Chapter 218: Renewed Cooperation Between Spain and Italy

After chatting for a while with his father, Vittorio Emanuele II, Gao Da's two older brothers, Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amedeo, also arrived at the estate.

Before Vittorio Emanuele II became critically ill, Prince Amedeo had been living in Turin. But because of his father's serious illness, Prince Amedeo also came to Rome.

Speaking of Gao Da's two older brothers, Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amedeo had completely different personalities.

Crown Prince Umberto's desire for power was visible to the naked eye, while Prince Amedeo, after missing the opportunity to become the King of Spain, had completely lost his desire for power.

Especially after the death of Prince Amedeo's wife, Duchess Maria, Prince Amedeo became a famous playboy in Italy, caring only about having fun every day and not concerning himself with Italian state affairs at all.

Of course, perhaps for Crown Prince Umberto, such a Prince Amedeo was the least threatening younger brother.

Precisely because Prince Amedeo did not show any signs of being a threat, the relationship between Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amedeo remained quite friendly.

The two arrived together, and Gao Da stood up to greet his two older brothers.

"Gao Da, long time no see." Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amedeo stepped forward, first greeting Gao Da, and then greeting Gao Da's wife, Queen Sophie.

Although Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amedeo were only princes, and Gao Da was a king of a higher rank.

But the two were, after all, Gao Da's older brothers, and given that the current occasion was a private meeting, there was naturally no need for overly formal salutations.

Vittorio Emanuele II looked at the three brothers getting along and nodded with satisfaction.

Although many of his children had died young, one point that satisfied Vittorio Emanuele II was that the relationship between the three surviving sons was quite good.

Brotherly harmony was also an important guarantee for the family's legacy; infighting would only benefit others.

Through his conversation with Crown Prince Umberto, Gao Da finally understood the state of Vittorio Emanuele II's health.

This era lacked overly advanced diagnostic methods, and doctors could only provide an estimate that the end was near based on their assessment of Vittorio Emanuele II's physical condition.

As for when the end would arrive, the doctors were completely unsure.

Gao Da could only nod helplessly; this was the backward state of medical technology in this era.

Whether it was an ordinary citizen or a country's king, in the final stages of life, doctors would be at their wits' end.

Of course, if one had to suggest a method, some doctors might still recommend trying bloodletting therapy. But bloodletting would only accelerate the speed of death; this was a lesson learned after countless Europeans died following bloodletting therapy.

Gao Da's family was arranged to stay at a nearby estate. Although it was quite far from the Rome city center, the advantage was that it was closer to Vittorio Emanuele II's residence, the scenery was more beautiful, and there was no one to disturb them.

This would be the residence for Gao Da's family during their short stay in Italy. The Italian government dispatched hundreds of soldiers to patrol and guard the perimeter, and Gao Da also arranged for most of the guards he brought to be stationed near the estate.

Besides this, whether Gao Da or Queen Sophie went out, they would be accompanied by several guards for protection to ensure safety.

This was to prevent assassination attempts by some assassins. Although Europe was the most developed region in this era, the lives of most European citizens were not very pleasant.

This also led to very frequent assassinations in the European region, and Gao Da still placed great importance on his personal safety.

The good news was that compared to other countries, Italy still tended to be stable. The newly unified Italy did not actually have that many problems, and the dissatisfaction of the public toward this brand-new country had not yet reached its limit.

Coupled with the protection of the Italian government, as long as Gao Da did not court death, there was absolutely no need to worry about his own life safety.

Accompanying Gao Da to Italy this time, besides Garibaldi's second son, Giotti, there were also some officials from the Spanish government.

The purpose of these officials coming to Italy was to finalize the upcoming cooperation with the Italian government.

In the previous cooperation between the Spanish and Italian governments, there was mainly a portion involving financial loans, industrial mutual aid, and cooperative research and development in military industry.

With Italy's help, Spain possessed the Vitali M1872 rifle, which was the standard rifle of the Spanish army at present and was still very important to Spain.

Italy still had quite good R&D capabilities in industry and military industry, and Spain could also deepen cooperation with Italy; the two sides could conduct closer cooperation in the design and R&D of rifles, cannons, and warships, jointly developing and manufacturing more powerful weapons.

Judging from historical experience, Italy indeed had this capability. Although the current scale of the Italian navy was not powerful, in the decades to come, Italy would single-handedly build a quite powerful navy.

It is worth mentioning that the major expansion of the Italian army and navy both occurred during Umberto's reign.

After Umberto became king, he pushed Italy to participate in the arms race, expanding the Italian army from 10 corps to 12 corps, totaling 420, 00 men, and also caused the scale of the Italian navy to grow at an extremely fast speed.

In the era of battleships, that is, the pre-dreadnought era, the Italian navy even built the best battleships of the time, and in 1890, it possessed a total naval tonnage of 242, 00 tons, ranking fourth in the world.

