Chapter 379: Morocco Railway and Grain Reserve

It was not that Gao Da was stingy in terms of fiscal budget, it was mainly that the construction required by Spain in 1896 was too much, and each of these constructions was a large amount of fiscal budget expenditure.

Among them, the most important construction was the construction of the Morocco Railway.

As a colony to be localized, the construction of railways and roads in Morocco was naturally necessary. For the so-called Morocco Railway, after several months of planning by the transportation department, there was already a clear construction plan.

The starting point of the railway was Ceuta, the northernmost city in Morocco, and it had two railway lines to the south and to the east.

The line to the south would pass through Tangier, Larache, Ksar el-Kebir, Kenitra, Salé, etc., and then arrive at Rabat, the capital of the original Kingdom of Morocco.

In Rabat, there was another branch line to the east, while the main line to the south continued to pass through Mohammedia, Casablanca, El Jadida, Safi, and Marrakesh, and finally arrived at Agadir, the capital of the original South Morocco colony.

The route from Ceuta to the east would pass through Tetouan in the south, continue to the east through Al Hoceima, Nador, and Berkane, and then reach Oujda, a city in eastern Morocco.

The railway here inserted to the southwest, passing through Taza, Fez, and Meknes along the way, and then returned to Rabat, the capital of the Kingdom of Morocco; this railway was also the eastern branch line of Rabat.

According to the estimation of the transportation department, the total length of these two railway lines was expected to be between 1,700 kilometers and 1,800 kilometers, and it would require a quite large sum of capital to complete the railway construction.

Gao Da had read the capital statement given by the transportation department. Even if Morocco as a colony required less labor costs, because the Morocco region was also mountainous, it would increase the cost of railway construction.

Calculated according to the construction cost of 20,000 pesetas per kilometer of double-track railway, this railway of nearly 1,800 kilometers required at least 36 million pesetas of capital.

Fortunately, it took at least three years to build this section of railway, which also meant that Spain only needed to pay out 12 million pesetas every year, which was completely enough for the construction of the entire railway.

12 million pesetas was not a big expenditure for the current Spanish government, and Gao Da almost did not hesitate much, and soon agreed to the railway construction plan of the transportation department.

Of course, besides the railway construction plan, the transportation department also prepared a construction plan related to roads.

It was just that the road construction in this era was relatively simple, and the construction cost was naturally relatively low.

Although there were cement roads in this era, they were only used in parts of city blocks. One reason was that the construction cost of cement was high, and the laying of cement roads required a large amount of labor, and these had to be calculated in the cost of road construction.

The second reason was that the demand for the use of cement roads was also relatively low. With the continuous expansion of the automobile market, people indeed needed a flatter, stronger, and more solid road.

Cement roads were naturally the best choice, but their expensive construction cost was not suitable for most regions. Compared with cement roads, earth roads paved with stones were actually more popular.

First, the construction cost of this kind of road was relatively low. Second, this kind of road was also relatively strong, and there was no problem with cars driving on it.

This kind of road could also take into account the driving of horse-drawn carriages and cars at the same time, and it was also the first choice for various European countries when building roads.

Even in Spain itself, there were not many roads built with cement, and they were mainly concentrated in the urban areas of large cities like Ma Deli and Barcelona.

In some relatively prosperous city streets, wealthy municipal governments built wide roads with cement roads. The entire section of the road from the Royal Palace to the University City in the center of Ma Deli used cement road surfaces.

Now building roads with a length of thousands of kilometers in Morocco, the first choice was definitely earth roads paved with stones, followed by ordinary earth roads, and cement roads could definitely not be a choice among them.

Compared with the road construction in Morocco, Gao Da was obviously more concerned about the railway construction in Morocco.

Because it was separated from the Spanish mainland by the sea, most of Morocco's resources could be transported to the northern ports by railway, and then quickly transported to the Spanish mainland through the northern ports.

This also meant that after the Morocco railway construction was completed, Spain's control over the whole of Morocco would be infinitely strengthened.

Morocco possessed various mineral resources; the reserves of coal and iron mines were not huge, but it possessed as much as 50 billion tons of phosphate rock, accounting for 71% of the world's reserves.

