Chapter 470: Super Dreadnought

After ending the inspection of Portugal, Gao Da, along with Prince Juan Fernando and a group of high-level government officials, successively inspected Andalusia State, Valencia State, and Catalonia State, comforted hundreds of thousands of workers at the Barcelona industrial base, and then took the train back to Madrid.

Gao Da was quite satisfied with the entire inspection process; judging from the results Gao Da saw with his own eyes, the current Spain could be said to be thriving, all industries were in hot development and construction, and the country could be said to be flourishing.

Gao Da was quite satisfied with the situation of the country under his rule; Spain had no signs of decline so far, and even had the potential to go higher.

Because the entire inspection almost traveled through more than half of the Iberian Peninsula, this also led to the entire inspection time being extended to two and a half months.

Gao Da also had multiple discussions with Prince Juan Fernando during these two and a half months, about what a King of Spain should pay attention to, and which industries should be highly focused on, and which industries should be left to free development, etc., Gao Da had long discussions with Prince Juan Fernando.

For this heir to the throne he personally cultivated, Gao Da's heart was quite satisfied. Apart from anything else, playing a role of connecting the preceding and the following, letting Spain's prosperous age continue for decades was no problem.

As for things further in the future, that would have to rely on the efforts of the next generation.

For Spain's second heir to the throne, the eldest grandson Christian, Gao Da also gave quite high hopes.

Christian was born in February 1903, and up to now, he had just turned 5 years old.

The age of 5 was still an age of childhood for most children, who could play unscrupulously and did not need to worry about their future at all.

But for the second heir to the throne, the destined third King of Spain of the House of Savoy, Prince Christian, his childhood was destined not to be that leisurely.

For the cultivation of his grandson, Gao Da would not be as strict as cultivating his son.

But the necessary learning could not be escaped at all; starting from last year, Christian had already been in contact with various knowledge, early preparing for inheriting the throne in the future.

The good news was that Prince Christian was not as naughty as other children. He seemed to have long understood the heavy responsibility on his shoulders, and for the various learning tasks Gao Da arranged for him, Prince Christian did not reject them, and even fulfilled various tasks quite satisfactorily.

This point was quite different from William, the eldest son born to Gao Da's second son, Martin.

Prince William was also born in 1903, but was about half a year younger than Prince Christian.

Gao Da, based on the principle that cultivating one was cultivating, and cultivating two was also cultivating, intended to cultivate these two children of similar age together, ensuring that the third generation of the House of Savoy were all quite capable nobles.

But heaven did not follow human wishes; compared to the sensible Prince Christian, Prince William was not that obedient.

Various learning tasks under Gao Da's urging were only barely qualified; if not urged, it was estimated that most of Prince William's time would be spent on playing.

Upon learning that William, this little guy, was indeed uninterested in learning, Gao Da temporarily gave up cultivating Prince William.

Anyway, the little guy was only less than 5 years old so far, plus he was already far from inheriting the throne, so letting him play for a few more years did not matter.

Compared to his strictness with his grandsons, Gao Da was much more tolerant with his two granddaughters, Princess Anna and Princess Maria.

The eldest Princess Anna was now 7 years old, and the youngest granddaughter Princess Maria had just turned 3 years old.

Princess Anna, apart from normal learning of knowledge, was mostly exposed to some noble etiquette and knowledge common sense, and would not undergo strict elite noble education.

Princess Maria naturally did not need to be mentioned; because she had just turned three, apart from daily learning of Spanish, the rest of the time was also playing.

Up to now, the Spanish royal family could be said to have truly achieved spreading branches and leaves.

And for Gao Da, there was another piece of good news, and that was that this year, Prince Juan Fernando and Prince Martin would still have children born, and the marriage of Prince Alexander and Princess Christina was about to take place; the Spanish royal family would continue to expand in the future, and the number of people could even reach more than ten.

Gao Da and Queen Sophie had five children in total; Gao Da did not have high requirements for his children, as long as they had five or more children in total.

In order to improve their enthusiasm for having children, Gao Da specially formulated a rule within the Spanish royal family, using the number of children born to increase the annual pension amount of several princes and princesses.

Gao Da treated his sons and daughters equally; whether it was Prince Juan Fernando or Princess Christina, their royal family member annual pension was 1 million pesetas per year.

Do not look at this pension as not much; in reality, it was much higher than the pension Gao Da received when he was a prince in Italy.

When Gao Da was still a prince in Italy, the pension issued by the Italian royal family to Gao Da was only 260,000 lire, which was about equivalent to 300,000 pesetas at that time.

According to Gao Da's understanding, although the assets of the Italian royal family had expanded over so many years, because the number of royal family members was also constantly increasing, the pension of ordinary Italian royal family members still remained at about 300,000 pesetas.

The pension of Spanish royal family members was already three times that of Italian royal family members, and looking at the whole of Europe, it was absolutely not small.

After all, the royal family member pension was funds that these royal family members could obtain without any effort; the purpose of this fund was originally just to ensure their daily expenses, so the amount of the pension generally would not be too high.

If it was just to live a life richer than ordinary people, 1 million pesetas of funds per year was completely enough. But royal family members needed to participate in some banquets; whether it was formal wear or jewelry, they were all specially customized by royal jewelers and tailors.

The expenditure on clothing and accessories was an astronomical figure. Adding that the royal family members' food, clothing, housing, and transportation were all of extremely high specifications, although 1 million pesetas was enough, no one disliked more royal family pension.

Gao Da also gave several sons and daughters an adult gift of assets worth millions of pesetas, but the net profit these assets could earn each year was actually only hundreds of thousands of pesetas. ===== CHAPTER 471 =====