Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 169: Chapter 139: The Two Pillars of Military Industry (Double-Length Chapter)

Although the current Royal Guanizuo Shipyard is no longer as glorious as it once was, it is still very important for Spain’s future development plans.

For Carlo, this is also the first military shipyard under his control, not only is it of extraordinary significance, but its strategic value is also extremely important.

Although this era has given birth to many powerful land armies, such as the former European bulldozer Russia, the former European overlord France, and now the world’s top land power Germany.

None of these countries, however, can impact the glory of the British Empire. The British, with the largest naval forces, firmly sit on the world’s number one throne, watching the competition and battles between European countries with a winner’s stance, and dominate the European situation.

The main reason for this situation is precisely the naval superiority the British maintain over other powers.

In other words, in this era, if one cannot have a relatively powerful navy, one cannot exert influence externally.

Isn’t Germany, which defeated France, strong? Of course, it is very strong. But in the eyes of the British, the threat from Germany is currently even lower than that from France and Russia.

At least France and Russia still have sizable navies, while the Germans only have seemingly strong land forces. But no matter how strong a land army is, it cannot cross the sea, and the English Channel and Royal Fleet are the strong guarantees of the British Empire, and also the reason they are unconcerned about the German threat.

If the navy is so important, why do only a few countries have large navies?

The reason is simple: building a navy requires a huge investment in terms of both finance and resources.

In any era, setting up a navy incurs massive costs. During the time of sailing warships, constructing battleships was not easy either, requiring hundreds of years of aged towering trees, as well as the meticulous craftsmanship and design of artisans, to build warships that could sail the high seas and even engage in long-distance battles.

The ironclad, on the other hand, tested each country’s industrial level even more. The steam turbines providing power to the warships and the ship artillery serving as the main firepower are both the crystallization of today’s industrial advancement.

Building a warship not only requires a lot of advanced equipment but also a considerable amount of steel, which means that countries with weak industries cannot build warships on their own.

Moreover, just having the technology is not enough; there must also be sufficient experience in shipbuilding. Warships are not disposable items; they need to endure long-term use and even a few naval battles.

If there are some latent issues in warship design due to a lack of experience, they may not appear during peacetime but could endanger the entire warship during warfare.

In addition, the cost of a single warship is as high as tens of thousands of pounds, and a lot of resources and time must also be invested in training the naval officers and sailors on the warship.

If a nation is not a major industrial and economic power, it’s really difficult for an ordinary country to manage a navy in this era.

Moreover, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard was originally Spain’s largest shipyard, with rich experience in building warships.

Although it fell into decline during the transition from sailing warships to ironclads, it at least built ironclads for the Spanish Government and has some relevant experience.

It is for this reason that Carlo pays even more attention to the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, saving one of Spain’s few excellent shipyards capable of building ironclads.

After acquiring all the shares of the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard from the government, Carlo decided to immediately start the expansion of the shipyard, taking three years to transform the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard back into Spain’s largest shipyard with the capability to build the latest ironclads.

The good news is that with technical support from Austria-Hungary and some support from France, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard achieving the capability to build the latest ironclads is still a simple task.

The only current difficulty is the scale of the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard. Due to the shipyard’s gradual losses, its scale has been repeatedly reduced.

Seventy years ago, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard was the largest shipyard on the Iberian Peninsula, building dozens of powerful sailing warships for Spain.

But by 1872, seventy years later, the scale of the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard had shrunk by more than half, with even fewer than 300 workers.

Although theoretically, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard has the capacity to build ironclads, with fewer than 300 workers, building even an outdated ironclad takes at least a year or almost two, let alone constructing the latest ironclads.

If this construction speed solely relies on taking foreign orders to make money, I’m afraid it cannot sustain the entire shipyard’s expenses.

On October 27, 1872, Carlo and Steward Loren went to Guanizuo Port in northern Spain to inspect the current state of what was once Spain’s largest shipyard.

Because the shares of the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard were previously in the hands of the government, the government naturally had no time to attend to the shipyard’s development, and it was basically in a laissez-faire state.

As for the current director of the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, Antonio Monali, he is a rather mediocre guy.

It can be said that the decline of Spain’s four major shipyards is influenced by various reasons.