Besides being used to manufacture chemical fertilizers, unprocessed phosphate rock powder could be directly spread into the soil, which could improve soil fertility to a certain extent.

This main source of chemical fertilizer was quite important for Spain. The land in Spain itself lacked fertility, and the land in the West African colony could increase grain production through chemical fertilizers.

Now that Morocco was occupied, it could be considered that Spain's agricultural production had completed a closed loop. Morocco's phosphate rock could be made into a large amount of chemical fertilizer and transported to the Spanish mainland and African colonies.

The grain produced in the West African colony could be transported to other colonies and the mainland, supplying the consumption of more than 30 million Spaniards.

And the vegetables and fruits produced in the Spanish mainland could be exported in exchange for a certain amount of foreign exchange income, making Spain's fiscal situation more affluent.

Judging from the phosphate rock reserves in the Morocco region, Spain would not have to worry about problems related to chemical fertilizer production for a long time in the future.

As long as there was no shortage of chemical fertilizer, Spain's agricultural production would have a guarantee, and naturally, there would be no concerns in terms of grain production.

Speaking of problems related to grain production, the most important one was the growth of Spain's population.

After annexing Morocco, Spain's population ushered in a new round of explosion. In the case of only calculating the population with Spanish nationality in the Spanish mainland, the total number of Spaniards still exceeded 31.19 million.

The exploding population was the biggest problem for Spain in terms of grain pressure. Fortunately, Spain reclaimed a large amount of cultivated land in the West African colony for agricultural planting, otherwise, relying only on the grain of the Spanish mainland, it would not be able to feed more than 30 million people.

Because the mainland population kept exploding, even if Spain developed the West African colony, it was only barely able to meet the domestic population's grain demand.

This also meant that Spain could not become a grain-exporting country, but it did not need to import grain either, and it could basically achieve self-sufficiency in terms of grain.

In order to prevent natural and man-made disasters from reducing grain production, thereby forming a nationwide famine, Gao Da decided to establish a certain grain reserve nationwide in Spain.

The grain reserved in the whole of Spain must at least guarantee that all Spaniards could eat for more than half a year, so that they could calmly deal with some natural disasters.

As one of the driest regions in Europe, there were still quite a few natural disasters related to drought in Spain. This point still needed to be guarded against early, otherwise, when drought broke out on a large scale, the impact on agriculture and the economy would be irreparable.

After Gao Da put forward requirements related to grain reserves, the Minister of Agriculture submitted a plan related to grain reserves to Gao Da after several days of careful consideration.

Because the population of the Spanish mainland had risen to more than 31 million, wanting to reserve grain for all people in the country to eat for half a year, at least 4 million tons of grain needed to be reserved.

Such a large amount of grain reserve was a burden for the government, and Spain also needed to build a large number of granaries to reserve this grain, and at the same time bear the loss of grain.

This large amount of grain piled up in the warehouse would definitely rot or mold. Even if the phenomenon of rotting and molding could be reduced through certain storage means, it could not stop the loss of grain stored for a long time.

Instead of storing grain in such a large volume, it was better to change the idea of grain reserve.

The grain in the West African colony could achieve two harvests a year or even three harvests, so couldn't these grains planted in the ground be counted as reserves?

Judging from the current grain production of the West African colony, these grains planted in the ground could also be seen as about 2 million tons of grain reserves.

This also meant that Spain only needed to reserve 2 million tons of grain to achieve Gao Da's requirements, and the grain reserve would be enough for all people in the country to eat for about half a year.

Coupled with the vegetable and fruit production of the Spanish mainland, it could even exceed Gao Da's requirements.

Doing so could also reduce expenditure in terms of grain reserves, and the only shortcoming was that when the Spanish government needed grain, it still needed to carry out harvesting and transfer processes in the colony.

Gao Da thought about it and felt that this was not a bad method.

After all, if they simply reserved more than 4 million tons of grain, the cost of buying this grain alone was already a quite huge expense.

Every few years, reserved grain also needed to be put into the market, and then new grain needed to be bought for grain reserve. The intention of doing so was to consume the old grain stored for several years faster, and store new grain to avoid the rotting of grain.

