[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rise-of-the-empire-spain":3,"chapter-rise-of-the-empire-spain-rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-34":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rise of the Empire: Spain",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2364962,4632,"Chapter 34: Taking Over the Factories","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-34",34,"\u003Cp>Although Carlos had no experience in dealing with the Carlists, this did not mean that others in the Spanish government lacked it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is worth mentioning that the current Prime Minister, Primo, was not only born in Catalonia but also participated in the First Carlist War; his credentials could be described as maxed out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Carlos also did everything he could at the moment, which was to hand over full command of the army to Primo, letting Primo resolve all the trouble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the huge difference brought about by having or not having Primo. Amadeo had almost no way to deal with the Carlist rebellion because, apart from Serrano, there were no officials or high-ranking military officers with any influence in Spain who supported him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Carlos was different. With two major military leaders, Primo and Serrano, sitting in command, Carlos never considered the possibility of losing this war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To ensure nothing went wrong, under the suggestion of Carlos, the Spanish army imposed martial law on Madrid and provided key protection for important institutions such as the government and the parliament.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In addition to the 500-man palace guard, the Wang Gong of Carlos also added a 100-man force to patrol the surroundings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Considering that all of Madrid was under martial law, unless the Carlists and other opponents could directly breach Madrid, it was basically impossible for them to pose a threat to Carlos and other high-ranking government officials.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the army of Carlos VII could even leave Catalonia, the Spanish government received another piece of bad news.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A large-scale protest broke out in Vitoria, Basque; the protesters stormed the Vitoria municipal government and engaged in a massive clash with the local police.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was clear that the Basques, who like the Catalans fantasized about independence, also had some ideas of their own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the Catalans, who supported the Carlists and incited workers, the reason for the protest in the Basque region was more radical: they demanded independence or autonomy for the entire Basque region.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Basque region here refers to the Basque Country and Navarre in Spain, and the Northern Basque Country in France.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Basques entrenched in these areas were a very fierce people on the Iberian Peninsula and were the last people on the entire peninsula to be conquered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, the total population of the Basque ethnic group was only about 600,000, and they were scattered across the two regions of Basque and Navarre, so the threat was not as great as that of Catalonia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regarding the protests that broke out in the Basque region, Primo's advice was to prioritize appeasement, supplemented by suppression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, this ethnic group was still very capable in combat. If they could be absorbed into the larger Spanish population, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army would also be guaranteed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Controlling the Basque and Navarre regions was also very simple. One only needed to relocate a certain number of Spaniards to these two regions to reduce the proportion of Basques.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the big capitalist class, the Carlists, and the separatists in Catalonia and the Basque region had all scrambled to jump out, there would naturally be no one else to oppose the reforms of the Spanish government next.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While organizing the army to prepare for the war against the Carlists, Primo took the opportunity to vigorously push for reforms around Madrid and strictly enforce the labor laws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those factory owners who actively incited protests and rebellions became the targets of liquidation by Primo and Carlos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In just a few days, the Madrid police arrested dozens of factory owners and took over hundreds of factories and businesses of various sizes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To maintain production in enterprises around Madrid and guarantee the jobs of workers in factories and businesses, the government and the royal family took over most of these industries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the government took the lion's share, Carlos's gains were also quite significant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Carlos firmly supported Primo during the reforms, as a reward, Carlos acquired more than a dozen factories around Madrid at a minimal cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These factories were considered high-quality assets, with individual values ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pesetas; among them were large factories like the Madrid Steel Plant, which alone had nearly a thousand workers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Relying on these factories, Carlos rapidly expanded the scale of his industries. Currently, the total value of Carlos's industries had already reached tens of millions of pesetas, not to mention the more than ten million pesetas in funds he held in his hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Excluding the palaces, secondary residences, and manors taken over from Queen Isabella, Carlos could already rank among the top ten richest people in Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If all assets were counted, the current Carlos could easily become the wealthiest person in Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, Carlos did not care about these superficial titles and even secretly handled some of the royal family's enterprises, making them appear to have no major connection to the royal family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Currently, among these industries, except for the winery which carried the \"Royal\" name because it targeted the high-end market, none of the other industries bore the \"Royal\" name; it was impossible to tell whether they were royal industries just from their names.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the King of Spain, Carlos naturally had to firmly implement the various provisions of the labor laws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he took over these dozen or so factories, Carlos had someone calculate the unpaid wages of all the workers under him and basically paid off all the arrears the very next day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without exception, the current situation of these dozen or so enterprises successfully made it into the Madrid newspapers and became a hot topic of discussion among the people around Madrid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The purpose of Carlos doing this was also very simple: to set a good example for Spain's capitalists.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since Carlos, as King, firmly complied with Spain's labor laws and even paid off the wages owed by the previous factory owners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What reason did those capitalists have to continue withholding wages? Did they really think the working class was easy to bully?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the fermentation of public opinion, Carlos successfully gained a certain amount of prestige.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Paying owed wages was a normal behavior, but paying the workers' arrears for the previous factory owners was not so common.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the workers of Madrid, the biggest difference between Carlos and those capitalists was thus manifested.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Starting from the beginning of February, when the residents of Madrid chatted, they would occasionally mention their King Carlos, accompanied by a heartfelt compliment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the scope of Carlos's wage payments only covered those fewer than 1,000 workers, it affected nearly 1,000 families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because they were all around Madrid, after word-of-mouth spread, at least tens of thousands of people had a better impression of Carlos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And this was the purpose of Carlos doing so: to step by step increase the favorability of the Spanish people toward him, so that they would support him and love him from the bottom of their hearts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once workers had friends around them who received their due wages, they would naturally no longer accept exploitation by factory owners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the capitalists of this era were always greedy; they could not be more attentive to the workers' opinions like Carlos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This would make it difficult for capital and workers to unite again against the Wang Quan, and the influence of the big capitalist class on Spain would always be limited to a smaller range.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the future, when Spain's economy boomed due to reforms, Carlos's industries would also continue to expand, even becoming the largest consortium in Spain, so there would naturally be no need to worry about the comeback of the capitalist class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as Carlos could become the largest capitalist in Spain, what other capitalist could compete with Carlos in Spain?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how powerful capital was, it could never defeat the government, because holding the gun was the ultimate truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First update, seeking support!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of this chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1330,"2026-06-25T09:27:12.995Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","2575acd7b60e7525e0d3a126d4d5489a69b8af829bd7c3821fdf5d7b9ef68962","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-35","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-33",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]