Chapter 144: Christmas

Time passed quietly, and soon it was Christmas in 1872.

This year's Christmas, the Wang Gong was much more lively, because the Wang Gong welcomed the hostess, Queen Suofei.

Gao Da himself didn't care, but in order to prevent Queen Suofei from being bored in the huge Wang Gong, he decided to hold a large court banquet to make the Ma Deli Wang Gong lively on Christmas.

The banquet was not only an important means of communication for noble ladies, but also one of the ways for nobles to strengthen communication.

Speaking of which, except for a few nobles such as Duke Ya Ke Bo, Gao Da had not seen many Spanish nobles for a long time.

It was very necessary to connect the nobles through this court banquet to deepen feelings, after all, nobles were also Gao Da's help.

In fact, the reason for everything was because the number of Spanish royal family members was too small. The entire royal family had only the king and the queen, and it was indeed very monotonous when celebrating festivals.

However, Gao Da had never treated himself badly in terms of life. Although there were only two people in the royal family, the total number of servants in the entire Wang Gong was as high as hundreds, and just the chefs responsible for cooking were more than ten, who could make delicious food with different flavors from various European countries.

The clothes that Gao Da and Queen Suofei usually wore were also specially made for the royal family by private tailors, and the cost of each piece of clothing was as high as hundreds of Bisaita, and some expensive dresses even cost more than 10,000 Bisaita.

To prepare for this huge court banquet, more than ten chefs proficient in the food of various European countries were all dispatched to specially make all kinds of exquisite food.

After several years of development, Gao Da's wine industry had also become a relatively well-known enterprise among Spanish wine estates.

After all, with Gao Da as the king personally advertising, it invisibly increased the grade of this wine. Although the brand sold to the common people was not the royal wine brand exclusively for the royal family, the production place was from the royal family's wine estate.

The royal wine estate, which mainly focuses on high-end, had currently become one of the main choices for nobles' banquets. After all, this was the king's industry, and nobles had to give some face more or less.

Even if most of the nobles owned their own red wine industry, taking out one or two bottles of royal wine estate wine at a banquet could not only please the king, but also directly show the consumption of this banquet.

The wine of the royal wine estate was relatively expensive, just like the Moutai of later generations. Not to mention whether it tasted good or not, the price was there anyway.

Precisely because of the relatively high selling price, the wine produced by the royal wine estate was still relatively popular among the group of Spanish nobles and capitalists.

Even because they were on the Iberian Peninsula, the wine of the royal wine estate was also relatively popular among the Portuguese noble group.

Also because of Queen Suofei, many royal wine estate wines were exported to the Austro-Hungarian Empire every year, and also received good reviews from the nobles of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After all, as one of the top ten wine producing regions in later generations, the taste and output of Spanish wine were relatively excellent.

Stimulated by the wine industry, Spain also had many grape planting gardens and cooperated with the royal family's wine estate.

Compared with farming, the income from planting grapes would be higher. However, the royal wine estate had relatively strict requirements for the variety and quality of grapes, and grapes with poor varieties and quality could only cooperate with those small red wine estates to produce wine brands for the common people.

Gao Da's wine estate also had a red wine brand that focused on cost-effectiveness, called the Iberian Estate. The quality of the Iberian Estate's wine was obviously much worse compared to the royal wine estate.

Whether it was in the quality of the wine or the packaging, compared to the wine of the royal wine estate, there was a world of difference.

However, poorer quality and packaging also meant lower selling prices. The wine of the royal wine estate cost at least hundreds of Bisaita per bottle, and one bottle of wine was equivalent to a year's work income for a Spanish person.

And the selling price of the Iberian Estate's wine was generally below 10 Bisaita, and there were even ultra-low-priced wines of 2-3 Bisaita.

As for the low-quality wine market with lower selling prices, Gao Da did not intend to get involved for the time being. After all, it was impossible to cover all the markets of Spanish red wine just by relying on the royal family's wine estate, so it was better to put the goal in the more profitable mid-to-high-end market.

