Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 151: Chapter 133: Rectifying Officialdom (Double-Length Chapter)

Since the end of the Franco-Prussian War, European countries have entered a period of relatively stable development.

Countries have recognized their shortcomings and are now striving desperately for reform and improvement. Historically, this period coincides with the rise of new industrial nations led by Germany and America, eventually surpassing traditional powers like England and France in the industrial domain.

Did the British give up their efforts during this time, recklessly allowing Germany and America to surpass them?

Not at all. During this period, the industrial and economic growth of the British was significant as well. The main reason for their limitation was the restriction of the British mainland’s size, which capped their potential.

The strength of the United Kingdom was propelled by the First Industrial Revolution and the colonization of a substantial portion of the world. Without such a vast colonial empire, the United Kingdom might not necessarily have matched Germany.

Since the time of the Holy Roman Empire, the German region has been one of Europe’s dominant powers. However, the internal factions and constant conflicts among the states were the reasons why the German region failed to produce a top-tier power.

Currently, the German region is tending towards unification, and Germany’s development can no longer be constrained by any country. When you combine all the German states, their territory and population surpass those of England and France, which is one of the fundamental reasons for Germany’s strength.

Although having a large population does not necessarily make a country powerful, a powerful country must have a large population. The reason European countries have gradually declined in later generations, even relying on the European Union to compete with major powers like the United States, is precisely that the population of individual European countries lags far behind that of major powers like the United States.

The reason is straightforward. The larger the population, the greater the workforce, and the more abundant the workforce, the faster the economic expansion. Between two countries with equal industrial and economic scales, the one with a larger population has greater development potential.

Before extremely advanced technology can replace human labor, population is one of the standards for measuring the strength of a country, and a rather stringent one at that.

The good news is that after several years of stagnation, Spain’s population growth rate has finally begun to steadily increase.

In just six months of 1872, Spain’s population has already grown by at least 150,000, nearly matching the total increase from the entire previous year.

Although there are no precise figures for Spain’s overall population, it can currently be confirmed that Spain’s population has officially surpassed 17 million, approximately between 17.05 million and 17.1 million.

If this positive trend in population growth continues throughout the year, it is expected that by the end of the year, Spain’s population may exceed 17.2 million.

Compared to major powers, such a population is naturally not large. However, for Spain itself, achieving a relatively good rate of population growth also demonstrates that the efforts of the Spanish Government have not been in vain.

The main reason influencing population growth has been the increase in per capita income in Spain.

Actually, it makes sense upon reflection; the populace will only consider having children after they have enough to eat and survive.

If they cannot make a living themselves, having a child would not only increase their own burden but would also subject the child to a life worse than death.

The birth rate can largely measure the happiness index of a nation’s population because those who are unhappy would never consider having children.

Although Spain has not excelled in this regard, compared to previous governments, there has been significant progress.

As time moved into July 1872, the winds of reform finally began to reach the inner workings of the Spanish Government.

Regarding internal government reform, Prime Minister Prim had only two opinions: to simplify government departments, reduce the number of government staff and oversee corruption phenomena, thereby increasing government efficiency.

Corruption exists in every country; a decayed government always breeds corruption, a situation unavoidable by any government or nation.

Even though the current Spanish Government was established after the revolution, the revolution’s impact on regional governments was not profound.

The primary impact was on the Spanish Cabinet Government, where it is quite difficult for officials to indulge in corrupt practices.

After all, with Prime Minister Prim and even more powerful parliamentary oversight, corruption is difficult within the cabinet. But for regional and city governments, it is relatively easy.

Spain’s annual fiscal budget is limited, and naturally, it is impossible to waste part of it on corrupt officials.

However, to prevent a significant impact on the government, Prime Minister Prim decided to pardon past acts of corruption and focus supervision on future corrupt practices.

Besides focusing on government corruption supervision, Prime Minister Prim also issued a decree instructing regional and city governments to proportionally reduce the number of officials.

Some regional governments have too many officials, and some are merely slacking off. Since the income for Spanish officials is generally higher than that of ordinary citizens, it is advisable to remove these people sooner.

Carlo naturally is willing to see the government paying attention to monitoring corrupt officials. Since Carlo currently has no jurisdiction over these matters, it is undoubtedly best that Prime Minister Prim proactively oversees corruption.

To make the various levels of the Spanish Government more honest and efficient, Carlo, after careful consideration, also recommended to Prime Minister Prim the establishment of a proposal for an official performance evaluation.