Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 22: Chapter 21: Four Key Elements of Reform

Carlo knew that Spain was quite backward at this time, but he didn’t expect Spain’s development in all aspects to be so lagging.

As of the beginning of this year, Spain’s estimated population was 16.6 million. Why such a round number? Because at this time, the Spanish Government had no capacity to conduct detailed population statistics; this was just a rough estimate based on birth registrations and death records across the country.

The fatal part is that Spain’s illiteracy rate is over 70%. This also means that out of a population of 16.6 million, at least 11.6 million are illiterate.

Poor educational levels, coupled with years of chaotic situations, have led to Spain’s per capita annual income being the lowest in Western Europe, only 87 Pessetas, which is just over 3 Pounds.

Although in this era, the lower classes in all European countries were not doing well, with exploitation by factory owners and capitalists being common occurrences.

But an annual income of just over 3 Pounds is obviously an extremely unhealthy level, with per capita annual income in the United Kingdom exceeding 9 Pounds, and other European countries maintaining more than 6 to 7 Pounds.

Spaniards can only earn half or even a third of what citizens of other countries make, which is also why the people rebelled against Queen Isabella, because Spaniards truly couldn’t survive.

Looking at such data, Carlo couldn’t help but feel a massive headache.

Carlo originally thought that the situation in Italy was already quite poor, but he didn’t expect it to be negligible compared to Spain.

Except for the illiteracy rate, where Italy and Spain were equally matched, Italy surpassed Spain in all other aspects.

Now Carlo had only one thought, which was to quickly push for Prim’s reforms, and first improve Spain’s dire situation before anything else.

Now, it’s not even a question of achieving revival for Spain—whether the Kingdom can continue to exist is a question. Although Queen Isabella was driven away, she left Carlo with an extremely disastrous Spain.

Faced with a nearly rotten to the core Spain, this is no longer something that can be saved by merely focusing on development.

A few days later, at a Cabinet meeting, Carlo sat at the head seat, quietly waiting for Prim’s proposal on reforms.

For this reform, Prim was thoroughly prepared. Most of the nominated Cabinet Government were Reform Faction members, and even the only two who weren’t, Serrano and Carlo, had both expressed support for the reforms successively.

Additionally, since becoming Prime Minister, Prim had been preparing for the reforms. He combined Spain’s current situation with successful experiences from abroad to finally draft a complete Spanish reform plan.

He handed this plan to Carlo solemnly and seriously said to Carlo, “Your Majesty, this is the Spanish reform plan that I, along with dozens of officials, have written after extensive investigation and research.

The following are the initial plans for reform; please peruse them.”

The early reform plans are actually very simple, consisting of only four categories: agriculture, education, industrial, and military reforms.

“Prime Minister Prim, please elaborate on your reform plan.” Although internally supportive of the reforms, that didn’t prevent Carlo from wanting to hear a more comprehensive plan from Prim.

Prim nodded, stood up, and introduced to all the Cabinet officials: “Our early reforms consist of only four aspects: agricultural, industrial, educational, and military reforms.

In agriculture, I plan to promote tax reductions to increase the income of the agricultural population. At the same time, I want to promote the export of grain to ensure a sufficient market for agricultural produce.

In the industrial sector, I believe we should restore Spain’s industrial construction in a short time, invest in new factories, and build our own industrial zones.

Building factories can provide more employment opportunities, which will also help us further increase per capita income.

In educational reform, I plan to establish more literacy classes to reduce our illiterate population; however, this requires substantial funding, so it is the third choice in reforms.

Finally, in military reform. I wish to expand our army to about 100,000 and equip them with more cannons.

An adequate number of cannons have already proved their utility on the battlefield, whether to guard against foreign enemies or to stabilize Spain’s order. Enhancing the army’s combat power is necessary.”

Hearing Prim’s reform plan, Carlo didn’t have time to express any opinions before the Secretary of State for War, Serrano, couldn’t help himself.

Serrano stood up, looking incredulously at Prim, and asked in surprise: “Prime Minister Prim, do you not know how many Pessetas are left in Spain’s national treasury?

Every one of your reforms requires tens of millions of Pessetas, and our government simply doesn’t have the money. With all due respect, if we can’t prepare enough Pessetas before implementing the reforms, these reforms are destined to end in failure.”

“Don’t we still have a lot of land?” Prim looked at Serrano, who raised objections, with a faint smile on his face.

In a monarchy, the largest landowner domestically would definitely be the Monarch themselves. Queen Isabel herself was a licentious and greedy Monarch, so it’s not surprising that the Bourbon Dynasty owned the most arable land in Spain.

After driving away Queen Isabella, the farmlands originally belonging to the Bourbon Dynasty were all confiscated by the Spanish Provisional Government, and these lands are what Prim depends on for implementing reforms.

Although these lands once belonged to the King, they certainly would not accompany the throne’s succession to Carlo.

Carlo naturally understood this, and he had no intention of becoming a landlord, much less ruin his reputation over some land.

On the contrary, if Carlo supported using these lands to exchange for enough funds for the government, this could rather become a topic for promoting Carlo.

Seeing that Carlo had no designs on those lands, Prim finally breathed a sigh of relief and explained to Carlo and Serrano: “The Bourbon family possesses vast lands, enough to provide us with ample funds for our reforms.

I plan to divide these lands into three parts, with one part distributed for free to Spanish farmers so they have enough farmland to cultivate.

Another part will be sold to capitalists and landowners to accumulate enough funds for our reforms.

The remaining part will be nationalized and rented out at low prices to farmers for cultivation.”

“I support your idea, Prime Minister Prim.” Carlo nodded, having no objection to the proposal of dividing the land into three parts: ”

And I have another suggestion for raising funds for reform. Why don’t we try issuing national debt?”