Chapter 157: Acquisition Plan and Talent Poaching

Minister of Industry Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla certainly knew his demands were somewhat excessive, but he also knew that this was the best time to acquire these enterprises.

Never mind that this acquisition order required 520 million pesetas in capital; if it were before the economic crisis, the acquisition funds would not necessarily be enough even if tripled.

The existing equipment, technology, and assets of these enterprises alone far exceeded 520 million pesetas, which meant that as long as the Spanish government could acquire these enterprises, it was absolutely a guaranteed profit.

Moreover, these enterprises could provide vital assistance to various industries in Spain. If this acquisition order could truly be completed, according to the industrial department's estimates, Spain's future industrial development would receive powerful help, and it would have a better hope of becoming a true industrial power.

"Minister Ruiz, forgive my bluntness, but the government does not have so much capital to provide to the industrial department to purchase these enterprises." Before Prime Minister Primo could express his opinion, Minister of Finance Ewald could no longer sit still and hurriedly stood up to oppose Minister of Industry Ruiz's proposal.

Never mind whether the Spanish government had the funds to spare. Even if it did, Ewald would absolutely not agree to the acquisition plan proposed by the industrial department.

Because the industrial department was not the only one needing to acquire enterprises to improve its foundation, and the scope of enterprises that could be acquired was not limited to those outlined by the industrial department.

If the industrial department's acquisition order were fully approved, what the finance department would have to face next would be a continuous stream of acquisition orders from other departments.

Even though Ewald knew that acquisitions only had benefits for Spain, the problem was that money shouldn't be spent like this.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, we are confident that after this acquisition, we will rapidly improve our country's industrial development." Minister of Industry Ruiz did not heed the opposition of Minister of Finance Ewald, but continued to express his optimism about acquiring the enterprises to Prime Minister Primo:

"Especially in heavy industry and the chemical industry, if we can obtain the assets of these foreign enterprises, it will be a great boost for us.

After absorbing these foreign assets, within one year, our steel production can exceed 200, 00 tons, and iron production can exceed 500, 00 tons.

If you give me five years, I am confident in letting steel production exceed 1 million tons and iron production exceed 3 million tons, thereby closing the gap with other great powers."

"1 million tons of steel production? 3 million tons of pig iron production?" Prime Minister Primo was not intoxicated by the grand goal proposed by Minister of Industry Ruiz, but instead questioned this goal.

In terms of steel production, 1 million tons of steel and 3 million tons of iron could indeed close the gap with other European powers.

Considering that other European countries were experiencing a severe economic crisis, as long as this requirement could be met, Spain's industry would once again squeeze into the top five in Europe.

But the problem is, is it really a good thing for Spain's industry to achieve such a huge improvement in such a short time?

The current economic crisis has already proven that industrial and economic development that is too fast is not a good thing. Only steady growth suitable for Spain's own environment is the best way for economic and industrial development.

Spain indeed has enough capital to use for acquisitions, and there is indeed hope to increase steel production to several million tons within five years.

But doing so has almost no benefits other than blindly pursuing steel production, and it is instead a burden on the country's development.

Prime Minister Primo was not against the acquisition plan for foreign enterprises. But acquisitions must also fit the reality of Spain's development, rather than adding all valuable enterprises to the acquisition list for the sake of that falsely grand goal.

Time passed minute by minute, and Prime Minister Primo still had a thoughtful look, giving no answer.

Minister of Industry Ruiz was a bit anxious and stepped forward to continue persuading Prime Minister Primo, but was interrupted by a wave of Prime Minister Primo's hand.

"The acquisition plan is very necessary, but we still need to think carefully about the enterprises on the acquisition list." Finally, after several minutes of contemplation, Prime Minister Primo gave his opinion:

"At the same time, the targets of acquisition cannot just be factories in European countries; we must also set our sights on medical enterprises and private laboratories in various countries.

Minister Ewald, how much capital can the government currently spare for the acquisition of foreign enterprises?"

Hearing Prime Minister Primo's inquiry, Ewald immediately blurted out: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, the currently available funds of the Ministry of Finance are 320 million pesetas.

There is still a portion of tax revenue this year that has not yet been handed over to the finance department, but considering the budget of other departments and our debts, the maximum amount of funds that can be diverted is 210 million pesetas."

Prime Minister Primo shook his head, clearly not very satisfied with the share of divertible funds: "The finance department will scrape together another 90 million pesetas, for a total of 300 million pesetas to be invested in this acquisition plan.

For this acquisition plan, I hope we can carefully select the factories and enterprises that need to be acquired. Spain's development does not need overly grand goals; we need to move forward steadily step by step on the existing foundation."

"Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister." Minister of Finance Ewald nodded, not daring to have the slightest doubt about Prime Minister Primo's order.

A smile also appeared on the face of Minister of Industry Ruiz at this time. Although the final capital used for acquisitions was less than 60% of what he had proposed, it was, after all, a large sum of 300 million pesetas.