If it was the investment and purchase of 4 million tons of grain, this was definitely a major project. But if it was reduced by half, the links of grain investment into the market and purchase every few years could also save a lot of effort.

If they wanted to reserve 4 million tons of grain, calculated according to half wheat, half corn, and part of other mixed grains, the price of 1 million tons of grain was about 70 million to 80 million pesetas, so the price of 4 million tons of grain would be close to 300 million pesetas.

Although reserved grain could also be sold, using such a large sum of capital for grain reserve was not a small pressure for the government's fiscal. If it was reduced to 2 million tons, the Spanish government only needed to pay about 150 million pesetas of capital to complete the work of grain reserve.

Although 150 million pesetas of capital was not small, it was also acceptable for the Spanish government. After all, the benefits of grain reserve were obvious, allowing the Spanish government to calmly deal with natural and man-made disasters, and deal with natural disasters and various accidental wars.

Of course, although the agricultural department decided to reserve more than 2 million tons of grain, the work of grain reserve would not be completed in one year.

The grain reserve of 2 million tons would be completed in three years, which also meant that only about 660,000 tons of grain needed to be reserved every year.

In this way, the capital that the government needed to pay for grain reserve every year was only about 50 million pesetas, and it only needed to pay the capital for the first three years.

Subsequent grain reserve work could completely obtain income through putting old grain into the market, using the money from selling old grain to buy new grain, and grain reserve would not need to spend much money.

Allocating 150 million pesetas of fiscal budget over three years could effectively alleviate the fiscal pressure faced by the government.

This could also be considered a good thing for this year's fiscal, at least various departments could have enough fiscal budget to carry out their work, without worrying about such or such work affecting their budget.

After the grain reserve work took away 50 million pesetas of budget, the frequency of various government departments seeking to see Gao Da became higher and higher.

There was no way, the annual fiscal budget was limited.

Spain's fiscal revenue last year reached 1.4462 billion pesetas, which also made the total fiscal expenditure share this year reach 1.4212 billion pesetas, which could be considered a new high for total fiscal expenditure in recent years.

But the problem was that the three major departments of national defense, education, and industry had already taken away a considerable part of the fiscal budget.

On this basis, the fiscal budget increased by various departments was not much in the first place. Only a few months had passed this year, the medical department took away 15 million pesetas of budget, and the transportation department took away another 12 million pesetas of budget.

This already made the ministers of various departments feel urgent, not expecting that the agricultural department took away as much as 50 million pesetas of budget without a sound.

These fiscal budgets taken away were all extra, adding up to as high as 77 million pesetas.

You know, the fiscal expenditure share this year compared to last year only increased by less than 30 million pesetas.

Although last year was because of the outbreak of war that the budget increased by more than 20 million pesetas, the fiscal expenditure this year only increased by 50 million pesetas.

The fiscal budget taken away by the medical department, transportation department, and agricultural department had already reached as high as 77 million pesetas, which also meant that there would definitely be departments whose fiscal budget would be affected.

Although the impact would definitely not be too large, the ministers of various departments were unwilling to have their department's fiscal budget cut.

If it was the previous few years, it would be fine, because the term of cabinet ministers had just begun, even if the department's fiscal budget was cut, it was actually not that important.

But this year was different. The term of this cabinet government started in 1892 and would naturally end in 1897.

Now that there was less than a year left until the end of the term of this cabinet government, if the department's fiscal budget was cut this year, wanting to establish any major achievements would basically be impossible.

Departments whose fiscal budget was cut could barely complete their work, which was already not bad, not to mention considering more things on this basis.

If there were not enough brilliant political achievements, for cabinet ministers, the possibility of them staying in their positions or going further would be even more slim.

The Prime Minister of this cabinet government was Evan Bradley, who was a Prime Minister from the military.

Although Prime Minister Evan Bradley's loyalty to Gao Da was very high, anyone with a discerning eye could see that Prime Minister Evan Bradley's term was only this one.

A military Prime Minister governing for a long time did not have much benefit for the current Spanish government.

The disadvantages were obvious.

