Chapter 140 Investing in a Shipyard

The treaty signed between the French and Spanish governments was not military in nature, so there was no need to hide it.

In fact, the French needed to make the treaty public to help themselves recover from the bad diplomatic situation. After all, anyone with a discerning eye could see how difficult France was now, and there were no friendly countries around.

Spain naturally had no need to hide anything. Even cooperation with the French could be used as a smokescreen to confuse the British, making them more cautious in their foreign policy toward Spain.

After the signing of the cooperation treaty with France, the Spanish government immediately sent a diplomatic delegation from relevant parties to France.

Their main purpose was to actually inspect the industrial equipment and related technical experience that France could export to Spain, and to select materials and technologies that Spain needed or had high strategic value, and find ways to transport them to Spain.

Regardless of whether the French loan had arrived, it was also important to go to France in advance to inspect the relevant industrial systems. The experience accumulated by the French in industry could also be used as a valuable asset, allowing Spain to take fewer detours when developing industry.

At present, Spain has made great progress in military industry, but these advances are basically about army weapons.

The Vitali M1872 rifle owned by Spain can be said to be the first-class breech-loading bolt-action rifle in Europe, and the artillery technology obtained from Austria is also the first-class in Europe.

Therefore, in terms of purchasing French military equipment and technology, Spain mainly focuses on the introduction of naval technology, followed by French artillery technology, and basically ignores the introduction of rifles.

After all, after the invention of smokeless gunpowder in the future, the rifle technology of various countries will be further improved. Carlo's future goal is to develop a rifle similar to the British Lee Enfield rifle and the German Gew.98 rifle, which is the predecessor of the famous 98K rifle.

These two rifles were the pinnacle of rifle technology in Britain and Germany during World War I, and they were also standard weapons equipped in large quantities by the two countries in World War I.

In fact, if you have to say, the Lee Enfield rifle is relatively more advantageous. The advantage of this rifle is its fast rate of fire, and more skilled veterans can even fire at least 30 bullets per minute.

However, the disadvantage is also a fast rate of fire. The hit rate on the battlefield cannot be guaranteed. Such a fast rate of fire means a large amount of bullet consumption, which is a great test for military production capacity and logistics supply capacity.

But if Spain's military production capacity and logistical supply capacity can keep up with the consumption of front-line rifles, the Lee Enfield rifle will play its greatest role and become the most powerful rifle in World War I.

The long gun version (MLE) of the Lee Enfield rifle was born in 1895, and was improved to a short gun version (SMLE) after the Boer War, and served until 1965.

It has been purchased and used by the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries for more than 70 years, and more than 71 million rifles have been produced, which is enough to show the power of this rifle.

The Gew. 98 rifle developed by the Germans is slightly worse than the Lee Enfield rifle in terms of performance, but it is more famous.

The short gun version of the Gew. 98 rifle is the famous Kar98 rifle, that is, the 98K rifle.

The Gew. 98 rifle is not without advantages. In terms of operability and accuracy, it is slightly higher than the Lee Enfield rifle.

As a pure standard infantry firearm, the Lee Enfield rifle is definitely better. But if it is used for special purposes, such as long-range precision sniping, the Gew. 98 is not inferior to the Lee Enfield rifle.

A lower rate of fire also means lower pressure on military production and logistics supply. For some countries with insufficient military production capacity or insufficient logistics capacity, rifles with slower firing rates are sometimes a better choice.

Rifles must be used with bullets. A rifle without bullets is not much better than a fire stick. Only sufficient bullets can reflect the full power of the rifle.

But whether it is the Lee Enfield rifle or the Gew. 98 rifle, it was born more than 20 years later.

At that time, smokeless gunpowder had been invented, and the military production capacity and industrial background of various countries were much stronger. It is natural to develop a more powerful rifle on this basis, and this phenomenon also applies to warships.

The history of military ships has been very long, and hundreds of years ago, it was still sailing warships that dominated the world.

But now, the most powerful main battleships of various countries have become ironclad ships, and industrial strength is also giving ironclad ships more powerful speed and firepower.

In the future, when the industrial scale of various countries becomes stronger,

battleships with larger volume, thicker armor, stronger firepower and faster speed, that is, pre-dreadnoughts will also be born.

