Chapter 129: Cabinet Meeting

Gao Da was also keeping a close eye on the Primo government, which had been making non-stop moves during this period. Although both bills had achieved excellent results, the promulgation of such bills was destined to arouse the dissatisfaction of some vested interest groups.

Perhaps the sensation caused by a single bill would not be great, but when several bills were stacked together, the impact caused was immeasurable.

Fortunately, the second bill had little impact on the nobility. The old-style nobility held large amounts of land in their hands, and they had not yet transformed into capital-style new-style nobility.

As for the new-style nobility, they did not have much capital in their hands; they were currently mainly participating in the operations of the Royal United Bank, thereby obtaining dividends from the Royal United Bank.

Gao Da could be considered to have gone all out to win over these new-style nobility. The royal family held 75% of the shares in the Royal United Bank, and the remaining 25% of the shares were divided among the Noble United Consortium.

The shares of the Noble United Consortium were further divided into several portions; if the new-style nobility wanted to participate in the Noble United Consortium, they needed to spend capital to subscribe to the shares of the United Consortium.

In the future, all investments by the United Consortium would generate dividends, and the dividends would be distributed to the nobles behind the consortium according to the proportion of their shares.

Of course, to prevent some new-style nobility from not having enough capital to purchase shares in the United Consortium, Gao Da also had certain rewards for the new-style nobility.

For example, all the nobles ennobled by Gao Da after his ascension, although they did not have much land, would directly receive some shares of the Noble United Consortium.

Although the value of the shares gifted to them at the beginning was not very high, with a total value of only about a few hundred pesetas, with the development of the Noble United Consortium, the value of such shares would eventually rise to thousands or even several thousand pesetas.

And after these new-style nobility had accumulated a portion of wealth, they could also purchase shares of the Noble United Consortium, allowing their shareholding ratio to become higher, and naturally, their future dividends would also be greater.

Do not underestimate the Noble United Consortium, which was currently not large in scale.

The Royal United Bank had already become a behemoth in the Spanish banking industry, one that even the Spanish National Bank, which the government had spent a great price to establish, could not compare to.

Of course, the main reason for this was also because the Spanish National Bank started too late. The Royal United Bank had already become a giant in the Spanish banking industry long before the Spanish National Bank was opened, and it had now become the largest banking consortium in Spain.

Compared with the Royal United Bank, the scale of the Spanish National Bank was smaller. But if compared with other banks in Spain, the National Bank was still a behemoth.

The Royal United Bank and the Spanish National Bank were not only the top two banking giants in Spain, but their combined number of users and total deposits also accounted for about 80% of all bank users and deposits in Spain.

Of course, more than 55% of that 80% was in the Royal United Bank, while the total scale of users and deposits of the National Bank was only about 25%.

But the users and deposits of the remaining banks in Spain combined amounted to less than 20%, from which it could also be seen that the Royal United Bank and the National Bank had already formed a monopoly on the Spanish banking industry.

The formation of monopoly giants was a necessity of the development of the times, and it was also something that every country could not avoid.

For Spain, having two giants monopolize the banking industry was much better than having all kinds of small and medium-sized banks springing up everywhere.

Two banks with official status would be more supported by the public, and these two banks could also receive more deposits from users, thereby utilizing the private capital of Spain to develop the Spanish economy more effectively.

Although both official banks had their own selfish motives for development to a greater or lesser extent, they would not shrink back in the face of the great cause of national development.

Once the government lacked funds, it could let the two banks with official status subscribe to national debt; at the very least, delaying the government's financial crisis was no problem.

If all the private capital were scattered among those large and small private banks, not only would it be very troublesome to gather it, but small-scale banks were also prone to bankruptcy.

Monopoly giants might not be suitable for the future development of Spain, but for the current Spain, where everything was waiting to be done, it was the best choice for development.

Spain's development was not all smooth sailing, and the development of various industries would also face many problems.

On June 3, 1872, at a routine meeting of the Spanish cabinet government, the government discussed the problems currently faced by Spain's development.

Gao Da, who had not attended a cabinet meeting for a long time, reappeared at the cabinet government meeting and listened to the cabinet government's discussion on this meeting.

The reason for Gao Da's appearance at the cabinet meeting was actually due to the invitation of Prime Minister Primo. Why? Because currently, only Gao Da truly had surplus money in his hands to focus on developing certain industries, which was the reason Prime Minister Primo invited Gao Da.

Dressed in a white king's military uniform sewn by the royal tailor under the service of a maid, wearing the military rank of Spanish Marshal, holding a custom-made king's longsword in his hand, and after saying goodbye to Queen Sophie, Gao Da headed to the government to attend the meeting with a confident smile on his face.

It would be hard for Gao Da not to be confident. Becoming the king of the major European power Spain at less than 19 years old, and now at 21 having initially grasped a certain amount of power, anyone would have a confident smile on their face.

The good news was that the nobles and kings of the 19th century had already gotten rid of the noble robes of the 17th and 18th centuries and changed into more handsome and simple military uniforms.

After wearing military ranks and a series of medals and tassels, the military uniforms worn by kings and nobles were actually more imposing than the previous robes, and they looked more dignified and handsome.

In any case, Gao Da quite liked wearing such a military uniform. Except for necessary occasions where he wore king's ceremonial dress, Gao Da preferred to go out wearing a military uniform.

First of all, the military uniform was not so bloated, and secondly, it was damn handsome. As king, Gao Da could also customize his military uniform according to his own ideas; anyway, he just went with whatever was handsome.

Walking into the government meeting room, the cabinet members were all respectfully waiting for Gao Da.

The moment the guards pushed open the door, all the cabinet members stood up and greeted Gao Da with great respect.

Gao Da nodded with a smile, walked all the way to the head position of the conference table under everyone's gaze, and sat down slowly.

No matter who was the boss of the government, as long as the king attended the government meeting, the head position had to be reserved for the king.

After all, the king was the theoretical supreme ruler of a country, and even the current Spanish government had to serve the king.

Power was power, and status was status; these were different.

After everyone had arrived, the cabinet government meeting officially began. As the leader of the government, Prime Minister Primo naturally had to set a discussion topic for this cabinet meeting.

Second update, asking for support!

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(End of chapter)