Chapter 23: Agricultural Tax Reduction Act

"Your Majesty, forgive my bluntness, but our people no longer have the capital to purchase our national debt." Hearing Yu Kaluo's proposal, Primo gave a wry smile and reminded him.

"No, Mr. Prime Minister, our national debt is not being issued to the common people." Yu Kaluo shook his head and explained with a smile:

"We can issue debt instruments similar to educational national bonds, using interest rates higher than those of banks to attract capitalists and factory owners to purchase them."

"We don't need to set the issuance scale too high; perhaps 10 million pesetas will be enough for our initial educational needs."

"This batch of national debt will be used 100% for educational reform. This can not only reduce the number of illiterate people in our country but also benefit those factories that require a certain level of knowledge reserve."

"Once our first batch of national debt is repaid on time, issuing such debt in the future will become much easier. At the very least, for us right now, this is a more reliable method than borrowing, and it will also allow the government to shoulder less interest."

Capitalists are profit-driven; since the interest on national debt is higher than that of banks, it will certainly be able to attract some capitalists to purchase the bonds.

If specific special-purpose national bonds are issued exclusively for reforms such as education, this will also put those capitalists who purchase the bonds much more at ease.

After all, one thing capitalists worry about is what the government will do with these funds. Investing in an industry like education is certainly much better than the squandering of the government and the nobility; at the very least, the capitalists do not have to worry about the government not having enough funds to repay the national debt in the future.

"We can try it." After thinking for a long time, Primo finally nodded and decided to give it a try.

The first batch of national debt does not need to be issued in too large a quantity; it can be used to test whether this method can raise funds for the government.

It would certainly be great if funds could be raised, but even if they could not, the government would not suffer a significant loss.

Ultimately, after discussions within the cabinet, it was unanimously decided to set the issuance volume of the first batch of educational national bonds at 8 million pesetas, which is 307, 00 pounds.

Although this amount of capital is not large, it can be used to build a number of literacy classes specifically for eradicating illiteracy. Literacy classes do not even require perfect school facilities; one can simply find a house, set up some tables and benches, and get some books to teach Spaniards simple primary school knowledge.

As soon as the news that the government was going to issue educational national bonds spread, it immediately caused a sensation in Spain.

Quite a few Spaniards were still willing to see the government's efforts in education; this at least proved that the current kingdom government valued the common people more than during the Isabella period.

Even farmers were willing to see the country's investment in education. Even if they could not enjoy the benefits brought by educational reform, it did not mean their children could not.

However, support is one thing, but there were very few people willing to purchase the educational national bonds.

Although the issuance volume of the first batch of national debt was only 8 million pesetas, only 200, 00 had been sold after two days of issuance, not even 10, 00 pounds.

Realizing that this was a good opportunity, Yu Kaluo naturally would not let it pass. On the third day of the national debt issuance, Yu Kaluo publicly stated that he would subscribe to 3 million pesetas of educational national bonds.

3 million pesetas of national debt is actually not much, only a little over 100, 00 pounds, less than half of this issuance volume.

But as the King, Yu Kaluo's act of taking the initiative to subscribe to the national debt had a different significance for the Spaniards.

Although it was impossible to support Yu Kaluo because of such a small matter, many Spaniards still had a better impression of Yu Kaluo and were willing to give him enough time to show his side as an excellent monarch.

At the very least, Yu Kaluo had already shown a side far different from Queen Isabella, and the Spaniards had gained patience for Yu Kaluo.

After Yu Kaluo took the lead, the actions of the capitalists finally became more frequent.

After another week or so, more than half of the 8 million pesetas of national debt had finally been sold, and the government also had the initial funds to promote educational reform.

In mid-September 1869, many literacy classes sprang up in Ma Deli like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, and they adopted a method of voluntary enrollment and free learning.

As long as they were citizens of Spain, they could sign up for literacy classes to participate in learning. Book fees and tuition were both free, but they had to attend the literacy class at least once a week.

The literacy classes still took into account the actual situation of the vast number of ordinary people. In 1869 Spain, there were no specific working hours.

In other words, when encountering black-hearted capitalists and factory owners, the working hours of Spaniards were never lower than 12 hours, and even reached as high as thirteen or fourteen hours.

Let alone weekends, it was not easy to ask for leave when sick, because capitalists were unwilling to let the factory's output decrease due to employees' leave, which would ultimately affect the speed of their own money-making.

As for work-related injuries and the like, they had nothing to do with this era. Let alone getting injured at the workstation, even if one died at the workstation, there would not be a single penny of compensation.

The various welfare and treatment policies of later generations were all fought for by workers and laborers around the world for themselves in the long process of being oppressed and resisting.

The literacy movement in educational reform was being carried out vigorously, and its impact on Spain was still quite significant.

After all, it was a free literacy movement, and the willingness of Spaniards to participate in the literacy classes was still very strong. Moreover, Yu Kaluo also had his own little thoughts in the literacy classes, which was that the literacy classes in Spain would only use Spanish and would not use Catalan or other various regional languages.

The purpose of doing this was also to reduce the sense of division between various regions of Spain and Spain itself. Assimilating a nation should start with language; in Spain, one must speak Spanish, which is very important.

The good news is that the current Spain has been integrated for hundreds of years, and most of the public does not reject a complete Spain.

Currently, the independence factions and nationalist factions in various regions are still a minority, which cannot cause much impact on the unification of Spain.

While the literacy movement was being carried out, Primo also launched reforms for agriculture.

Although the Spanish government's fiscal revenue was not high, this could not stop Primo from lowering the agricultural tax.

On September 27, 1869, while the literacy movement was still being talked about by Spaniards, the Spanish cabinet government had already submitted a brand new "Agricultural Tax Reduction and Exemption Act" at the new session of the House of Representatives.

This act caused a stronger sensation in Spain than the literacy movement, because the vast majority of Spain's population was agricultural, and tax reduction was a tangible benefit to them.

As expected, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass this act with a proportion of over 70%, and the cabinet government also announced that tax reductions would begin in 1870 to tangibly increase the income of the agricultural population.

The second update, asking for support!





(End of chapter)