Chapter 172: 1875 (Main Text, Three-in-One Bonus Chapter)

Time can never be paused; when people are caught up in busyness, time also quickens its pace.

The second half of 1874 was quite busy for the Spanish government, which made time fly by, quickly arriving at 1875.

It is worth mentioning that at the end of October 1874, Queen Sophie finally became pregnant.

The Spanish royal family was about to welcome its first prince or princess, and the mood of Carlos was also quite wonderful.

Carlos and Queen Sophie married in 1872; why did it take until the end of 1874 to conceive their first child?

The biggest reason was Carlos's protection of Queen Sophie. The conditions for childbirth in this era were not that advanced, and giving birth represented a fairly high risk.

By the time the pregnancy was confirmed at the end of 1874, Queen Sophie was nearly 20 years old, which could be considered a relatively suitable age for pregnancy.

Queen Sophie's pregnancy was no small matter; it not only stirred the Spanish royal family but also the Italian royal family and the Austro-Hungarian imperial family.

Carlos's father, King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy, personally sent a telegram, his words filled with joy and happiness, and he stated that he would come to Spain in person after the child was born.

Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also quite excited about this. After all, Queen Sophie was his eldest daughter, and the child in her womb was his first grandchild.

From the relationship between the Spanish royal family, the Italian royal family, and the Austro-Hungarian royal family, one could see that this little one, who had not yet been born, would surely be a star-studded existence in the future.

Whether a prince or a princess, they would be able to receive the love of three national royal families, leading the vast majority of people by a large step the moment they were born.

Regarding his soon-to-be-born child, Carlos's mood was also quite excited.

Although he had transmigrated to this world for several years, Carlos's sense of belonging to this world was not that strong.

Being about to have his own child also caused Carlos's sense of belonging to this world to continuously increase. If the previous goal of Carlos was just to develop Spain into a powerful country, completing his purpose as if playing a game, then the goal of the current Carlos was to create better conditions for his descendants, letting them possess an incomparably prosperous Spanish Empire.

Carlos and Queen Sophie were still young, and they would certainly have more children in the future. Whether prince or princess, Carlos's arrangements for them would not be poor.

Even if their abilities were insufficient, he could ensure they would safely and securely be incomparably wealthy nobles, spending their lives happily.

Besides the good news of Queen Sophie's pregnancy, there were many other pieces of good news, covering all aspects.

As time entered 1875, Spain was also about to enter a new era.

The colonial rule of the East Indies colony had been initially stabilized, and that colonial garrison division dispatched to the East Indies would continue to remain in the East Indies—to be precise, on the island of Jialimandandao—to help the East Indies better carry out colonial development.

In the future, there were two directions for the colonial expansion of the East Indies: one was to occupy the Sultanate of Bulungan to the south, bordering the Sultanate of Kutai under Dutch control.

The second was to set their sights on the Milu Jia islands and the island of New Guinea further to the east; the Dutch colonial rule here was not stable, and there were many indigenous sultanates outside the Dutch sphere of influence that could be conquered.

The island of New Guinea further to the east still had large tracts of land that were blank areas, with the disadvantage being that one had to engage in colonial competition with the Dutch, the British, and even the Germans.

This was also something that could not be helped, because this land of Southeast Asia was only so big. Currently, most of the land had been occupied by the British, French, and Dutch, and Spain could only find these blank lands from the cracks to colonize.

However, New Guinea was ultimately an alternative; the primary task of the Spanish East Indies colony was still to occupy more places on the island of Jialimandandao.

In order to take care of the pregnant Queen Sophie, Carlos did not attend the government's annual summary report meeting at the end of 1874.

But Prime Minister Primo still reported the complete government work content to Carlos after the meeting ended, and sought Carlos's opinion on the government's new development plan for 1875.

Along with the development of time, Carlos's Wang Quan was also becoming increasingly consolidated.

The most obvious point was that Prime Minister Primo had become increasingly attentive to Carlos's attitude. In certain areas, if Carlos clearly opposed something, Prime Minister Primo might not really be able to continue pushing it forward.

