Chapter 177: Train Track Synchronization

After a round of simple pleasantries and social niceties, it was time to discuss serious business.

Queen Sofia was very clever. Feeling that the time was right, she invited King Carlos's sister, Queen Maria, to tour the gardens and other attractions within the palace, giving King Carlos and King Luis enough private space to discuss the matters that needed to be addressed.

The two queens walked out of the banquet hall one after the other, and the subsequent conversation between King Carlos and King Luis became much more formal.

After all, King Carlos and King Luis were not related by blood, and furthermore, they were not close, so naturally, they could only converse in a relatively formal manner.

"Your Majesty Carlos, the changes in Spain over these past few years are truly significant. Perhaps in a few years, Spain will indeed have the hope of achieving a revival under your rule, and Spain will once again become one of the six great European powers, alongside Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria." King Luis I of Portugal first praised the changes in Spain over the recent years, flattering Carlos.

In the eyes of King Luis I, given that Carlos was not yet 24 years old, even if he did not have much fondness for such flattery, he certainly would not show any obvious opposition.

After all, who doesn't like to hear good things? Especially a young king.

"This is the result of Prime Minister Primo's efforts; it is his reforms that have created the powerful Spain of today," Carlos said with a smile.

The revival of Spain was indeed the result of Prime Minister Primo's reforms, and Carlos's contribution to it was not significant. Saying this, in addition to affirming Prime Minister Primo's credit, was also to tell King Luis I that he did not have much power in the current Kingdom of Spain, so that the Portuguese royal family should not have too many expectations of the Spanish royal family.

"The Prime Minister is also under the leadership of the King; the King is the true master of a country," King Luis I smiled and offered a dissenting opinion, which was also his true inner thought.

For traditional European aristocrats like King Luis I, they always believed that the King was the master of the country. Even if most of the power was taken away by a constitutional system, as long as the King remained, the country was the King's property.

This point could also be seen in King Carlos's sister, Queen Maria. Although Queen Maria had a very good reputation in Portugal, and was even called the Angel of Charity and the Mother of the Poor by the Portuguese.

However, Queen Maria's extravagant behavior and some rather stubborn ideas were still opposed by some people, especially some officials.

Several small stories passed down to later generations also proved this point. At a certain masquerade ball, Queen Maria changed her outfit three times in one night, with each outfit costing hundreds of pounds, equivalent to wearing a suit of gold and jewelry on her body.

This was not an exaggeration at all; after all, 1 pound at that time was equivalent to 7. 3 grams of gold. An outfit cost of hundreds of pounds was actually equivalent to several kilograms of gold.

When the Portuguese parliament discussed the Queen's massive expenses, Queen Maria gave her own stance: "If you want a queen, you must spend money on her."

Queen Maria also carried this through. Most of the interior decoration of the Ajuda Palace in Lisbon was carried out under Queen Maria's direction, and the funds spent by the Portuguese royal family and government combined for this purpose already exceeded that of an ironclad warship.

As for Queen Maria's stubborn attitude and thoughts regarding absolute monarchy, they were reflected in an incident that Carlos heard about firsthand.

In the year Carlos arrived in Spain, Queen Maria had a small-scale conflict in Portugal with the current Duke of Saldanha.

Conflict between the queen and the nobility was inevitable, but Queen Maria expressed a rather tough and firm attitude, threatening the great Portuguese noble, the Duke of Saldanha: "If I were the King, I would shoot you directly!"

The reason Queen Maria possessed such a tough attitude was naturally that her father, Victor Emmanuel II, was the King of Italy, her brother Carlos was the King of Spain, and her husband Luis was the King of Portugal.

In fact, Queen Maria's way of acting and thinking was not wrong; after all, many nobles and kings at that time had similar ideas.

There were certainly nobles more extravagant and wasteful than Queen Maria, and there were even more nobles who were more stubborn and autocratic than she was.

The only problem was that Portugal was facing the same serious decline as Spain, and Portugal's own strength was not great, which exacerbated the domestic instability.

After King Luis passed away, Maria continued to be active in Portugal as the Queen Mother, and even served as Regent.

Under her guidance, her successor, Carlos I, also displayed a relatively autocratic attitude and carried out a rather harsh and despotic rule.

Long-term autocratic rule made the Portuguese quite dissatisfied, and after the Braganza dynasty's rule in Spain had lasted for 270 years, it eventually collapsed.

The responsibility for the fall of the Kingdom of Portugal could not be blamed entirely on Queen Maria, but some of her actions did indeed accelerate the demise of the Kingdom of Portugal.

But this was not bad news for Carlos; it could even evolve into an opportunity for Spain to re-annex Portugal.

Yes, in Carlos's future plans for Spain, annexing Portugal was always an extremely important part of Spain, second only to Gibraltar in importance.

