Chapter 361

During the time the Portuguese royal family was in Spain, they first visited Spain's urban construction, and then visited the construction site of Spain's battleships.

Princess Maria Pia felt amazed at Spain's rapid development. The last time she came to Spain, Ma Deli was not as prosperous as it was today.

Now, according to the introduction of the Spanish reception officials, Ma Deli's population had already approached 1.1 million, making it the city with the largest population on the entire Iberian Peninsula.

One had to know that the entire population of Portugal was less than 5 million. A small Ma Deli possessed over one-fifth of Portugal's population, which also represented the huge gap between Spain and Portugal.

Now, losing the Portuguese throne might be a good thing for Princess Maria Pia. Without the Portuguese throne, their family was still a prominent noble in Europe, having relatively close relative relationships with both the Italian royal family and the Spanish royal family, and spending the rest of their lives in wealth was absolutely no problem.

It was just that Carlos I, who had once tasted the sweetness of the throne, did not think so. He believed that the Portuguese Republican Party's rebellion was too sudden, and it was only under the situation where the Portuguese government had no preparation at all that the Republican Party stole the regime.

As long as he could obtain the support of external forces, Portugal could still restore the monarchy, and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha could still be restored.

Regarding the restoration of the throne, Carlos I was still quite confident. His two uncles were the Kings of Spain and Italy respectively, and these two countries were both European great powers with quite strong strength.

Besides this, the Portuguese royal family belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and this prominent family also controlled the thrones of Belgium and Bulgaria.

Added to the help from the United Kingdom, defeating a small Portuguese Republican Party was not something that could be done easily.

After seeing the strength of Spain in terms of economy and industry, Carlos I could not wait to send a request to his uncle Gao Da, hoping that his uncle could help him return to the throne.

Regarding Carlos I's request, Gao Da did not explicitly refuse.

After all, Gao Da had no reason to refuse; refusing too decisively looked more like Gao Da having other motives during the chaos in Portugal.

Of course, Gao Da would also absolutely not express his explicit attitude of support.

Spain had already stated before that it would maintain neutrality during the chaos in Portugal; it was impossible for Gao Da to slap his own face, and even more impossible to violate the regulations he stated before.

Not having obtained Gao Da's explicit attitude of support, Carlos I felt slightly disappointed. He could also feel Gao Da's coldness towards him, as if the two were just strangers.

For Gao Da, it was indeed like this. Before this meeting, Gao Da had not seen his nephew Carlos I.

Compared to Spain's national interests, this bit of relative relationship was not that important. Moreover, Carlos I had already chosen the United Kingdom between Spain and the United Kingdom; Gao Da naturally did not need to consider any relative relationship anymore.

If annexing Portugal could make Spain more powerful, Gao Da would annex Portugal without hesitation.

As for Carlos I and these people, if they were sensible, Gao Da would ensure they had no worries about food and clothing for the rest of their lives.

But if they were not sensible, they would become enemies to Gao Da, and naturally, there would be no need to consider their attitude.

Carlos I, who knew that obtaining Spain's support was hopeless, felt that there was no need to continue staying in Spain.

One week after coming to Spain, he proposed his farewell to Gao Da, intending to head east to Italy to seek the support of his other uncle, Umberto I.

It just so happened that Princess Maria Pia could also return to Italy; firstly to pay respects to her father, Victor Emmanuel II, and secondly to visit most of her relatives in Victoria.

Gao Da naturally would not stop them and arranged a luxurious cruise ship to send their family to Italy neatly.

Regarding the Portuguese royal family's behavior of coming to Spain for refuge, Gao Da did not prohibit Spanish newspaper media from reporting related news.

On one hand, the behavior of taking in the royal family of a neighboring country could also add some reputation to the Spanish royal family. Although most countries in Europe were monarchies, some kings among them dared not guarantee that their thrones could be stable.

In the future, if they encountered any crisis, they could choose to go to a great power country like Spain for refuge; this was absolutely a good thing for those European kings whose thrones were not stable.

Sure enough, when such news was gradually reported by newspapers in other European countries, Spain's behavior of accepting the Portuguese royal family also received the praise of European nobles.

