Chapter 185: Land Swap

The total corporate assets of the Spanish royal family have already exceeded the scale of 500 million pesetas, with annual net profits approaching 100 million pesetas.

Carlos is quite satisfied with this; after all, the total corporate assets do not include the value of the treasures obtained from the Indian temples. If the value of those treasures were added, the total assets in the hands of the Spanish royal family would be close to 1 billion pesetas.

The scale of these assets is, of course, enormous. If converted into the most valuable currency at present, the British pound, it would be approximately 38. 32 million pounds, or 281. tons of gold.

Apart from long-standing royal and imperial families like the British royal family and the House of Habsburg, there are few noble families in Europe whose assets exceed those of Carlos.

Of course, while the royal assets appear to exceed 1 billion, most of them are fixed assets such as factories, enterprises, and land, as well as property like the temple treasures that cannot be quickly liquidated.

The cash available for immediate use in the hands of the royal family is less than 200 million pesetas, which is only a little over 7 million pounds.

Although the Spanish royal family has become one of the wealthiest royal families in Europe, this is not Carlos's ultimate goal; it is merely a small achievement accomplished along the way to realizing his goals.

For a king with power, money is indeed something that can be obtained easily. It is not that having money is bad, but money does not represent everything; power is something more important than money.

Although Prime Minister Primo has already allowed Carlos to engage with more government affairs, Carlos is not in a hurry to reach into the cabinet government, but has instead become more concerned with church matters.

For the country of Spain, religion still holds considerable power. The history of Spain's founding is also a history of blood and tears, telling the story of the Arabs' brutal rule over Spain and the Catholic struggle against it.

The time when Spain completely drove the Arabs and the Muslim faith out of the Iberian Peninsula was 1492, and before that, the Arabs had ruled the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 700 years.

The influence of the 700-year Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula was significant, which also made the process of de-Muslimization quite difficult.

During this process, the Catholic Church played an extremely important role, which also allowed the Spanish Catholic Church to gain considerable power, becoming the second largest force after the nobility.

Although the influence of the church has decreased significantly for the current Spain, the influence of religion cannot just disappear. The Spanish Catholic Church is still a major force in Spain and has extremely high influence in the hearts of some more fanatical Catholics.

Even in the later ages when technology is highly developed, people's belief in religion still exists. Although some people are indeed atheists, a considerable number of people still believe in religion.

For Carlos, the Spanish Church is a force that must absolutely be held in his hands. The church can brainwash believers and propagate its own doctrines and dogmas.

If utilized well, the Catholic Church can become a sharp blade in Carlos's hands, while simultaneously strengthening his rule and status.

At the Royal Palace of Madrid, Carlos met once again with Pedro, the current Primate Archbishop of the Spanish Church.

This archbishop, whose hair was already streaked with gray, was very respectful when meeting Carlos. He is a smart man, and he also knows that after bowing to Carlos last time, he no longer had a choice.

The Archbishop of Spain has officially become the Primate Archbishop of the Spanish Catholic Church; this position, along with the Archbishop of Toledo, is appointed by the King of Spain.

This also means that if Carlos is dissatisfied with him, he can appoint a new Archbishop of Spain at any time to compete with him for power over the Spanish Catholic Church.

Although the Archbishop of Toledo has a longer history and greater influence in Spain, at the end of the day, the current church has fallen into a disadvantageous position and cannot possibly win in a power struggle against Carlos and the Spanish government.

"Your Majesty." Archbishop Pedro bowed and greeted Carlos very respectfully.

Carlos nodded and said with a smile, "Long time no see, Archbishop Pedro. How has the church been lately?"

"Everything is well, Your Majesty." Archbishop Pedro nodded and replied respectfully to Carlos: "In the Catalonia and Basque regions, several Spanish-language schools have been successfully held, enrolling thousands of children and teenagers learning Spanish.

We are also vigorously promoting the use of the Spanish language, striving to make the two regions of Catalonia and the Basque Country administrative districts that only use Spanish in a short period of time."

Carlos nodded, very satisfied with the church's cooperation. In some situations, the role of the church is indeed greater than that of the government.

For example, in promoting the use of Spanish, if the government were to forcibly promote it in these two regions, it would instead provoke opposition from some Catalans and Basques.

But if it is done through the church, by modifying the dogmas of the Catholic Church and expanding the usage scenarios of Spanish in a subtle way, it will neither provoke opposition from Catalans and Basques nor effectively increase the local usage rate of Spanish.

"That is good. I called you here today for no other reason; I have decided to donate 5 million pesetas in the name of the royal family to the church for the construction of a new Iberian Cathedral. I wonder what Archbishop Pedro's opinion is?" Carlos asked with a smile.

As a new archbishop position created by Carlos, it must certainly have its corresponding cathedral. The cathedral corresponding to the Archbishop of Spain will be named the Iberian Cathedral, located in the southern part of the Madrid region, north of Toledo.

