Chapter 121 The Development of the Royal Family's Industry

Carlo currently does not have much power in the Spanish government. Spain's administrative power, legislative power and military power are basically concentrated in the Spanish government and parliament.

This has both advantages and disadvantages for Carlo as a monarch. The disadvantages are obvious. Carlo will not have too much power, and it is impossible for him to develop Spain as he wants.

But there are also advantages. First of all, Carlo can be independent of the government and parliament to avoid being affected by some accidents.

Whether it is reform or victory in the war, Carlo as a king can still get a little credit. But if the reform or the war fails, the government and parliament will naturally bear the main responsibility, and Carlo and the royal family will not have much to do with it.

Even the royal family will make gestures under appropriate circumstances. Basically, those accidents will not affect the status of the royal family, and the people will naturally not blame the royal family for having no power and no influence on the government.

If it is a monarch who prefers to maintain the status quo and has no great ambitions, it is naturally good to have no power.

But for a monarch as ambitious as Carlo, such a situation may not be a good thing.

More importantly, the current development of the Spanish government is somewhat deformed.

During the reign of Queen Isabel, although power was concentrated in the hands of the prime minister, the king had the power to appoint and dismiss the prime minister, which could greatly restrict the prime minister's power.

But in the current Spanish government, although it seems that the cabinet government and the parliament have both powers, in fact, the parliament cannot supervise and restrict the cabinet government at all.

The party that obtains the majority of seats in the parliament has the power to form the Spanish cabinet government, which leads to Prime Minister Primo controlling the majority of seats in the Spanish parliament while taking charge of the entire cabinet government.

It is no exaggeration to say that the current Spanish government is the one-man show of Prime Minister Primo. As long as the policies decided by the cabinet government will not receive much opposition from the parliament. And the laws enacted by the parliament will soon be implemented by the cabinet government.

If it were not for Defense Minister Serrano controlling Spain's military power, I am afraid Serrano would have achieved a rare achievement-grasping the military, politics and law.

This is also the reason why Prime Minister Primo's reform has been very smooth so far. The cabinet government is composed of reformists promoted by Prime Minister Primo, and most of them are members of the Progressive Party, where Prime Minister Primo belongs.

The Progressive Party also occupies the majority of seats in the parliament, and the Liberal Party is also very supportive of reform. Although the Conservative Party opposes reform, the problem is that they are not in power, and because Carlo also publicly supports reform, there is no resistance to reform in the government and parliament.

However, this situation must always be changed. Prime Minister Primo is capable, and he is loyal to the royal family.

The reason why he is in power is more to promote reforms in Spain. But such a huge power is not suitable for every Spanish prime minister.

For Carlo, it is precisely because he wants to see the success of the reform that he allows Prime Minister Primo to have such great power.

Every prime minister after Prime Minister Primo cannot have such great power, and even Prime Minister Primo, after the reform is successful, has to unload some of his power.

Prime Minister Primo certainly understands his situation, and it is not just talk that he is more powerful than his master. Although Carlo can gain certain credit and goodwill from the public after the reform is successful by openly supporting the reform, it is ultimately not as great as the great reputation of Prime Minister Primo, who actually promoted the reform.

If Prime Minister Primo, who successfully promoted the reform, still holds considerable power, I am afraid that even if Carlo can sit still, the members of the royalist party should not be able to sit still.

However, the success of the reform is still a long way from Spain at present. Carlo also saw the changes in various parts of Spain through this honeymoon trip. Although they are generally changing for the better, there is still a big gap from other European powers.

One of the main goals of this trip is the Seville Industrial Base established by the Spanish government before.

Although the importance of the Seville Industrial Base is currently lower than that of the Barcelona Industrial Base, it is also one of the few medium and large industrial bases in Spain so far.

More importantly, the Seville Industrial Base is the first industrial base officially launched and built in Spain since Carlo became king, which is also of commemorative significance to Carlo.

Of course, in addition to inspecting the construction and production of the industrial base, there is another purpose for coming to the Seville Industrial Base, which is to check the construction of the steel mills and other factories under the royal industry in the industrial base.

Speaking of the royal industry, the person in charge at the beginning was only Butler Loren. But up to now, Butler Loren has several talents in charge of managing the royal property. They have various industries and assets in their hands, and all of these add up to the total property of the royal family.