Although this improvement in reputation could not bring Gao Da some practical benefits, in some situations, it could also play an unexpected role.

As time came to August 1892, Spain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire reached a new agreement.

This agreement was related to the navy, and the main content of the agreement was the three battleships that the Austro-Hungarian Empire purchased from Spain.

Ever since Sea Power Theory won the support of various European countries, the importance attached by major great powers to naval construction had reached an incomparable height.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was naturally the same; they also possessed a coastline that was not short, and naturally also wanted to develop and build their own navy.

But the current main warships of the navy had changed with each passing day; ironclad ships were already behind the times, and various European countries were researching their own battleships.

In terms of warship design and construction, the ability of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not as good as Italy and Spain.

Considering that the Austro-Hungarian Empire's coastline had the risk of being blocked by Italy, if the Austro-Hungarian Empire's main warships were built by Italy, it would probably increase the possibility of this risk, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire found Spain, intending to purchase the Monarch-class battleships that were currently in the limelight from Spain.

Of course, Spain's progress in battleships was also the reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire set its sights on the Monarch-class battleships.

Because the Monarch-class battleships had obtained comprehensive improvements compared to ironclad ships, the cost price of such a battleship was also quite expensive.

According to the cost price estimates given by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard, the cost of building one Monarch-class battleship was about 20.75 million pesetas, and the internal price given by the shipyard to the Spanish government was as high as 22.50 million pesetas.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire wanting to purchase Monarch-class battleships would certainly have to spend a higher price. After multiple consultations between the diplomatic delegations of the two sides, it was finally decided that the selling price of each Monarch-class battleship would be 23.25 million pesetas.

For one battleship, Spain's shipyard only earned 2.50 million pesetas, which was about 100,000 pounds; such a price was indeed relatively favorable.

After all, one also had to consider the current scarcity of battleships. Don't look at various European countries building battleships with their heads down; currently, the countries that could build battleships for the Austro-Hungarian Empire were actually only three: the United Kingdom, France, and Spain.

Germany and Italy might also be able to build battleships, but their own navies had not yet been able to possess battleships, so naturally, they could not squeeze out energy to build battleships for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire ordered three battleships at once, which also meant that the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard would not lack orders in the next few years.

Combining the construction progress of the Spanish navy, Spain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire finally agreed that the first ship of these three battleships would officially start construction at the end of this year, and it was expected to be officially completed in mid-1894. The remaining two battleships would all start construction within 1893 and be officially completed before 1895 arrived.

According to such construction progress, these three battleships could be commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy as early as 1896, and as late as 1897.

Such progress could not be said to be very fast, but it was absolutely not slow either.

After all, the French themselves had been working on their battleships for several years and they had not yet been commissioned; the time for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to possess battleships would absolutely not be too much later than other great powers, and maintaining their status as a naval great power was still no problem.

Yes, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's naval construction plan only had these three battleships.

The remaining small and medium-sized various auxiliary warships could be built within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and these warships pieced together could also keep the Austro-Hungarian Empire's navy ranked in the world's top eight.

As for a higher naval ranking, this was not the pursuit of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Currently, the one with the main conflict and competition with the Austro-Hungarian Empire was Russia, and Russia's army was extremely powerful. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had to focus its main attention on the development of the army, so that it could rival the threat brought by Russia to itself.

In terms of the navy, anyway, there was an ally like Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's navy was not that important.

After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no overseas colonies, and its basic foundation was only Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and other areas located in the mainland.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the demand for the army was really greater than the demand for the navy, which could be considered a special case among the several great powers of Europe.

Germany was also in such a state before, but as Germany's overseas colonies became larger and larger, added to Germany's own strength considerations, their demand for the navy was also constantly expanding.

The order signed with the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also Spain's only order in terms of battleships.

There was no way; countries with a demand for battleships basically had the ability to build battleships themselves. And those countries that did not have the ability to build battleships themselves did not have a great demand for battleships.

Take Portugal as an example. Even if Portugal purchased one or two battleships, it could not allow their naval strength to rank in the world's top eight.

Once the navy commissioned two battleships, the annual naval military expenditure would also increase significantly. One or two battleships had no great effect, and also required huge funds to operate and maintain; for small and medium-sized countries, no matter how one looked at it, this was a deal that was not very cost-effective.

