Rise of Empires: Spain

Chapter 45: Winning over the Nobles (Please read on)

Carlo didn't have time to appreciate the bustle of Paris.

For Carlo, the most important industry in the future layout has not been established yet, which must be put on the agenda.

What industry?

Of course, it is a bank related to finance.

Since the Industrial Revolution, industry and finance have replaced agriculture and become the two most profitable industries.

Carlo currently has more than ten factories. Now it is time to establish his own financial institution and expand his own money-making channels.

In order to establish his own bank, Carlo has been preparing for a long time.

The most important thing for a bank is to ensure credibility. Only with credibility will people spontaneously deposit money in the bank. Banks can make money when they have money, and then achieve a good cycle of money making money and continuously generating income.

Carlo has also made some good impressions in the hearts of the people of Madrid through several tax reduction policies, but this good impression alone is not enough.

In order to reassure the people about the newly established bank, Carlo plans to win over the Spanish nobles to join his bank.

As the three most powerful classes in Spain (nobility, landlords and churches), the Spanish nobles are still quite luxurious.

Before, Carlo did not receive strong support from the entire aristocracy because he was an outsider. Some of the nobles even chose to support the Carlos faction, and they were still devoted to the Bourbon family that had been entrenched in Spain for hundreds of years.

After defeating the Carlos faction, there was no obstacle for Carlo to exert influence on the aristocracy.

He wanted to pull the aristocracy together to establish a bank. On the one hand, the aristocracy had more funds in its hands, which could help Carlo's bank gain greater advantages in the early stage, so as to expand more quickly.

The second is to make money with the aristocracy and let the aristocracy know who the king above their heads is.

I believe that most of the nobles are still relatively wise. After all, Carlo is already the king recognized by the Spanish Constitution and the people, which is a fact that they cannot change at all.

Only by mastering enough influence and voice in the Spanish aristocracy can Carlo ensure that his status and power as king will not be shaken.

The monarchy in Spain has a long history, and the power of the royalists cannot be ignored. After obtaining the full support of the royalists, the Republicans, who posed a major threat to the royal power, are not so fatal.

For the nobles, they certainly need a capable monarch to lead them forward. The status of the nobles comes from the king, which is why Carlo is confident that he can gain the support of the noble class.

After all, if the biggest noble king is gone, how can the remaining dukes and marquises exist?

Carlo set his first target to win over Toledo in the south of Madrid. In Toledo, there is a noble who is very influential in the Spanish noble class, that is, the Duke of Alba.

The Alba family is one of the oldest families with the most titles and land among all the nobles in Spain, and their property is naturally the largest among the nobles.

To be honest, Carlo is a little envious of the wealth of the Alba family.

As a foreign king, Carlo's current property is pitifully small. In addition to some castles left by the Bourbon family, Carlo has no large amount of land, which is the symbol of the great nobles.

It is said that the king is the largest landowner in a country, but here in Spain, the scale of land owned by Carlo is not even comparable to some dukes in Spain.

The current Duke of Alba, Jacobo Louis Fitz-James Stuart-Bentimiglia, was born in 1835. It is worth mentioning that his wife and Napoleon III's wife are sisters, and he and Napoleon III are brothers-in-law.

What made Carlo happy was that Duke Jacobo of Alba was very respectful to him, and he also expressed his intention to please Carlo in his words.

When Carlo proposed to co-found a bank with the nobles, Duke Jacobo of Alba immediately vowed that he would invest in Carlo's bank and become the first depositor of the bank.

Although the chat with Duke Jacobo lasted only more than an hour, Carlo and Duke Jacobo quickly reached a consensus on the establishment of the bank and improved their relationship.

Duke Jacobo also invited Carlo to his private banquet, and his intention to surrender was self-evident.

Of course, Carlo nodded repeatedly. Through the introduction of Duke Jacobo of Alba, Carlo could easily gather this group of nobles who were familiar with the Duke of Alba and exert his influence on the aristocracy.

Only when most of the nobles are loyal to themselves, the Spanish royal family can be completely transformed, and Spain can truly enter the era of Savoy.

Interestingly, whether it is Queen Isabel or Carlos VII of the Carlos faction, they chose to flee north to France after their defeat.

But France has now become a republic, and these nobles who fled to France for refuge may also be affected.

At least the life of refuge in France is not so comfortable. Before, they were protected by the French Emperor Napoleon III, but now the French nobles can hardly protect themselves, and the status of these refugees from the Spanish Bourbon family in France will be even more embarrassing.

Facts have proved that most of these Spanish nobles are not fools.

After Primo quelled the Carlos rebellion, these nobles had long wanted to contact Carlo and be loyal to him.

All the nobles that Carlo met agreed to Carlo's request to jointly establish a bank, and they all expressed their willingness to become depositors of the bank and save part of the funds.

Even Primo finally nodded and agreed to join the United Bank after Carlo's repeated invitations, which made Carlo full of confidence in the development of the bank.

Of course, Duke Serrano, who was far away in Cuba to suppress the rebellion, was also included in Carlo's invitation plan. However, Serrano had to wait until he returned to Madrid to join the bank, so there was no rush for the time being.

With the support of the nobles, the preparations for the bank were also very smooth.

On April 9, 1870, the first Royal United Bank in Madrid officially opened, attracting a lot of attention.

On the first day of its opening alone, a large number of nobles came to the Royal United Bank to deposit money. Such a grand occasion also aroused heated discussions among the people, and the Royal United Bank became the most popular bank in Madrid in a short period of time.

On the first day of its establishment, the bank welcomed hundreds of depositors, most of whom were nobles who wanted to express their support for Carlo.

Especially for the dukes, the deposit units are all calculated in 100,000 pesetas, and some even have deposits exceeding 1 million pesetas.

Although 1 million pesetas is worth less than 40,000 pounds, this amount of money is definitely a large amount of savings for any bank in Spain.

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