Empire Rising: Spain

Because of previous cooperation, the Russian diplomatic ambassador directly approached the Royal Military Factory, requesting to reach an even larger-scale weapon purchase order with the Royal Military Factory.

Since Carlo had previously reached related agreements with the Russian diplomatic department, the Royal Military Factory had no hesitation and immediately signed a larger-scale weapon purchase order with the Russian side.

Because the Russians’ first order was completed and delivered by the end of last month, their appetite for this order also increased significantly.

The previous order was only for 100,000 rifles, but in this order, the Russians ordered a total of 250,000 rifles, 770 artillery pieces, 65 million bullets, and 250,000 shells.

This also reflects the trust the Russian military has in weapons manufactured in Spain, after all, 250,000 rifles is no small number, and currently, only the five great powers have military forces exceeding 250,000.

Due to the urgency of the order, the Russian side did not prepare enough mineral resources. Therefore, the entire order payment is to be made in gold and Russian farmers.

According to the agreement previously reached between the Russian Government and Spain, each Russian farmer can offset 200 pessetas of funds, and this time the Russian Government plans to migrate 20,000 Russian farmers to offset most of the order’s expenses, with the remaining part paid in gold.

The transfer of farmers will also take place from the Baltic Sea, which will be safer, though the journey will be longer.

The Royal Military Factory is naturally perfectly fine with this. These Russian farmers will be an excellent labor force when transported to the Spanish Colony, playing an extremely important role in the development of the Spanish Colony. Naturally, the more, the better.

Although 20,000 Russians seem like a lot, once divided up among several colonies, each colony does not receive many Russian farmers.

Dispersing these Russian farmers also has the benefit of maximizing the stability of these Russian farmers.

Moreover, given the submissive character of these Russian farmers, the probability of their rebellion is much lower than that of the natives.

Due to the lack of weapons and equipment at the front line, the Russian side also made its demands. Russia requested that these weapons and equipment be completed within five months and that the first batch of 100,000 rifles be sent to Russia’s Baltic Sea coast within two months.

Completing the production of 250,000 rifles within five months is quite a demanding requirement for the Royal Military Factory. Not to mention the 770 artillery pieces, 65 million bullets, and 250,000 shells, even the expanded Royal Military Factory would need more than a year to complete production.

However, because Carlo instructed the Royal Military Factory to expedite the production of weapons and equipment in preparation for export just as the Balkan region became turbulent, the Royal Military Factory had already stocked over 200,000 rifles, 600 artillery pieces, and nearly a billion bullets, over a million shells, before the Russian-Turkish War broke out.

After completing the first transaction with Russia and the Ottoman Empire, a large portion of these weapons and equipment stocks had already been cleared.

But in the past few months, the Royal Military Factory has produced another batch of weapons and equipment, enriching the factory’s reserves once again.

For the Royal Military Factory, completing Russia’s order within five months indeed poses some difficulty, but fortunately, the difficulty is not too great.

At worst, some of the bullet and shell orders can be transferred to other smaller military factories, with the Royal Military Factory only responsible for producing rifles and artillery.

This way, Spain’s entire arms industry can achieve rapid expansion, which is better than the Royal Military Factory enjoying the whole cake alone.

Although being dominant would better promote the development of military technology, Carlo is also willing to allow more competition in Spain’s military industry if diversity can be achieved.

Transferring some of the bullet and shell orders also allows the Royal Military Factory to take on more orders for rifles and artillery.

After all, the Royal Military Factory has earned enough profits from these few orders, and sharing some of the cake with other military factories is not a problem for the Royal Military Factory.

The diplomatic ambassador who signed new arms trade agreements with the Royal Military Factory excitedly reported the news back to Russia, and on the Royal Military Factory’s side, a celebratory banquet for signing new arms trade orders was being held.

Both of these Russian orders are not small numbers, and the profits obtained by the Royal Military Factory are already sufficient to support its next two years of weapon research and modification studies.

Carlo is not a stingy person; back when the first arms trade order was signed with Russia, Carlo specifically instructed that most of the profits obtained from this arms trade could be retained for the Royal Military Factory’s research.

The remaining small portion of profits would be shared with all the employees of the factory, allowing every employee to feel involved.

In the end, each employee received a reward equivalent to about one or two months’ salary, but since it’s additional income, it’s believed that every employee who received this reward would be overjoyed.

And Carlo, who distributed this reward, would naturally earn the gratitude of the factory’s employees.

Improving the treatment of all the employees in the factories and enterprises under the Royal Family is a strategy that Carlo had long formulated.

The purpose of doing so, of course, is to maintain a significant difference in the treatment of employees under enterprise bosses.

In this way, while the workers harbor hatred for the capitalist class, they would also feel grateful to Carlo and the Royal Family.

With the working class standing on the side of the Royal Family, what can threaten Carlo’s throne?

As for offending capitalists by doing so, Carlo is not worried at all. Spain is following the state capitalism path, or more precisely, the state monopoly capitalism path.

The most important industries in Spain are all monopolized by enterprises under the Spanish Government and the Royal Family, and civilian capitalists cannot achieve monopoly status. Therefore, their capital power cannot pose a threat to the government and the Royal Family.

After all, the Spanish Government and the Royal Family are the two biggest capitalists in Spain, and in front of these two biggest capitalists, what threat can other small capitals cause?

The downside of state capitalism is prevalent corruption. Carlo only needs to monitor the corruption issues in state and Royal Family-controlled enterprises and can basically ensure Spain’s future development and win over the hearts of Spanish workers.