These two things were actually one; whether they could be completed depended on the attitude of the British. When the day came that Spain no longer feared the British, perhaps the recovery of Gibraltar and the annexation of Portugal could be carried out simultaneously.

The complete Iberian Peninsula was an extremely perfect land, surrounded by the sea on all sides, and only bordering France to the northeast.

One only needed to deploy troops and build fortresses on both sides of the Pyrenees to block enemies from outside the Iberian Peninsula.

If the vast plains of Portugal were added, Spain would gain a large amount of arable land, strengthening Spain's agricultural power.

A complete Iberian Peninsula could accommodate more than 70 million people without issue. Added to the Morocco region that Carlos planned to localize, the population these lands could accommodate was already close to 100 million.

Although it could not compare to massive countries like the United States that possessed vast lands and plains, compared to other European countries, such population-carrying capacity was not weak.

Coupled with control over the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain would become the controller of the traffic arteries of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and the hegemon of the Western Mediterranean, and it might not be impossible to gain the opportunity to stand on equal footing with great powers like Britain, France, and Germany.

Although such an idea was beautiful, it was quite difficult to realize. At least for the current Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, and Morocco were all bombs that could not be touched.

Gibraltar was guarded by the British, and the British would not allow Portugal and the Morocco region to be annexed by Spain.

Furthermore, for the Spain of this time, even if there were an opportunity to annex Portugal, Carlos would not allow Spain to do so.

Don't look at Portugal's small size; it had a population of over 4. million. This population was close to a quarter of Spain's population, and the difficulty of assimilating them was quite high.

Moreover, the Portuguese were orthodox Europeans, so it was naturally impossible to use relatively harsh assimilation methods. Annexing Portugal was a very difficult process; one had to wait for a very suitable opportunity, at least until the Portuguese themselves were not so opposed to it.

Before that, the relationship between Spain and Portugal still had to be maintained at a certain level. Both countries were declining colonial powers, and to a certain extent, they could achieve cooperation.

At the very least, Portugal could not be allowed to lean completely toward Britain, as this would increase the difficulty of annexing Portugal and would also make Spain's other plans more difficult.

"Your Majesty Carlos, Portugal and Spain are neighbors in Iberia. I believe it is necessary for us to maintain peace in Iberia and jointly deal with enemies outside of Iberia.

The Portuguese government is very willing to sign relevant treaties with the Spanish government to build a solid Iberian defense line, allowing us both to focus externally and focus on the management of our colonies," King Luis I of Portugal said with a smile.

As two former colonial powers, the colonies of Spain and Portugal both had one characteristic: they were spread all over the world.

Spain had many colonies in Africa and Asia, and Portugal was the same.

And since the comprehensive strength of both Portugal and Spain had declined by more than half, King Luis I's meaning was very clear: he hoped that Spain, like Portugal, would focus its main attention on the colonies outside, rather than on matters within the Iberian Peninsula.

After all, colonies could produce a steady stream of wealth, and many places, including Africa, had vast colonies waiting for the development of Portugal and Spain.

Carlos had no thoughts about Portugal in the short term, but this did not mean that Carlos would easily agree to King Luis's request for cooperation.

The current Portugal belonged to the weaker side; if they wanted to exchange for a non-aggression treaty with Spain and further cooperation, they would certainly have to pay something.

Strictly speaking, there was not much difference between the Portuguese and the Spanish, and their languages were barely mutually intelligible.

If some high-quality Portuguese talent could be introduced, it would not only be possible to test the possibility of assimilating the Portuguese in advance, but also to fill the gap in Spanish talent once again.

Then there was the entry of Spanish industrial products into the Portuguese market. Because they were both on the Iberian Peninsula, the transportation costs between Spain and Portugal were very low.

If Spanish industrial products could enter the Portuguese market, although it was a small-scale market with a population of only a few million, its purchasing power was stronger than that of a colonial market of tens of millions.

A large influx of industrial products into the Portuguese market could also destroy Portugal's industrial system. By the time Portugal reacted, its industry would have long been destroyed by industrial products with lower prices.

Controlling Portugal's economy in this way could also influence the decisions of the Portuguese government in certain situations. If the time came to annex Portugal, it could also accelerate the annexation.

Carlos nodded, but did not directly agree to King Luis's proposal. Instead, he changed the subject and said with a smile: "The problem of different train track widths has troubled us for a long time. Currently, the Spanish government is considering modifying the train tracks to align with the mainstream European train track width, to facilitate better economic exchange between Spain and the European continent.

Your Majesty Luis, what do you think of the proposal to modify the train track width?"

Although countries around the world were vigorously building railways, the track widths built by different countries were also different. As the country that built railways the earliest, the railway width built by the British was 1435 millimeters, which was also the standard width built by most countries.

The benefit of using this as the standard railway track width was that railways could easily achieve cross-border connection, strengthen the railway's transport capacity, and avoid some unnecessary transfer and connection processes.

