Chapter 141 Two Pillars of Military Industry (Two-in-one Chapter)

Although the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has long lost its former glory, it is very important for Spain's future development plan.

For Carlo, this is also the first military shipyard under his control. It is not only of great significance, but also of great strategic value.

Although a large number of land powerhouses have been born in this era, including Russia, the former bulldozer of Europe, France, the former European hegemon, and Germany, the world's first land power.

But these countries, without exception, cannot impact the glory of the British Empire. The British sit firmly on the throne of the world's first with the largest navy. They can laugh at the competition and fighting between European countries and dominate the situation in Europe as victors.

The biggest reason for this situation is the British navy's leading position over other powers.

In other words, in this era, if you can't have a relatively strong navy, you can't exert influence on the outside world.

Isn't Germany, which defeated the French, strong? Of course it is strong. But in the eyes of the British, the current threat of the Germans is even lower than that of France and Russia.

France and Russia at least have a large-scale navy, while the Germans only have a seemingly powerful army. However, no matter how powerful the army is, it cannot cross the ocean. The English Channel and the Royal Fleet are the guarantee of the British Empire's strength, and also the reason why they do not care about the threat of Germany.

Since the navy is so important, why do only a very small number of countries have a large-scale navy?

The reason is also very simple, that is, the establishment of a navy requires a lot of capital investment and investment in manpower and material resources.

In any era, the establishment of a navy requires a lot of cost. The battleships of the sailing warship era were not so easy to build. It required towering trees of hundreds of years, as well as the careful production and design of craftsmen, to build a warship that could sail in the sea and even fight in the ocean.

The ironclad ships are more of a test of the industrial level of each country. The steam turbines that provide power for warships and the naval guns that are the main firepower output are the crystallization of industrial development to date.

Building a warship requires not only a large number of advanced equipment, but also a large amount of steel, which also means that some countries with weak industries cannot build warships by themselves.

Moreover, it is not enough to have such technology, and sufficient experience in shipbuilding is also needed. Warships are not disposable items, they need to be used for a long time and even go through several naval battles.

If the design of a warship has some hidden problems due to lack of experience, it may not be seen at ordinary times, but once a war occurs, it may endanger the safety of the entire warship.

In addition, the cost of a warship is as high as hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the naval officers and soldiers on the warship also need to invest a lot of materials and time to train.

If it is not an industrial power or an economic power, the navy of this era is really not something that ordinary countries can play with.

Moreover, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is the largest shipyard in Spain and has rich experience in building warships.

Although it was a bit lonely in the era of sailing warships turning into ironclad ships, it had built ironclad ships for the Spanish government and had some relevant experience.

It is precisely because of this that Carlo attached more importance to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to save the few excellent shipyards in Spain in ironclad ships.

After getting all the shares of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard from the government, Carlo decided to expand the shipyard immediately, and in three years, he rebuilt the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard into the largest shipyard in Spain, with the ability to build the latest ironclad ships.

The good news is that with the technical assistance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and partial support from France, it is still very easy for the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to have the ability to build the latest ironclad ships.

The only difficulty at present is the scale of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. Because of the increasing losses of the shipyard, the scale of the shipyard has been reduced again and again.

70 years ago, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard was still the largest shipyard in the Iberian Peninsula, and built dozens of powerful sailing warships for Spain.

But 70 years later in 1872, the scale of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard had been reduced by more than half, and the number of employees in the shipyard was even less than 300.

Although the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard theoretically has the ability to build ironclad ships, it takes more than a year or almost two years to build an outdated ironclad ship with less than 300 employees, not to mention building the latest ironclad ships.

If such a construction speed really relies on taking orders from abroad to make money, it is probably impossible to support the expenses of the entire shipyard.

On October 27, 1872, Carlo and Butler Loren went to the port of Guarnizo in northern Spain to inspect the current situation of the largest shipyard in Spain.

Because the shares of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard were in the hands of the government before, the government naturally had no time to take care of the development of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, which was basically in a free-range state.

And Antonio Monari, the current director of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, is a guy with very mediocre ability.

It can be said that the decline of the four major shipyards in Spain is affected by various reasons.

The biggest reason is the weakness of Spain itself, which has led to the Spanish government's repeated reduction of its attention to the navy and basically no development of the navy.

After the four major shipyards lost orders from Spain, they could only survive by getting orders from foreign warships or building civilian ships needed by the public.

