Empire Rising: Spain

To promote the military reserve plan, we must consider the attitude of the Spaniards.

After all, it’s not wartime, and not all citizens agree with the increase of military personnel. Carlo did not want the public to view him as a warmonger, so it was essential to research and guide Spanish public opinion first.

But soon, Carlo realized his plan was somewhat redundant.

When the Spanish Sun newspaper first suggested in its pages that Spain should follow other European countries and establish a reserve system to enhance military strength, it immediately garnered widespread support from Spaniards.

This even formed a wave of enthusiasm. According to a Royal Security Intelligence Bureau survey, many citizens in the new drink shops emerging in Madrid were excitedly discussing matters related to the reserve.

This emerging drink shop was exactly the cola store Carlo had thought of while at the beach. Since it was a drink made from kola nuts, Carlo had unhesitatingly named it ”cola.”

At this time, the two cola giants, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, had yet to be born. Carlo was not the least bit courteous and set up Coca-Cola Company and Pepsi-Cola Company in Madrid and Barcelona, respectively.

Which of these two cola companies can capture the majority of the Spanish cola market depends on their marketing strategies and commercial operations.

The initial cola formulas don’t differ much; the primary taste comes from the kola nut, and the flavor variance comes from the amount of bubbles and added sugar.

Once established, the two beverage companies were warmly welcomed by the citizens. Cola production costs are not low, given that a lot of sugar is added to it.

Currently, the cost price of a cup of cola is about 0.15 Pesseta, which is 15 cents. Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are priced uniformly at 0.25 Pesseta for a 275 ml cup.

The biggest cost in cola production is the added sugar, with the second being the glass bottles used for packaging.

Fortunately, the demand for cola has been increasing, leading both companies to order glass bottles in bulk, which effectively reduces the cost of bottles.

The profit for each bottle of cola is 0.1 Pesseta, and the daily sales of both cola companies have already surpassed 50,000 bottles.

This also means that the daily net profit for each company is close to 10,000 Pessetas, equating to an annual profit of 3.65 million Pessetas.

These figures continue to grow, as this is just the demand from Madrid and Barcelona. When these companies expand their shops throughout Spain, each might sell over a hundred thousand, or even tens of thousands of bottles daily.

Carlo was pleased to see this. Apart from the high sugar content, cola made from kola nuts didn’t have too many downsides.

Although the kola nut carries a risk of causing cancer, as long as cola isn’t consumed in large quantities over the long term, the cancer risk can be effectively reduced.

Moreover, in this era, there are countless things far more dangerous and deadly than kola nuts. Compared to London’s smog and the previous trend of using heavy metals in makeup among noblewomen, Carlo found kola nuts to be quite safe.

Of course, when technology reaches the requisite level in the future, the cola company would discontinue the use of kola nuts and switch to using healthier extracts.

Returning to the expansion of the cola companies, the Madrid Coca-Cola Company and the Barcelona Pepsi-Cola Company have already become the two giants in Spain’s beverage industry and are gradually expanding into neighboring cities.

Coca-Cola Company’s primary direction of expansion is southward in Toledo, while Pepsi-Cola Company’s main direction is westward to Zaragoza from Barcelona.

Besides expanding domestically in Spain, Spain also included gifting some cola in their arms trade dealings with Russia and Austria-Hungary.

These colas are given away for free to Russia and the Ottoman Empire as a health product and medicine. Whether it’s used by soldiers or enjoyed by dignitaries, Spain wouldn’t be meddling in that.

There’s still a long time before the real Coca-Cola Company is founded. The two major Spanish cola companies have hope of dominating the European market before Coca-Cola Company is born and even begin to explore the American market.

By the time the actual Coca-Cola Company emerges, the market available for it to develop might be considerably limited.

Although the price of cola isn’t high, this beverage often follows a low-margin, high-volume strategy. Currently, the combined daily sales of the two cola companies in Madrid and Barcelona have surpassed 100,000 bottles.

What about across all of Spain? The sales might reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of bottles. If this magnitude was extended to cover all of Europe, cola’s daily sales could reach an astounding several million bottles.

Of course, one must consider whether the cola production can keep up. Nonetheless, one cannot deny that cola, as a low-cost beverage, holds vast potential; the cola market remains a tremendously large one.

Besides the cancer-causing downside, the kola nut is rich in caffeine and theobromine, which can act similarly to stimulants.

Unlike coffee, the kola nut acts by directly impacting the central nervous system and heart, achieving physical stimulation.