Although the low-quality wine market had a larger sales volume, the profit of each bottle of wine was very low, and it was completely based on volume.

At present, the royal wine estate occupied more than 50% of Spain's high-end wine market, and it was very common at the banquets of nobles and capitalists.

And the Iberian Estate's wine occupied about 35% of the mid-to-low-end market, and the rest of the market was occupied by other wine brands in Spain that were dazzling.

Just the fiscal revenue brought to the Spanish government by the wine market was as high as millions of Bisaita, and it even drove the employment of tens of thousands of people.

Coupled with the fame of Spanish wine hit by high-end red wine exports, the Spanish government attached great importance to the development of grape planting and the wine industry, and even specially promulgated corresponding support policies to encourage people to plant grapes and give certain tax cuts to the red wine industry.

For Spain, many lands could be used to plant grapes to produce Spanish-flavored wine with unique tastes.

This could effectively promote the development of the grape industry. Compared with simple grain planting, the income from planting grapes would obviously be higher.

But the bad news was that there was a country in the north of Spain that was more famous in the grape industry, and that was France.

French wine was the real best-seller in Europe, and even caused the scramble of the vast majority of European nobles.

Of course, this also had certain historical reasons. During the period when France was the most powerful, the language used by European noble diplomacy was French.

When nobles carried out elite noble education for their children, in addition to learning their own language, the first foreign language they learned was French.

Along with the spread of French, French wine also sold well throughout Europe. Although France had been continuously weakening, the love of nobles of various countries for French wine had not weakened much.

Even in later generations, there were legends about Lafite. Although most of the Lafite on the market were fake products, being able to be so famous also proved how huge and well-known France's wine industry was.

Although Spain also possessed one of the top ten wine producing regions in the world, it was obviously unable to compete with France in terms of wine.

Not to mention France, Italy, which was separated by the Mediterranean Sea to the east, also possessed one of the top ten wine producing regions in the world, and was also a competitor for Spain's wine exports.

Soon, the Spanish nobles received the news that the king was about to hold a large court banquet at the Wang Gong on Christmas Day.

For the king's personal invitation, these nobles naturally had no reason to refuse. Of course, no one would refuse the king's invitation. After all, this was not only an opportunity for the king to get closer to them, but also an opportunity for them to get closer to the king.

This large-scale court banquet invited most of the grand dukes and dukes near Ma Deli, which could be considered a high-level gathering of the Spanish noble class.

Including Prime Minister Duke Pu Limo and Minister of National Defense Grand Duke Serrano, the nobles participating in this banquet were either those with high influence in the noble class, or those with certain prestige in the government and military high-level.

Of course, Antonio Canovas del Castillo and Hoviliar Soler were also among them.

Canovas was the current Minister of Agriculture of the cabinet government and the main leader of the Spanish Conservative Party. And Hoviliar Soler, although only an ordinary member of parliament, because he showed a loyal attitude to Gao Da relatively early, he was also reused by Gao Da.

After all, there were only so many parliamentary seats in Spain, and most of them were controlled by Prime Minister Pu Limo, so Hoviliar Soler, a member of parliament who supported Gao Da, was still relatively important.

Just like the low-rent housing proposal last time, if Gao Da had anything he wanted to submit to the parliament, he could let Hoviliar Soler submit it on his behalf, getting rid of the risks he had to bear.

And members of parliament not only had the power to elect the cabinet government, but also had the power to run for the cabinet government.

After Prime Minister Pu Limo and Grand Duke Serrano gradually withdrew from the Spanish political arena in the future, the next cabinet government was also destined to be born in the election of parliamentary members.

In other words, these existing parliamentary members were likely to be members of the next cabinet government.

Of course, the premise was that they were still members of the parliament at the time of the next cabinet government election.

According to the Spanish constitution, various regions elect a certain number of members according to the population ratio, and jointly form the Spanish Senate, which is the so-called parliament.