Italy might be the country most likely to purchase battleships from Spain, but the Italian King Umberto I obviously possessed greater ambition; he rejected the request of the navy to purchase warships from Spain and stated that Italy should develop its own shipbuilding industry and should possess the ability to build battleships itself, rather than purchasing from other countries.

Italy's several major naval shipyards were also researching their own battleships; currently, according to some intelligence reported by the National Security Intelligence Agency, Italy's battleships seemed to be already under construction.

It was just that compared to Spain, Italy's battleship construction progress was much slower. It would already be good if Italy's first battleship could be officially completed by the end of 1893; official commissioning might have to wait until 1894 or even 1895, which was already about the same time as the battleships Spain built for the Austro-Hungarian Empire were commissioned.

One had to know that Spain was building multiple battleships at the same time, which forced the commissioning time of the battleships to be postponed to 1895.

From this aspect, one could also see Spain's current naval construction experience; because of several naval development plans before, Spain's naval shipyards indeed had a quite good level.

As time came to the summer of 1892, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi companies that Gao Da established before also became the biggest beneficiaries of this season.

According to the report of Butler Luo Lun not long ago, these two cola companies had already become Spain's most famous beverage enterprises, and they also sponsored bullfighting competitions in different cities respectively, selling them bundled with local bullfighting competition tickets, winning the favor of many spectators.

Just in the city of Ma Deli alone, the number of colas sold in one day reached as high as 200,000 bottles.

Currently, the cost of a cup of cola had already been reduced to about 0.12 pesetas, and the selling price of cola was reduced to 0.2 pesetas per cup, which almost everyone could afford.

Even if the profit of a cup of cola was only 0.08 pesetas, just the daily sales volume of the city of Ma Deli alone, the total sales amount reached as high as over 40,000 pesetas, and the net profit also reached 16,000 pesetas.

Don't look at 16,000 pesetas not being much; this was only the daily sales volume of one city. Although only summer was the best-selling stage, the sales volume in other seasons could also be maintained at at least over 100,000 bottles, which could be considered a quite good scale.

Currently, just in the city of Ma Deli alone, the annual net profit of the two major cola companies combined could exceed 3 million pesetas.

Expanding the scope to the entire Spain, the net profit of the two cola companies combined already exceeded 12 million pesetas, equivalent to a 7,000-ton class cruiser.

This was not over yet. Cola, this kind of flavored beverage with a unique taste, would inevitably be favored by the young group.

This era had no other beverages, and there was no common sense that carbonated beverages were harmful to health.

For most young people, having a cup of iced cola in the hot summer was already an unimaginable happy time.

And precisely because of this, Coca-Cola and Pepsi were also warmly welcomed in the international market.

Both cola companies set up branches in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia, pushing their products to Europe and even the world.

The United States naturally also had branches of the two colas. It was worth mentioning that similar beverages were also born in the United States, but the names were no longer Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

For the two cola companies that had become behemoths, similar beverage enterprises in the United States were naturally just small ants.

Through the method of price reduction competition, the two cola companies quickly occupied most of the American beverage market and successfully caused similar local beverage enterprises to go bankrupt and close down quickly.

Although these branches opened in different countries had different capital and noble cooperation, the headquarters of the two cola companies could still occupy nearly half of the shares.

Don't look at the cola companies' income of over 12 million pesetas a year in Spain being already very exaggerated; in reality, the income brought by the foreign market was more.

The income brought by the foreign market had already exceeded 25 million pesetas, which also caused the annual net income brought by the two major cola companies to the Spanish royal family to reach an exaggerated level of 37 million pesetas.

Of course, since they were two cola companies with different tastes, there would inevitably be competition.

For the Spanish market, Coca-Cola, which had more bubbles, was more popular. For every 100 bottles of cola sold in the Spanish market, at least 60 bottles were produced by the Coca-Cola company.

Of course, the remaining nearly 40 bottles of cola were all produced by the Pepsi company.

Under the price competition of these two major beverage enterprises, even if a cola company of the same type was founded, it was destined to be unable to persist in the price war for too long.

(End of chapter)