The reason why Spain gave up the development of the navy in a short period of time is to give priority to the development of industry and economy and prepare for the birth of pre-dreadnoughts in the future.

The current British Empire is the world's first naval power, and other countries have no chance to catch up under normal circumstances.

The size of the British navy is determined according to the world's second and third naval powers. Their navy size has always remained at a level greater than the world's second and third combined, which is also the guarantee for the Royal Navy to dominate the world.

If we simply compare the number, no country can compare with the British Empire. Because the British have the whole of India to exploit unscrupulously, the wealth provided by India allows the British to spend money on military expenses without worry.

The few opportunities to catch up with the British Navy, or to pose a greater threat to the British Navy, may be the time to update the main battleships.

At present, the main battleships of various countries are already ironclad ships. There will be two more naval upgrades in the future, namely, the replacement of ironclad ships with pre-dreadnoughts, and the replacement of pre-dreadnoughts with dreadnoughts.

The pre-dreadnoughts were born more than a decade later. At that time, Spain could have a certain scale of industry and economy, and could also increase its investment in the navy that burned money.

The dreadnought was born in 1906, more than 30 years away from now. 30 years is enough to build Spain into an industrial and economic power. As long as it can lay out the dreadnoughts in advance, Spain will become one of the naval powers in the 20th century.

Although the British navy has always maintained its position as the world's number one, the French are also closely behind, firmly occupying the world's second throne.

This is also the reason why the French have become the hegemon of Europe. Before the Franco-Prussian War, the French were the most powerful country on the European continent in terms of both the army and the navy.

But after the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, the French construction focus has changed from both land and sea to focusing on the army.

Although there are related naval construction plans, compared with the Germans who have already insulted France once, the naval competition with Britain is not so important.

Of course, more importantly, France has no chance of winning in the naval competition with Britain. Anyway, France is firmly in the position of the world's second navy, and no country can surpass France at present.

Although the Germans are a great threat on land, their navy can be said to be almost non-existent. The French government has also estimated Germany's development potential. They are sure that even if they give the Germans another ten years, Germany may not be able to surpass France in terms of navy.

Let alone surpassing France, even if they give the Germans five years, their naval scale may not be comparable to Spain.

Yes, Spain is currently among the naval powers.

The reason is very simple. In the early 19th century, Spain was the third largest colonial empire in the world in terms of the scale of its colonies. Mexico, Argentina and other large American countries were all colonies of Spain.

Spain's colonies were spread across Central America, South America, Africa and Asia, and naturally a strong navy was needed to protect these colonies.     If it were the early 19th century, Spain's navy could even sit firmly in the top three in the world. But in the political turmoil, after losing its American colonies one after another, Spain was unable to afford the expenses of a huge fleet.

From the mid-19th century to the present, in the past two or three decades, Spain has not invested much in the navy, and has changed from the third naval power to the top five.

Although it is known as the top five naval powers in the world, there is still a big gap between naval powers like Spain and Britain and France.

It is undeniable that as the former empire on which the sun never sets, Spain has an extremely strong foundation in the navy.

In its heyday, Spain had an invincible fleet that dominated the world, and the Spanish navy at that time was the best in the world.

However, after being defeated by the British, the Spanish Navy weakened again and again, and the name of the Invincible Fleet has disappeared.

Most of the Spanish Navy are old and dilapidated warships, with few ironclad ships, and even many are sailing warships.

But Spain still has a very good foundation in the shipbuilding industry. The reason why Carlo believes that Spain can become a new naval power when the main warships of the navy are replaced in the future is that he has seen Spain's rich foundation in the shipbuilding industry.

Moreover, Spain has now obtained industrial assistance from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and cooperation intentions from France.

If the experience of these two countries in the military shipbuilding industry can be integrated, Spain's military shipbuilding field will also be greatly improved.

Although the current Spanish government has no demand for building warships, this does not mean that other countries in the world have no demand for shipbuilding.

Carlo's expectation for the Spanish military shipbuilding field is to explore more military ship orders from other countries in the world as much as possible when there is no demand in Spain.

This will not only allow Spanish shipyards to earn more income, but also allow them to accumulate more experience in the field of military shipbuilding and prepare for the future construction of the Spanish Navy.

After all, if these military shipyards are always in deficit, downsizing and bankruptcy are inevitable.