Currently, Wang Quan and the Prime Minister's power could only cooperate with each other in a friendly manner; once competition unfolded between the two sides, perhaps there would only be a situation where both sides suffered.

After all, Prime Minister Primo supported the monarchy, and the reason the Kingdom of Spain was able to continue to be maintained was largely due to the efforts of Prime Minister Primo.

Regarding Prime Minister Primo, Carlos's attitude was one of respect. Although the competition between Wang Quan and the Prime Minister's power was unavoidable, Prime Minister Primo had indeed done a lot for Spain.

Even the reason Carlos's Wang Quan was able to expand to such a degree had an inseparable relationship with the concessions of Prime Minister Primo.

If Prime Minister Primo's ambition had been even a little greater at the time, Carlos might not have been able to obtain such high power.

According to the situation of the Spanish government at the time, Prime Minister Primo could have sidelined Carlos at any time, or even turned Carlos into a mascot with no power at all.

But Prime Minister Primo did not do so, which was also the reason Carlos was willing to wait for Prime Minister Primo to retire after his success before competing for more power, rather than directly erupting into conflict with Prime Minister Primo.

That Spain could give birth to Primo in this era was absolutely the honor of the Spanish people. And that Carlos could face a politician like Primo who was not greedy for power in the early stages of his rule was likewise Carlos's honor.

The good news was that Prime Minister Primo's reforms had already achieved certain results; the first five-year development plan had achieved complete success, and the second five-year development plan was also proceeding smoothly.

If there were no accidents, Prime Minister Primo would be able to retire after the second five-year development plan ended; his ten-year cooperation with Carlos, and the achievements brought to Spain by the two five-year plans, might become a story passed down in Spain for a long time.

This was not an exaggeration; even now, there were newspapers publicizing such things.

Some newspapers called Prime Minister Primo and Carlos the Wilhelm I and Prime Minister Bismarck of Spain, calling this period of cooperation between Prime Minister Primo and Carlos the great revival of Spain.

The reason for such news also had a certain relationship with the slogan Carlos proposed at the time: "Make Spain Great Again!"

The eyes of the masses were sharp; they could certainly distinguish whether the country was developing in a better direction. The current Spain was not powerful, but for the Spanish people, the period since Carlos was crowned King of Spain and since Prime Minister Primo took office was great for Spain.

"Your Majesty, in the past year, we have achieved unimaginable results." On January 1, 1875, Prime Minister Primo walked into the Wang Gong with a complete, organized government work report, wearing a joyful smile, and reported this good news to Carlos.

Regarding the huge improvement of Spain in 1874, Carlos had already anticipated it.

After all, having purchased so many things from abroad, it would be strange if these things did not bring huge improvements to Spain. Not to mention that Spain had also strengthened its development plans and increased investment in various departments.

It is no exaggeration to say that the railways built in 1874 alone already exceeded the total of railways built by Spain in the two years from 1870 to 1871.

Carlos naturally took this report, his face not revealing too much expression, carefully flipping through the contents of the report.

Not long after, Carlos revealed a relatively satisfied smile, and his whole person also relaxed.

Before 1874, Spain could only be said to be in ruins, a great power weakened to the extreme, and it was even hard to say if it was a great power.

But after 1874 ended, Spain's existing industrial and economic scale as well as military scale could confirm that Spain was a powerful great power.

Except for the five traditional European great powers of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria, which still had advantages compared to Spain, other great powers like the United States and Italy did not have such large advantages compared to Spain.

The United States' industrial and economic scale was indeed huge, and its population was also larger. But the current United States was not a military power, even after experiencing the tempering of the Civil War.

Before the outbreak of the Civil War, the total size of the U. . Army was only over 20, 00 people. Although the total number of soldiers participating in the Civil War reached millions, the composition of these soldiers could be imagined.

Perhaps the Civil War could temper a portion of elite soldiers, but ten years had passed, and it was unknown how much combat effectiveness this portion of elite soldiers could maintain.

Italy, naturally, went without saying. Although Italy had not yet given birth to any famous scenes, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army had never been strong.

The reason Italy was able to unify had a lot to do with Garibaldi. Garibaldi's Redshirts were the truly powerful Italian army, but this army was not in the hands of the Italian government.

