Chapter 327: Money Comes from a Strong Wind

Having not been idle in the palace for long, Gao Da soon felt the sensation that money comes from a strong wind.

On January 5, 1886, Steward Luo Lun found Gao Da with an excited expression to report a piece of good news: the development of the Spanish royal wine industry.

To be precise, it was not just the development of the Spanish royal wine industry, but the development of the entire Spanish wine industry.

What kind of good news was it?

In the previous year, 1885, the total export volume of all Spanish wine brands had already exceeded 1 million tons.

What kind of exaggerated concept is 1 million tons of wine? Currently, a standard European bottle of wine is 750 milliliters, and one ton of wine can fill approximately 1, 33 bottles.

1 million tons of wine is equivalent to 1. 33 billion bottles of wine. Based on Spain's population of just over 23 million, these exported wines would require every Spaniard to drink more than 57 bottles per year.

Of course, selling wine is actually not that profitable.

Don't look at the fact that 1. billion bottles of Spanish wine were sold; in reality, the vast majority of these wines were mid-to-low-end products, especially low-end products.

Although wine is prevalent throughout Europe, the largest quantity of wine is consumed by the European commoners. Commoners cannot afford expensive wine, which also leads to a relatively low average selling price per bottle, and the cost naturally does not go too high.

Currently, the Spanish royal family mainly operates two wine brands. The Royal Winery's wine focuses on the high end, and a bottle of ordinary wine from the current vintage sells for a high price of over a hundred pesetas.

If it is a special edition, such as the reserve wine launched by Gao Da on the 10th anniversary of his coronation, the price per bottle is as high as several hundred pesetas or more, and it is even in a state where there is a price but no market.

But it is clear that this kind of high-priced wine has no connection with ordinary people.

In addition to the Royal Winery, the royal family has another brand that focuses on the mid-to-low end and cost-effectiveness, which is the Iberia Estate.

The wine produced by the Iberia Estate is generally priced at 3-5 pesetas per bottle. For an ordinary person to buy such a bottle of wine, it takes about a week's wages.

The wine that can truly face ordinary people is the low-end wine launched by other wineries. Some wine is not sold by the bottle, but by the barrel.

The selling price of such wine is also quite low, with an average price of less than 1 peseta per bottle, or per 750 milliliters of wine. Such a price can be said to be affordable for every Spaniard.

Precisely because of the low price of low-end wine, the royal family did not join the extremely low-end wine market. This allowed the Spanish wine industry to develop; without the competition of royal enterprises, these small-scale wine brands survived relatively well.

According to Spain's export volume of 1. billion bottles of wine, even if the vast majority are low-end wines, the export of 1. billion bottles can still allow the Spanish wine industry to obtain hundreds of millions of pesetas in revenue.

After all, the export price is definitely different from the domestic one. As long as it involves exports, transportation, loss, and tariffs will increase costs, which also makes the selling price of low-end wine much more expensive.

It is worth mentioning that when the Spanish Revolution broke out, that is, in 1868, Spain's actual wine export volume was less than 200, 00 tons.

So the question arises, why did Spain's wine export volume increase fivefold in these 10-plus years?

The main reason is that the phylloxera infestation within Europe led to a decrease in wine production in various countries, thereby causing a reduction in the scale of wine exports.

The country that suffered the most severely from the phylloxera infestation happened to be France, which was the most famous for its wine industry at that time.

And it just so happened that the region in France that suffered the most severely from the phylloxera infestation was exactly the core region of its wine industry, Bordeaux.

In fact, starting from 1868, France, which was originally a major wine exporting country, began to continuously import wine from Spain.

As a major wine exporting country, France is actually also a major wine consuming country. The status of wine in Europe is like the status of white spirits in Asia; not only European men, but even women drink wine.

In addition to allowing the Spanish wine industry to flourish, France's import of Spanish wine also brought many advanced brewing techniques to the Spanish wine industry.