If it has too much impact on Spain's military shipbuilding industry, perhaps in the future when the Spanish government wants to formulate a naval development plan, it will need to reorganize a larger shipyard, which will undoubtedly waste a lot of time.

Before the 18th century, Spain's military shipbuilding industry was distributed in various regions, and there was no large-scale shipbuilding center.

But after the 18th century, Spain's military shipbuilding industry has been integrated into various shipbuilding centers, and four representative large military shipyards have been formed.

The four shipyards are the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, the Cuban Havana Shipyard, the El Ferrol Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard.

Compared with these four shipyards, any other civilian shipyard has a large gap in scale and government attention.

Among them, the Cuban Havana Shipyard is the most special of the four shipyards. The shipyard is located in Havana, the Cuban colony, and it is also the only large shipyard in Spain located overseas.

But unfortunately, the Havana Shipyard has been destroyed during the independence movement of the American colonies. Although the Spanish government subsequently rebuilt the Havana Shipyard, because most of the American colonies have been lost, there is no need for such a large shipyard in America.

This shipyard, which was once able to build large sailing warships, has gradually become the last echelon of the four major shipyards, and is not even on the Spanish government's list of concerns for the future development of the shipbuilding industry.

The last work of this shipyard was the Luisa Fernando heavy frigate built in 1845, equipped with 44 guns.

In the nearly 30 years from 1845 to 1872, the Havana Shipyard only undertook the construction of some small warships and civilian ships, and there was no order for large ships.

At present, the largest shipyard in Spain is the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, which is named after the royal family.

It is worth mentioning that although the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is an industry established by the Spanish royal family, most of the current shares actually belong to the government because it belongs to the Bourbon royal family.

As a king, Carlo does not have many shares in the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. In addition, Spain’s weakness in the past 30 years has led to the reduction of the scale of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard by more than half. It is currently unable to make ends meet and faces a serious financial and bankruptcy crisis.

In addition to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and the Havana Shipyard in Cuba, the remaining El Ferrol Shipyard and Cartagena Shipyard are no longer glorious.

If the Spanish government does not intervene, it will probably be bankrupted and reorganized sooner or later, or disappear directly into history.

For the future development of the Spanish shipbuilding industry, Carlo and Prime Minister Primo reached an agreement.

The royal family will use very little money to take back the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard from the government and rebuild it into the largest shipyard in Spain.

The government is mainly responsible for the maintenance of the El Ferrol Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard. With the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard as the leader of the Spanish shipbuilding industry, the El Ferrol Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard only need to maintain their current scale, and the government does not need to spend much effort.

It only needs to ensure that these two shipyards can quickly expand into shipyards capable of building main warships when needed to meet Spain's shipbuilding needs.

It takes a lot of money for the royal family to invest and maintain the scale of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, so when acquiring the shares of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, only a small amount of money is needed to complete the acquisition.

After that, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard was completely a royal family industry. Whether it was profitable or loss-making, it was the royal family's business and had nothing to do with the government.

Carlo was still happy to acquire the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. As the largest shipyard in Spain, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard had extensive experience in shipbuilding, especially in building military warships.

This also ensured that after investing in the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, the royal family could quickly restore the former glory of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard with the shipyard's own heritage, assistance from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the technology of the French.

Again, even if there is not much demand for warships in Spain, it does not mean that all countries in the world do not have much demand for warships.

At present, there are still many countries that want to build new ironclad ships. If Spain can export the most advanced ironclad ships, it will definitely attract some foreign orders.

At present, the cost of ironclad ships varies, but the cheapest ironclad ship costs more than 200,000 pounds. For each shipyard, the income from building an ironclad ship is at least 50,000 pounds, or even more.

Especially for those more advanced and powerful ironclad ships, the higher the cost, the higher the selling price.

Only a few ironclad ships need to be built each year, which can not only maintain the daily expenses of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, but also expand the scale of the shipyard through a steady stream of income, recruit more employees and wait for the announcement of Spain's shipbuilding plan in the future.

At the same time, the shipyard can continue to accumulate experience in shipbuilding by taking orders from abroad. I think it will be no problem to attract some countries to place orders in Spanish shipyards with the reputation of being one of the top five naval powers in Spain.

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