Chapter 220: Labor and Food

After inspecting the construction of the Barcelona industrial base, Gao Da took a train from Barcelona, passing through Zaragoza to return to the capital, Ma Deli.

Spain's railway construction has been quite smooth so far; important cities such as Ma Deli, Barcelona, Seville, Zaragoza, and Valencia are all connected by rail, and the line between Ma Deli and Barcelona even utilizes a double-track railway with higher transport capacity.

Although this increased Spain's costs regarding railways, the results were quite good. Every interval, a train departs from Ma Deli to Barcelona, and after a short wait, there is a train returning from Barcelona to Ma Deli.

The railway line from Ma Deli to Barcelona is also currently Spain's busiest, hailed by the Spanish government as the bridge for Spain's economic exchange.

Because of the influence of the Meseta Plateau in northern Spain, building railways in Spain has become more difficult. Spain's railway network must bypass towering mountains and plateaus, passing through the valleys between the mountains.

This not only increased the difficulty of building railways in Spain but also increased the casualty rate for railway construction.

In this era, building railways is very important for industrial development, but the construction of railways also represents the deaths of a large number of workers.

In this era where all transport relies on human labor, railway construction has never been gentle. Over the past few years, Spain has built a large number of railways and has also suffered a large number of worker casualties.

The main reason for introducing a portion of immigrants from abroad every year is to utilize these foreign immigrants to build railways.

The population within Spain is not large, and casualties from building railways should be avoided if possible. Because these foreign immigrants do not have Spanish citizenship, if they want to earn enough money, they can only go to build railways or work as miners.

Although these jobs are relatively tiring, the Spanish government has explicitly prohibited the practice of deducting workers' wages in these places. As long as they are willing to sell their hard labor in these places, they can definitely earn money.

It is precisely because of this that Spain's mines and railway construction sites have attracted a large number of laborers, a significant portion of whom are foreign laborers.

Spaniards have more opportunities; they can enter factories or other enterprises, so naturally, they will not compete with these foreign laborers for these high-mortality jobs.

Gao Da and the Spanish government also limit the number of foreign laborers to a certain proportion to ensure that these laborers do not have too serious an impact on Spain's unemployment rate.

Although using foreign laborers to fill the pit of railway construction casualties is a good choice, it would be counterproductive if the number of foreign laborers were so high that it affected the job opportunities for Spaniards.

This is also the reason why Spain strictly limits the number of foreign immigrants; if there were too many foreign immigrants, real Spaniards would find it difficult to find work.

Gao Da is the King of Spain and naturally should prioritize the interests of Spaniards. As for these foreign immigrants, unless they quickly convert to Catholicism and acknowledge themselves as Spaniards, who would care about their feelings?

Although Gao Da has signed relevant population introduction agreements with Italy and Russia, these introduced Italians and Russians are all doing hard labor.

Gao Da will not let them compete with Spaniards for jobs; this would not only incite conflict between native Spaniards and foreign immigrants but also make Gao Da's own situation as a foreigner more awkward.

"In one's position, seek one's policy"—Gao Da still understands the meaning of this phrase. The moment he became the King of Spain, Gao Da should have forgotten the fact that he was Italian and consider the interests of Spaniards as much as possible; only then can he sit firmly on his throne.

The railway from Barcelona to Zaragoza consists almost entirely of plains and lower hills, so the train's speed is still quite fast.

But after reaching Zaragoza, the railway enters the Iberian Mountains, and the train's speed slows down somewhat.

After entering the Iberian Mountains, Gao Da could often see workers building and repairing the railway around the line. A small portion of these workers are Spaniards, while the majority are foreign immigrants and laborers.

Although building railways is bitter and the casualty rate is relatively high, the wages for railway workers are also quite high.

Spain's per capita annual income is only 131 pesetas, but the average salary for railway workers has already reached about 145 pesetas, which is the reason why these foreign immigrants and laborers are willing to be railway workers.

If they are injured or die due to railway construction, their families can also receive a portion of compensation. Although this compensation is not much, it is much better than those capitalists who only know how to exploit and offer no compensation at all.

The background of this era is exploitation and enslavement; for these foreign immigrants and laborers, railway work is already the higher-income job they can find.

Unless they possess higher education and knowledge levels, or have their own special abilities in some aspect, they can only rely on selling their hard labor for a living.

Gao Da will still treat those who are truly talented well; whether they are scientists or technical personnel, as long as they have a specialized skill, Gao Da will place them in suitable positions to let them exert their abilities.

After entering the Iberian Mountains, one first passes through a valley, then the Central Mountains and the Cuenca Mountains—the highest parts of the Meseta Plateau—and only after passing through these two great mountains does one arrive at the capital, Ma Deli.

One cannot see the limitations of Ma Deli's geographical location just from a topographic map, but if one takes a train from Barcelona to Ma Deli, one can clearly experience the stark difference in geographical location between these two cities.

