Chapter 173: The Issue of Military Expansion

The achievements of the Spanish government in 1874 cannot be explained in just a few sentences. Even in terms of colonies, Spain made significant breakthroughs.

Railway construction in the East Indies proceeded very smoothly. The annexation of several indigenous sultanates was carried out openly, so subsequent colonial rule and railway construction could naturally be conducted in the light of day.

Railway construction in the Gangguohe basin had to be kept secret during the initial stages, which was the greatest difficulty of the project. After all, laying tracks requires a massive amount of steel rails, and transporting them is no easy task.

Currently, the fastest progress is on the railway being laid from the Guinea colony toward the upper reaches of the Gangguohe, with a total length already approaching 100 kilometers.

However, compared to the railways built in Spain proper, this line is somewhat rudimentary; it is only a single-track railway, which makes construction much simpler.

With the help of this completed section, the Guinea colony has already transported a large batch of supplies to the lands of the Gangguohe basin.

Once the colonial outposts in this region have expanded sufficiently, Spain can announce the establishment of its own territory there and begin its rule.

By then, even if Portugal, Britain, and France realize what is happening, they will be unable to engage in colonial competition with Spain in this region. Unless they are willing to trigger a war on the mainland for the sake of this land, no one can threaten Spain's rule here.

Although the development of both Spain proper and its colonies has been smooth, this was only achieved because the government invested a massive amount of capital.

In terms of finance, the Spanish government's total revenue in 1874 reached 731.7 million pesetas (approximately 28.12 million pounds), a significant increase compared to 1873.

The main reason for this was the numerous results brought about by the First Five-Year Plan and the economic boost stimulated by the government's heavy capital investment.

The First Five-Year Plan supported a large number of private enterprises; although most were small to medium-sized, a few gradually became large-scale industry leaders.

The taxes contributed by these enterprises to the Spanish government were not a small sum. Coupled with the taxes paid by royal enterprises, the Spanish government's fiscal revenue hit a new high in 1874.

Although the total fiscal revenue for 1874 was close to the fiscal expenditure of 1873, Gao Da could not feel happy looking at these revenue figures.

The reason is exactly what is written in the next line regarding the Spanish government's fiscal expenditure. Revenue had increased tremendously, but fiscal expenditure had done the same.

In 1874, the Spanish government's fiscal expenditure on external operations reached as high as 270 million pesetas, more than double the expenditure on external operations the previous year.

At the beginning of 1874, Prime Minister Ma Deli discussed the annual fiscal budget and, with considerable foresight, raised the budget to 897.2 million pesetas.

But it was clear that Prime Minister Ma Deli had underestimated the economic burden brought about by the Spanish government's comprehensive development. The total fiscal expenditure for 1874 significantly exceeded this figure, even breaking into the ten-digit range.

1.0552 billion pesetas—when Gao Da saw this level of expenditure, he could not help but be shocked.

This sum of money is equivalent to 40.55 million pounds. Based on the construction cost of about 500,000 pounds per ironclad warship, this year's total fiscal expenditure could have built over 80 ironclad warships.

Although the actual situation cannot be calculated this way, it still proves how exaggerated this fiscal expenditure was.

It is no wonder that all departments achieved good results; this was entirely bought by the Spanish government with money—simply put, it was a result achieved by "paying to win."

Clearly, the Spanish government is not exactly wealthy. Therefore, in future development, such achievements obtained through massive "pay-to-win" methods will basically be impossible to replicate.

The biggest reason Spain was able to bear the high fiscal expenditure of over 1 billion pesetas was that it had obtained large loans from Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and France before the economic crisis.

The loans provided by Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were not large, being 75 million lira and 120 million kronen (3 million pounds and 5 million pounds) respectively.

Adding the 200 million in cash that could be obtained from the 500 million franc low-interest loan provided by the French, this already amounted to over 400 million pesetas in usable funds.

When combined with the additional currency issued by the Currency Issuance Committee using the gold from the Indian temple, the Spanish government finally had the confidence to spend over 1 billion pesetas during the economic crisis to push for national development.

Throughout 1874, the Spanish government's fiscal deficit reached as high as 323.5 million pesetas. Meanwhile, the fiscal deficit in 1873 was also around 200 million pesetas.

