Chapter 246: The Results of the Second Five-Year Plan

As time reached 1879, the Philippines colony was busy dispatching colonial teams to New Guinea to establish colonial strongholds, while back in Spain, Gao Da was busy holding relevant meetings with the cabinet government.

Of course, this was not an ordinary annual government work report meeting, but the report meeting for the Spanish government's Second Five-Year Plan.

It goes without saying how important the Five-Year Plan was to Spain. If the First Five-Year Development Plan formulated by Prime Minister Primo allowed Spain to halt its decline, then the Second Five-Year Development Plan was what allowed Spain to re-enter the fast lane of rapid development, with industry and the economy marching toward becoming a first-rate power.

Because the First Five-Year Plan achieved excellent results, the Second Five-Year Plan garnered high attention from the public.

As early as the end of last year, the people were already discussing how much of the Second Five-Year Plan had actually been completed, as well as the changes Spain had undergone over these five years.

The execution of the First Five-Year Plan had been quite smooth; with Prime Minister Primo coordinating from the center, Spain did not encounter any major problems during the implementation of the First Five-Year Plan.

But only in the second year of the Second Five-Year Development Plan, Prime Minister Primo was assassinated, and Gao Da took the opportunity to form a provisional government, which remained in place until now.

The performance of each department in the Second Five-Year Development Plan concerned whether all members of the cabinet could remain in the cabinet—Spain's highest political institution—and also concerned the Spanish cabinet government elections to be held this year.

Precisely because of this, the entire nation of Spain, from the cabinet ministers in the government down to every ordinary Spanish citizen, was paying attention to the upcoming Five-Year Development Plan summary report meeting and the details of the work completed by each department that the government would announce after the meeting.

Ever since the official recruitment and assessment system was promulgated, whether it was the Five-Year Development Plan or tasks issued by the kingdom's government to the various regional governments, completion and the related performance were all tied to the future and fate of the officials.

Those who completed work quickly and performed well naturally had the possibility of further promotion. But for officials who completed work slowly, or even failed to complete it at all, the outcome ranged from receiving poor marks in performance reviews—making them ineligible for promotion in the coming year—to being held accountable, or even dismissed from office.

Gao Da attached great importance to this aspect; even the Upper House and the cabinet government organized a review of the assessment results every year to ensure that the official assessment results reported by the various regional governments were accurate and free of cheating.

Any instance of cheating found in the official performance assessments resulted in the dismissal of all participants and the pursuit of responsibility; those involved in serious cases even faced public execution.

Spain had not abolished the death penalty, and for officials who had committed acts that incited public outrage, Gao Da's stance was clear: public execution to appease the public anger.

Facts had indeed proven that besides hanging capitalists, Spain's lampposts could also hang officials who squeezed the people's blood and sweat through corruption and graft.

Since the promulgation of the official assessment system, more than 30 officials had been sentenced to death, among whom over 20 were transferred to the square in the center of Madrid for public execution.

The act of publicly executing criminal officials also made the public full of praise for Gao Da and the current government.

If a king were to kill the innocent indiscriminately, the people would certainly feel panic. But if the king only killed corrupt officials and those involved in graft, the people would absolutely not feel panic, and might even applaud and cheer.

Any person at the bottom of society would hate officials who were corrupt and abused their power, especially since Spain had experienced the dark period of Queen Isabella's rule, and naturally had no fondness for such officials.

Never mind executing 30 officials over several years; even if Gao Da executed over 300 officials in a single year, as long as there was sufficient evidence to prove these officials deserved to die, the people would not have the slightest objection or dissatisfaction.

Facts proved that doing this was still very effective. Especially after the public execution of a portion of officials, even if the assessment results reported by the various regional governments had slight deviations, they would absolutely not be too outrageous.

Precisely because of this, major newspapers and the majority of the Spanish public were very concerned about the official assessment results published by the government at all levels every year.

Officials who achieved excellent results would naturally be written about extensively by newspapers, publicizing their political achievements. After learning such news, the public would spontaneously support these officials who achieved excellent results and view them as good officials among the Spanish officialdom.

As for those officials who received poor results, the public would glare at them and, without a second thought, view them as corrupt officials, never supporting such people in future elections.

Because the public had great trust in the official assessment results, this also allowed Gao Da to possess more say in Spanish politics.

After all, Gao Da controlled the Upper House, which was the highest institution for Spain's official performance assessment system and could directly determine an official's future political fate.

For Gao Da, he could already decide an official's life or death with a single word. As long as Gao Da deemed an official corrupt, that official would be denounced by everyone in a short time, and then be dismissed from office due to public outrage, subjected to investigation, and held accountable.

But if Gao Da felt that an official possessed good ability, he could also make that official be praised by newspapers and media and loved by the public in a short time.

Although the public's love would not affect the cabinet government elections, it could affect the Lower House elections.

In other words, Gao Da could control the Lower House elections through the added advantages of the official assessment system.

If there really appeared in Spain some parties or individuals who endangered the Wang Quan, Gao Da could use this method to instantly make that person's reputation stink, thereby preventing them from being elected as a member of parliament.

