Chapter 100 High education, high income

In order to reduce the illiteracy rate in Spain as soon as possible, Carlo did everything he could.

On the first day of 1871, Carlo asked several newspapers under the royal industry to publish articles about the determination of income by education, and promoted the concept of high education and high income.

The example is also very simple. The average income of college graduates far exceeds the per capita income in Spain. In particular, some specially hired college students have several times the income of ordinary people.

In addition to the example of college students, the newspaper also cited several examples of ordinary people with primary and secondary education who earned more than ordinary people without education after entering the factory.

Entering the factory requires operating equipment. People with education often understand the operation process of the equipment better, get started faster, and have a lower probability of making mistakes.

Carlo's purpose in doing this is naturally to stimulate the public's voluntary willingness to improve their education through income, so as to popularize literacy education in Spain.

Although literacy education in Spain is in full swing, literacy education cannot force all Spaniards to participate.

Although it is free, under the policy of voluntary participation, the results of literacy education are not as good as expected.

Most of the people who participate in literacy education are children or young people of appropriate age, and there are few young and middle-aged men over 25 years old.

In fact, this is easy to understand. Although literacy education is free, participating in literacy education will delay their time to enter the factory to make money.

Under the circumstances of one thing going up and the other going down, it is no different from losing money. Although the Spaniards also understand the importance of education, each family often chooses to let younger children participate in literacy education, and adults work in exchange for income to support the entire family.

Only by letting all Spaniards understand that the literacy education they spend a certain amount of time on will not be a loss, and will return them with higher wages in the future.

In this way, more people can be attracted to participate in literacy education, thereby significantly and effectively reducing the illiteracy rate in Spain.

Fortunately, there are now dozens of newspapers under the royal family, distributed in more than a dozen regions and colonies in Spain.

Especially in the capital Madrid, in addition to the Spanish Sun, newspapers with different target groups such as the Madrid Workers' News and the Agricultural News have been specially created to expand the number of people that the newspapers can influence.

There are at least two newspapers in the top five cities in Spain. Under such a large-scale newspaper propaganda, I believe that many people will accept the concept of high education and high income, and actively improve their own and their family's education.

In order to hide the dozens or hundreds of newspapers under his control, Butler Loren has also taken great pains. Except for the Spanish Sun, which is an open royal industry, other newspapers are basically disguised and look like private industries.

It's not that Carlo is too defensive. It's just that some newspapers often publish some gossip or even sexy pictures in order to maintain their market size and sell their newspapers.

These news and pictures will be warmly welcomed by the Spaniards, and the lower-class people are also willing to feast their eyes on the sexy girls in the newspapers.

But if the royal industry publishes these news, it will inevitably leave the public with a bad impression that the royal family and the king love gossip and sexy girls.

Although most people are happy to see such newspapers, if the newspaper is a royal industry, it is inevitable that some upright gentlemen will jump out to condemn the royal family.

Carlo had been well prepared for this. Enterprises like steel mills that can create a large number of jobs for Spain and will not exploit workers will be made public to tell the public that they are royal enterprises.

In order to speed up the popularization of literacy education, Carlo thought of a way, and after calculation, he thought it was feasible.

After confirming that the calculation was accurate, Carlo called Prime Minister Primo and put forward his own proposal, that is, the government will provide a free dinner for all people who participate in literacy education on the day of literacy education.

Literacy education is completely different from primary education. Primary education takes a fixed period of 6 years, while literacy education can be completed in as short as three months.

Generally speaking, it is only necessary to teach people who receive literacy education some commonly used Spanish words and some simple cultural knowledge, scientific principles, etc., to complete most of the work of literacy education.

If there are two classes a week, and each class lasts more than three hours, literacy education can generally be completed within five months.

If children and teenagers who do not need to work receive literacy education every day, most of the tasks of literacy education can even be completed within one month.

But no matter what, Carlo's proposal is quite bold.

According to the situation that more than one million people received literacy education last year, providing them with a dinner when they receive literacy education is equivalent to providing at least 50 meals for one million people, a total of 50 million dinners.

Such a large-scale dinner will definitely not be too luxurious. But even if it is just relatively cheap whole grain bread and vegetables, and a small amount of meat, it will cost at least 5 million pesetas.

After hearing Carlo's proposal, Prime Minister Primo was stunned at first, and then after careful thinking and calculation, he suddenly felt that this method was still feasible.

For the government, the cost of 5 million pesetas is not unacceptable. By offering a free dinner, more people can be attracted to participate in literacy education, and the Spanish government will benefit in the end.

Even if the number of people doubles, it will not be too much of a burden for the government. The current world environment is tending towards peace, and it is entirely possible to buy food from those major grain-producing countries, and then make relatively cheap food to provide to those people.

Now there is no such great concern about food safety. As long as the food provided looks barely passable and can make people full, the people will naturally be satisfied.

Although it is just a relatively simple dinner, there will definitely be many Spaniards who want to save money and receive literacy education in order to save money for a dinner.

After all, literacy education does not cost money. I believe that most people are willing to accept a free dinner in exchange for two hours of study.

Providing a free dinner is also a good reputation. Whether it is for the government or Carlo, it can increase their influence in the hearts of the people.

As for the additional cost of at least 5 million pesetas, it seems not so important at this time. After all, Spain's fiscal deficit last year was as high as 60 million pesetas. Compared with this amount of money, what is the extra cost of 5 million pesetas?

After careful consideration in his mind, Prime Minister Primo finally agreed to Carlo's proposal, that is, the government provides a free dinner to all people who participate in literacy education.