One must know that Italy at that time was not considered a very powerful country and still ranked at the bottom among the great powers.

Being able to arm an army of over 400, 00 and a navy ranking fourth in the world was enough to prove Umberto's ambition, and it could also prove that the Italians' military technology R&D capability was indeed quite excellent.

At least in terms of the navy, Spain could still learn a lot from Italy. If they could deepen cooperation with Italy, by the time of the pre-dreadnought era, Spain and Italy could quickly become countries possessing battleships.

Although Spain and Italy individually did not look that powerful, if the two countries united, their naval power would be enough to threaten Britain.

Of course, this could only happen if Italy built a large navy as it did in history, and Spain still maintained its existing naval status.

Considering that Spain's comprehensive national strength was constantly rising, such a situation was very likely to happen. With Spain and Italy united, the danger displayed by their navy alone would be enough to make Britain pay more attention to the two countries.

With both Crown Prince Umberto and Prime Minister Agostino intending to strengthen cooperation with Spain, the discussions between the Spanish and Italian governments became extremely smooth.

It only took one day for both sides to finalize the close cooperation regarding military technology, and they placed the focus on warships.

Currently still in the era of ironclads, the purpose of the joint development between Spain and Italy was precisely to research and develop the next generation of more advanced ironclads to serve as the main warships for the two countries' navies.

Of course, the developed product could only serve as a reference template; the two countries would then make further improvements based on this reference template and their own needs to build derivative products of the reference template.

For example, strengthening firepower, strengthening propulsion, and strengthening armor protection, etc.; these three factors were the most critical for a warship.

On the basis of cooperative warship R&D, Spain and Italy also signed cooperation agreements in other areas, such as the joint R&D of naval guns for warships, the R&D of warship propulsion units, and the R&D of armor materials.

Armor material was still very important for warships. Good materials could allow armor to become thinner and lighter while possessing protective power, thereby improving the warship's propulsion.

Even if it was just a simple improvement in protective power, it was a huge upgrade for a warship. Improving any one of firepower, speed, or protection was a huge upgrade for a warship; if all three could be improved simultaneously, then the warship could undergo a complete transformation.

The process of upgrading from ironclads to pre-dreadnoughts, and from pre-dreadnoughts to dreadnoughts, was all like this; they were all comprehensive qualitative changes triggered by technology, thereby allowing warships to have huge breakthroughs in firepower, speed, and armor protection capabilities.

Of course, what changed in this, besides technology, were the ideas and habits of various countries when designing warships.

Ironclads to pre-dreadnoughts to dreadnoughts were three completely different types of products; they were completely different in terms of appearance, structure, and the technology used.

Gao Da did not know too much about shipbuilding either; this point could only be improved by the warship designers of Spain and Italy working together through cooperation with Italy.

Since Italy had the capability to design the most advanced battleships in history, then Spain's cooperation with Italy would not be a loss.

Moreover, Spain's capability in warship design was not weak either; the combined warship design capability of the two countries, even if it couldn't compare to the British, would definitely not be much worse compared to other great powers, and could even maintain a slight lead.

Besides the cooperative R&D in military technology, Spain also signed some other cooperation agreements with the Italian government.

One of the most important items was the agreement regarding the introduction of the Italian population.

As early as the last cooperation agreement signed by the two governments, population introduction was a quite important link.

It was just that Spain was not that stable at the time, and Gao Da was not in a hurry to introduce the population from Italy.

Over these past few years, the total Italian population introduced by Spain did not exceed 100, 00, with an average of no more than 10, 00 Italians heading to Spain each year.

With the continuous growth of Spain's population, coupled with the fact that Spain had already stabilized domestically, it was time to increase this limit.

In this cooperation agreement with Italy, both governments reached a unified opinion regarding the introduction of the Italian population.

Spain could recruit a portion of immigrants in Italy on its own, but the number of immigrants could not exceed 20, 00 per year.

All expenses for the immigrants would be borne by the Spanish government, and for every Italian who chose to go to Spain, the Spanish government should pay Italy 50 pesetas as compensation.

For the Italian government, an immigration of no more than 20, 00 people per year was not painful. Because Southern Italy was relatively backward, a large number of people chose to leave Italy every year to go to other European countries or even the United States and more distant regions.

Rather than letting these people go to other countries in vain, it was better to let Spain introduce a portion. For every Italian immigrant who went to Spain, the Italian government could receive 50 pesetas in compensation; for the Italian government, this was also an extra income.

And for Spain, because there were at most no more than 20, 00 immigrants per year, this also meant that the immigration fees paid to the Italian government would be at most only 1 million pesetas.

For the current Spanish government, 1 million pesetas was just a drop in the bucket, and compared to the introduced Italian immigrants, it was completely nothing.