Although these funds were exchanged for the rapid development of all sectors in Spain, it is clear that Spain no longer has the capacity to continue such spending.

Since the gold from the Indian temple was transported to Spain, the Currency Issuance Committee has issued over 250 million pesetas in additional currency.

Coupled with the loans from the three countries, Spain had enough funds to maintain this vigorous development over the past few years.

However, the available funds in the Spanish treasury are now less than 100 million pesetas. For development in 1875, the balance between fiscal expenditure and revenue must be considered.

Although the Currency Issuance Committee could still create enough usable funds for the Spanish government by issuing more currency, if the Spanish market is not considered and paper money is injected into the market at a high frequency, it is very likely to affect the actual value of the peseta.

Moreover, Spain's development has gradually moved onto the right track. The most important thing next is to seek stability; letting Spain's economy and industry progress steadily is what the government should do most.

Thinking of this, Gao Da could not help but be grateful for the decadence of Queen Empress Sisi's reign. Precisely because the Spanish government at that time ignored development and sought pleasure, the Spanish government did not carry excessive debt.

Currently, the total debt of the Spanish government adds up to only about 700 million pesetas, which is still within a manageable range for the Spanish government.

Furthermore, the shortest debt repayment period is over ten years, and the longer ones even have over twenty years.

With the debt pressure being low, the future development of the Spanish government is indeed bright. Even without relying on the push of capital, the growth rate of industrial and economic development in the coming years will be steady.

Not to mention, due to the economic crisis, Spain's agriculture also saw significant improvement in 1874.

After obtaining large tracts of land from the nobles and the church, these lands were provided to farmers for cultivation in various ways.

Coupled with newly reclaimed land, Spain's total arable land area hit a new high, and grain production is also climbing steadily.

Although there are no detailed statistics, what is certain is that Spain's arable land area has exceeded 10 million hectares, and most of the 18 million Spaniards are engaged in agricultural work on this land.

Yes, Spain's population has exceeded 18 million. Although this figure is a simple estimate by the various regions regarding birth and death rates, the actual situation should not be much different.

After the average annual income of Spaniards increased, the birth rate also continued to grow. After all, only when the people have spare money in their hands will they consider other things.

If they cannot even feed themselves, few people will consider the issue of continuing the family line.

It is a pity that among the large number of babies born in Spain every year, a portion will naturally pass away prematurely.

This is something that cannot be helped, and it is something Gao Da is powerless to change.

In the final analysis, it is because the medical technology of this era is too backward, leading to a very high risk factor in the birthing process.

Even if one can get through the birth safely, the care of infants is also a big problem. Various diseases invisible to the naked eye can endanger the lives of infants, which has kept Spain's infant survival rate consistently low.

This problem also exists in other European countries, and the European royal families are no exception.

To improve the infant survival rate, one can only pin hopes on the subsequent progress of the medical environment and related medical equipment and technology.

"Your Majesty, this year's total government fiscal budget is approximately 722 million pesetas. These are the fiscal budget reports for each department; please take a look." After finishing the work report for the 1874 fiscal year, Prime Minister Ma Deli handed over a brand-new fiscal budget report and introduced it to Gao Da.

"722 million pesetas?" Gao Da was somewhat curious upon hearing this. He looked at Prime Minister Ma Deli and asked, "Reducing the fiscal budget by over 300 million pesetas at once—will this have an impact on the construction plans of the various departments this year?"

"According to the current situation, reducing the budget will have an impact, but the impact should not be significant." Prime Minister Ma Deli explained, "The reason our total fiscal expenditure exceeded 1 billion pesetas last year was largely because expenditure on external operations was close to 270 million pesetas.

Precisely because of this, even if we reduce this year's fiscal budget by 300 million pesetas, the impact on the various departments will not be too great.

Moreover, our military expansion has ended, and military spending can also be appropriately reduced. It is precisely because of these reasons that this year's fiscal budget will be 300 million pesetas lower than last year's."

Hearing Prime Minister Ma Deli say this, Gao Da nodded, and naturally, there were no more problems.

Indeed, the reason the fiscal budget exploded last year was largely because the industrial department used a large amount of funds to purchase foreign companies and industrial equipment.