On January 21, 1879, inside the giant conference hall of the Spanish Parliament building, a super-large meeting with hundreds of participants was being held.

Because the Spanish cabinet government was nominally responsible to the Lower House, this led to the Five-Year Development Plan summary report meeting being held in the parliament and requiring a report to the parliament.

In addition to hundreds of members from the Upper and Lower Houses, this large meeting also included all members of the cabinet government, Gao Da as the King of Spain, and a small number of invited newspaper media.

Of course, these invited newspaper media had one thing in common: they were either controlled by the government or controlled by the royal family.

Having these media outlets controlled by the authorities ensured that they would not leak some important data when reporting the news.

As for those newspapers without official backgrounds, they could only find some hot topics that could be reported through information disclosed by parliamentary meetings or news published by official-background newspapers, and then produce their own papers.

Spain was still quite strict regarding newspaper publication; after several rounds of strict crackdowns, basically no newspaper dared to publish news content that the government and royal family did not allow.

Of course, news related to the Five-Year Development Plan was allowed to be reported, as this was also a time to publicize the political achievements of government officials.

At the large parliamentary meeting, Prime Minister Duke Serrano spoke first, reporting the results of the Spanish government's Second Five-Year Plan to the many members and Gao Da.

"Your Majesty, honorable members. In the past five years, we have achieved quite significant results and progress.

Before the implementation of the Second Five-Year Plan, our country's annual fiscal revenue was 545. million pesetas.

And after the completion of the Second Five-Year Plan, our country's annual fiscal revenue has reached 897. million pesetas, an increase of over 352. million pesetas in annual fiscal revenue.

Before the implementation of the Second Five-Year Development Plan, our country had a total population of 17. 5 million. As of the end of last year, our country's population had exceeded 19. 2 million, a net increase of over 1. 7 million.

Five years ago, our country's steel production was only 123, 00 tons, and iron production was only 323, 00 tons. After the completion of the Second Five-Year Development Plan, our country's annual steel production has exceeded 200, 00 tons, and iron production has exceeded 670, 00 tons.

Currently, our country's steel production has surpassed the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia; according to our forecasts, our total iron and steel production ranks fifth in the world, which also proves that our efforts over the past five years have not been in vain.

Five years ago, our country's per capita annual income was only 115. 2 pesetas, and more than half of the population could not achieve the goal of having enough to eat and wear.

And after the successful completion of the Second Five-Year Development Plan, our country's per capita annual income has increased to 134. 8 pesetas, with the per capita annual income of the worker group and the farmer group reaching 146. 7 pesetas and 128. 2 pesetas respectively, both showing huge growth compared to five years ago.

We believe that what Your Majesty Gao Da said about making Spain great again has become a reality that we are about to see. Perhaps in a few years, Spain will be able to achieve a life where everyone has enough to eat and wear, and our future will be even more beautiful."

Although Duke Serrano only briefly introduced some of the changes in Spain over these five years, it still received warm applause from most of the members attending the meeting.

Of course, the main reason for this was that Gao Da stood up to applaud first. The moment Gao Da stood up to applaud, other members, no matter how unwilling they were in their hearts, could only smile and stand up to applaud.

For Gao Da, the cabinet government's work performance over these five years was absolutely excellent. Through the tempering of the Second Five-Year Development Plan, Spain had officially returned to the ranks of European powers.

Although it was only a second-rate power, compared to the situation of having fallen out of the powers before, the current Spain was undoubtedly much stronger.

But this was only the first step in making Spain great again; Spain still needed more tempering from Five-Year Plans to rank among the first-rate powers and possess the qualifications to compete with super-powers like Britain, France, and Germany.

After Duke Serrano finished his concluding remarks, the next step was for the ministers of each department to summarize their respective parts of the Five-Year Development Plan.

The first to appear was the Spanish Minister of Finance, Ewald Bartel. Looking at the data on paper, the performance of the finance department was quite good.

The difference in Spain's annual fiscal revenue before and after the Second Five-Year Development Plan reached 352. million pesetas, and last year, Spain's annual fiscal revenue even reached a rare 897. million pesetas.

Such data made Ewald Bartel, as Minister of Finance, quite proud, and he had basically secured his position as Minister of Finance.

Considering that the cabinet reshuffle was about to take place, the candidate for such an important position as Minister of Finance should not be changed. This also meant that Minister Ewald could easily continue his third term as a cabinet minister and subsequently strive for a position of higher power.

The Spanish cabinet government was quite special; the Prime Minister did not control all positions in the cabinet.

But the power of the Spanish Prime Minister was still very great; the nine departments of Finance, Industry, Agriculture, Livelihood, Transportation, Public Security, Medical, Education, and Foreign Affairs were directly appointed by the Prime Minister.

There were no term limits for the ministers of these nine departments; as long as they were members of the Upper or Lower House, they could be appointed by the Prime Minister as a minister of a cabinet department.