This was actually also the reason the Italian government and Vittorio Emanuele II were wary of Garibaldi.

Even if Garibaldi himself had no ambition or ideas, the Redshirts, this powerful army, were truly terrifying; it was impossible for the Italian government not to take precautions.

Compared to Italy, Spain did not have this trouble. The revolutionary army that had resisted Queen Isabella had already been reorganized into the kingdom's government army, and this kingdom government army had been reformed into the new Royal Army, under the control of the Spanish government, so naturally no one would worry.

Returning to the topic, how rapid was Spain's development in 1874?

Thanks to the purchased industrial equipment, Spain had made significant progress in industry.

This point had already been reported to Carlos in advance by the Minister of Industry, Canovas, and he had even received Carlos's praise and encouragement.

The more achievements the industrial department had, the more prestige Canovas could obtain. The more prestige Canovas had, the greater his chances of running for Prime Minister in the next cabinet government election.

This concerned the rotation of the cabinet government after Prime Minister Primo retired, and Carlos attached great importance to this.

Don't forget, the largest party in Spain currently was the Progressive Party. Although under the leadership of Prime Minister Primo, the Progressive Party did not show an overly radical attitude.

But who could guarantee that after Prime Minister Primo left the political arena, the Progressive Party would not become a radical party under the leadership of others?

The reason Carlos had such a thought was naturally the attitude of the current number two figure of the Progressive Party, Ruiz.

Ruiz was originally a relatively radical guy, but it was only because of his strong support for reform and his prestige in the revolutionary army that Prime Minister Primo appointed him as Minister of Industry.

While serving as Minister of Industry, Ruiz showed extremely high ability and completely secured his position as the number two figure of the Progressive Party.

After Canovas became Minister of Industry, Ruiz completely stood on the opposite side of Carlos. Although he did not explicitly oppose Carlos's Wang Quan, his attitude was already quite obvious: he did not approve of Carlos obtaining power and hoped to strengthen the constitutional system, concentrating power in the hands of the cabinet government and the parliament.

If Prime Minister Primo retired in the future, the struggle for Prime Minister would very likely be a struggle between Ruiz and Canovas.

Of course, if Grand Duke Serrano wanted to run for Prime Minister, he could also count as one.

Currently, there were only these three people in Spain qualified to run for Prime Minister; besides them, the prestige of others was indeed lacking, and prestige might not necessarily be able to suppress others.

In the year 1874, Spain's total industrial scale increased by about 30% compared to 1873.

This level was quite exaggerated; after all, after the first five-year development plan, Spain's industrial scale had already had no small growth.

Although Spain at that time could not be considered an industrial power, its industrial scale had a certain volume, at least much stronger than those small and medium-sized countries.

Being able to increase by nearly one-third in just one year, besides the fact that the industrial equipment and production materials purchased from various countries during the economic crisis played a big role, the government's increased investment in the industrial department was also a very important reason.

With so much money thrown in, it would be strange if industry did not have large-scale growth.

After all, Spain was not special to Europe, and there was no blockade on the industry of various countries. The current situation was that as long as the Spanish government was willing to throw money, the industrial scale could obtain huge improvements.

For this, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that a large amount of the purchased production equipment and production materials had not yet been used.

Once these equipment and production materials were fully utilized, Spain's industrial scale could obtain further growth.

The bad news was that in 1874, the Spanish government bore too many expenses, and such fiscal expenditure could only be maintained for one year.

If such huge fiscal expenditure continued in 1875, the Spanish government would face a relatively serious debt crisis, which was something Prime Minister Primo did not want to see.

Therefore, after 1875, besides the industrial equipment and production materials that had been purchased, the industrial department could only rely on itself; wanting to rely on the government to throw money again was impossible.

The improvement of industrial scale also represented one thing, and that was the increase in the total scale of Spanish workers.

Although farmers were still the majority in Spain, workers were already a group that Spain could not ignore.

The good news was that a considerable portion of Spanish workers worked in royal enterprises. Under Carlos's specific instructions, the welfare benefits of royal enterprises were relatively better compared to private enterprises, forming a natural contrast with those capitalists.