The entire journey from Barcelona to Zaragoza consists of quite flat plains and hills, following the Ebro River, and the development of European countries is visible at a glance.

But after entering the Iberian Mountains from Zaragoza, it is difficult to find such flat and prosperous areas again. Before reaching Ma Deli, the road is mostly sparsely populated mountains and plateaus, without even a decent medium-to-large city.

This is not an exaggeration; there is a vast "no-man's land" between Zaragoza and Ma Deli. Saying it is a no-man's land is certainly a bit of an exaggeration; there is still some resident population in these mountains and plateaus.

But compared to the line from Ma Deli in the south to Zaragoza and Barcelona in the north, it is not unreasonable to compare these mountains in the middle to a no-man's land.

The area of this no-man's land is not small; the area around Zaragoza to Ma Deli alone possesses tens of thousands of square kilometers of mountainous terrain. The usable value of this land is extremely low, which is the reason why Spain's development potential is far lower than that of France to the north.

Spain's domestic area reaches 506, 00 square kilometers, while France's domestic area is only 549, 00 square kilometers; the gap between the two is not large.

What truly reflects the gap between Spain and France is the type of land within the national territory.

Northwestern France possesses the extremely vast West European Plain, and the capital, Paris, is located within the Paris Basin, which is extremely suitable for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry.

Although the south possesses the Central Plateau, west of the Central Plateau is the Aquitaine Basin. Most of France's land is plains and hills, with only a small portion of mountainous terrain.

However, nearly half of Spain's land is covered by the Meseta Plateau, and the south also possesses mountain ranges such as the Penibetic Mountains, the Sierra Morena, and the Toledo Mountains.

The plains and hills suitable for developing agriculture and animal husbandry occupy only a small portion, which also makes Spain lag far behind countries like Britain, France, and Germany in terms of potential.

Countries like Britain, France, and Germany, because they possess large plains, can achieve food self-sufficiency even with populations of tens of millions.

But for Spain, if it had a population of several tens of millions, it would be very difficult to achieve food self-sufficiency.

Unless Spain can annex Portugal and reclaim the vast plain areas of Portugal into farmland, or fully annex Morocco to expand its national territory, it will be difficult to achieve food self-sufficiency while having a population of several tens of millions.

Whether food production can achieve self-sufficiency is extremely important for a country. People are iron, rice is steel; if you don't eat for a meal, you feel hungry. If there is no food, no matter how well the country is governed, it will eventually fall into chaos when food is scarce.

Although food can be imported to meet domestic food needs during peacetime, who can guarantee that their country will always be in a period of peace?

When the moment of war arrives, those countries that need to import food in normal times can only pay a greater price to purchase that high-priced food.

This also has to take into account whether those food-producing countries are willing to sell food to them. Therefore, achieving self-sufficiency is also Gao Da's requirement for Spain's development; at any moment, Spain's food production must keep up with the speed of population growth.

Fortunately, for the current Spain, there is still a lot of land that can be reclaimed. Spain also possesses large tracts of land that can be reclaimed; after all, the population at this time is only over 18 million, which has not yet reached the upper limit of the population that Spain can accommodate.

Outside of Spain, Guinea, the Congo territory, and the Philippines can all be used to grow food, so Spain still has no problem achieving food self-sufficiency.

Even beyond self-sufficiency, Spain is also one of Europe's food exporters, exporting a large amount of food every year in exchange for foreign currency to purchase other industrial equipment or technical production materials.

According to estimates by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, before Spain's population reaches 25 million, it is completely fine for Spain to maintain a state of food self-sufficiency.

After the population reaches 25 million, one must either find a way to increase food production or reclaim more land.

The good news is that Spain is still a long way from the 25 million population level. If we are talking about the time when the population reaches 25 million, it will at least have to wait until the arrival of the 20th century.

The time in between is also the time for Spain to find more reclaimable land, as well as to develop more effective fertilizers and find ways to increase food production.

After the train left the mountainous area and entered the vicinity of Ma Deli, the frown that Gao Da had been wearing finally eased a little.

The Meseta Plateau has always been Spain's pain and is one of the main factors affecting Spain's development.

If this area could be turned into a vast plain like the West European Plain or the North German Plain, Spain's development potential would increase by a large margin, and it might even have the opportunity to compete for world hegemony.

Unfortunately, this is ultimately just a beautiful dream; the Meseta Plateau completely prevented the possibility of Spain becoming a world hegemon. After the 19th century, Spain was at most a regional power, just a middle-to-upper-tier great power.

After returning to Ma Deli, Gao Da summoned the Minister of Agriculture, Hovillar Soler, to ask about the current state of Spain's agricultural development.

Although most of Spain's land is not suitable for developing agriculture, there are still some areas that are excellent farmland, suitable for planting crops and vegetables and fruits.