If Carlo were to tell directly how much the royal family's property is, Carlo really doesn't know. Although it has only been two or three years since he arrived in Spain, the development of the royal family's property can no longer be simply described as rapid.

The Royal United Bank alone is enough to make the Spanish royal family rank among the top 5 richest families in Spain, not to mention that the national bank established a year ago also holds a 45% stake.

These two banks have made the development of the royal industry no longer lack of funds, and it is easy to borrow enough funds from the two banks for development.

The two super-large official banks also directly rectified the banking industry in Spain. Although there is no direct suppression of small and medium-sized banks, these small and medium-sized banks are completely unable to resist the expansion of the two large banks.

At present, the Royal United Bank has established a total of 26 bank branches in 15 local regions of Spain. The total number of bank depositors has exceeded 310,000 at the beginning of the year, and the total savings funds are as high as 85 million.

Of course, with the expansion of banks and the continuous increase in users, the average deposit size of each user is going to be greatly reduced.

At present, the per capita deposit of the Royal Bank is only about 270 pesetas, while the per capita income counted by the government in 1872 has exceeded 107 pesetas, and the per capita deposit is almost two and a half years of per capita annual income.

These data can explain two news. One is that the per capita annual income in Spain is constantly increasing. The policy of agricultural tax reduction and abolition of tithe is definitely an important reason. The increase in the income of farmers, who account for the majority of the Spanish population, is actually good news for Spain.

In addition, with the construction of industrial bases, state-owned factories and private factories, the number of workers and their income will increase in the future.

This will also drive the growth of Spain's per capita income and become a booster for Spain's economic growth.

As long as Spain's infrastructure and other industrial construction will not stop, the corresponding per capita annual income and economic growth will not stop.

Although it cannot catch up with other powerful countries in a short period of time, it is already a big improvement compared to Spain a few years ago.

The per capita annual income of Spain before the revolution was less than 87 pesetas. There are still a large number of low-income people who have not been counted in this data, and the actual situation will be even lower.

The current per capita annual income has exceeded 107 pesetas. Although only four years have passed compared to 1868, the per capita income has increased by at least 23%.

This rate of increase is still relatively slow, because the main factor driving the increase in per capita income is still the increase in farmers' income.

The next step is the growth of workers' income, which is the greater driving force for the increase in per capita income, and the changes that can be brought about are also more obvious.

According to the Spanish government's estimate, around 1875, Spain's per capita annual income will be able to increase to at least 145 pesetas. In 1880, it was able to rise to more than 160 pesetas, which was almost twice that of 1868.

By around 1880, the various reforms promoted by the Spanish government were basically completed. Spain could proudly call itself the first country under the great powers in both industry and economy, in other words, the goalkeeper of the great powers.

Those who are stronger than Spain naturally have the qualifications to compete for the great powers. Those who are weaker than Spain are naturally unworthy of being called great powers.

The good news is that Carlo has already started his own plan for the African colonies. This also means that after the completion of future reforms, Spain will not miss the great opportunity to divide Africa because of the slow progress of reforms.

African colonies are still very important. Not only are there a large number of indigenous people who can serve as free labor, but a large number of resources in the colonies can also be used by Spain.

In addition to the relatively large problem that most of the African population is black, the African colonies can basically bring benefits.

After all, the African natives are still very backward, and most African tribes have no ability to resist the colonization of European powers.

Italy's colonization of the Abyssinian Empire was an accident after all, and they did succeed in the end. As for other parts of Africa, the natives could only tremble helplessly under the steel guns and cannons of the great powers.

Carlo's arrival caused a sensation in the entire Seville industrial base. More than one-third of the factories in this industrial base were established by the royal family, and the factories would naturally publicize events about Carlo.

The workers in the royal factory enjoyed easier work requirements than other factories, and they could get more income than other factories, which naturally made these workers grateful to Carlo, the real owner of the factory.

While the working hours in other factories were generally as high as more than 14 hours, the working hours in the royal factory were basically maintained at about 12 hours, and there was a fixed holiday every month. Such a job was simply the dream of other workers outside.

As for Carlo who provided such a working environment, the workers naturally had no other ideas, only endless gratitude and curiosity about the young king.

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