Currently, according to the public opinion among workers, the workers of royal enterprises were still relatively satisfied with Carlos and the royal enterprises; after all, Carlos provided them with more generous remuneration and other welfare benefits than private enterprises.

Under the premise that private enterprises in Spain still stuck to the 11-hour workday, royal enterprises and some government enterprises had already announced the implementation of a 10-hour workday in all their enterprises.

This was not the 10-hour workday in the propaganda of European countries; it was a 10-hour workday strictly executed without a single error.

Although European countries implemented the 10-hour workday earlier, the 10-hour workday had not yet been popularized throughout Europe.

As the saying goes, there is a policy from above and a countermeasure from below. Although the government implemented the 10-hour workday, capitalists still had many means to make workers "voluntarily" stay to work overtime.

In Spain's royal enterprises, this kind of voluntary work was simply not seen. Even the most ordinary employee could enjoy the treatment of a 10-hour workday plus two days off per month.

This also caused royal enterprises to face quite explosive scenes every time they recruited. Employees of royal enterprises had lower working hours, but their income was higher than some private enterprises.

Every worker who could enter a royal enterprise had only gratitude and love for Carlos; after all, they knew who provided their existing working environment.

In royal enterprises and factories, a large-scale discussion, exchange, and collective activity would be organized every once in a while.

This was not only to let workers relieve the fatigue of work, but also to take this opportunity to confide in them, and to brainwash them in a subtle way, letting them accept the ideology of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism.

For the existing worker group in Spain, brainwashing them was still very easy. Since Carlos was crowned King of Spain, the wages and working environment of workers had been continuously improving.

They were not resistant to the ideology of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism; after all, the arrival of Carlos had indeed made their living environment better, a fact that was fundamentally irrefutable.

With the efforts of many workers and the Spanish government, Spain's industry achieved a huge improvement.

By the end of 1874, Spain's annual steel production had exceeded 200, 00 tons, a target that had been set by the industrial department at the time.

Pig iron production was even higher, approaching 600, 00 tons. The construction of railways increased the domestic demand for steel in Spain, and steel mills were constantly being established in industrial bases and rapidly expanding in scale.

It is worth mentioning that out of Spain's total steel production of over 800, 00 tons, the steel mills under the royal family contributed more than a quarter of the output.

These steel mills had different names, but they all shared the same prefix: "Royal."

The royal family's steel mills were spread across Spain, the largest of which was the Royal Barcelona Steel Mill built in the Barcelona industrial base.

However, the scale of the Royal Seville Steel Mill and the Royal Madrid Steel Mill was not much different; these steel mills together contributed nearly 200, 00 tons of steel production and were also an important part of the royal family's industrial layout.

Carlos no longer had a concrete concept of the scale of the Spanish royal family's existing assets.

It was not that Carlos did not care about the expansion of the royal industries, but that the royal family's current layout across various trades and industries was too exaggerated to be detailedly accounted for.

The assets of these steel mills alone amounted to tens of millions of pesetas, and the annual income generated already exceeded ten million, which was something the former royal family could never have imagined.

Steel mills were only one part of the royal family's industrial layout; there were also many related factories, railway companies, mining companies, oil companies, and so on.

Added to the two major banks and the companies and enterprises in agriculture, the annual income these enterprises brought to the royal family was already approaching 100 million pesetas.

In addition to steel production, Spain also achieved a huge improvement in coal production.

In fact, to put it plainly, coal and iron are inseparable. The increase in steel production also represented an increase in the mining of iron ore and coal, as only coal and iron ore could refine steel.

However, compared to the growth in steel production, the growth in coal production was not that huge. The main reason was the impact of the economic crisis, which caused the price of coal to drop significantly.

The export prices of coal from various European countries were already about the same as the mining costs of Spanish coal mines, so there was no need for additional mining.

After all, Spain's domestic coal reserves were not large, so they still had to be used sparingly. With little difference in price between the two, Carlos was more willing to import coal from abroad than to mine Spain's domestic coal.

The government work report that Prime Minister Primo handed to Carlos was nearly a hundred pages long, and the content submitted by the industrial department alone reached dozens of pages.

