Chapter 161: Splitting the Ministry of Industry

As time entered February of 1874, the atmosphere of the cabinet election became even more heated.

However, the results of such a cabinet election had actually been predetermined long before the voting. The Progressive Party, to which Prime Minister Primo belonged, still held the majority of parliamentary seats, which meant that Prime Minister Primo would 100% become the Prime Minister of the new cabinet government.

The facts indeed turned out as expected.

Prime Minister Primo was successfully elected as the Prime Minister of the second cabinet government with a vote share exceeding 81%, securing his re-election.

The Spanish Congress of Deputies had a total of 208 seats, and the Progressive Party held 106 of them, accounting for over 51%.

The pro-reform Liberal Party held 42 seats, accounting for over 20%.

The votes held by these two parties alone already exceeded 148, far surpassing the 60% of votes required to become Prime Minister.

The Conservative Party, controlled by Canovas, was the second-largest party in the Spanish Congress of Deputies, holding 52 seats and occupying 25% of the total seats in the chamber.

Currently, the seats in the Spanish Congress of Deputies were basically controlled by these three major parties, with only 8 seats remaining for independents and other parties.

This created a result where, even if Prime Minister Primo did not run, the position of Prime Minister would only be chosen from among the three parties: the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party, and the Conservative Party.

Considering that the Progressive Party held more than half of the total seats in the Congress of Deputies, in the next cabinet government election, whoever could succeed Prime Minister Primo as the leader of the Progressive Party would have the potential to rely on the Progressive Party's support to become the new Prime Minister of Spain.

After Prime Minister Primo was successfully re-elected, he soon submitted the list of ministers for the second cabinet government to Carlos.

Long before this, Carlos had already communicated with Prime Minister Primo and requested the two positions of Minister of Industry and Minister of Agriculture.

For the Spanish cabinet government, there were three most important departments among all cabinet sectors: National Defense, Finance, and Industry.

Currently, only Serrano was capable of serving as Minister of National Defense. This was not a consideration of ability, but rather a matter of Grand Duke Serrano's prestige within the military and the need for checks and balances.

Even if the Minister of National Defense could not be held in Carlos's hands, it at least had to be controlled by a figure who remained neutral between Prime Minister Primo and Carlos.

The reason Grand Duke Serrano was capable of this role, besides possessing enough prestige in the Spanish military to rival Prime Minister Primo, was that his relationship with Prime Minister Primo was not close; it could only be described as a cooperative one.

If a subordinate of Prime Minister Primo controlled the National Defense department, they would truly hold both the treasury and the military, which would be enough to threaten Carlos's Wang Quan.

Therefore, no matter the circumstances, Carlos could not back down on the position of Minister of National Defense, so he could only let Grand Duke Serrano continue to serve until the Spanish military cultivated new, excellent generals.

Grand Duke Serrano was also happy with this. The Spanish Minister of National Defense commanded both the navy and the army, and the power was quite significant.

Being able to remain in the powerful position of Minister of National Defense was naturally much better than retiring early. Although Grand Duke Serrano was already 63 years old this year, this did not mean he was willing to bid farewell to power and retire early.

Prime Minister Primo was unwilling to give up the position of Minister of Industry, but he was helpless in the face of Carlos's request.

Although Carlos's attitude seemed like a mere discussion, Prime Minister Primo knew clearly that he could not refuse.

Refusing would certainly not be the end of the world, but it would definitely damage the good cooperation between the prime ministerial power and the Wang Quan that had existed in Spain. The reforms and development plans that Prime Minister Primo wanted to push forward in the future would be destined not to receive Carlos's strong support.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Prime Minister Primo finally agreed to Carlos's request, allowing the previous Minister of Agriculture, Canovas, to serve as the Minister of Industry for the new cabinet government.

However, doing this created a new dilemma: how should the position of the previous Minister of Industry, Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, be resolved?

Ruiz was no minor character; he was the number two figure in the Progressive Party and was highly likely to take over the Progressive Party after Prime Minister Primo retired.