But not all countries adopted the 1435-millimeter standard width; the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula each had their own railway track width standards.

Spain's railway width was 1674 millimeters, which was a wide-gauge railway in the true sense. There were many benefits to wide-gauge railways; first, the wider carriages made trains more comfortable to ride in, and it also strengthened the transport capacity of the train carriages.

Whether used for carrying passengers or cargo, trains running on wider tracks could transport a higher total tonnage and had stronger transport capacity.

Wider tracks were also more stable, greatly strengthening the safety of trains and making them less prone to derailment.

But this did not mean that wide-gauge railways had no disadvantages. Wide-gauge railways occupied more area, and the steel rails and other materials required to build the railway were more, so the corresponding costs were also higher.

Especially in a country like Spain with more mountainous areas, building railways required digging tunnels, which greatly increased the construction cost of the railway.

Why did Spain, knowing that building railways this way would increase its costs infinitely, still resolutely choose a wide-gauge railway that was very different from the mainstream European countries?

The main reason was to guard against France to the north. As Spain's only neighbor besides Portugal, France's strength had always been very powerful before.

Since the Napoleonic Empire period, France had always been the hegemon on the European continent. France during the Napoleonic Empire also occupied Spain, which made Spain's guard against France increasingly deep.

During the period when France was powerful, the French army could easily break through the Pyrenees and enter Spanish territory.

If the train tracks were exactly the same as France's, the French could easily utilize the railways built by Spain, greatly strengthening their logistics and supply capacity.

It was precisely for this reason that the railway track widths of the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula were completely different from the standard railway width adopted by France, making it difficult for the French to utilize the railways of Spain and Portugal.

By the same token, in order to guard against the Spanish, Portugal also made certain modifications on the basis of the wide-gauge railway. Although Portugal and Spain both adopted wide-gauge railways, Portugal's railway track width was slightly narrower by nine millimeters, ensuring that the Spanish could not easily use Portugal's railways either.

Carlos suddenly brought up the issue of connecting Spanish and French railways; naturally, he could not really want to connect Spanish and French railways.

Spain's industry was not as powerful as imagined, and connecting with the railways of the European continent would only allow industrial products from industrial powers like Germany and France to quickly enter the Spanish market.

This was not a good thing for Spain, and it would also strengthen France's influence on Spain.

The reason for bringing up the train track issue at this time was actually to tell King Luis that if he wanted Spain and Portugal to sign a non-aggression treaty, Portugal must allow its railways to connect with Spain's, and the two Iberian nations must adopt the same railway track standard.

To a certain extent, it was very beneficial for the two nations to adopt the same railway track standard.

Train lines between the two countries could be easily connected, and trains could travel from Spanish railways to Portuguese railways without any special steps, passing through smoothly.

This could greatly facilitate the movement of people and the transport of goods, and the economies of Portugal and Spain could also be rapidly improved.

But this was on the premise of ignoring the impact of the influx of industrial products into the Portuguese market on Portuguese industry. Doing so could indeed promote economic improvement, but what might be sacrificed was Portugal's industry.

Spain's industrial scale was not large compared to super powers like Britain, France, and Germany, but for a tail-end power like Italy, Spain's industry was still quite competitive.

And for a country like Portugal that could not even be considered a power, if Spanish industrial products entered the Portuguese market, what it might bring to Portuguese industry would be a devastating blow.

The larger the industrial scale, the lower the price of industrial finished products. Small-scale Portuguese industry simply could not compete with Spanish industry, unless the government could vigorously support the development of local industry, such as increasing tariffs, restricting imports, and so on.

But wouldn't doing so directly offset the impact of synchronizing the train tracks? Would the Spanish allow this?

Facts proved that King Luis I was not a stupid king. He immediately understood the meaning in Carlos's words, but precisely because of this, he was very hesitant.

In terms of King Luis I's authority, there was basically no resistance to pushing for the synchronization of train tracks between Portugal and Spain.

But the impact this would have on Portugal needed deep consideration; was it really worth it for Portugal to pay such a price just for a non-aggression treaty?

"Your Majesty Luis, our country has achieved a comprehensive victory in the colonial war in the East Indies. Presumably, your country has already received this news, right?" Seeing that King Luis I was slow to respond, Carlos changed the subject again and asked with a smile.

"Of course." King Luis I nodded, a trace of envy in his eyes, and said: "The powerful combat effectiveness of your country's army is enviable, and Spain's colonies have expanded by a large chunk again."

Carlos smiled; King Luis clearly did not know that Spain had long been secretly colonizing the even larger lands in the Congo River basin.

Portugal's West African colony was just in the lower reaches of the Congo River basin; it could be said that it was only separated by a wall from the Congo River lands.

This act of secretly colonizing the lands of the Congo River basin behind the back of the largest colonizer near the Congo River even gave Carlos a feeling of "cuckolding" the other party.

(End of chapter)