Chapter 80: Cooperation Agreement (Please Subscribe!)

Having successfully won over Menotti, Kaluo was in a great mood and, under Garibaldi's hospitality, enjoyed an Italian lunch that, while not lavish, was very authentic.

Although Caprera Island is not a large island, it is an island after all, and there is no shortage of seafood.

In fact, Garibaldi's life on Caprera Island mainly consisted of hunting and fishing, with reading as a secondary pastime.

Because of his unique status, Garibaldi rarely received guests, which also made him appear quite lonely.

The good news was that after Garibaldi published articles in the Sun and earned royalties, he at least did not have to worry about his daily living expenses.

Farming a little, fishing, and hunting, he had more than enough food and meat to eat, which could be considered carefree and leisurely.

Kaluo also felt relieved. After all, he had poached two of Garibaldi's sons to work for him; if Garibaldi's life were not going well, Kaluo would truly feel a bit guilty.

Fortunately, Garibaldi had the company of his wife, and with his daughter and son-in-law visiting from time to time, he could not be considered lonely or desolate.

Happy times are always short, and Kaluo could not stay on Caprera Island for long.

That afternoon, Kaluo boarded the ship to leave, taking Garibaldi's eldest son, Menotti, with him.

Regarding Menotti, Kaluo actually had other arrangements.

As mentioned before regarding the African expedition, Kaluo wanted to form a regular African expedition team, and the team had to have an armed force, at least enough to protect the expedition as it traversed the dangerous African continent.

At this time, the areas of Africa that had been explored were only some coastlines and peripheries, with vast tracts of land yet to be touched by the great powers.

These unknown lands certainly contained a large number of indigenous African tribes, and it was inevitable that some would be xenophobic or even take the initiative to attack the expedition.

However, the African expedition was still highly dangerous. Although those African natives did not pose the greatest danger, the unknown geographical environment and bacteria or viruses that Europeans had never encountered were the true dangers of Africa.

Therefore, Kaluo would not force it; if Menotti was willing, he would become the captain of the African expedition. If he was not willing, the Imperial Guard also had positions available for him to choose from.

It was already evening by the time he returned to Rome from Caprera Island.

Kaluo had intended to go to sleep early, but he did not expect that government officials would find him so soon to report on the progress of the negotiations with the Spanish government.

The negotiations between the two sides were quite rapid, which somewhat exceeded Kaluo's expectations.

He had originally thought that these negotiations might take several days or even ten days, but he did not expect that after two days of negotiations, there would already be preliminary results; they only needed to settle a few more details to basically sign the agreement.

What the Spanish government currently needed most was capital and some industrial technology.

On this point, the Italian government was still willing to cooperate with the Spanish government. After all, Spain was not a great power and could not pose a threat to Italy for the time being.

Cooperation between Spain and Italy could also help Italy alleviate the threat from France, as Italy's unification had involved seizing Venice and Rome from the hands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France, respectively.

Actually, it could not be called seizing; it was more like picking up scraps.

But these two regions were indeed once within the spheres of influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France, and Italy's unification was bound to affect these two countries.

Just as Kaluo had expected, the Italian government agreed not to attach harsh conditions to the loans, but they would not provide interest-free loans, only low-interest ones.

There was no result yet on the loan quota, but it was unlikely to be too much, as Italy's economic situation was not very good either.

Kaluo estimated that the loan Italy could provide to Spain would be between 50 million and 100 million Lira, which was about 2 million to 4 million pounds.

This sum was easy for Italian capitalists to pool together; it would neither affect Italy's development nor fail to tangibly help Spain, which could be considered a win-win.

As for Italy's industrial technology, it could also be provided to Spain, but it would need to be purchased with hard currency.

Kaluo had no objections to this either, as the industrial technology of any country was not obtained for free; one either had to develop it oneself or buy the technology from other countries at a high price.

Things like the latest steelmaking technology, steam turbine technology, and production materials for the chemical industry were all things Spain lacked.

Compared to countries like Britain, France, and Germany, Italy was not an industrial powerhouse, but for Spain, Italy had enough experience in industry for Spain to learn from.

There was also Italy's technology in military industry, such as the rifles Italy had just introduced, as well as the technology for producing ironclad warships.

Italy's technology in naval construction was not weak at all and could fully be called first-class in Europe.

In the 1880s, Italy possessed the technical level to build ironclad warships of over ten thousand tons, which was definitely considered top-tier for that historical era.

However, because Italy's national strength had always been at the bottom of the great powers, and because the country was located in the Mediterranean, which severely restricted naval development, the size of the Italian Navy had never been very large.

This was also the greatest flaw in Italy's geographical position; all its coastlines were located in the Mediterranean, so even if it built a massive navy, once the British blocked the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, the Italian Navy could only roam the Mediterranean and could not get out at all.

The good news was that ironclad warships had only been around for a little over ten years, and Italy's technology in that area was not yet that mature.

Regarding Spain's need to introduce these industrial technologies, the Italian government did not have much opposition, but they would not give these technologies to the Spanish government for free.

Kaluo did not rely entirely on these Italian technologies. Kaluo's expectation for Spain was to be able to introduce advanced technology from European great powers, then fully master these technologies, and on that basis, research even more advanced science and technology.

Currently, it was just the stage of introducing technology, and Kaluo would of course welcome all comers. After all, Italy's technology was different from other countries, and being able to learn more technology would be more helpful for researching new technology on this foundation in the future.

After taking a rough look at the cooperation agreement with Italy, Kaluo felt there were no problems and let the official who came to report continue to push forward the cooperation with Italy.

The purpose of this diplomatic visit had basically been achieved, and this diplomatic visit was quite successful. If he could also poach some talent from Italy to return to Spain, that would be even more perfect.

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(End of this chapter)