Chapter 90: A Great Harvest (Please Subscribe!)

The entire peace talk lasted for several days, and in the end, under the witness of the British, the Spanish government and the Moroccan government jointly signed a new peace agreement, the "Ceuta Treaty."

In addition to this peace agreement, both governments also agreed that within the next 10 years, neither side would provoke disputes for any reason, and all conflicts should be resolved by neutral countries and the witness country, Britain.

Regarding this requirement, the Spanish government naturally had no objections.

First of all, the British government was not foolish; if Spain were to use Morocco to extort a sum every once in a while, the British could not possibly back down every time.

Secondly, in this peace agreement, the Spanish government had already obtained almost everything it wanted. It was impossible for the British to agree to Spain acquiring land near Tetouan and Tangier in the north, and this status quo would basically not change within the next ten years.

Next, Spain's expansion goals should be placed in other regions of Africa, such as Guinea and the Congo, rather than Morocco, which the British had already set their sights on.

On October 9, 1870, Prime Minister Primo found Carlo with a smile on his face to report on the progress of the peace talks.

"Your Majesty, our goal has been achieved." Prime Minister Primo had a quite relaxed smile on his face, appearing very satisfied with the results of the peace talks.

"How is the situation? Did the British finally loosen their stance?" Carlo asked with interest.

While it was called a peace negotiation between the Spanish government and Morocco, it was actually the British government that had truly made the decision.

If there had been no interference from the British government, this war would definitely have ended in the total collapse and unconditional surrender of the Moroccan government.

"The British are willing to take a step back regarding land in exchange for our concessions on reparations," Prime Minister Primo said with a smile. "It is a pity that the demilitarized zone we proposed did not pass; otherwise, we could have influenced the northern region of Morocco through economic means."

Carlo nodded, his mood also quite good: "Tell me, what have the Moroccans paid in this war?"

"The British have agreed to our territorial claims west of the line from Agadir to Tata, as well as our colonial privileges in the Western Sahara region.

We will establish the South Morocco Colony in southern Morocco and incorporate this entire piece of land into our colonial rule," Prime Minister Primo replied.

Carlo nodded, quite satisfied with such a result. More importantly, the colonial Viceroy of Spain was also appointed by the King; having an extra colony was equivalent to strengthening the King's power.

"Does the government have any proposals for the candidate for the new colonial Viceroy?" Carlo suddenly asked.

Prime Minister Primo was stunned, not quite understanding what his King meant.

"I have not been in Spain for long, and I have not had long-term contact with the Spanish nobility. Prime Minister Primo, as a native of Spain, do you have any good candidates for Viceroy to recommend to me?" Carlo changed his phrasing and said to Prime Minister Primo with a smile.

Carlo was not interested in this new colonial Viceroy for the time being. The reason was simple: he truly did not have anyone he trusted in his hands.

The power of a colonial Viceroy was quite significant. In addition to being responsible to the King, they also possessed military command and administrative oversight of the colony.

The new colony would certainly need to have troops stationed there; controlling the candidate for the colonial Viceroy was equivalent to controlling this colonial army.

Precisely because Carlo did not have a very good candidate at this time, he decided to take this position of colonial Viceroy and use it for a benefit exchange with Prime Minister Primo.

At the very least, Carlo still trusted Prime Minister Primo relatively well. Prime Minister Primo needed current power, while Carlo pursued future power, and there was no major conflict between the two.

Prime Minister Primo certainly knew that the colonial Viceroy was appointed directly by the King. For Carlo to ask him so directly, it was either that he trusted him to the extreme, or he wanted to reach a certain benefit exchange with him.

For Prime Minister Primo, he believed more in the second point, which was that Carlo wanted to use this position of colonial Viceroy to exchange for some other benefits.

But what kind of benefits did Carlo want to exchange for? Primo had some doubts.

"Continue to tell me about our battle results in this operation. How much in reparations can we obtain?" Carlo asked with a smile.

Hearing that Carlo had changed the subject, Prime Minister Primo hurriedly replied: "A total of 75 million pesetas in reparations, Your Majesty.

Our diplomatic representatives wore their tongues out, but unfortunately, the British only agreed to 75 million pesetas; not a bit more."

"That is not bad, Mr. Prime Minister." Carlo was quite satisfied with the share of this reparation. 75 million pesetas was worth approximately 2. 8 million pounds, which could be considered a boost for Spain's current reforms and development.

If one added the low-interest loans from Italy, Spain would basically not lack funds for its development in the next few years.

What's more, these 75 million pesetas were obtained for free; Spain's expenses in the war against Morocco were not even a million pesetas.

"With this funding, our industrial construction can also be put on the agenda, right?" Carlo remembered the new industrial zones that had been delayed due to a lack of funds and asked.

"Of course, Your Majesty." A smile appeared on Prime Minister Primo's face once again, as he already held great hope for the success of Spain's reforms and the smooth development of its industry.

"That is truly good news." Carlo nodded with a smile, also holding high expectations for Spain's strength: "But our education must not be left behind either. I hope that while our five-year plan for industrial development is successfully completed, we can also reduce the domestic illiteracy rate to below 55%."

Although reducing the illiteracy rate from over 70% to below 55% seemed like a decrease of only 15%, for Spain, with a total population of over 16 million, it meant that at least 2. million more illiterate people had to attain a primary school level of education or higher.

Although a large-scale literacy campaign had already begun, the task was still very arduous to reduce the illiterate population by more than 2 million in less than five years.

After all, most of the Spanish government's energy was on reform and industrial development; although education was also valued, the overall funding was not much.

"I will try my best, Your Majesty." Prime Minister Primo nodded. He certainly knew the importance of education to national development, but the problem was that education in Spain was not that easy to carry out right now.

Only by increasing national income while carrying out a literacy campaign would more Spaniards be willing to receive an education. If ordinary Spaniards could not even get enough to eat, who would be in the mood to receive an education?

This also meant that if the illiteracy rate was to drop significantly, per capita annual income must be effectively increased; it could not be solved simply by investing funds into education.

The fourth day of 10, 00 words, 2, 00/10, 00 updated, seeking support!

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(End of this chapter)