Chapter 456: Land Reform and Currency

After the United Kingdom was formed, Gao Da could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Up to this point, Gao Da had basically completed the imperial plan he had originally formulated, thoroughly transforming Spain into a super power capable of rivaling Britain, France, and Germany.

Counting only the territory on the Iberian Peninsula, the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal possessed 598, 00 square kilometers of land, already surpassing the land area of Germany and France, and second only to the vast Russian Empire.

If one includes Morocco, which lies across the sea and is already undergoing localization, the future national territory of Spain will reach a staggering 1, 57, 00 square kilometers. The scale of the mainland will far exceed that of Germany and France, and the disadvantage of barren land will also be completely smoothed over.

This 1, 57, 00 square kilometers of land can accommodate a population of up to one hundred million, which is the population foundation for becoming a true super power after the Second World War.

To put it even more exaggeratedly, the 598, 00 square kilometers of land on the Iberian Peninsula alone could accommodate a population of one hundred million.

After all, a certain country in later generations with an area of only one hundred thousand square kilometers has a staggering population of fifty million. Portugal's area is already as high as 92, 00 square kilometers, and because a large portion of the land is plains, it is no problem to support a population of thirty to forty million at its limit.

As for Spain, although most of the land is mountainous, the scale of the land is extremely vast. With 506, 00 square kilometers of land, supporting a population of sixty to seventy million is naturally not a problem.

If calculated this way, plus the land of Morocco, the future population ceiling for Spain could reach at least 150 million.

Such a territorial scale can ensure that Portugal has the qualifications to stabilize its status as a super power for decades or even centuries.

This is all Gao Da can do. In this era, large-scale territorial expansion in Europe is not an easy task to begin with; being able to annex Morocco and Portugal is already an unexpected surprise for Spain.

After the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal was formed, the first order Gao Da gave to the new United Kingdom was to instruct Spain and Portugal to each conduct a census to calculate the total population of the United Kingdom.

Gao Da was still very interested in the population data of this new country. According to current estimates of the populations of Spain and Portugal, the population of the United Kingdom will officially exceed that of Britain and France, which also means that from now on, Spain will have no gap with the super powers in terms of population.

Of course, the Russian Empire is definitely an exception. The population of the Russian Empire is considered "cheating" among European countries; whether it is Spain, Britain, Germany, or France, none can be mentioned in the same breath as the Russian Empire in terms of population.

Spain's annual population growth of several hundred thousand seems quite good, but the population growth data is only a fraction of the Russian Empire's.

Because the population base of the Russian Empire is too vast, the net annual population growth of the Russian Empire is as high as one million, and in peak times, it can even reach two or three million.

It seems like a quite good achievement for Spain to have a population growth of over 23 million in thirty-five years, but for the Russian Empire, perhaps they could achieve this in just fifteen years.

Portugal attached great importance to the first order issued by Gao Da. They organized a large number of personnel to conduct a very detailed survey of the population in Portugal's four administrative districts, corrected some population errors previously recorded by the Portuguese government, and finally obtained relatively accurate population data: 5. 07 million.

It is not that the Portuguese government did not want to be precise to the single digit after the decimal point, but the main reason is that statistics in this era rely entirely on paper data; no matter how detailed the statistics are, there will eventually be errors.

Being able to narrow the error down to the thousand is already quite difficult for the Portuguese government. Such a census is considered relatively accurate; the Spanish government, up to now, can only manage to be precise to the thousand.

The Spanish government took longer to count the population than Portugal, but they also reported the data to Gao Da within a month.

As of May 1906, Spain had a total population of 40. 87 million. The total population of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal was 45. 94 million, second only to the Russian Empire and Germany in all of Europe, and slightly ahead of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

When Gao Da received this population data, he was quite satisfied with the population of the United Kingdom. More importantly, Spain's proportion of the population in the entire United Kingdom reached a staggering 88. 6%, which actually proves Spain's control and influence over the United Kingdom.

After the United Kingdom was formed, the biggest change was not in Spain, but in the more backward Portugal.

The Portuguese parliament held multiple meetings during this period, and Gao Da also encouraged Portugal to emulate Spain in carrying out multiple reforms to save Portugal's fragile industry and economy.

Under the promotion of Gao Da, the Portuguese parliament officially began discussions on reform and finally decided to completely emulate Spain's reforms.

Come to think of it, the Portuguese public was quite looking forward to this reform. As neighbors of Spain, the Portuguese public also knew how Spain had become strong step by step.

The original Spain was not much better than Portugal; it was precisely because of thorough reforms that Spain curbed the trend of decline and allowed its industry and economy to gain a golden period of development.

The first reform carried out by the Portuguese government was related to land.

Like the original Spain, the land in Portugal was held by the nobility and the church. The good news is that after Portugal had a revolution to overthrow the monarchy, the noble class was overthrown along with the monarchy.

Although the current Spain has restored the monarchy, Gao Da did not have much affection for the original Portuguese nobility.

Although these Portuguese nobles also approached Gao Da many times, hoping to get Gao Da's support to reappear in the upper echelons of the Portuguese government.

But Gao Da clearly expressed his refusal, stating that Portugal would undergo long-term reforms in the future and would not interfere too much with the Portuguese government for the time being.

These Portuguese nobles originally thought that Gao Da just didn't want to interfere in Portugal's internal affairs immediately; they didn't expect Gao Da to swing the butcher's knife directly at them.

On May 7, 1906, the Portuguese government promulgated the "Land Reform Act," announcing the confiscation of all church land and selling this land to all Portuguese people at market prices.

As long as one has Portuguese citizenship, one can purchase this land. Of course, there is a cap on the share of land each person can purchase; this is also to prevent those who truly need land from being unable to buy it.

Although the land of the old nobility was not mentioned in this land reform act, the Portuguese government defaulted that the land of the old nobility was also confiscated.

Moreover, it was not the current Portuguese government that confiscated the land of the old nobility, but the Portuguese Republican government that had revolted and overthrown the monarchy.

What? The Portuguese nobles say this land originally belonged to them?

Sorry, the current Portuguese government is not aware of that. The Portuguese government only understands that this land was seized from the Portuguese Republic; I am taking land that belongs to the Portuguese Republic, what does it have to do with you monarchist nobles?

When the Portuguese nobles learned of this reply from the Portuguese government, they immediately realized that something was wrong.

Although the current Portugal has restored the monarchy, Portugal does not intend to recognize their privileges. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Gao Da did not want to offend the European noble class, Gao Da wouldn't even want to recognize the Portuguese noble group.

After all, the Portuguese nobility has nothing to do with Gao Da; these nobles, after a long historical evolution, have become a tumor of Portugal.

Just like those noble groups in Spain, if it weren't for multiple reforms that made them bleed heavily, Gao Da wouldn't even want to let them off.

Fortunately, these nobles were quite sensible; after being disciplined by Gao Da, they all wisely began to support Gao Da's various policies.

For these nobles who honestly pledged their loyalty to him, Gao Da was still willing to accept them. After all, a king still needs to have some capable and high-status nobles under his command; although the new-style nobility is good, the mere fact that they have no land determines that the new-style nobility does not have much influence among the European noble groups.

Whether it was the Portuguese nobility or the church, they had no power to resist the upcoming land reform.

As the United Kingdom integrated the military forces of Spain and Portugal, the Spanish army also moved into Portugal in large numbers, constructing a complete Iberian defense system.