First was that the Prime Minister's power was really too high. Because Prime Minister Evan Bradley was born in the military, after he served as Prime Minister, he had already achieved the achievement of the previous Prime Minister Primo, which was having extremely high prestige in the military and political circles.

If it was a republican country, the head of state having great prestige was naturally a good thing. But the problem was that Spain was a monarchical country, and the ruler of the country was Gao Da, this King, not Evan Bradley, this Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister having too high a right to speak was not a good thing, even if Gao Da would not be suspicious of him, it did not mean that such a situation could last long.

The second was the awkward relationship between the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet.

Although Evan Bradley was the Prime Minister of the cabinet, this was only in terms of power. In terms of the handling of daily government affairs, the one who handled more government affairs was Deputy Prime Minister Hovillar Soler.

Prime Minister Evan Bradley was more for the purpose of transition; if he kept the Prime Minister position for a long time, it was easy to cause dissatisfaction among Deputy Prime Minister Hovillar Soler and more cabinet ministers.

After all, there were only so many positions in the cabinet, and someone needed to go down so that someone could come up.

If the Prime Minister's position never changed, this also meant that the positions that cabinet ministers competed for were actually only those few.

Especially Deputy Prime Minister Hovillar Soler. Having already become Deputy Prime Minister, it was definitely impossible for him to accept becoming an ordinary cabinet minister again.

If continuing to climb up to become Prime Minister could not be realized, then he could only accept continuing to stay in the position of Deputy Prime Minister, or seek other special cabinet positions such as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minister of Justice, etc.

Although the Speaker of the House of Representatives was also a cabinet member, he was not under the command and leadership of the cabinet Prime Minister. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, who represented the House of Representatives, was instead the leader of the cabinet government, which was also the reason for his special position.

As for the Minister of Justice, he was in charge of the judicial power of the Spanish government.

The three carriages of political power included legislative, judicial, and administrative power. As the owner of the country, the King of Spain possessed all these three powers, which naturally went without saying.

And the cabinet government and the parliament represented administrative power and legislative power respectively, while the remaining Minister of Justice, who commanded the Spanish judicial department, represented Spain's judicial power.

The Minister of Justice was affiliated with the Spanish Upper House and was the head of the Judicial General Court under the Upper House.

The Judicial General Court also included: the Royal Court, the National Court, and the Military Court, among which the Royal Court and the Military Court were relatively special, only aimed at the Spanish royal family and military personnel.

The National Court faced all Spaniards and was the Supreme Court of Spain, representing Spain's supreme judicial power.

And in various states and municipal governments, there also existed state courts and municipal courts.

If the parties were not satisfied with the judgment of the municipal court, they could appeal to the state court for re-judgment. If they were still not satisfied with the judgment of the state court, there was one more chance to appeal to the National Court.

But what was relatively special was that the first appeal to the state court must be re-tried, which was also to ensure the fairness of justice.

But the second appeal against the state court, the National Court, which represented Spain's highest judicial power, did not necessarily accept it.

The National Court would review the legality and rationality of the case, and if it was determined that there was no problem with the trial of the case, it would refuse to accept the appeal case and maintain the original judgment of the state court.

Doing so was also to reduce the work of the National Court. If those death row prisoners were not satisfied with the state court's sentencing, wouldn't that mean the National Court had to manage all cases in the country?

Only those cases that the National Court determined had problems after review would be re-tried in the National Court for the third time.

The third trial made by the National Court was also the final trial, no matter what the result was, the parties could only choose to accept it.

It was precisely the special nature of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Minister of Justice that was why it was said that Deputy Prime Minister Hovillar Soler could choose these positions when he could not go further.

Although the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Minister of Justice did not have much presence in the cabinet, no one dared to ignore their influence.

These two positions were elected by the Lower House and the Upper House respectively, representing the highest power of the Spanish parliament.

5,400 words, 2nd update, beg for support!

The 5-day daily ten thousand task was successfully completed, and after that, a minimum of 5,000 words will be updated every day. If the update does not reach 5,000 words, the author needs to compensate for the daily ten thousand on the 2nd day. This can also be considered an update promise, kneeling and begging for everyone's support!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 380 =====