[{"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-45":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},2364973,4632,"Chapter 45: Winning Over the Nobles (Seeking Follow-up Reads)","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-45",45,"\u003Cp>Luo Lun did not have the time to appreciate the bustle of Balicheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Luo Lun, the most important industry in his future layout had not yet been established, and this had to be put on the agenda.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What kind of industry?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Naturally, it was a bank related to the financial sector.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the Industrial Revolution, industry and finance had replaced agriculture as the two most profitable sectors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun already owned more than a dozen factories, and now it was time to establish his own financial institution to expand his channels for making money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun had been preparing for a long time to establish his own bank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The most important thing for a bank is to ensure public trust; only with public trust will the public spontaneously deposit money in the bank. Once a bank has money, it can make money, then achieve a virtuous cycle of money begetting money, generating a continuous stream of income.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through several tax reduction policies, Luo Lun had already made a good impression on the people of Ma Deli, but this bit of goodwill alone was not enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To make the public feel at ease with the newly established bank, Luo Lun intended to win over the Spanish noble masters to join his bank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the three most powerful classes in Spain (nobles, landlords, and the church), the Spanish nobles were quite extravagant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Previously, because Luo Lun was an outsider, he did not receive strong support from the entire noble class. Some nobles even chose to support the Carlos faction; they remained loyal to the Bourbon family that had entrenched itself in Spain for hundreds of years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After defeating the Carlos faction, there were no longer any obstacles for Luo Lun to exert influence on the noble class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason for wanting to bring the noble class along to start a bank was, firstly, that the noble class held more capital, which could help Luo Lun's bank gain a greater advantage in the early stages, facilitating faster expansion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Secondly, it was to bring the noble class along to get rich, letting them clearly understand who exactly was the King above their heads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was believed that most nobles were relatively sensible; after all, Luo Lun was already the King recognized by the Spanish constitution and the people, a fact they could not change at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only by mastering sufficient influence and discourse power among the Spanish noble class could Luo Lun ensure that his status and power as King would not be shaken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Spanish monarchy had a long history, and the power of the royalists could not be ignored. After gaining the full support of the royalists, the republicans who posed a major threat to Wang Quan would not be so fatal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the nobles, they certainly also needed a capable monarch to lead them forward. The status of the nobles came from the King, which was the reason Luo Lun was confident in gaining the support of the noble class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, if the biggest noble leader, the King, were gone, what would become of the remaining dukes and Hou Jue?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun placed his first target for winning over in Tuolaide, south of Ma Deli. In Tuolaide, there was a noble who was very influential among the Spanish noble class, and that was the Duke of Alba.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Alba family was one of the families with the longest history and the most titles and land among all Spanish nobles, and their wealth was naturally among the highest of the nobles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To be honest, Luo Lun was even a little envious of the Alba family's wealth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As an outsider King, Luo Lun's current assets were pitifully small. Apart from some castles left behind by the Bourbon family, Luo Lun did not have a single bit of the symbol of the great nobles—vast amounts of land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is said that the King is the largest landlord in a country, but here in Spain, the scale of land Luo Lun owned could not even compare to some of the dukes in Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The current Duke of Alba, Jacobo Luis Fitz-James Stuart y Ventimiglia, was born in 1835. It is worth mentioning that his wife and the wife of Napoleon III were sisters, and he and Napoleon III were brothers-in-law.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What comforted Luo Lun was that the Duke of Alba, Jacobo, was very respectful toward him and expressed his intention to curry favor with Luo Lun in his words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Luo Lun proposed to jointly establish a bank with the nobles, the Duke of Alba, Jacobo, immediately swore that he would invest in Luo Lun's bank and become the bank's first depositor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the chat with Duke Jacobo lasted only a little over an hour, Luo Lun and Duke Jacobo quickly reached a consensus on the establishment of the bank and improved their relationship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Duke Jacobo also invited Luo Lun to attend his private banquet, and the intention of defecting was self-evident.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun naturally nodded repeatedly. Through the introduction of the Duke of Alba, Jacobo, Luo Lun could easily win over the group of nobles who were familiar with the Duke of Alba and exert his influence on the noble class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only by making most of the nobles loyal to him could the Spanish royal family be considered to have completely changed its appearance, and could Spain truly enter the era of Savoy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Interestingly, whether it was Queen Isabel or Carlos VII of the Carlos faction, they both chose to flee north to Falanxi after their defeat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the current Falanxi had already turned into a republican era, and these nobles who fled to Falanxi for refuge might also be affected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least life as a refugee in Falanxi was not so comfortable. Previously, they had the Falanxi Emperor Napoleon III covering for them, but now the nobles of Falanxi could barely protect themselves, and the status of these refugees from the Spanish Bourbon family in Falanxi would be even more awkward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Facts proved that most of these Spanish nobles were not fools.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Primo quelled the Carlos faction rebellion, these nobles had long had the intention to contact Luo Lun and pledge their loyalty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The nobles Luo Lun met with all agreed to the request to jointly establish a bank proposed by Luo Lun, and one after another expressed that they would become depositors of the bank and save a portion of their funds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Primo, after Luo Lun's repeated invitations, finally nodded and agreed to join the joint bank, which also made Luo Lun full of confidence in the development of the bank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, the Duke of Serrano, who was far away in Cuba suppressing the rebellion, was also in Luo Lun's invitation plan. However, Serrano's joining the bank would have to wait until he returned to Ma Deli; there was no rush for now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the support of the nobles, the preparatory work for the bank went very smoothly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On April 9, 1870, the first Royal Joint Bank in Ma Deli officially opened, attracting a great deal of attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the very first day of opening, a large number of nobles came to the Royal Joint Bank to make deposits. Such a grand occasion also sparked heated discussions among the public, and the Royal Joint Bank became the most popular bank in Ma Deli in a short period of time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the first day of the bank's establishment, it welcomed hundreds of depositors, most of whom were nobles who wanted to express their support for Luo Lun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially those dukes, whose deposit units were calculated in 100,000 pesetas, and some even deposited more than 1 million pesetas directly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although 1 million pesetas was worth less than 40,000 pounds, this sum of money was definitely considered a large deposit for any bank in Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second update, asking for support!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1315,"2026-06-25T09:27:12.995Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","d27da099d258bdc9e03f53668a0b3405b64ab0fdf257c8abda50302a224b9fa1","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-46","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-44",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]