In the situation where the economic crisis was ravaging Europe, the value that this capital could exert was at least equivalent to 1. billion pesetas before the outbreak of the economic crisis.

Taking out 300 million pesetas to acquire foreign enterprises was a decision made by Prime Minister Primo after deep consideration.

The Spanish government was not unable to come up with more funds. Although the existing funds of the Ministry of Finance were not large, relying on the gold from the temple treasure, it was completely fine for the Spanish government to print several hundred million more pesetas.

But one must also understand the principle that biting off more than one can chew is bad. Spain could indeed purchase more factories and enterprises from abroad, but whether it could successfully digest these factories and enterprises remained an unknown.

Moreover, if these bankrupt enterprises of the great powers were purchased unscrupulously, it would inevitably attract the attention of the great powers.

It was already easy for Spain to be targeted because it had not suffered too much impact in the economic crisis; if it were to kick them while they were down during the economic crisis, I am afraid the subsequent diplomatic situation would not be so wonderful.

Although 300 million pesetas was not too much, it could ensure that Spain purchased a sufficient number of enterprises and factories to fill the gap in Spain's industrial foundation.

Relying on these factories and enterprises, Spain's industrial development could also usher in faster growth. Coupled with the impact of the economic crisis on other countries, the gap between Spain and the European great powers would be further narrowed.

Furthermore, Spain's development still had to be steady and down-to-earth, step by step, and could not pay too much attention to figures on paper.

For example, 1 million tons of steel production and 3 million tons of iron production were completely unnecessary for Spain at present.

Under the order of Prime Minister Primo, Minister of Industry Ruiz still modified the industrial department's plan.

The latest industrial department plan was to increase Spain's steel and iron production to 100, 00 tons and 200, 00 tons respectively within one year. Within five years, increase Spain's steel and iron production to 500, 00 tons and 1 million tons respectively.

As long as this goal could be achieved, Spain could join the ranks of industrial powers. The steel and iron produced each year would not only be able to meet Spain's domestic demand but could even be exported to the neighboring country Portugal and other industrial countries.

A few days later, Prime Minister Primo reviewed the acquisition list submitted by the industrial department again and erased all military industrial enterprises from it.

The reason was also very simple. The royal family's acquisition plan included military factories, so the government naturally did not need to do extra work.

The Spanish government's available funds were truly limited, and there was no need to repeatedly purchase enterprises that the royal family had already bought.

In fact, purchasing those bankrupt enterprises was only one of the plans; along with the plan to purchase bankrupt enterprises, there was also the action of poaching talent in various countries.

Obviously, having these enterprises alone was not enough. Spain must bridge the gap with other countries in terms of technical talent to further develop various industries within Spain.

The current economic crisis was a good opportunity. It was not just ordinary workers who were unemployed in the economic crisis, but also those skilled workers, technical workers, and senior engineers who possessed certain technical capabilities.

Of course, compared to skilled workers and technical workers, the current situation of senior engineers was clearly better.

Except for those engineers whose enterprises had already gone bankrupt, most engineers could still barely make ends meet; at least maintaining a life of food and clothing was not a problem.

After all, senior engineers in this era were already middle and upper management of an enterprise, and their income level had already entered the high-level tier.

It was precisely because of this that there was a detailed division for the poaching of talent from various countries.

Although big countries clearly had more high-level talent, the environment for these high-level talents would also be better; the enterprises they were in were unlikely to face the crisis of bankruptcy, and even if there was a bankruptcy crisis, they would likely be saved by the government.

While the high-level talent in those small countries was not numerous, the enterprises they were in would also be relatively small. Small enterprises naturally could not resist the impact of the economic crisis, and the capabilities of small countries were also limited; it was impossible to save every enterprise.

Spain's plan for poaching talent was a short sentence, which was to prioritize collecting relevant technical talent and senior engineers in small countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal.

If Spain's total talent needs could not be met in these small European countries, then set sights on European great powers such as Britain, France, and Germany to further fill the talent gap.

The benefit of doing this was that it would not easily attract the attention of those great powers. Even if small countries discovered Spain's crazy "buy, buy, buy" and "poach, poach, poach" behavior, they would at most just condemn it; they naturally had no ability to take actual action.

Compared to Spain's development, being condemned by these small countries was fine. Although Spain had a certain gap with the great powers, compared to these small countries, it was still a powerful behemoth.

Doing this would also have a problem, which was that the poached talent spoke different languages of various countries, and even needed to be equipped with translators to communicate and exchange with Spain's local enterprises and experts.

But this was also something that couldn't be helped. Spain's decline had lasted for a long time, and the Spanish language naturally had not received a very warm welcome in Europe.

In the early stage, they could only be equipped with translators to ensure that their work and normal communication would not have problems.

In the later stage, they could only open special language learning classes for them to help them master Spanish faster. After all, these poached talents were all going to serve Spain in the future; if they didn't learn Spanish, could they expect the Spanish to learn their languages?