However, Carlo also put forward his own request, that is, when the government provides this free dinner, it must not forget the contribution of the royal family.

Carlo does not intend to let the government take all the credit. For Carlo, anything that can improve the Spaniards' favorability towards him is not to be missed.

This is not only related to the stability of his throne, but also to his influence on the government in the future. If he wants to ensure that he can infiltrate the government as he wishes after Prime Minister Primo retires, he must ensure that the attitude of most Spaniards supports him.

If even the Spaniards do not support him, I am afraid that after Prime Minister Primo retires, Carlo should consider whether his throne can be stabilized, rather than intervening in the government.

Hearing Carlo's request, Prime Minister Primo certainly understood what Carlo's purpose was. However, Carlo's request would not affect him, so Prime Minister Primo would naturally not oppose Carlo, anyway, there was still a favor to be gained.

"Of course, Your Majesty. The proposal to provide free dinner was made by you, and the Spanish will certainly not forget your care for the Spanish." Prime Minister Primo nodded and said with a smile.

Whether it was Carlo's previous proposal to exchange the governor of the colony for the Minister of Agriculture, or the proposal to share the public's favorability now, it was actually related to the public's support.

Prime Minister Primo certainly understood what Carlo wanted to do, but he did not intend to stop Carlo.

As a politician and reformer, Prime Minister Primo deeply understood what his purpose was. Rather than fighting for power and enjoying the dictatorial experience brought by the monopoly of power, it was better to say that he wanted to quickly promote Spain's reforms through the monopoly of power.

For Prime Minister Primo, he never thought about how long he would stay in the position of Prime Minister of Spain. As long as the reform of Spain can be completed, he will be satisfied, and he does not expect the fame and influence brought by the reform.

Carlo also understands this, so he is very confident in Prime Minister Primo when exchanging political interests.

This is also the biggest difference between the Western monarchy and the Eastern monarchy.

Europeans pay the most attention to bloodline. It is too difficult for ordinary people to become kings through coups. Even in the long history of Europe, there are only a few.

Napoleon is strong enough, right? But after Napoleon became emperor, he relied on conquering European countries to make other countries recognize the noble bloodline of the Napoleon family.

This also includes the Napoleon family's many marriages with other European royal families, which made the family one of the orthodox royal families in Europe.

But after the demise of the Napoleonic Empire, the influence of the Napoleon family has weakened rapidly. If it were not for Napoleon III, and if France was indeed very powerful during the Napoleonic period, I am afraid that the Napoleon family would have disappeared in history long ago.

This has led to the fact that most of the European prime ministers who have monopolized power cannot ascend to the throne through a coup. Even if they are ambitious, most people want to sideline the king and enjoy the dictatorship as prime minister.

For politicians like Primo who are not so ambitious about power, monopolizing power is not their pursuit, but realizing their political ideals and ambitions.

The reason why he did not oppose Carlo's opinions too much and even cooperated with Carlo in political interests is because Prime Minister Primo deeply understood that reformers have never had a good ending since ancient times.

His friendship with Carlo is not only to pave the way for his departure from politics, but also to let Carlo understand that he himself does not have much ambition for power, and hopes that Carlo will not interfere too much when he reforms.

Although the two did not say it explicitly, they have reached a tacit understanding in some aspects. Both of them understand that after Prime Minister Primo completes the reform, he is destined to unload the burden of the prime minister.

The reform government has offended a large number of vested interests. If Primo remains in the prime minister's seat after the reform is completed, it will inevitably have an impact on the country's stability.

Carlo also did not want such a person who successfully promoted reforms and had great influence in both the political and military circles to continue to stay in the position of prime minister. The saying that he was too successful to be a threat to the emperor was not said in vain.

Although political disagreements were part of the reason why William II dismissed Prime Minister Bismarck, it was also difficult to guarantee that there was no reason that Prime Minister Bismarck was too successful to be a threat to the emperor.

As the initiator of the two wars that were set to unify Germany by Prussia, the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War, Prime Minister Bismarck's prestige in the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire was unprecedented.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Bismarck's influence on Germany even exceeded that of William I, who founded the German Empire.

Although Bismarck and William I had a good friendship and they trusted each other very much.

But the problem was that there was no friendship between Bismarck and William II. As the newly appointed emperor, William II naturally could not accept that there was another person threatening his power.

It was the same situation in Spain in the future. Carlo naturally could not accept a prime minister who threatened his royal power. Regardless of whether Prime Minister Primo's reforms were successful or not, he had to bid farewell to the prime minister's throne and be his own nobleman.

Because both of them understood this, Carlo was not stingy in rewarding Prime Minister Primo.

Prime Minister Primo was already a duke of Spain, and his title had reached the top of Spain. The highest title of Grand Duke among the nobles was prepared for Prime Minister Primo after the reform was completed.

When he fully realized the reform of Spain and revitalized Spain's industry and economy, he would become the top noble and Grand Duke of Spain.

As long as Prime Minister Primo retired bravely, Carlo naturally would not liquidate him. At that time, the two Grand Dukes Primo and Serrano would also become a good story in Spanish history, and along with the strength of Spain, they would be sung by the Spaniards together with Carlo's name.

After Prime Minister Primo agreed to his proposal, Carlo also achieved his purpose of summoning Prime Minister Primo.

After a hearty lunch with Prime Minister Primo, Carlo began his lazy life in the new year, while Prime Minister Primo started his busy life for Carlo's suggestion.

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