Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 135: Chapter 120: Inspecting the Industrial Base

At the Seville Industrial Base, Carlo met the person in charge of the industrial base, as well as the person responsible for the royal enterprise in the Andalusia Region.

Due to the large scale of the royal enterprise, besides Steward Luo Lun overseeing the overall situation in Madrid, each region in Spain is equipped with a main person responsible.

They regularly report to Steward Luo Lun on the expansion of the royal enterprise in each region, with corresponding income and expenditure being made into reports and reported once a month.

The person responsible for the Andalusia Region is Jose Isis Glas, a tall and thin middle-aged man.

Jose Isis Glas is an orthodox Spaniard, not only possessing a university degree but also having served as a manager of a bank.

However, after the establishment of the Royal United Bank, the bank where Jose Isis Glas worked quickly went bankrupt, and the entire bank was acquired by the royal family and transformed into one of the branches of the Royal United Bank.

This is also the reason for the rapid expansion of the Royal United Bank; during the expansion of large banks, there are often many small banks that go bankrupt due to the loss of clients.

The Royal United Bank will acquire these bankrupt banks, which are renovated into new branches of the Royal United Bank.

As the former manager of a bankrupt bank, Jose Isis Glas’s abilities were recognized by Steward Luo Lun and he was eventually promoted step by step to become the person responsible for the Andalusia Region.

Of course, Jose Isis Glas mainly manages the factories within the industrial base and the two branches of the Royal United Bank in the Andalusia Region.

Other businesses are managed by other responsible persons, and Steward Luo Lun will not attach too much power to one individual, as this is the easiest way to breed corruption.

Unlike the tall, thin, scholarly-looking Jose Isis Glas, the person in charge of the construction of the Seville Industrial Base appears more like someone from the military.

But this is normal. The Seville Industrial Base is not only the first industrial base ordered to be built since Carlo became King, but also the first industrial base ordered to start construction by Prime Minister Prim.

The success or failure of the Seville Industrial Base is very important; it is not only the first step in the large-scale construction of Spanish industry but also the first step in Prime Minister Prim’s reforms and Carlo’s initiation of his rule.

To supervise the construction of the entire industrial base, the person responsible for the industrial base, Leonardo Alesso, was recruited from the military, and a small army will protect and supervise the construction.

Overseeing the construction of the entire industrial base is also a great achievement for Leonardo Alesso. Although Leonardo Alesso is a man of Prime Minister Prim, Carlo still encouraged him and stated that the nation and the royal family would not forget his contributions to the industrial base.

A word of encouragement from the King naturally made Leonardo Alesso excited. Although Carlo is a young king, no one can ignore Carlo’s influence in Spain so far.

As the person responsible for the industrial base, Leonardo Alesso certainly knows how grateful the workers in the royal factory are to the King.

But this is normal. If anyone could provide jobs like those the King offered, allowing workers to earn more with less work time, these workers would also be grateful to him.

Simply put, the gratitude of these workers does not stem from Carlo’s identity as King but rather from the welfare benefits he provides to these workers.

The overall size of the Seville Industrial Base is not large; Carlo used just over an hour to basically tour the entire industrial base.

During the visit to the industrial base, a group of soldiers accompanied and protected Carlo, while the workers and other employees were not allowed to come within 100 meters of Carlo.

But this did not dampen the workers’ enthusiasm. Especially upon arriving around the royal factory, those workers had already gathered together, shouting words of gratitude to Carlo, occasionally mixed with shouts of “Long live His Majesty the King!”

Carlo naturally smiled and waved in response while being led by Jose Isis Glas and Leonardo Alesso to tour the entire industrial base.

Although everything seemed calm on the surface, in fact, Carlo was quite pleased and proud of the cheers from the workers.

At least this proves that Carlo’s layout so far has not been in vain; already a considerable number of Spaniards recognize him as their King.

What Carlo needs to do now is to turn the group supporting him from a minority to a majority, ideally to an overwhelming majority.

Achieving such a grand goal would mean Carlo’s layout in Spain is completed, and he could relatively easily lead the Spanish government and Spanish people forward together.