On this point, the importance of Portugal was actually reflected. Portuguese and Spanish were very similar, and could even be understood as two evolutions of one language.

The communication between the Portuguese and the Spanish was mutually understandable; relatively speaking, the Portuguese could understand Spanish better, while the Spanish needed to listen carefully to understand Portuguese.

This also created a fact, which was that the Portuguese could live in Spain with ease. Because there were almost no obstacles in terms of language, this was also the particularity of Portugal and Spain as the "Iberian Dual Teeth."

It was precisely because of this that when the industrial department proposed the need to poach talent, Prime Minister Primo specifically ordered that the first stop for poaching talent be placed in Portugal.

Never mind whether these talents had lost their jobs because of their enterprises; anyway, as long as they were senior talents from Portugal, poach them all first.

As a neighbor on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain was not afraid of offending Portugal. Portugal was only worthy of trembling before Spain; the gap in strength between the "Dual Teeth" was very large.

Although there were not many senior engineers in Portugal, there were still those relatively excellent technical workers and ordinary engineers.

Prime Minister Primo's opinion was naturally to poach a batch as soon as they were found; anyway, Portugal's development did not need so much talent, and they were destined not to develop.

Soon, at the request of Prime Minister Primo, the various departments jointly submitted a talent demand list that was even thicker than the acquisition plan.

In this talent demand list, various departments put forward their own needs for talent, and the entire list was several stacks thick.

Spain currently needed two types of talent the most: the first type was skilled technical workers, engineers in various industries, etc., needed for industrial development.

The second type was scientific research personnel, or in other words, those scientists. Whether they were studying physics, chemistry, biomedical science, steel smelting, or oil exploration and refining, the Spanish government had one attitude, which was to welcome all comers; the national gate was always open for these talents.

Regarding the wooing of scientific research talent, Prime Minister Primo and Gao Da reached a unified opinion.

First of all, Spain was very lacking in this type of scientific research talent. The fact that Spain had no Nobel Prize winners in physics and chemistry in later generations also proved Spain's vacancy in this type of talent.

To express the importance attached to these talents, the talents wooed by both the royal family and the government would uniformly join the Royal Academy of Sciences established by Gao Da.

The Royal Academy of Sciences had been established for several years and had already built several large laboratories, used for research in physics, chemistry, biomedical science, mechanical design, and chemical engineering, respectively, and was open to all scientists of the Royal Academy of Sciences for free.

If they did not like these large laboratories where they had to compete for time with other experts, the Royal Academy of Sciences also provided private laboratories for scientists of sufficient rank to ensure that scientists could conduct their own scientific research anytime and anywhere.

Yes, after several years of development, the Royal Academy of Sciences had also formulated a relatively detailed rank division.

Gao Da himself attached great importance to scientists, and naturally attached great importance to the development of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Although the Royal Academy of Sciences was only an academic research institution, the power it possessed was quite large.

All scientists who joined the Royal Academy of Sciences were called academicians and enjoyed three types of income: basic salary + research and development bonus + position bonus.

First was the basic salary. There were three levels of academicians in the Royal Academy of Sciences: first-level academician, second-level academician, and third-level academician.

The basic annual salary for a first-level academician was 1, 00 pesetas, the basic salary for a second-level academician was 3, 00 pesetas, and the basic salary for a third-level academician was 4, 00 pesetas.

Although the level of basic salary was not top-notch in Europe, compared to ordinary people, it was already a gap of more than ten times the income.

Moreover, the basic salary was only one type of income for the academicians of the Academy of Sciences, and could not even be considered the bulk of the income.

In addition to the basic salary, after all research conducted by the academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences achieved results, they would receive a certain share based on the contribution of the research results, which could reach up to 5%.

Although a one-twentieth share was not much, it also depended on what the research result was. For example, if some more advanced medicine was researched in biology, this might represent an income of hundreds of millions or even billions of pesetas.

In such a situation, even a 5% share was enough to make an academician of the Academy of Sciences leap to become a millionaire.

Finally, there was the income related to positions. All scientists in the Royal Academy of Sciences were uniformly called academicians, even the president of the Academy of Sciences was the same.

Although there would be no difference in rank for positions such as president, there were still large differences in power and income.

However, there were relatively few positions within the Academy of Sciences; more positions were actually the Royal Academy of Science, which was closely related to the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences could hold part-time jobs in the Academy of Science, with the lowest being the position of honorary professor, with an income of 500 pesetas.

Adding the three incomes together could ensure that the income level of the academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences was about the same as, or even slightly exceeded, the income level of high-level talent in other European countries.

This was also the confidence of Gao Da and Prime Minister Primo in wooing talent; after all, no matter how much scientists loved research, they had to eat first, right?

5, 00-word two-in-one chapter, asking for support!

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(End of chapter)