off on the journey back to the capital, Madrid.

The second update of three thousand words, please support!

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(End of chapter)