Originally, Spain was relatively backward in wine brewing technology. Compared to France's famous wine-producing region of Bordeaux, Spain's brewing technology could only be considered barely acceptable.

After obtaining brewing technology from France, the Spanish wine industry was able to develop rapidly and was sold to the entire European region outside of France.

During the period when France's wine industry had to shrink due to the pest infestation, the Spanish wine industry almost took over most of the market originally held by French wine exports.

Because of the relationship with the royal families of several countries, coupled with the public opinion propaganda of newspapers, the Spanish Royal Winery brand of wine also sold well among the European aristocracy, becoming a high-end, well-known red wine second only to a few luxury red wine brands.

The low-end wine is even more incredible; it has already entered thousands of households of the French public.

According to reports from French newspapers, for every three bottles of wine the French drink, one of them is produced in Spain.

You must know that France was once the largest wine producer in Europe. The fact that Spanish wine can occupy one-third of the French wine market is enough to prove how rapidly the Spanish wine industry has developed during this period.

Of course, in addition to Spain, the wine industries of other countries have also seen significant development during this period.

The most important of these are the wine industries of Italy and Portugal. These three countries in Southern Europe are also among the few wine-exporting countries that have not been affected by the phylloxera infestation.

It is just that, unlike Spanish wine being sold to France, Portuguese wine is sold more to the British mainland, while Italian wine is sold to Austria and Germany.

While the wine export volume exceeded 1 million tons, the domestic wine sales volume in Spain also reached an astonishing 276, 00 tons, which is 368 million bottles of wine.

Although 368 million bottles of wine seem like a lot, when spread out to every Spaniard, the actual annual wine consumption per person is less than 16 bottles, averaging just over one bottle per month.

Such consumption is still very reasonable; after all, not everyone likes to drink wine, and not everyone can accept the expense of one bottle per month.

Even for the cheapest wine, calculated by drinking one bottle a month, the annual cost would reach more than 10 pesetas, which is almost one-twentieth of a Spaniard's annual income.

Obviously, not everyone is willing to spend this money. Coupled with the fact that many young children do not drink alcohol, the wine consumption of those who truly like wine is actually even higher.

For Gao Da, wine has also become a necessity on the dining table. Having a glass of the top-tier wine produced by the Royal Winery after a meal can indeed make one feel refreshed and happy.

Currently, the most expensive wines in the Royal Winery are the limited-edition wine produced in the year Gao Da became the King of Spain and the reserve wine for the 10th anniversary of Gao Da's coronation.

The price of either of these two wines exceeds a thousand pesetas, and they are not something you can buy just because you have money.

Generally, one can only see this precious wine when rewarding meritorious officials or at banquets held by the royal family. Ordinary nobles and capitalists who want to drink such limited-edition wine can only wait for the annual limited sales activities of the Royal Winery.

Don't look at the fact that the official selling price of a bottle of wine is less than one thousand pesetas; in reality, if you want to buy such a bottle of wine, you cannot buy it at all without spending more than one thousand or even two thousand pesetas.

Even so, there are still many nobles and capitalists who flock to it. They are all proud to obtain a bottle of limited-edition wine and use it to entertain their most, most, most precious guests.

In fact, such wine is indeed precious.

Because the Royal Winery was not large in scale in the year of Gao Da's coronation, the total output of wine that year was actually only a few hundred tons.

Most of the wine was sold as the ordinary version; only those wines with particularly good quality, mellow taste, and unique flavor were kept, becoming the commemorative wine for Gao Da's coronation.

The total quantity of this batch of commemorative wine was less than 100, 00 bottles, and nearly one-tenth of it has been consumed in these ten-plus years.

Coupled with the increase in vintage, the price of such wine has become more and more expensive. Currently, the auction price of the most expensive bottle of coronation commemorative wine has exceeded 2, 00 pesetas, which is already 10 years of income for an ordinary Spaniard.