Although Portugal's plain area is larger, Portugal is actually inferior to Spain in terms of food production.

In later generations, Spain is one of Europe's largest exporters of vegetables and fruits, and its food self-sufficiency rate can reach about 70%, which is a relatively good level.

Minister of Agriculture Hovillar Soler soon arrived at the Ma Deli Royal Palace, and Gao Da also summoned him in the palace's reception hall.

"Minister Hovillar, how is our agricultural development situation now?" Before Hovillar could salute, Gao Da asked his question impatiently.

For any country, agricultural development is definitely one of the most important links. For a country like Spain, where the majority of the population are farmers, agriculture is an important factor concerning the survival of the country.

"Because we have adopted chemical fertilizers on a large scale on the farmland in Andalusia, the grain yield per mu has already seen a significant increase.

It is estimated that our grain production this year can increase by at least about 5%, and the production of vegetables and fruits can basically maintain the same level as last year." Minister of Agriculture Hovillar first saluted, and then answered Gao Da's question.

Spain's total grain production is about 4 million tons, with the largest yields being wheat, corn, and rice. Because Spain's geographical environment and climate are relatively complex, Spain also produces other grains including barley, oats, rye, and potatoes, but they are all planted in small quantities, and the production is not large.

In addition to these 4. million tons of grain, Spain also produces a large amount of vegetables, fruits, and other crops, including olives, grapes, etc.

There are also many industrial economic crops, such as cotton, sugar beets, and tobacco, etc.

Although grain production is only 4 million tons, because many vegetables and fruits are also produced, it can barely guarantee the food needs of Spain's 18 million-plus people.

To put it bluntly, this is not the era of later generations, where people have more food than they can eat, and even waste occurs.

People in this era are relatively short of food and basically have no right to choose. Everyone basically eats whatever is available, as long as they can barely be full, and they will not ask for anything else.

4 million tons of grain could only feed 15 million to 18 million people in later generations, but in 1877, it could feed nearly 20 million people.

Coupled with the vegetables and fruits produced domestically, the food produced by Spain every year is enough to ensure that 22 million people can eat for a year.

Of course, although ordinary people will not have waste, food waste is still prevalent among the nobility and capitalists.

This also leads to the fact that Spain's grain production can only actually guarantee the consumption of about 20 million people, and one must also worry about large-scale famine caused by natural disasters destroying agricultural production.

The 5% increase in grain production mentioned by Minister Hovillar is definitely a good thing for Spain. Estimating based on Spain's total grain production of about 4 million tons, an increase of 5% is equivalent to an increase of 200, 00 tons of grain production, and these 200, 00 tons of grain can ensure that 1 million people eat for a year.

And Spain's annual population increase is only about 300, 00, which also means that Spain's food self-sufficiency rate will become higher and higher, and it will be less prone to famine and food crises.

Hearing Minister Hovillar's report, Gao Da nodded, feeling relatively satisfied with the development of agriculture.

Although Spain's grain production is not much compared to countries with large plains like Britain, France, and Germany, fortunately, Spain's population is not large, and the demand for food is not that huge.

Although it cannot reach the food self-sufficiency rate of several times that of France and Germany, for Spain, being able to maintain a food self-sufficiency rate of about 100% is already a quite good achievement.

At least it can ensure that Spain will not rely on foreign food imports and can use more funds in other more important places.

Although importing food is not that expensive in peacetime, the costs accumulated every year are still a large expenditure.

There are four major grain-producing areas in Spain: the Seville grain-producing area in western Andalusia, the central grain-producing area around the capital Ma Deli and Toledo, the Zaragoza grain-producing area located in Zaragoza, and the Leon grain-producing area located near Leon.

If we talk about the place with the most grain production, it must be the most populous Andalusia region. The grain-producing area near Seville alone contributes about 25% of Spain's grain production, which is already a quite exaggerated level.

It is no exaggeration to say that the grain production of the Andalusia region is always related to Spain's total grain production and Spain's food prices.

If there is a problem with agriculture in the Andalusia region, it will seriously affect the grain production of the entire Spain, triggering a food crisis affecting the whole country or even a large-scale famine.

Different from the grain-producing areas, the livestock areas are generally concentrated on Spain's western border, especially the Extremadura region, which possesses Spain's largest livestock area and is also the main supply place for Spain's meat.

From this aspect, one can also see the superiority of Portugal's geographical location. Spain's largest grain-producing areas and livestock areas are relatively close to the plain and hill regions of Portugal; the inland mountains and plateaus are inferior to the plain and hill regions in both grain production and livestock.

If Portugal could be taken, Spain would have a large area of plains and hills that could be used for grain production or livestock, and the comprehensive development potential of the entire Iberian Peninsula would far exceed that of the previous Spain; this is also Spain's opportunity to break through the upper limit of a middle-to-upper-tier great power and become a regional hegemon or even a super great power.

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(End of chapter)