Currently, European countries have gradually emerged from the impact of the economic crisis, and the industrial department's procurement plan has also been completed, so naturally, there is no need to spend any extra funds.

Deducting the 270 million pesetas in external operation funds from last year, the Spanish government's total annual fiscal budget is only about 800 million pesetas.

This year's fiscal budget is indeed lower compared to last year, but the reduction is not significant, totaling only a few tens of millions of pesetas.

"Did you encounter any problems during the military expansion?" Gao Da expressed his concern regarding the expansion of the Spanish military.

This military expansion was not a small operation; it increased the scale of Spain's original army by several times.

After the expansion was completed, the scale of the Spanish army rose to the top eight in Europe—to be precise, second only to Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria, and larger than Italy's standing army.

More importantly, the Spanish army also possesses considerable combat effectiveness. As early as the days of the Empire on which the sun never sets, Spain was a world hegemon strong in both land and sea.

Although both the army and navy had declined, the Spanish army did not have any major flaws, and after focusing on training, it could still become an elite force.

Coupled with the new rifles and artillery equipped after the military reform, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, even if it cannot compare to great powers like Germany and France that are famous for their armies, is at least on the level of Britain and Austria, and still stronger than Russia and Italy.

Italy naturally goes without saying; its performance in both World Wars was very poor. Although there are various reasons, it is an established fact that the overall performance of the Italian army was not good.

The Russian army also has many complex reasons, but the biggest reason is the decadence of the country itself.

After all, it is an autocratic empire that has been established for hundreds of years, and the decadence of the empire is very normal. Corruption and embezzlement are seen everywhere in Russia, and the combat effectiveness of the army is a mess.

Whether in World War I or World War II, the Russian army relied on numerical superiority rather than combat effectiveness.

This also made Russia one of the countries with the highest casualties in the world wars, with soldier casualties alone reaching tens of millions.

Having an army with higher combat effectiveness than Italy and Russia is not much to boast about. Italy is the tail-end of the great powers, while Russia possesses an extremely vast territory and a dense population.

Spain, at most, only has a population of 18 million. In extreme situations, it could indeed recruit an army of over a million, but this would cause irreversible damage to the country.

Look at the great powers like Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria; any one of them can recruit an army of over a million, or even several million.

Spain still has too many shortcomings compared to these countries, and the biggest gap among them is population.

Only by increasing the population to over 30 million will Spain have the qualifications to confront these countries. Otherwise, the casualties in terms of population alone would be enough to make Spain feel the pain; this is the biggest gap between small and medium-sized countries and great powers.

"The expansion of the army went very smoothly; basically, no trouble was encountered." Prime Minister Ma Deli first shared a piece of good news, then mentioned the actual problems encountered during the expansion:

"If there is a problem, it would be that there is a certain discrepancy between the number of artillery pieces in our military planning and the number of artillery pieces we can actually equip.

In our expectations, each infantry division would possess over 248 artillery pieces. But after actually equipping 248 artillery pieces, we simply could not meet the shell requirements for these guns.

This would put immense pressure on front-line supplies and also slow down the advance speed of the infantry divisions.

After discussion, the Ministry of National Defense reduced the number of artillery pieces equipped by each infantry division to 112, which finally allowed us to barely meet the shell requirements for these cannons to fire simultaneously."

Artillery is indeed a good thing, but this does not mean that the more artillery a military has, the stronger its combat effectiveness.

Artillery requires shells to demonstrate its power. Once a war starts, the consumption of shells is an astronomical figure.

Don't look at the fact that the current rate of fire for cannons is not very fast; if every infantry division were equipped with over 200 artillery pieces, Spain's six infantry divisions alone would possess over 1,000 artillery pieces, almost catching up to the number of artillery pieces Prussia and France had during the Franco-Prussian War.

Yet Spain's six infantry divisions have fewer than 100,000 men. What kind of concept is this? The number of artillery pieces equipped by each Spanish division is several times that of the Prussian and French armies; the logistical pressure of this is imaginable.

After discovering this problem, the Ministry of National Defense made timely modifications, changing the 248 artillery pieces originally equipped by each infantry division to 112, which finally barely solved the problem.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 174 =====