It appears to be a free donation of 5 million pesetas from the royal family to the church for building a cathedral, but in reality, it is Carlos reminding Archbishop Pedro that the church currently has no choice but to submit to his rule, otherwise his position in the church will be replaced by others.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. On behalf of the church, I thank Your Majesty and the royal family for the donation. May Spain move toward greater things under Your Majesty's leadership, and the church is also willing to contribute to the greatness of Spain." Archbishop Pedro understood the meaning behind Carlos's words, quickly stated his position, and said very respectfully.

Carlos nodded, the smile on his face deepening: "To achieve the goal of making Spain great again, it cannot be separated from the joint efforts of the government, the royal family, the church, and all Spaniards.

Catholicism is the state religion of Spain; this point will never change, and it can never be changed. Archbishop Pedro, as the Archbishop of Spain and the Primate Bishop of the Spanish Catholic Church, you need to lead the church to cooperate with the government's actions and contribute together to the development of Spain.

Of course, I will also remember your contributions to Spain. The royal family will not treat any meritorious official of the country unfairly, and the church is absolutely not just a sacrificer and contributor; the church should be a beneficiary of Spain's great achievements."

The core content of this conversation is actually very simple: it is to tell Archbishop Pedro that if the church cooperates with Carlos's rule, it will continue to maintain its status as the second largest force in Spain.

But if it does not cooperate with Carlos's rule, not only will Archbishop Pedro's own status be challenged, but even the status of the church in Spain will cease to exist.

Fortunately, Archbishop Pedro himself is a very sensible person. He certainly understands the constant decline of the Spanish Catholic Church's influence and naturally cannot go against the royal power and the government.

For Archbishop Pedro, rather than risking a power struggle with the King and the government, it is better to securely hold onto the church's current power and peacefully be an archbishop with little power but enormous assets.

Archbishop Pedro's sensibility made Carlos very satisfied; by comparison, the noble class of Spain is not as sensible as Archbishop Pedro.

As the saying goes, "in a large forest, there are all kinds of birds," which is very appropriate to describe Spain's massive noble class.

Spain's population ranks at the bottom among the great powers, but the number of nobles is in no way inferior to other European countries.

What is even more fatal is that the Spanish nobles control a vast amount of land in Spain, and some long-standing nobles hold more land than Carlos currently does.

Precisely because they hold so much land, combined with their long history, some nobles do not have much support for Carlos, the outsider, and are even somewhat xenophobic.

Although there are sensible people like the Duke of Jacobo who showed their support for Carlos from the beginning, most people maintain a wait-and-see attitude, and there are even nobles who secretly express opposition.

Even at this very moment, when Carlos has stabilized his throne and grasped a certain amount of power, a considerable number of nobles still remain outside of Carlos's Royal Council.

The Royal Council is the institution Carlos uses to supervise the nobles; if the nobles remain outside the Royal Council, does that not mean they are unwilling to be monitored by Carlos?

Regarding such a massive noble class within Spain, Carlos had already made a decision to deal with them as soon as possible, at least to resolve some of the trouble.

The nobles own too much land in Spain, and through this land, they control a portion of the agricultural population, thereby exerting their influence on the government.

If it were just the mainstream Spanish nobles, it would be fine; the fear is those Catalan and Basque nobles, as these people are one of the main sources driving regional autonomy.

Holding Spain's land in their hands while secretly pushing for the autonomy of various regions in Spain is something Carlos absolutely cannot accept.

Look at the Spain of later ages; the regions have all become autonomous communities, significantly diverting the power in the hands of the Spanish government. Fortunately, Spain was still able to maintain its unified legal principle through the monarchy, and combined with the fact that Spaniards make up the majority of the domestic population, it barely maintained the country's stability and unity.

But this still allowed the Catalans to find a loophole, even holding a referendum in the 21st century to declare independence.

Facts have proven that being merciful to these nobles and separatists is completely ineffective. Give them autonomy, and their next step is to think about complete independence from Spain.

Even Spanish nobles will breed corruption and a series of other things that harm the country. Carlos has no affection for those nobles who do not stand with him; his only thought is to find a suitable opportunity and reason to deal with them.

The current colonization of the plateau in the Congo River basin is indeed a good time; at least some land can be recovered from the nobles.

How to recover the land?

Of course, by way of swapping Spanish land with land in the Congo River basin. The Congo territory is Carlos's property, so Carlos can certainly promote the land swap between the nobles and the royal family.

Spain's base camp is still the Iberian Peninsula, and having more land in the Iberian Peninsula in the hands of the government and the royal family is certainly a good thing for the country's development.

Carlos will not lose out by swapping more Congo land to the nobles; after all, this land was obtained through colonization, and Carlos did not pay much of a price.

Instead, he can use the nobles' energy to cultivate this land, accelerate the colonization of the Congo River basin, and simultaneously speed up the construction of the Congo territory.

The nobles building large plantations in the Congo River basin can not only fully utilize the local indigenous labor but also produce large quantities of crops and other cash crops to be shipped back to Spain or sold to other European countries and regions.

This can not only promote Spain's economic development, but the land obtained by the royal family and the government can also be rented or sold to civilians, increasing Spain's per capita arable land area, which can be described as killing many birds with one stone.