The industrial department's achievements in 1874 were too dazzling, and improvements in all aspects were quite rapid. It took Carlos a long time to finish reading this report, but after reading the industrial department's report, the satisfied smile on his face became even brighter.

The royal family actually had no small amount of credit for the industrial department achieving such huge results.

For example, the achievements in the shipbuilding industry submitted by the industrial department were actually the results obtained after the expansion of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

After experiencing a long period of decline, the largest dock retained by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard could only build medium-to-large warships of 6, 00 tons.

But the warships designed by the shipyard far exceeded this figure, which also meant that the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard had to undergo a new round of expansion.

The shipyard was very important for Spain's future naval expansion, and Carlos attached great importance to it.

In fact, before the warship design blueprints were even out, Carlos had already decided to expand the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

After investing a large amount of capital, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard possessed two giant docks capable of building 10, 00-ton giant ships, as well as one large dock for building 7, 00-ton medium-to-large warships.

If it previously took 2 to 3 years for Spain to build an ironclad, then with two 10, 00-ton class docks under construction simultaneously, it would only take a year and a half to build an ironclad of nearly 10, 00 tons.

Of course, this could not be accomplished by simple addition. The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard needed more skilled workers as well as relevant warship designers and engineers; the demand for talent was greater, and high-level talent was extremely scarce.

Fortunately, the royal family had purchased a British shipyard during the economic crisis, and by absorbing some of the excellent talent from this shipyard, the talent shortage at the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard could be alleviated.

Besides this, the industrial department also had many achievements in other areas.

But these need not be mentioned again; in short, the industrial department was definitely the cabinet department with the most political achievements in the Spanish government in 1874.

In addition to the industrial department, other departments also had great achievements in 1874, such as the education department, which Carlos was more concerned about.

Of course, compared to the huge results of the industrial department, the education department was more like a steady and solid achievement.

Throughout 1874, the population receiving literacy education in Spain exceeded one million, which was also the year with the highest number of people receiving literacy education since Spain began literacy education.

As for the reason, besides the government increasing its investment in the education department, there was also the fact that people's incomes had increased, leading to a large number of school-age children and youths returning to school.

Compared to before the revolution broke out, the lives of current Spaniards had improved too much, so naturally, there was no need for these children and youths who should have been in school to continue entering factories to do manual labor.

Precisely because of this, Spain's illiteracy rate had officially dropped to below 40%, or more accurately, below 39%.

Although there was no overly precise percentage, it was certain that the illiterate group in Spain was less than 7 million, and most Spaniards had received simple education.

Along with the progress of literacy work, the difficulty of literacy was also constantly decreasing. At the beginning, Spain was relatively short of teachers for literacy work, but currently, there was no shortage of teachers for literacy education.

In the past, uneducated farmers could be seen everywhere in Spain, but currently, in small towns and villages, those educated, cultured people could be seen everywhere.

Those who truly had not received education were either staying in factories doing manual labor to earn money, or they were engaged in agricultural work, and they really had no time to receive education.

Although the continuous decrease in the illiterate population was a good thing, along with the progress of literacy work, it would sooner or later enter a bottleneck period.

After all, not all illiterate people could receive education; some were the elderly and children, and some were the breadwinners of families who had to go out to earn money.

After busy work, these people indeed had no time or energy to engage in literacy education. Carlos understood this, so Spain's goal for literacy education work had never been to reach zero, but to reduce it to below 20%.

For those who truly could not receive literacy education, the government could only let it be. However, more efforts still had to be made in educating their next generation; some of this generation of Spaniards were no longer suitable for education, but the next generation of Spaniards would all have enough opportunities to receive education.

One big reason why literacy education could proceed so smoothly was that Spain had not received too many immigrants during this period.

The Ministry of Education only needed to focus on the more than 10 million Spaniards in the country. The work pressure was actually not that great.

If a large number of immigrants flowed in every year, it would be a heavy burden for the education department. After all, most immigrants had not received a very good education, and these immigrants were scattered all over the country; some could not even understand Spanish at all, making the popularization of literacy education very difficult.

