Rebirth of the Spanish Empire.

Chapter 7 Planning for future development

"The deal with Britain is destined to be discussed for a long time. Forget it, I still don't want to think about this!
  Let’s think about how to solve the problem of economic development! Alfonso thought to himself.

"Come here, summon the Prime Minister and other ministers for discussion." Alfonso ordered the servant.

"As you command, Your Majesty." The servant secretly excused himself.

.........

After a while, Prime Minister Canovas and Finance Minister Palacides walked into the palace first.

The Spanish government at this time was mainly composed of two factions. They are composed of the Conservative Party headed by Canovas and the Liberal Party headed by Palacides.

"Your Majesty, last year's financial revenue and expenditure report has been calculated. Do you want me to report it to you?" Paracides looked at Alfonso and asked.

Compared with Prime Minister Canovas's scheming, Palacides looks shrewd.

His slightly narrowed eyes looked cautious, and he was wearing neat black clothes and straightened his back. It makes people feel that he is a smart, capable and resolute person.

Alfonso nodded and motioned for Paracides to continue.

“The Kingdom of Spain’s gross national product last year was 310 billion pesetas, while fiscal revenue accounted for 24.8% of the gross national product, with total revenue of billion pesetas.

Among them, 9.12 million pesetas were spent on maintaining government jobs to ensure normal operations and paying government officials, while a total of 6 million pesetas was spent on military maintenance and military salaries.

Because now His Majesty has ordered the army to carry out reforms and reduce the number of troops, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of troops. Therefore, this year’s military expenditure is likely to be only about half of last year’s military expenditure.

And because of the outbreak of war in the past few years, many financial budgets have not been implemented.

For example, no investment was made in public facilities, education, etc., so this year's fiscal year unexpectedly had a surplus.

So the budget available to us now will be as much as 9.68 million pesetas. "After Paracides reported the situation, he looked at Alfonso, waiting for his answer.

To be honest, Alfonso was a little surprised by the financial report from Paracides. Because he didn’t expect that there would still be some surplus from last year’s fiscal revenue!
  Alfonso was very happy now, because there was much more money at his disposal than he had imagined.

This is a great thing for Spain now.

"Paracides, I hope our investment should be focused on heavy industry, education, scientific research, and infrastructure. What do you think?" Alfonso asked.

Although Alfonso's tone was questioning, the unquestionability in his mouth was already obvious.

Palacides had been in politics for many years and certainly knew what was coming from above. Naturally, he would not ask for trouble at this time.

So he replied to Alfonso: "Everything depends on your Majesty's arrangement."

“And now our navy’s ability to independently build warships is too poor, so I hope to build four shipyards in the four cities of Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Seville, and Bilbao that can provide warships for the navy.

Four large steel plants were built in the four cities of Zaragoza, Palencia, Granada and Cordoba.

Build three large arsenals in the three capital cities of Madrid, Burgos, and Toledo. "

Since the government now has extra money in its pocket, Alfonso will naturally spend it all without hesitation. After all, money spent is money.

“This year’s fiscal budget is initially set at around 400 million pesetas, and the budget will be increased later based on the actual situation.”

“First allocate 100 million pesetas to invest in the construction of primary and secondary schools across the country and the construction of four universities. (University of Madrid, University of Barcelona, ​​University of Granada, University of Zaragoza.)
  Allocate funds to schools to hire experts and professors in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and geography from European countries, and let them come to Spain to work. "

As a person who has received basic education in later generations, Alfonso naturally knows the importance of education, and basic education should be caught up as soon as possible. In later generations, a large Eastern country relied on compulsory education to achieve educational take-off!

Now that the United States, Germany and other countries are in the second industrial revolution, Alfonso naturally wants to seize this opportunity to allow Spain to overtake in corners.

“The government allocated 1000 million pesetas to establish the Spanish Royal Electric Company, and went to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to hire electricity experts such as Tesla and Edison from the United States who had just graduated to work.