Being able to manage the Ministry of Industry, one of the three major departments, was enough to prove Ruiz's prestige within the Progressive Party. It could even be said without reservation that even without Prime Minister Primo, Ruiz could rely on his influence in the political arena to enter the cabinet government, or even compete for the position of Prime Minister.

The Minister of Finance was, of course, still held by Ewald, whom Prime Minister Primo trusted deeply, which meant that Ruiz could only seek other positions in the second cabinet government; the three major important departments had nothing to do with him.

Although Prime Minister Primo had a headache, he could only try his best to solve the problem for Ruiz to avoid issues within the Progressive Party.

After much thought, Prime Minister Primo finally came up with a solution: to split the existing industrial department into two: the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Transportation.

Currently, Spain's industrial department was very large, and the businesses it managed were diverse. Previously, because Spain's industry was not vast, it was very normal for the Ministry of Industry to comprehensively manage all businesses related to industry.

But the current situation was different from before. Spain's industry had already achieved significant growth, and the improvements brought to industry by the two industrial bases were visible to the naked eye.

Coupled with the fact that the development of industry still needed to be emphasized in the future, it was clearly becoming too much for the industrial department to manage so many businesses, and it was inevitable that development in certain areas would be neglected.

It was very necessary to split the departments related to the construction of railways, highways, and transportation to form a separate Ministry of Transportation.

Although this looked like finding a department for Ruiz to hold office, it was actually an idea Prime Minister Primo had had several years ago.

Just like the previous split of the Ministry of the Interior into the Department of Public Security and the Department of People's Livelihood, as the Spanish nation developed, changes to the various departments of the cabinet government were also very necessary.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Primo no longer hesitated and ordered his subordinates to submit the report on the reorganization of the cabinet government to the Congress of Deputies.

Soon, after the cabinet election, the Congress of Deputies welcomed another relatively large meeting.

Regarding the restructuring of cabinet departments, the members of the Congress of Deputies attached great importance to it. One must know that for every additional cabinet department, there was one more member of the cabinet.

The gap between a regular government minister and a cabinet minister was very large. A cabinet minister was also called a cabinet secretary, who could participate in cabinet meetings and propose their own decisions and suggestions.

And even if a regular government department was equally important, as long as it did not have the qualification to attend cabinet meetings, it was destined not to have much real power.

The previous cabinet departments, including Prime Minister Primo, only had 10 people; it was very difficult to enter the cabinet.

Even if the number of cabinet departments increased by just one, it would increase their chances of joining the cabinet in the future, which was the focus of these members' attention.

It was precisely with this mindset that the Congress of Deputies passed Prime Minister Primo's cabinet government restructuring report with a very high vote share, successfully splitting the industrial department into the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Transportation, and increasing the cabinet seats to 11.

Before Prime Minister Primo submitted the plan to the Congress of Deputies, he had already shown the entire plan to Carlos in advance and reported his complete line of thought.

In fact, Carlos had also envisioned splitting the industrial department, establishing the transportation sector separately to specifically manage the construction of highways and railways within Spain.

Although Prime Minister Primo's proposal to split the industrial department at this time appeared to be for the sake of the development of the industrial sector, it was actually to find a suitable place for the former Minister of Industry, Ruiz, and to weaken the importance of the industrial department.

After all, the leaders of the two major departments of industry and agriculture were now Carlos's confidants, and coupled with Grand Duke Serrano, who was more inclined toward the Conservative Party, Carlos's influence in the cabinet government was already quite high.

It was very normal for Prime Minister Primo to do this; after all, he had to ensure his influence over the cabinet government, which was also the fundamental condition for him to push forward reforms.

If he couldn't even control the cabinet government, how could Prime Minister Primo talk about pushing forward reforms and improving the development of the entire Spanish nation?

Such a proposal was clearly the best way to deal with Carlos's request for the position of Minister of Industry. It satisfied Carlos's needs, ensured that his subordinates would not be dissatisfied because of it, and at the same time, once again increased his control over the cabinet government; it was simply a triple win.