Of course, swapping land is certainly a long process. The Congo River basin has enough land to swap with the nobles, but this does not mean the nobles are willing to swap the Spanish land they have cultivated for many years for the uncultivated Congo land.

Even if they could get several times the amount of land, it would take a long time to cultivate and fertilize it. It can be expected that in the short term, there will not be many nobles willing to swap land, and one could even say they will be few and far between.

But why does Carlos think this method can solve the problem of nobles occupying the majority of the country's land? The main reason is that most of Spain's land is desert, and combined with the many mountainous areas, there are not many fertile plains that can be reclaimed as arable land.

Coupled with Spain's gradual industrialization, it is destined that a large number of the agricultural population will walk into the cities to become workers or other staff.

As the agricultural population becomes smaller and smaller, the value of the large tracts of land in the hands of the nobles will become lower and lower. Furthermore, due to Spain's geographical environment, most of the arable land is scattered in patches, making it difficult to carry out centralized mechanized agriculture.

Rather than this, it would be better to swap it for large, contiguous tracts of Congo land, hire cheaper local indigenous people as labor, and establish various kinds of crop plantations.

Coupled with a large amount of public opinion propaganda and a certain degree of guidance, there will certainly be many nobles who will be tempted to swap Spanish land for more Congo land.

As long as that day comes, the entire land swap plan will be a success. The royal family and the government, having obtained more land, can also better carry out industrialization and agricultural centralization and mechanization.

The whole process may take ten or twenty years to complete, but once the land swap is mostly finished and Spain's land is centralized and mechanized, Spain's comprehensive national strength will rise to a higher level.

If these arable lands are in the hands of farmers and nobles, the food produced can feed at most 25 million people. But if the land is centralized and mechanized, the food produced on this land can feed at least 50 million people or more.

Coupled with the land of Portugal and the land of Morocco, in the future, relying on these three major regions, it will be no problem for Spain to feed a population of over 80 million to nearly 100 million.

These arable lands and food production will also serve as the capital for Spain to stand in the Western Mediterranean and are also the guarantee for Spain to compete for regional hegemony.

To speed up this progress, Carlos decided to lay out the plan in advance. This also requires the efforts of newspapers and the church; after all, if one wants to make these Spanish nobles believe that there is a large amount of fertile land in the Congo, relying solely on the royal family's word is not enough to make people believe it.

Only when both the church and the newspapers are propagating such things, and combined with some nobles being the first to enter the Congo and making a fortune through plantations, will it arouse the interest of other nobles.

Fortunately, there are also some nobles who have defected to Carlos's rule, and the first nobles to go to the Congo to "eat the crab" can be selected from these relatively loyal nobles.

Actually, speaking of it, the nobles will not lose out by swapping for Congo land. The Congo is an undeveloped land where a large amount of fertile arable land can be reclaimed. Besides that, the Congo also possesses extremely rich mineral resources; the nobles would not lose money even if they managed this land with their toes.

After all, the indigenous labor force here is countless, and it is the kind of labor force that does not need to be treated as human at all. Just squeezing these laborers a little, the profits obtained are incomparable to farming in Spain.

"Archbishop Pedro, you must already know about the establishment of the Congo territory, right?" With a full plan, Carlos looked back at Archbishop Pedro and asked with a smile.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Archbishop Pedro nodded, waiting for Carlos's further instructions.

He knew that Carlos would not bring up the Congo territory for no reason; there must be a specific task.

Carlos continued: "Through the exploration of the expedition team, the plateau in the upper reaches of the Congo is a piece of fertile, uncultivated land. It possesses extremely rich mineral resources, a large number of natural rubber trees, and other materials.

If the church is interested, I suggest that the church can organize personnel to cultivate the land in the Congo River basin, establish plantations, etc. You can also learn about this land by sending missionaries. Believe me, this is an undeveloped land full of treasures," Carlos said with a smile.

Although Carlos could directly order the church to send personnel to cultivate the land of the Congo River, the people of the church might not necessarily be willing.

Although it would not go as far as "complying in public but opposing in private," they would certainly be passive and slow. It would be better to let the church learn about the vastness and fertility of the Congo River basin for themselves, and let them voluntarily go to cultivate the land and manage the Congo territory.

As long as it can promote the development of the Congo territory, it is acceptable to Carlos. The church certainly won't be developing land in the Congo territory for free; for the fertile land of the Congo River basin, they must also pay something, such as the less fertile arable land in Spain.

The church's secret actions, combined with the first group of nobles to "eat the crab" and the propaganda of public opinion, will certainly attract the attention of most other nobles.

When they also notice that the church and some nobles have made a fortune in the Congo River basin, they will naturally be tempted.

By then, Carlos won't even need to take the initiative; there will naturally be nobles who want to join the development of the Congo territory through land swaps.

And Carlos, through the sovereignty of the Congo territory, can sit firmly on the fishing platform, waiting for these fish about to take the bait to be hooked.

5200-word two-in-one chapter, please support!





(End of this chapter)