In addition to these nine cabinet departments directly appointed by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense elected by the Military Committee also had no term limit.

Considering that the officers trained by the military academy had not yet grown to the level of senior officers, the position of Minister of Defense could currently only be handed to Duke Serrano.

The Minister of Royal Affairs, directly appointed by the King, also had no term limit, which was the last position without a term limit besides the Prime Minister.

The remaining Minister of Colonial Affairs, Minister of Justice, and Minister of State—that is, the Deputy Prime Minister—all had term limits.

The consecutive term limit for these three positions was two terms, and the tenure limit was three terms. After serving two consecutive terms, one must withdraw from the election and appointment for these three positions, and after serving three full terms, one could no longer hold a position with a full term.

Spain's current cabinet was quite special; it was a provisional cabinet formed after Prime Minister Primo was assassinated.

This also led to the provisional cabinet not being counted in the term limits of cabinet members; currently, all ministers in the Spanish cabinet had only served two terms at most.

The three positions of Minister of Colonial Affairs, Minister of Justice, and Deputy Prime Minister were all established during the provisional cabinet period.

This also led to the fact that all ministers of the current cabinet had not exceeded their term limits, and they could continue to hold their current positions.

Of course, this depended on whether the Prime Minister of the new cabinet government was willing. The Prime Minister held the power to appoint ministers for nine cabinet departments and could completely change the composition of the cabinet by himself.

Although the finance department reported good news, this did not mean that Spain's fiscal situation was very good.

In fact, during the ten years from 1869 to 1878, Spain's fiscal balance was in a state of fiscal deficit for eight years.

The only two years of fiscal surplus were only 9. million pesetas and 5. million pesetas, respectively.

Over these ten years, Spain's total fiscal revenue reached 6. 0358 billion pesetas, while fiscal expenditure reached 6. 531 billion pesetas, with a total fiscal deficit reaching 649. 2 million pesetas, an average annual fiscal loss of nearly 65 million pesetas, enough to build four or five of the most advanced ironclad warships.

If it were not for the fact that the Spanish government had successively obtained loans from Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and France, and subsequently obtained a large sum of unexpected wealth from the Indian temple treasure, I am afraid the Spanish government's finances would have long been unable to support such a stark fiscal deficit.

Especially during the implementation of the First Five-Year Plan, Spain's annual fiscal loss exceeded 100 million pesetas, and the fiscal loss in 1873 was even close to 200 million pesetas.

Fortunately, although the Second Five-Year Plan was also in a state of loss for most of the time, the fiscal loss had been reduced to less than 20 million, which was a completely acceptable range.

After Minister of Finance Ewald finished his report, it was the turn of the Minister of Industry, who also served as Deputy Prime Minister, Canovas.

In addition to reporting the growth of Spain's total iron and steel production, Canovas also reported on the construction of the Barcelona industrial base.

According to the industrial department's estimates, the third phase of construction of the Barcelona industrial base was expected to be completed between mid-1879 and late 1879.

This also meant that starting from 1880, Spain's industry would enter a state of rapid growth. Catching up with the three industrial powers of Britain, Germany, and the United States might be a bit difficult, but catching up with France, the former European hegemon whose industrial growth had clearly slowed down, was still very hopeful.

Although France did not announce its total annual steel production, according to investigations and estimates of various French factories by intelligence personnel, France's total steel production last year was at most just over 300, 00 tons.

Although it was a full 100, 00 tons more than Spain, this was also because France's industrial foundation was much better than Spain's.

According to France's current slow industrial growth rate, as long as the Barcelona industrial base could be fully completed, Spain's industry might have hope of catching up with France within the next five years.

Although it looked very simple, it would take Spain at least 15 years to reach this step.

This was because the total industrial output of various European countries was not huge at present, and even the steel production of various countries before was only several hundred thousand tons.

When the steel production of industrial powers reached millions of tons in the future, it would not be easy to catch up with these industrial powers.

After all, it was very difficult to build a steel production capacity of millions of tons, and it was even more difficult to consume this steel production. If one only focused on increasing steel production without considering the domestic demand for steel consumption, one would definitely face a serious economic crisis.

Although Spain's industrial development speed was fast, it was also carried out after comprehensively considering Spain's demand for industrial products.

Coupled with the fact that Spain possessed two large colonies, Cuba and the Philippines, exporting some industrial products was not a problem.

Spain could even conduct economic exports to Portugal; Portugal's industry was vulnerable before Spain, which also facilitated the faster consumption of Spain's industrial products.

At least until now, the production and demand of Spain's industrial finished products remained in a healthy proportion, which was enough to ensure that Spain's industrial development would not face the trouble of an economic crisis.

With the future growth of Spain's population and the expansion of colonies, Spain's domestic ability to consume industrial products would increase again.

This was also the reason why Spain regarded France as a target in terms of industry, because Spain, which possessed vast colonies, was qualified to build a larger-scale industry, at least without causing itself to collapse due to blind development.

5, 00-word two-in-one chapter, wish everyone a happy New Year's Eve and a happy New Year!

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(End of this chapter)