Carlos naturally would not oppose Prime Minister Primo's plan; after all, there was no reason to oppose it, was there? Moreover, there were indeed benefits to splitting the industrial department at this time; it was nothing more than the industrial department held by Canovas having a smaller scope of jurisdiction and less power in his hands.

The opinion of the Congress of Deputies did not need to be considered; this was a plan proposed by Prime Minister Primo, and it was impossible for it to be rejected by the Congress of Deputies.

A few days after the Congress of Deputies announced the passage of the plan to split the industrial department, Canovas, who had been appointed as the new Minister of Industry, came to the Madrid Royal Palace to request an audience with Carlos.

Before coming to the Madrid Royal Palace, Canovas had thought carefully. He understood that his request to see Carlos would not change any results, but coming or not at this time clearly led to two different outcomes.

"Your Majesty." The moment he saw Carlos, Canovas performed a Spanish-style aristocratic salute to Carlos with great respect, his attitude very sincere and submissive.

"Are you here because of the split of the industrial department?" Carlos smiled and nodded, signaling for Canovas to sit on the luxurious sofa to the side.

After receiving Carlos's signal, Canovas dared to sit down. However, he was very careful during the process of sitting, only sitting on half of the seat, looking like a quite submissive and loyal subject.

Carlos was quite satisfied in his heart with the submissive appearance Canovas displayed. What Carlos valued was that Canovas could see his own identity clearly and stand on the side of Carlos and the royal family in a timely manner; this was what an aristocrat and a royalist should do.

One must know that the aristocrat and the King were originally meant to live and die together. If the King were gone, where would there be any reason for the aristocrat to exist?

Although Spain had an extremely large number of aristocrats, there were not many who could be entrusted with important tasks. Aristocrats like Prime Minister Primo and Grand Duke Serrano were basically entrepreneurs, and they had obtained their aristocratic titles through their own abilities.

As for those aristocrats who relied on the inheritance of titles and had been passed down for many generations, for a hundred or even hundreds of years, there were no lack of capable people among them, but the abilities of most could only be described as a mess.

Capable aristocrats might not necessarily be loyal to Carlos. After all, these aristocrats were all local Spanish factions; they had been rooted in Spain for at least a hundred years, and they certainly would not prostrate themselves before Carlos just because he became the King of Spain.

This was also the reason why Carlos heavily employed new aristocrats and constantly enfeoffed new titles. Compared to these old-fashioned aristocrats, Carlos trusted the loyalty and ability of the new-style aristocrats more.

As for these old-fashioned Spanish aristocrats with intricate power structures, if they did not block Spain's path forward, Carlos naturally did not want to bother with them much.

But if someone made trouble on Spain's path forward, Carlos would also let them know how supreme the power of the King was to the aristocrats.

Since the King possessed the power to enfeoff aristocrats, he naturally should also possess the power to strip them of their titles. Although Carlos had not really used the power to strip titles, this did not mean Carlos did not have this power.

The Spanish aristocrats had already lost control of the military, so even if the titles of some aristocrats were stripped, there was no need to worry that the aristocrats would incite a civil war.

It was just that Carlos still needed the influence among the aristocrats; before he had completely controlled Spain, Carlos would not take the initiative to act against the aristocrats.

After hearing Carlos's inquiry, Canovas first nodded, and then said somewhat cautiously: "Your Majesty, regarding Prime Minister Primo's split of the industrial department, what is your attitude?"

Canovas understood that his position as Minister of Industry was given to him by Carlos. Facing the situation where the industrial department was being split, he certainly could not remain silent; reporting to Carlos was very necessary.

Although Canovas also knew that Carlos must have his own sources of information, and perhaps he had learned the news of the industrial department being split earlier than he had.

But so what? Whether he could learn the news in advance was Carlos's business, but whether to report it and ask for Carlos's attitude was Canovas's own business.

