Empire Rising: Spain

When the Italian ambassador expressed the Italian Government’s request to purchase the new Spanish ironclad to Carlo, Carlo was initially a bit surprised, but then decisively agreed.

No matter what the Italian Government’s intentions were in purchasing the Spanish warships, Spain would not make a loss anyway.

Selling warships to foreign countries would raise the price, which is actually where shipyard orders genuinely become profitable.

After all, cooperation with the domestic government is usually at a friendly price. Hoping to make a huge profit is impossible; at most, it ensures not incurring a loss.

Although Carlo agreed in principle to sell warships to Italy, the specific negotiations would still have to be conducted between the Italian side and the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard.

The Bullfighter-class Ironclad is theoretically a product of the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard. Other Spanish shipyards can build this warship only with the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard’s authorization.

After all, behind the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard stands the Spanish Royal Family. In Spain, a monarchy, no one can ignore the status of the Royal Family, not even the government.

When the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard learned about the Italian side’s desire to purchase warships, they were all smiles.

After all, the shipyard’s income relates to the available funds for design experts, which significantly influences whether the shipyard can develop the warships needed by the military.

However, considering the good relations between Italy and Spain, the shipyard did not plan to ask for exorbitant prices. At least offering some discounts to the Italian side would reflect the friendship between Spain and Italy, wouldn’t it?

The Italian Government acted quickly, and upon confirming that Spain was willing to sell the latest warships, the Italian Government immediately formed a purchase delegation to travel to Spain to negotiate the ship purchase with the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard.

The main members of the purchase delegation were admirals of the Italian Navy. The urgency of the Italian Navy arose because Italy’s current shipbuilding level still fell far short of the European Powers.

All naval warships in the Italian Navy were outdated products. Even the newest ships built in recent years were all defective products with various deficiencies.

The Duilio and Enrico Dandolo were relatively representative among them.

As Italy’s navy moved away from sailing warships, these two ships used upright compound steam engines as power, with a maximum speed of 14.8 knots, which was considered excellent in terms of speed.

In terms of firepower, these two warships used 450mm 20-caliber muzzle-loading naval cannons, making their caliber unmatched among all European warships.

But the problem was that muzzle-loading cannons and large caliber severely limited the firepower that could be exerted by the artillery.

The 450mm main gun looked appealing, but the Italian Navy found that the main gun on these ships had a pitiful firing speed of one shot every five minutes, making them targets on the battlefield.

Moreover, because Italian shipyards excessively pursued larger artillery calibers, they ignored the compatibility issues between large-caliber artillery and ship design.

The Duilio had three exhaust chimneys, and the two main gun turrets were located between two chimneys, creating an unthinkable scenario.

Naval officers operating the guns had to be careful not to aim at their own chimneys, or they would become the makers of a grand joke.

It was precisely because Italian shipyards had some flaws in their ironclad design that the Italian Navy had high expectations for foreign warships.

Of course, the Italian Government was definitely not just looking forward to Spanish warships.

They hoped to learn from Spain’s excellent experience in ironclad design and imitate and improve their own Italian ironclads.

To master the latest data on Spanish ironclads, they could only acquire Spanish warships through purchase.

Sending agents to steal intelligence might also work, but it would seriously damage the relationship between Italy and Spain, which was somewhat counterproductive for the Italian Government.

The arrival of the Italian ship purchase delegation was given a grand reception by the Spanish Government. Subsequently, the group directly went to the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, inspecting the shipbuilding site at the Guanizuo Shipyard.

As a military enterprise established with full support from the Royal Family, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard was absolutely among the top in Europe.

When the Italian purchase delegation visited the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, they were shocked by Guanizuo Shipyard’s development.

Many Italians, before coming to Spain, still believed Italy was more developed than Spain. They thought Italy’s current lag in shipbuilding was due to the short time since national unification, leading to technological backwardness. In terms of industrial and shipbuilding capabilities, they viewed Italy as not inferior to Spain.

But when they arrived at the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard and saw that this enterprise had become a super-large shipyard due to the substantial investment from the Royal Family, they began to acknowledge Spain’s development in this period and critically examine the gap between Italian and Spanish shipyards.

The Italian delegation’s posture improved, making the subsequent visit much smoother.

After the Spanish Government announced the naval construction plan, it had already paid deposits on two warships to the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, which had long since gone full throttle in building two ironclads.

Though less than half a month had passed, the keel laying of the first Bullfighter-class Ironclad, the Bullfighter, was already halfway done, and the Italian purchase delegation visited precisely during the keel laying stage of the Bullfighter-class Ironclad.