Senators are elected every 3 years, and in theory, they can have unlimited terms. As long as they are supported by the local Spanish people, they can always serve as members of the Senate.

Because the current cabinet of the Spanish government was elected in February 1869, the election time for the next cabinet government was in February 1874, five years later.

When the time of February 1874 arrived, members of the Senate could actively run for the position of Prime Minister of the cabinet, and after experiencing the vote of all members of the Senate, the final Prime Minister candidate was obtained.

Although there was no party requirement for running for Prime Minister, the member running for Prime Minister was either a non-party member or must be the actual leader of a party.

Party members had no right to run for Prime Minister, and could only help the leader of the party they belonged to run for Prime Minister, and then obtain the cabinet minister seat in the cabinet formation.

After all, the Prime Minister was the leader of the Spanish government. If one could not even serve as the top leader in the party, wouldn't the position of Spanish Prime Minister, who was under one person and above ten thousand people, be more difficult?

The requirement for the leader of the party to run for Prime Minister was actually screening the prestige of the Prime Minister candidate. Only with sufficient prestige could one suppress the entire cabinet government, and a Prime Minister without much prestige would instead make the cabinet more chaotic.

Although non-party people did not have this requirement, in fact, the running of non-party people would be more difficult. If running as a party leader, one could also use the power of the entire party to help oneself run for election.

But if it was a non-party person, what one could rely on was only oneself, and the difficulty was definitely increased by several times.

According to the Spanish constitution, the one who obtained more than 60% of the votes in the Senate was the Prime Minister of the Spanish government.

If one could rely on oneself or the efforts of the party one belonged to to obtain 60% of the votes, such a Prime Minister had complete freedom to form a cabinet.

But if one could not obtain 60% of the votes by relying on one's own party, one could also unite with other parties, and the sum of the votes obtained 60% would also work.

However, the Prime Minister position obtained through the joint method would also have too many restrictions. After all, others would not help oneself run for Prime Minister unconditionally, and there must be some concessions when forming a cabinet.

The Spanish constitution stipulates that if the joint cabinet formation method cannot obtain more than 60% of the votes, the individual or party leader who obtains the most votes will become the Prime Minister of Spain, but other parties and non-party people will obtain the power to run for other cabinet seats.

In other words, if 60% of the votes cannot be obtained, all cabinet seats in Spain will be obtained through election, rather than electing a Prime Minister and then appointing a cabinet.

Anyway, no matter which method is used to establish the cabinet government, the cabinet government needs to swear allegiance to Gao Da, who is the king.

This step was the convention of absolute monarchy countries before, and the purpose was to show the king's supreme power to the cabinet government, letting them understand who was the master of the country.

The reason why Prime Minister Pu Limo retained this convention was mainly to protect Spain's monarchy and stability. After all, since he chose the monarchy as the main body of the government, the monarchy was also linked to him.

The more stable the monarchy in Spain, the more energy the government led by Prime Minister Pu Limo had to promote reform.

Conversely, if Spain's monarchy political system was not stable, as a supporter of the monarchy political system, Prime Minister Pu Limo naturally did not have much energy to promote reform.

The cabinet government was elected by the Senate, and the governors of major regions were also elected by the regional parliament, including cities and towns, basically through the election process.

The Senate and the major regional parliaments also had the power to impeach officials, and Spain's current political system was more like a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, with power basically concentrated in the parliament.

What was more similar was the British political system, or rather, when Spain formulated the constitution, it largely referred to the provisions of the British constitution.

After all, Britain at that time was the well-deserved world's strongest country and also the representative of the constitutional monarchy, and referring to the British constitution was even more common.

Gao Da, as the king of Spain, was relatively special in Spain's political system. His nominal power was very large, but he needed very high influence.

If there was no influence in the political arena and the military, the power was more like a nominal one, and basically could not be exercised.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 145 =====