But the tonnage of civilian ships is very small, and the smallest is only a few tons. When military ships have evolved into ironclad ships, most civilian ships are still wooden ships wrapped in iron sheets, or even without iron sheets.

Building such civilian ships does not make much money. With the decreasing income, the shipyards can only reduce their scale helplessly, and even wait for the day of bankruptcy.

As the largest shipyard in Spain, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has rich shipbuilding experience and once had the most advanced shipbuilding technology.

According to common sense, such a large-scale shipyard would not fall into such a situation even if it lacks domestic orders.

After all, there are still a large number of countries in the world that can become partners. As long as one or two ironclad ships can be sold every year, it can help the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard maintain its expenses.

But it is obvious that neither the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard under the control of the Bourbon royal family nor the shipyard under the control of the provisional government had a better director to save the company.

The shipyard weakened along with Spain, and naturally it could not compete with traditional powers such as Britain and France.

Now Spain's shipbuilding industry is completely supported by its past foundation, and the overall scale is slowly shrinking.

If Spain's overall size is not still relatively strong, and Spain has not been weak for a long time, perhaps the Spanish shipbuilding industry cannot even compete with countries like the Netherlands.

But think about it carefully, the Dutch were once the overlords of the sea. They also have a very rich foundation in the shipbuilding industry, and building ironclad ships is naturally no problem.

If the Netherlands' land area and population were not too small, the Netherlands would be more competitive in the navy and shipbuilding industry.

Back to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, since all the shares of the shipyard have been obtained, the next step is naturally to let the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard return to the peak of the Spanish shipbuilding industry and expand the foreign market in the field of Spanish military shipbuilding.

Although Spain does not need to build ironclad ships at present, it does not mean that other countries do not need ironclad ships to fill the facade.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is located in the Bay of Santander, a small port between the Carvalgo and Mariánio Peninsulas.

From the overall location point of view, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is located in northern Spain, facing the Bay of Biscay. Another large shipyard, El Ferrol, is located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, directly facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Another large shipyard is located in the east of Spain, facing the Mediterranean Sea. The three major shipyards are arranged in a triangular layout, but more of them are facing the Atlantic Ocean, because there used to be a vast colony of Spain there.

The Port of Guarnizo was still relatively prosperous 50 years ago. But with the decline of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, the Port of Guarnizo has also returned to its previous state of a small village.     After arriving near the Guarnizo Shipyard, Carlo's first reaction was the decline of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

However, this can also be regarded as good news. When Spain builds warships in the future, it will be more convenient to block the news.

Carlo went straight into the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and met Antonio, the current director of the shipyard.

How to say it, Antonio gave Carlo a very bad first impression, and Carlo was more determined to change the growth candidate of the shipyard.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is very important to the future development of the royal family and Spain. The selection of the director of the shipyard is even more important, and can even determine the future development direction of the shipyard.

"Your Majesty, as you can see, this is the existing dock of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. We are repairing a sailing warship for the navy, which is expected to be completed within half a month." Antonio introduced the current situation of the shipyard to Carlo with a smile, obviously not expecting that his career as a director was only a few days away.

"Does the current Royal Guarnizo Shipyard still have the ability to build ironclad ships? In other words, how many tonnage warships can the existing docks build? How long does it take to build a most advanced ironclad ship?" Carlo raised his own questions one after another, and these questions were also Carlo's most concerned.

"Of course we have the ability to build ironclad ships, Your Majesty." Antonio nodded quickly and replied: "We still have the largest dock, and the maximum warship tonnage that can be built is 6,200 tons.

But because we haven't built ironclad ships for a long time, please forgive me for not being able to give you an exact construction time. But if the whole factory is working at full capacity to build an ironclad ship, I think it can be completed in three and a half years."

Carlo shook his head, obviously more disappointed with such an answer.

If the construction time of an ironclad ship alone takes three and a half years, plus the subsequent sea trials and training time, the entire warship may take more than five years from the start of construction to the formation of combat effectiveness.

Five years is too long, not to mention just building one ironclad ship. If several ships are started at the same time, perhaps the ironclad ship has just begun to serve, and the era of pre-dreadnoughts is coming.

"How many workers does the shipyard currently have? How many of them are skilled workers?" Carlo asked: "If the royal family increases investment in the shipyard, can the shipyard have a complete development plan?"

