Chapter 394: Economic Cooperation

If it were a matter of establishing a military alliance with Spain, these Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas would not necessarily be willing. But if it were to establish closer economic ties with Spain, whether through an economic alliance or import-export cooperation, there are quite a few Spanish-speaking countries willing to do so.

The reason is also very simple: among these countries in the Americas, mineral resources are relatively abundant, but there is almost no industrial foundation.

Not to mention automobiles, warships, and electrical equipment, which currently represent the pinnacle of technology, even the simplest steel is something many countries cannot produce.

Do not look at the fact that the steel production of European powers has already reached a staggering level at this time; the United States' steel production has even reached 9 million tons.

But in reality, among the countries of the world, apart from these few powers, the steel production of other countries still remains at a pitiful few tens of thousands or even a few thousand tons.

Even without mentioning non-power countries, Italy, which has relatively poor industry among the powers, only had an annual steel production of just over 110, 00 tons at this time.

As of the beginning of 1898, the world's annual steel production reached a staggering 25. 2 million tons. Such a scale of steel production looks staggering at first glance, but those who understand the situation know clearly that steel production is actually entirely concentrated in the power countries.

The total steel production of the eight great powers—Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Spain, Italy, and the United States—reached a staggering 24. 8 million tons, accounting for 96. % of the world's total annual steel production.

The annual steel production of all the remaining countries combined accounts for less than 3. % of the world's total annual steel production.

This is also the reason why Europe is said to be the brightest pearl of the world in the colonial era; at this time, Europe is the most prosperous and developed region in the whole world, and even the United States is quite inferior.

Of course, if we are only discussing steel production, the United States is already the undisputed world number one, which is also the reason why European powers like Britain and France are more wary of the United States.

Do not look at the fact that the annual steel production of the eight power countries is as high as 24. 8 million tons; in fact, a considerable portion is contributed by the Americans. The United States' annual steel production reached a staggering 9. 7 million tons, while Britain's annual steel production in the same period was only 4. 3 million tons, Germany's was only 5. 3 million tons, and France's was a pitiful 1. 5 million tons, only a little more than Spain's.

From this aspect, one can also see a terrifying statistic: the sum of Britain and Germany's annual steel production is about the same as the annual steel production of the United States alone.

More importantly, the population of the United States has also unknowingly surpassed most of the European powers. Except for Russia, which has a population of 100 million, the United States' population ranks first among the other powers.

Although a large population and powerful industry do not mean that a country's military strength is equally powerful, these factors can also infinitely elevate the potential of the United States.

If it is said that Germany has the hope of growing into a European hegemon and is a huge threat to Britain's rule of the world, then what about the United States? What level can the United States eventually grow into?

Precisely because these countries in South America have almost no achievements in industry, they are quite willing to engage in economic cooperation with Spain.

In addition to being able to obtain industrial products from Spain at lower prices, they can also earn more foreign exchange income through trade with Spain.

Besides the common characteristic of speaking Spanish, these Spanish-speaking countries also use the peso, the official currency of Spain during the colonial period, domestically.

This also represents one thing: that the currency of the Spanish mainland, the peseta, is also commonly used in these countries, which is also Spain's greatest advantage compared to other countries.

With a common currency, doing business can naturally save a lot of trouble.

Regarding economic cooperation with Spain, the Colombia government is quite willing. The current domestic situation in Colombia is quite chaotic, and the construction of the Panama Canal has attracted the crazy prying eyes of the United States.

Although the United States' status and influence in Europe are not high, in the Americas, the United States is the undisputed hegemon, and Colombia cannot ignore the influence of the United States.

If it could obtain the support of the former American hegemon, Spain, Colombia's pressure would definitely be much lighter. At the very least, Spain and the United States are powers of the same level, and its military strength is much stronger than that of the United States.

That Colombia would eagerly join the Spanish-speaking country economic alliance formed by Spain was something Yu Kaluo had already anticipated.

After all, the current situation in Colombia can be said to be beset by internal and external troubles; the Americans are not kind people, and it is even possible that the chaos within Colombia was instigated by the Americans.

Yu Kaluo is also not in a hurry to show interest in the Panama Canal. After all, for Spain, which has already lost most of its American colonies, the surface role of the Panama Canal is minimal, and it can even be said to have no effect at all.

This brings us to the rather unique geographical location of the Americas.

The world has seven continents and four oceans, among which Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean are the most sparsely populated regions.

Apart from this, the remaining six continents and three oceans have possessed a large population and human activity since the Age of Discovery.

From the map, it can be seen that the Eurasian and African continents can be regarded as a single whole. The Eurasian continent is completely connected, and its connection with Africa is only a very small part of Egypt.

Although Oceania, where Australia and New Zealand are located, is not adjacent to Asia, there are many islands between the two continents, and commercial exchanges are relatively close.

Only the Americas are separated from other continents by oceans, which also means that there are currently very few ships from outside the Americas that have a need to navigate the Panama Canal.

As long as Spain does not show interest in the Panama Canal, the Americans will keep their eyes on France, which is building the canal, and Britain, which is interested in the canal.

With Colombia taking the lead in joining, other countries in South America have also become much more enthusiastic about joining the so-called Spanish-speaking country economic alliance.

Argentina, which already had close economic ties with Spain, followed closely and joined the economic alliance, and Ecuador and Venezuela also joined one after another.

Chile did not directly join the economic alliance, but it is also willing to strengthen economic ties with Spain and promote closer import-export cooperation between the two sides.

The nitrate mines in Chile are controlled by the British, but in other aspects, it can still cooperate with Spain.

After these South American countries joined the Spanish-speaking country economic alliance one after another, the formation of the alliance was more or less completed.

Rather than an economic alliance, it is better to call it an economic cooperation treaty between these South American countries and Spain.

Although it is not of the nature of a military alliance, it can also prove one point: these South American countries, which were originally Spanish colonies, do not have much hatred for the Spanish government after completely becoming independent from Spain's sphere of influence.

Thinking about it, this is indeed the case. Although the reason for the independence of these South American countries was that Spain's former colonial rule was too cruel, and a large amount of funds had to be sent to the Spanish mainland every year, the population of these colonies, on the contrary, did not have much money.