Empire Rising: Spain

Spain has not been idle during this period. On one hand, it vigorously promotes the implementation of compulsory elementary education, conducting pilot projects in Catalonia and Madrid.

On the other hand, it secretly connects with the Ottoman Empire and Russia to find export opportunities for Spain’s weaponry.

In addition to weaponry, other strategic resources, including grain, can also be sold. In recent years, the environment in Spain has been relatively stable, and grain production has been increasing steadily, so it’s not an issue to allocate some grain for export.

Seeing that Russia and the Ottoman Empire on the Balkan Peninsula will not start fighting anytime soon, Carlo gradually begins to focus on other matters, particularly on responding to the economic crisis.

As stated at the Cabinet meeting at the beginning of the year, according to the government’s and the finance department’s assessment, there is a high probability of triggering a second round of the economic crisis this year.

And indeed, it turned out to be the case. Between February and March, the economy of the United Kingdom experienced a new wave of fluctuations, which also triggered the outbreak of the second round of the economic crisis.

Fortunately, Spain was prepared for this, and the fluctuations of the economic crisis did not cause too severe an impact.

Of course, a significant reason for this is that Europe is still experiencing the economic crisis.

The impact of the first round of the economic crisis can only be said to have weakened, but the economic crisis itself has not ended. By the beginning of 1876, many European countries were still in a mess, and industrial production was severely affected.

In such a situation, although the second round of the economic crisis affected many countries, it was no longer fatal compared to the first round.

Companies that could not withstand the economic crisis had already gone bankrupt in the first round, and the remaining companies that could hold on mostly had government support, so there was naturally no issue in withstanding the second round of the economic crisis.

If the countries most severely affected by the first round of the economic crisis were Germany, the United States, and Austria-Hungary, then the countries most severely affected by the second round were the United Kingdom and France.

During the first round of the economic crisis, England and France managed to hold on longer than others with the help of their vast colonies, and the impact of the economic crisis on their industry and economy was far less severe than in other countries.

But after the second round of the economic crisis began, even though England and France could still rely on their colonies to extract resources, it was clear they could no longer sustain themselves.

However, since the first round of the economic crisis had already bankrupted many companies with unstable foundations, the impact of the second round was quite limited, and for countries as economically and industrially vast as England and France, it was negligible.

During the time when Germany and the United States were most severely affected by the economic crisis in the first round, more than one-third of their factories shut down, and nearly half of their workers faced a crisis of unemployment.

During the second round of the economic crisis, all the factories shut down in the United Kingdom combined were less than one-fifth of the total, and this was the result of the impact of two economic crises combined.

Of course, for the British Empire, the impact of the second round of the economic crisis was still significant.

If not for the second round of the economic crisis, the British Empire could have provided much more support to the Ottoman Empire. But now, due to the impact on domestic industry and economy, the United Kingdom’s support for the Ottoman Empire was not substantial, and there was no intention of using military intervention in this war.