If he didn't report it, Carlos might not blame him. But the problem was that Canovas wanted to advance! He didn't want to stop at the position of Minister of Industry.

As the saying goes, an official who doesn't want to be Prime Minister is not a good official. If one could launch an assault on the Prime Minister's throne, which represented the supreme power of an official, who would be willing to continue wasting time in their existing position?

Since he wanted to advance, he naturally had to consider Carlos's attitude. After all, relying solely on the power of the Conservative Party was not enough; perhaps only Carlos could change this status quo.

As for defecting to Prime Minister Primo, Canovas had not considered it at all. Canovas still highly approved of conservative ideas, and he did not like the overly radical reforms of Prime Minister Primo.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Primo's subordinates already had Ruiz to succeed him, and this person was the number two figure in the Progressive Party and a future star of the Spanish political arena.

Even if Canovas could defect to Prime Minister Primo's side, his status would not be better than Ruiz's. Defecting halfway would not gain Prime Minister Primo's trust, which also made Canovas never think about defecting to Prime Minister Primo's side from the beginning.

"Prime Minister Primo reported to me about the split of the industrial department, and I did not oppose this plan," Carlos said. "Overall, splitting the industrial department is beneficial to the government's development.

After the Ministry of Transportation is established independently, it can also better manage the construction of Spain's highways and railways, as well as various transportation tasks.

The only loss might be the industrial department, but for you, it might not necessarily be a bad thing."

Canovas had served as the Prime Minister of the Spanish Kingdom government during the reign of Alfonso XII in history, but he did not have any particularly prominent political achievements.

His total of six terms as Prime Minister added up to less than 12 years, the longest of which was from 1875 to 1879 in history, but that was only four years.

The reason he became the Prime Minister of Spain and was elected multiple times was actually because of his relatively conservative concepts and his support for the Wang Quan.

During Canovas's tenure, he formulated a new constitution for Spain, abolished universal suffrage, and replaced it with limited voting rights.

He abolished the freedom of religious belief, the power of assembly and association, and strictly restricted the publishing system for newspapers. From these systems and policies, it could also be seen that Canovas was indeed a conservative; his policies were more like conservative policies under a constitutional monarchy system, rather than an enlightened government that had undergone revolution and republic.

The final result was also very obvious. The two King Alfonsos not only failed to stop Spain's trend of continued decline but instead made Spain completely lose any connection to the throne of the great powers.

If it could be said that Spain around 1868, before the revolution broke out, still had the qualifications to claim to be a great power, then after experiencing two King Alfonsos, Spain couldn't even reach the threshold of the top ten.

The reason Carlos said that the split of the industrial department might not necessarily be a bad thing for Canovas was actually precisely because he considered his conservative thoughts.

Spain's future railway development was very important, and the construction of highways could be said to be directly related to the growth of Spain's economy and industry.

And the development of industry only needed to develop steadily within a certain framework; combined with the five-year development plan proposed by Prime Minister Primo and the construction already prepared by the industrial bases, ensuring the stable growth of industry was no problem.

As for the development problems of Spain after Prime Minister Primo retired and Canovas succeeded him, Carlos was not too worried for the time being.

After all, the power Carlos held at that time would definitely be far greater than it was now, and Canovas would still only need to develop steadily within the development plan set by Carlos to achieve very good results.

The biggest difficulty in Spain's development had already been mostly solved by Prime Minister Primo, which was also the reason Carlos admired Prime Minister Primo.

Regardless of whether the prime ministerial power would conflict with the Wang Quan in the future, Carlos would not kick Prime Minister Primo when he was down.

Of course, the best result for Prime Minister Primo and Carlos was to have a transition after the second term of the Prime Minister ended and hand over power to Carlos.

In this way, there would be no conflict between the two, and Prime Minister Primo could preserve his reputation under Carlos's protection, becoming one of the few politicians who could retire successfully after reforms.

5, 00-word two-in-one chapter, please support!

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