This cooperation could be said to be each taking what they needed. Italy's population was already close to 29 million, and with a large number of immigrants flowing out every year, the population still maintained a quite stable growth.

Two thousand immigrants per year was also nothing to Italy; this would not affect Italy's population growth data in the slightest.

After signing the cooperation agreement on population introduction with Italy, Gao Da was even more satisfied with this trip to Italy.

If 20, 00 Italian immigrants could be introduced every year, for Spain, population growth would proceed at a faster speed.

Do not forget, Spain also had a cooperation agreement in this regard with the Eguozheng Prefecture. Coupled with immigrants from other European countries, in an ideal state, Spain could obtain nearly 50, 00 immigrants every year; this was something the previous Spain dared not even think about.

Coupled with the growth rate of Spain's existing population, Spain's annual net population growth would exceed 300, 00.

This was already a quite good level among current European countries; after all, Spain's population was only 18. 6 million.

According to this population growth speed, it would only take a few short years for Spain's population to break through 20 million. As the population grew larger, the annual population growth would also break new highs.

Although it could not completely solve the problem of Spain's insufficient population, for Spain, a beautiful future was indeed just around the corner.

Besides the cooperation agreement on population, the cooperation agreement signed between the Spanish government and the Italian government also included one regarding capital introduction.

Gao Da followed the path of state capitalism in Spain, with the royal family and the government as official capital leading Spain's industry and economy.

The benefit of doing this was that the royal family and the government possessed sufficient funds, which could quickly allow a certain industry in Spain to form a scale.

Spain's industry was also growing rapidly on such a development path, and the current industrial scale was not much different from the industrial scale of Northern Italy.

But this did not mean that Spain had no problems at all. Because most industries were monopolized by state capital, it led to the private capital within Spain being too weak to spontaneously develop a certain industry.

On this point, Italy's private capital was more powerful than Spain's private capital, and it was not just a little bit more powerful.

The purpose of launching cooperation with Italy in this regard was to attract some Italian capital to come to Spain for investment.

With more private capital pushing, Spain's industry could develop at a faster speed. If it relied solely on the funds of the government and the royal family to push, the time for it to take effect would definitely be extended.

Actually, compared to Italy, the private capital of Spain's northern neighbor, Falanxi, was obviously more powerful.

Spain also had a certain amount of cooperation with Falanxi, and attracting a portion of Falanxi's private capital to come to Spain for investment was no problem.

It was just that the relationship between Spain and Falanxi was not that good; it could only be said to be mutual utilization.

After this trip to Italy ended, Gao Da would also consider establishing contact with the Falanxi government, thereby introducing a portion of Falanxi capital to come to Spain.

Compared to a minor great power like Italy, the benefits Spain could obtain from Falanxi were obviously more. Falanxi's industrial scale and economic scale were not something a country like Italy could compare to; even if given several decades, Italy could not catch up with Falanxi's pace.

Italy's population of nearly 29 million looked like a lot, but Falanxi's population had already broken through 36 million several years ago.

Although there was no clear data, it could be determined that Falanxi's current population was at least 37 million; this population scale was already twice that of Spain's population.

Such a huge population was precisely one of the reasons for Falanxi's strength. Besides this population, Falanxi also possessed extremely powerful industry and economy; this was also the reason why Falanxi occupied the position of European hegemon before the Franco-Prussian War.

Although this European hegemon failed in the Franco-Prussian War and also faced the threat of the policy of isolating Falanxi provoked by Germany after the war.

But it could not be denied that a lean camel is still bigger than a horse; Falanxi, in front of Italy and Spain, was still that powerful European hegemon.

Among all European countries, those that could truly reach Falanxi's strength were actually only Britain and Germany.

The Eguozheng Prefecture was a bit worse compared to Falanxi, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was even worse compared to the Eguozheng Prefecture. Besides the two that could compare, Britain and Germany, as well as the two countries that were worse, the Eguozheng Prefecture and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the gap between the remaining great powers and Falanxi was very huge, even for the world hegemon of later generations, the United States, it was the same.

The opportunity for the United States to rise would have to wait until World War I and World War II; to be precise, it could only become the world hegemon after World War II.

Before the three countries of Britain, Falanxi, and Germany were significantly weakened by the two world wars, the United States was just an upstart and had no resistance in front of the three countries of Britain, Falanxi, and Germany.

Vittorio Emanuele II was also aware of the matter regarding the Spanish officials brought by Kaluo negotiating a cooperation agreement with the Yixi government.

Upon learning that the two governments had successfully signed a cooperation agreement and reached a comprehensive and intimate partnership in areas such as industry, economy, agriculture, and military technology, Vittorio Emanuele II also breathed a sigh of relief.

In his view, Italy and Spain, having achieved intimate cooperation, would possess the confidence to contend with the great powers, and they would have absolutely no need to fear any one of the five traditional European great powers.

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(End of this chapter)