As for the limited-edition wine for the 10th anniversary of the coronation, because the time is not long ago, and because the production of the Royal Winery has increased, the price is not that expensive.

Currently, the price of a bottle of the 10th-anniversary limited-edition wine is just over 1, 00 pesetas, and it is also the main wine used by Spanish nobles to entertain distinguished guests.

Of course, Spanish nobles also have their own wineries. As for why they use the limited-edition wine of the Royal Winery when entertaining distinguished guests, first, it is to reflect the preciousness and rarity of the wine, and second, it is also a way to curry favor with Gao Da.

Moreover, unlike the small-scale tinkering of noble wineries, Gao Da's investment in his own wine industry is still very large.

Since Gao Da established the Royal Winery, he has not only introduced advanced wine brewing technology from France but also learned about wine storage and grape selection.

It can be said that, except for the taste differences caused by the origin, there is actually no big difference between the wine produced by Gao Da's Royal Winery and the high-end wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France.

This is also the reason why Spanish wine was welcomed by the French public after entering the French market. On one hand, it is because they really had no choice; the local French wine production dropped significantly due to the phylloxera infestation, and France mainly imported Spanish wine. Besides the wine produced locally in France, the only relatively good choice left on the market was Spanish wine.

On the other hand, it is indeed because the quality of Spanish wine is relatively high. In the current wine market, it is considered relatively good, and the French are also willing to drink Spanish wine.

Hearing the news reported by Steward Luo Lun, Gao Da nodded with a smile, naturally happily accepting this unexpected wealth.

Currently, the royal family's wealth is already countless, and the wine industry making a fortune is just a relatively ordinary piece of good news for Gao Da.

Even upon learning that the royal family can obtain tens of millions of pesetas in revenue each year through wine exports, Gao Da only nodded slightly and did not have much joy about it.

How exaggerated is the current money-making speed of the Spanish royal family?

The total assets of the royal family are at least 1 billion pesetas, and many real estate properties have not even been included in it. The most profitable royal enterprises currently are the Royal United Bank, the Mercedes Automobile Company, and the Royal Grain Company.

The annual income brought to the royal family by these three large enterprises is at the level of tens of millions of pesetas, and the total income brought to the royal family by the three enterprises has long exceeded 100 million.

If other miscellaneous industries and assets are included, the annual net income of the Spanish royal family has already exceeded 200 million pesetas and is moving towards the 300 million peseta mark.

This is the annual income. How exaggerated is 200 million pesetas? Based on the current construction cost of an ironclad ship at 500, 00 to 700, 00 pounds, the royal family's annual income is enough to build more than 10 of the most advanced ironclad ships.

Even for battleships with higher construction costs in the future, the royal family's income can build five or six per year. In other words, if Gao Da were willing to invest his income into Spain's naval construction, the Spanish Navy would have the hope of becoming a naval power second only to the United Kingdom within the next 5 years.

Of course, building a navy is by no means as simple as it appears on the surface, and Gao Da cannot invest all his income into the construction of the navy.

On one hand, building a navy with such great fanfare is likely to arouse the fear of other countries; on the other hand, the Spanish national treasury cannot afford such a large-scale navy.

The scale of the British Royal Navy ranks first in the world, and the reason is that the United Kingdom has colonies all over the world. After two colonial exchanges, Spain's main colonies are basically in Africa, Asia only has the Philippines, and the Americas only have Puerto Rico left.

A small Puerto Rico is naturally not worth stationing a large-scale navy, and there are no enemies with a relatively strong navy around the Philippines, so there is naturally no need to station a large-scale squadron.

Although Africa has several large-scale colonies, Africa is relatively close to the Spanish mainland, and there is no need to station a large-scale naval fleet.

This also leads to the fact that the Spanish Royal Navy only has one main fleet, which is the Spanish Home Fleet.

The remaining scales, including the African Fleet, the Asian Fleet, and the American Fleet, combined do not equal the volume of the Home Fleet. Although these fleets are called squadrons, they are actually just small-scale navies at the colonial navy level.