If in the future the Spaniards reclaim Gibraltar, it goes without saying that Carlo would directly become one of the greatest monarchs in Spanish history, with contributions comparable to the merger of Castile and Aragon.

If this step could be completed, it is estimated that the Spanish people’s recognition of the royal family would shift to recognition of the Savoy Family.

Only by reaching such a level can Carlo completely eliminate the influence of the Bourbon family’s over 100 years of rule in Spain, enabling all Spaniards to embrace the new royal family, the rule of the Savoy Family, from the heart.

After touring the Seville Industrial Base, Carlo also conducted an actual inspection of the transportation situation at the Seville Industrial Base.

Since the industrial base is not by the sea and has no rivers for maritime transport, it necessitates the construction of a relatively complete railway environment around the Seville Industrial Base to help transport the required mineral resources and ship out manufactured industrial products for sale.

The good news is, as Spain’s southernmost region, the capital Seville is relatively close to the ocean.

This makes the transportation environment around the Seville Industrial Base not too difficult. Industrial raw materials and industrial products only need to be transported by rail to ports by the sea and then conveniently shipped all over Spain and even abroad by sea.

Moreover, the current situation of railway construction in Spain is not as bad as imagined. Although it does not compare to other countries’ rail mileage exceeding thousands of kilometers, the current mileage of over 5,000 kilometers is already sufficient for Spain.

As the capital city of the Andalusia Region, Seville is naturally included in the planning of the Spanish railway loop. The railway lines only need to be connected around the industrial base so that various materials can be transported on the railway loop to various cities or ports.

Actually, there’s not much to inspect; there’s a high chance that the Seville Industrial Base will not face problems. If such a newly built industrial base were to encounter issues, the Spanish government might as well abandon discussions on industrial construction.

Even before the industrial base began construction, the Spanish government invited relatively professional teams to plan the construction of the entire industrial base.

Since the industrial base is also not particularly large, there’s no need to worry about attracting the attention of other great powers. Such a medium-scale industrial base is already quite common in other great powers; they possess relatively complete building experience, which the Spanish government can naturally utilize.

In fact, Europe does possess such construction teams with quite rich building experience. The transportation condition of materials is one of the primary considerations in the construction of the industrial base, naturally accounted for in the industrial base’s planning.

Including the currently key-constructed Barcelona Industrial Base, various conditions were considered before construction commenced.

However, the Barcelona Industrial Base, being close to the sea, makes the transportation of materials more convenient compared to the Seville Industrial Base.

Moreover, the size of the city of Barcelona is larger than Seville and closer to other European countries. Besides being too close to France and susceptible to attacks from fleets, it has no other flaws.

Of course, Madrid is actually also suitable for building an industrial base. Located in the center of Spain, transporting materials from there to every region of Spain is relatively close.

But, considering the environmental damage caused by current industry, Carlo chose to locate the industrial base in Barcelona.

As the capital, Madrid’s strategic planning for Spain is also unchangeable in the short term.

If the natural environment of Madrid were too severely damaged, even creating a smoggy city, Carlo, who will need to live around Madrid in the future, would suffer.

Additionally, Madrid’s primary advantage is land transport. As a port city, Barcelona also has maritime transport as one of its advantages.

Regarding the inspection process of the Seville Base, Carlo was quite satisfied. This is not only the new starting point for Spanish industry but also the first step plan for Spain’s rise under Carlo’s rule.

Currently, the construction of the industrial base is proceeding very smoothly. Factories within the base have already entered production status, and the steel plants and other factories invested and built by the royal family are fully staffed and working overtime on production.

Before the Barcelona Industrial Base is completed, the Seville Industrial Base will serve as one of the few “large” bases in heavy industry for Spain, providing the necessary steel and other important resources for industrial development.

After finally encouraging the industrial base’s director Leonardo Alesso and the person responsible for the royal enterprise in the Andalusia Region, Jose Isis Glas, Carlo, accompanied by Queen Sophie and numerous servants and soldiers, embarked on the journey back to the capital, Madrid.