As for the field of generators, there is no rush. After the framework structure of the Spanish Royal Electric Company is completed, it will spend a lot of money to cooperate with the German Siemens Company. It is necessary to ensure that Spain does not lag behind other countries in the new industrial revolution. ” ˆ ˆ “Appropriate 500 million pesetas, go to Germany to hire Karl Benz and Daimler, and establish the Internal Combustion Engine Research Institute and the Spanish National Automobile Company. This will definitely trigger a disruptive transportation revolution. "

"The government sent people to communicate with the German government and stated that Spain was interested in purchasing Krupp armor technology from them. We must get this technology!
  "Allocate 1000 million pesetas to establish the Spanish Royal Communications Company, and go to Boston, USA to hire Scotsman Bell and German scientist Hertz."

"Five million pesetas were allocated to establish the Spanish Royal Newspaper, which the government needs to use to deliver news to the people."

…………

Alfonso kept talking, while the civil servant taking notes next to him was already in a hurry.

But we can’t blame Alfonso for being so impatient, because the second industrial revolution has quietly begun between the United States and Germany, and various important inventions will continue to appear in the next ten years.

Important inventions such as internal combustion engines, generators, automobiles, communications, electrical appliances, and radios that have penetrated into daily life in later generations were almost all created in this era.

And spending so much money at one time will stimulate social and economic development. While Alfonso founded many companies in Spain, he will also create hundreds of thousands or even millions of jobs in Spain.

These jobs can provide job opportunities for unemployed people.

When people have jobs, they will have money in their hands. If they have money in their hands, they will naturally want to spend it. And there is no shortage of people who get opportunities at work to go out and start their own businesses, which will also lead to the explosion of countless small and medium-sized enterprises in this land.

Now Spain had to move away from an agricultural economy and towards an industrial one. Only by changing from an agricultural country to an industrial country can it gain a place in the struggle for hegemony among great powers and avoid the tragedy of failed wars in future generations.

The disadvantage of vigorously developing industry is that farmers leave their farmland and go into factories. If the nobles who own a large amount of land do not want to be squeezed out of the market by foreign food step by step, they will naturally seek more efficient planting methods.

Rather than binding farmers to the land through employment, low labor costs will only cause the nobles to stop innovating, thus stagnating agricultural technology.

"By the way, Paracides, in his own name, is contacting American and Russian grain companies to prevent local food shortages. He can import their food with a bottom line without running out of food in the early stage." Alfonso Then he said.

This is also to prevent future troubles, and spending a little money can ensure the supply of food.

“I will quickly arrange for people to contact the people I named above, and those who are willing to come to Spain will be brought to Madrid to meet me.

Each of them is a talent that I value, and they receive the same treatment as Maxim and Vielli before. Alfonso explained to Paracides.

On the one hand, he wanted to use his status as a monarch to attract their attention and improve the success rate of bringing them back to Spain. On the other hand, he wanted to exchange his experiences from later generations with the scientists who had agreed to return to the country.

Many of them are geniuses, such as Vieri, Tesla and others. Sometimes they just lack a flash of inspiration.

As a modern person who traveled back in time, Alfonso can naturally guide them to the right place for research.

Some people ask why you don’t make enough food and clothing yourself!

This is obviously nonsense. Alfonso was a history worker and military enthusiast in his previous life. He is mainly engaged in historical research, not physical chemistry research. How can I remember these detailed questions!

"In addition, let Arsenio and Giorgos prepare to take office as ministers of the army and navy. Regarding the issue of military expenditures for the two armies in 1875, let them come to the palace now to discuss with me."

Alfonso ordered Canovas and Palacides. These two positions have been vacant since the war, and government ministers are almost always without people.

"Then go back to Canovas to discuss the candidates for the vacant minister position. Prepare the list of candidates and come to the palace tomorrow for me to take a look." Palacides agreed quickly.

Canovas, who was standing next to him, was also shocked by Alfonso in this short moment.

Although the two of them did not know the talents Alfonso was talking about, when Alfonso mentioned these people by name, they knew that the king must have studied them carefully before.

Otherwise, how could Alfonso name so many people related to petroleum, internal combustion engines, electricity, etc.

You can't just make it up randomly!

…………

(End of this chapter)