Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 139: Chapter 124: The Land Lease Act

Currently, Carlo is quite satisfied with the pace of Spain’s development.

By the end of 1870, the total length of Spain’s railroads had nearly reached 6,000 kilometers.

And earlier this year, the total length of Spain’s railroads had already surpassed 6,440 kilometers.

This also means that from late 1868 to early 1872, over three and a half years, Spain’s total railroad mileage increased by over a thousand kilometers.

Although the average annual construction of railroads was only about 300 kilometers, it was already a significant progress for the Spanish Government.

After all, from the birth of the railway to late 1868, Spain’s total railroad mileage was only about 5,400 kilometers.

The territory of Spain is not inferior in size to other European Powers (at home), and due to the scarcity of plains in the country, there is a greater need for railroads to enhance economic exchange between regions.

Currently, centered around Madrid, Spain has already established a wide-ranging railway loop line. The capital cities of each major region, including some important cities, are all included in the planning of the railway loop line.

The next goal of the Spanish Government’s railway construction is to include more cities in the railway development plan, so that Spaniards can conveniently travel to other cities by train, which naturally also includes the transport of goods.

The construction of railroads can enhance the importance of Madrid in Spain, as well as strengthen the economic exchange and stability between different regions.

As the center of the Iberian Region, Madrid’s advantages become apparent. From Madrid, it is only a few hundred kilometers to any city in Spain.

Even the relatively remote northeastern corner of Spain, Barcelona, is only over 600 kilometers away from Madrid.

With the current train speed, it takes just over a day to reach Barcelona from Madrid by train. If the time spent stopping at stations is not counted, the current train speed even allows one to reach Barcelona in only over 20 hours.

Under such circumstances, no matter which region in Spain encounters turmoil, the troops stationed in Madrid can arrive within a day, which is also a reason why Spain remains a unified country throughout history.

Even if the independence movements in Catalonia and Basque are rampant, the Spaniards, being in the center of the whole country, can always march to the rebellious regions to quell the rebellion.

Even when including the Portugal Region, Madrid remains at the center of the entire Iberian Peninsula, which is the geographical advantage of Madrid and the reason it could become the capital of Spain.

By the end of April 1872, the first phase of the Spanish Government’s reform was declared a success, and the reform smoothly entered the second phase.

On May 1st, a member of the Liberal Party submitted the “Land Leasing Law” to the Spanish Parliament, seeking for the government to legislate that the rent for land leases must not exceed 40% of the land’s annual income.

The purpose of this law is to guarantee the rights of tenant farmers, so they are not left in a situation where they cannot make ends meet due to exploitation by nobles and landlords.

This law was clearly aimed at the land-owning nobles and the Church, and Prime Minister Prim naturally understood the risks involved.

Therefore, the proposer of this law was a member of the Liberal Party, not from Prime Minister Prim’s Progressive Party.

If the proposal of this law leads to considerable discontent among the nobles, Prime Minister Prim would convene an emergency meeting to have the Parliament repeal the law.

Also, to prevent a drastic reaction from the nobles, Prime Minister Prim changed the maximum rent from 30% of the annual income to 40%, which is not significantly different from the 40%-50% rent the nobles originally demanded from the farmers, in order to prevent an intense reaction from the nobles.

Of course, aside from launching this law, Prime Minister Prim was also well prepared in advance.

Firstly, he, along with Duke Serrano, as the most influential representatives among the Spanish nobles, persuaded a portion of the nobles to agree to this law.

Additionally, they asked Carlo to persuade some nobles to agree to the law, in order to divide the entire noble class.

Overall, there were simply too many nobles in Spain. These nobles held large tracts of land, which had an extremely serious impact on Spain’s future development.

Given that Spain’s development has already been affected, the government naturally cannot ignore this situation. If these nobles continue to hold such large tracts of land, Spain’s future development will be severely impacted.

However, since the nobles are the most influential power in Spain, Prime Minister Prim naturally could not adopt too aggressive a stance.

Firstly, Prime Minister Prim had no intention of fully reclaiming the lands from these nobles. The government would only persuade some nobles to willingly sell their land to the government, which would purchase these lands at above-market prices, as a form to reward these nobles.

Secondly, this was also a probe into the nobles. If successful, it would ensure that landless farmers could have some guaranteed income when leasing land, at least enough to afford a meal.

But if it sparked strong opposition from the nobles, there would still be room for compromise, so as not to cause intense conflict between the nobles and the government.

Upon learning of Prime Minister Prim’s plan, Carlo was also quite troubled.

Upon reflection, Carlo concluded that it was not suitable for him to make an explicit statement on this matter. Standing by Prime Minister Prim’s side would undoubtedly offend a large number of Spanish nobles.