Director Antonio quickly replied: "There are about 200 workers in the shipyard at present, and the number of skilled workers is close to a quarter.

If your majesty wants to expand the scale of the shipyard, it only takes 5 million pesetas. I can expand the scale of the shipyard to more than 1,000 people within three years."

Carlo nodded and said nothing more.

This inspection of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard also ended quickly, and Carlo had a more detailed plan in mind.

If the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard wants to develop, it must have a more capable director to be in charge of the entire shipyard. Director Antonio may have certain abilities, but it is completely insufficient compared to Carlo's expectations.

But after all, he is also an old man who has worked for the shipyard for a long time, and Carlo will not be too heartless.

Director Antonio will have two choices. Either go to other shipyards under government control to continue to serve as the director, or go to other government departments to take less important positions.

After leaving the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, Carlo immediately asked Butler Loren: "Butler Loren, do you have a suitable candidate for the director of the shipyard?"

"Not yet, Your Majesty. But I will select suitable candidates for the director of the shipyard within Spain. Please give me some time and I will submit a list of candidates to you." Butler Loren replied.

Italy is just starting out in the shipbuilding industry, and if you really want to find talents, you have to go to Spain. If you compare the foundation of shipbuilding, there are really few countries that can compare with Spain.

Carlo nodded. The development of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard cannot be completed in a short period of time, so there is no need to rush to select the director.

Before a new and more suitable candidate is determined, Antonio can temporarily continue to stay in the position of director. If the subsequent development of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard meets Carlo's expectations, perhaps Antonio can continue to stay.

But if the development of the shipyard still does not meet Carlo's expectations, and even makes Carlo more and more disappointed, then Carlo can only replace him with a better person.

Although Carlo left the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, he also left a small number of people to help the shipyard sort out its financial situation and complete the expansion.

If the financial situation of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is fine, the shipyard can be allocated funds next.

Carlo has only one requirement, that is, with sufficient financial support, try to restore the scale of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and regain the ability to build the most powerful ironclad ships.

Three and a half years of shipbuilding time is too long. At least the time for building warships needs to be compressed to less than two years to meet Carlo's expectations.

After completing further reforms of the shipyard, you can take the ironclad ship drawings designed by the shipyard to find buyers all over the world.

Even buyers of ironclad ships may be found in Europe, such as the two powerful countries that have only completed unification in recent years.

Germany and Italy have only been unified in recent years, and they will definitely develop naval power in the future. Especially Germany, after defeating France, has become a veritable top European power and the world's number one army country.

But Germany's naval scale is too weak, and even the current naval scale is not as good as Spain.

A big reason for this is the choice of the Kingdom of Prussia to attach importance to the army and despise the navy. The Kingdom of Prussia obviously cannot play the two major branches of the army and navy at the same time. Coupled with the pressure from the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia can only choose to pay more attention to the army.

But now after the unification of the German region, Germany has a stronger industry and economy, and is also qualified to play the two major branches of the army and navy at the same time.

It is very difficult to play the army and navy at the same time, and even the British Empire can only do it with difficulty. The strength of the Royal Fleet is unquestionable, but the strength of the British Army is not weak, but not too strong.

Spain has done it before. During the British Empire, Spain not only had the most powerful navy, but also had the top army in Europe.

The Spanish phalanx was famous for a time, and even had the record of capturing the French king. Spain in its heyday can be said to be a veritable European hegemon. Both its navy and army are world-class and have impressive records.

At present, the British have only achieved hegemonic strength in the navy, and the army is only at the level of a medium-sized power.

But this is also quite good. After all, Britain is just an island country, and it does not need to maintain such a large army to protect its own national security.

The expansion of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard requires a lot of funds, but this is not a big problem.

After several years of development, Carlo has more and more assets in his hands.

The income from the two major banks, the Spanish National Bank and the Royal United Bank, is enough to make up for the expenses of the Guards Division and the Royal Palace.

The income from Carlo's many factories is all used to expand or invest in more industries. At present, even if the total value of the royal assets is not over 100 million, it is definitely tens of millions of pesetas.

It is no problem to take out a few million pesetas to help the shipyard expand. Even if the shipyard continues to lose money in the next few years, it is not a big deal for Carlo.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and the Royal Arsenal are Carlo's confidence in the military industry. In the future, Spanish military technology will rely on these two leading military enterprises.

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