In addition to the continuous growth in revenue from the royal family's two wine brands, the revenue of one of the royal family's three major enterprises, the Royal Grain Company, is also constantly growing.

The Royal Grain Company is an official enterprise jointly established by the royal family and the Spanish government, with the purpose of controlling Spain's grain import and export and using grain import and export to balance the grain prices in Spain.

Because it controls the bulk trade of grain, the Royal Grain Company became a behemoth among Spanish companies in just a few years, and its revenue naturally climbed steadily.

The reason why the revenue of the Royal Grain Company has been constantly increasing in recent years is mainly due to the achievements Spain has made in agricultural product exports, especially in the export of vegetables and fruits.

Speaking of the growth in vegetable and fruit production, one must mention Spain's agricultural development plan in West Africa.

As mentioned before, the agricultural development of the West African colonies provided a large amount of grain for the Spanish mainland, which not only lowered the grain prices in the Spanish mainland but also eased the pressure on grain production caused by the barren land of the Spanish mainland.

After having enough grain, some land that is not very suitable for grain production can be used to grow vegetables or fruits.

Land production transformation can compensate for the income of farmers; after all, if grain prices fall, the income of farmers will also decrease. The barren land of the Spanish mainland cannot be compared with the African land that produces three crops a year for grain production, but if it is used to produce vegetables and fruits, it is exceptionally suitable.

You must know that the Spain of later generations was originally the largest vegetable exporter in Europe, and its fruit production was also among the best in Europe.

After a part of the local land was transformed from grain production to vegetable and fruit production, it significantly increased the vegetable and fruit production of the Spanish mainland.

In this era, European countries mainly focused on grain production and did not pay much attention to vegetables and fruits. After all, to put it bluntly, the domestic public did not even have enough grain, so what could they do with producing vegetables and fruits?

Don't look at how later generations emphasize balanced nutrition; in reality, what people can eat to be full is still grain, and what is nutritious is still meat.

After the significant increase in Spanish vegetable and fruit production, it not only made the Spanish dining table more abundant but also effectively increased the scale of Spanish agricultural product exports.

Although the poor are not very interested in vegetables and fruits, the rich are still very interested in these things that can enrich their dining tables.

From the growth of Spain's export scale, it can also be seen that Europeans are still very welcoming to vegetables and fruits.

From the reports of the Spanish agricultural department, it can also be seen that Spain's grain production, vegetable production, and fruit production have all achieved significant improvements in the last 5 years.

In 1885, Spain's grain production was 1. times that of 1880, vegetable production was 1. times that of before, fruit production was 1. times that of before, and the total production of agricultural products increased by about 34%.

Spaniards can not only buy enough food at a lower price but also make their dining tables more abundant.

In addition to the increase in grain and vegetable and fruit production, the production of beef and mutton in 1885 also increased by about 10% compared to 5 years ago.

After the food on the dining table became abundant, the physique of the Spaniards also had significant changes. Compared to the previous generation, the new generation of Spaniards is not only taller and stronger in physique, but also looks healthier.

Walking on the streets and alleys of Spain, one can no longer see those people who were sallow and thin and had a thin physique due to hunger.

Everyone has a healthy complexion, and some people even have a little bit of fat on their faces and stomachs due to the improvement in living standards.

The increase in total agricultural output not only represents the growth of Spain's export scale but also the growth of the royal family's and the government's revenue.

Compared to 1880, the annual net profit of the Royal Grain Company in 1885 had already exceeded 50 million pesetas. Based on the 60% share held by the royal family, Yu Kaluo could receive an annual income of approximately 30 million pesetas from the Royal Grain Company.

This money was already after-tax, which also means that the revenue obtained by the government was not just 20 million pesetas, but also included the tens of millions of pesetas in taxes that the Royal Grain Company paid to the government annually.

5300-word two-in-one chapter, requesting monthly tickets!

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(End of this chapter)