Compared to literacy education, the construction of Spanish universities was also quite rapid.

Currently, adding up all the universities in Spain, the number of university students enrolled each year had already exceeded 7, 00.

And compared to the situation at the beginning where there were fewer than 1, 00 talents choosing majors related to physics and chemistry, currently, various universities in Spain already attached great importance to majors related to physics and chemistry.

According to the education department's statistics on the enrollment information of various universities, among the more than 7, 00 university students enrolled in 1874, the number of university students applying for majors such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry exceeded 3, 00.

The number of university students in architectural engineering also exceeded 1, 00; after all, Spain still needed university students in architectural engineering during its stage of great development.

In the past, Spain did not have very effective management of domestic universities, which led to the majors built by universities being determined according to the students' willingness to apply.

At that time, students preferred to apply for literature and art, which also led to the majority of Spain's universities being related to literature and art, followed by architectural engineering and medicine.

Current Spanish universities had changed from building majors that students wanted to building majors that the country wanted. Majors related to mathematics, physics, and chemistry had become the majors applied for by the most Spanish university students, the reason being that Spain lacked talent in this area.

Carlos's attitude toward universities was also very simple, which was that Spanish universities should cultivate more talent for the Spanish government and the country.

What universities should cultivate is the talent that their own country needs, not the talent that other countries need. If a country's own universities only think about cultivating talent for other countries, then what is the use of such universities? It would be better to abolish them directly and re-establish the universities that the country needs.

It is worth mentioning that the Royal Academy of Sciences had not been established for many years, but it had already become one of the famous universities in Spain.

After all, it was a school that the royal family focused on building, and coupled with the invitation of many famous European scientists and related scientific research personnel, it was easy to become famous within Spain.

The Royal Academy of Sciences even had a certain reputation within Europe, attracting a small number of non-Spanish students to apply.

Currently, the number of mathematics, physics, and chemistry talents that the Royal Academy of Sciences cultivated for Spain each year was quite large. Most of them were practical experimental talents, and there were also many who focused on theoretical aspects; these were all things that Spain lacked.

In order to help some students who were gifted but had poor backgrounds, Carlos established the Royal Scholarship in all of Spain's universities.

As long as one met the three conditions of being a Spanish citizen, having excellent studies, and having a poor family background, one could apply for the Royal Scholarship.

Currently, the total number of students in all of Spain's universities was only over 20, 00, and the Royal Scholarship Fund established by Carlos could provide more than 2, 00 scholarships each year, with each scholarship amount exceeding 100 pesetas, equivalent to more than half a year's salary for an ordinary Spaniard.

In fact, this was not much; the annual expenditure for all scholarships was only 200, 00 pesetas.

But the reputation this brought to Carlos was very great; after all, one out of every ten university students could receive a scholarship, and such a probability was quite high.

Although Carlos had the ability to provide scholarships for the vast majority of university students or even every university student, doing so was not a good thing.

A scholarship is something that can only serve as a boost for some poor university students, and at the same time, it is also to let everyone understand the preciousness of the scholarship.

If most people had it, naturally no one would cherish the scholarship. After all, what cannot be obtained is the most precious, and only when a few people can obtain the scholarship can the preciousness of the scholarship and the benevolence of Carlos, who provides the scholarship, be reflected.

In fact, besides this scholarship, the royal family's investment in education was not low.

Every university had a university canteen built, and the royal family had extra subsidies for the three meals a day of university students. These university students could spend less money to eat more sumptuous meals, which was also one of Carlos's means to win over people's hearts in universities.

The university student group was still relatively important to Spain. By using scholarships and meal subsidies in universities, these university students could be filled with good feelings toward the royal family and Carlos.

Among these university students, some would walk toward the high levels of the country in the future, and some would enter various trades and industries, becoming various positions.

But no matter what they would be like in the future, as long as they were filled with good feelings toward Carlos in university, they would be more likely to support Carlos's rule in the future.

8, 00-word three-in-one chapter, asking for support!

(5, 00-word main text two-in-one chapter plus 3, 00-word additional update, totaling 8, 00 words, kneeling and begging for support!)

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(End of this chapter)