Chapter 143 Christmas

Time passed quietly, and soon it was Christmas in 1872.

This year's Christmas in the palace was much more lively, because the palace welcomed the hostess Queen Sophie.

Carlo himself didn't care, but in order to prevent Queen Sophie from being bored in the huge palace, he decided to hold a large court banquet to make the Madrid Palace lively on Christmas.

Banquets are not only an important means of communication for noble ladies, but also one of the ways to strengthen communication between nobles.

In fact, except for a few nobles such as Duke Jacobo, Carlo has not seen many Spanish nobles for a long time.

It is still necessary to connect the nobles and deepen their feelings through this court banquet. After all, the nobles are also Carlo's helpers.

In fact, the reason for everything is that the number of people in the Spanish royal family is too small. There are only two people in the entire royal family, the king and the queen, and it is indeed very monotonous during festivals.

However, Carlo has never treated himself badly in life. Although there are only two people in the royal family, the servants of the entire palace add up to hundreds of people. There are more than ten chefs responsible for cooking alone, who can make food with different flavors from various European countries.

The clothes that Carlo and Queen Sophie usually wear are also made by private tailors specifically for the royal family. The cost of each piece of clothing is as high as hundreds of pesetas, and some expensive dresses even cost more than 10,000 pesetas.

In order to prepare for this huge court banquet, more than a dozen chefs who are proficient in the cuisine of various European countries are all dispatched to specialize in making a variety of exquisite food.

After several years of development, Carlo's wine industry has become a well-known enterprise in Spanish wine estates.

After all, with Carlo as the king's personal advertising, the wine has been virtually improved. Although the Royal Winery brand sold to civilians is not exclusively for the royal family, the production site is from the royal winery.

The high-end Royal Winery has now become one of the main choices for nobles' banquets. After all, this is the king's industry, and the nobles have to give some face to it more or less.

Even though most of the nobles have their own red wine industry, taking out one or two bottles of wine from the Royal Winery during the banquet can not only please His Majesty the King, but also directly show the consumption of the banquet.

The wines from the Royal Winery are relatively expensive, just like Maotai in later generations. Regardless of whether they taste good or not, the price is here.

It is precisely because of the high price that the wines produced by the Royal Winery are still popular among the Spanish nobles and capitalists.

Even because they are in the Iberian Peninsula, the wines from the Royal Winery are also popular among the Portuguese nobles.

Also because of Queen Sophie, a lot of Royal Winery wines are exported to the Austro-Hungarian Empire every year, and they are also well received by the nobles of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After all, it is one of the top ten wine producing regions in later generations, and the taste and output of Spanish wines are relatively excellent.

Under the stimulation of the wine industry, Spain has also added many grape plantations and cooperated with the royal winery.

Compared with farming, the income from growing grapes will be higher. However, the Royal Winery has strict requirements for the varieties and appearance of grapes. Grapes with poor varieties and appearance can only cooperate with small wine estates to produce wine brands for civilians.

Carlo's winery also has a cost-effective wine brand called Iberia Estate. The quality of Iberia Estate wine is obviously much worse than that of the Royal Winery.

Whether in terms of wine quality or packaging, there is a huge difference compared to the wine of the Royal Winery.

However, poor quality and packaging also mean lower prices. The wine of the Royal Winery costs at least a hundred pesetas per bottle, and a bottle of wine is equivalent to a Spanish person's annual income.

The price of Iberia Estate wine is generally below 10 pesetas, and there are even super low-priced wines of 2-3 pesetas.

As for the market of inferior wines with lower prices, Carlo does not intend to get involved for the time being. After all, it is impossible for the royal winery to cover all the markets of Spanish red wines. It is better to focus on the more profitable mid-to-high-end market.

Although the inferior wine market has a larger sales volume, the profit per bottle of wine is very low, and it is completely based on volume.

At present, the Royal Winery occupies more than 50% of the high-end wine market in Spain, and it is very common at the banquets of nobles and capitalists.

The wines of Iberia Estate occupy about 35% of the low-end market, and the rest of the market is occupied by other dazzling wine brands in Spain.

The wine market alone brings millions of pesetas to the Spanish government's fiscal revenue, and even drives the employment of tens of thousands of people.

In addition, the reputation of Spanish wine made famous by the export of high-end red wine has made the Spanish government attach great importance to the development of grape planting and the wine industry. It has even specially issued corresponding support policies to encourage people to plant grapes and reduce taxes on the red wine industry.

For Spain, a lot of land can be used to grow grapes and produce Spanish-style wines with unique flavors.

This can effectively promote the development of the grape industry. Compared with simply growing food, the income from growing grapes will be significantly higher.

But the bad news is that there is a country in the north of Spain that is more famous for the grape industry, that is France.

French wine is truly popular in Europe, and even caused a scramble among most European nobles.

Of course, this also has certain historical reasons. During the most prosperous period of France, the language used by European noble diplomacy was French.

When the nobles gave their children an elite aristocratic education, in addition to learning their own language, the first foreign language they learned was French.

With the spread of French, French wine also sold well throughout Europe. Although France has been continuously weakening, the love of nobles from various countries for French wine has not diminished much.

There are even legends about Lafite in later generations. Although most of the Lafite on the market are counterfeit products, the fact that it is so famous also proves how huge and well-known the French wine industry is.

Although Spain also has one of the world's top ten wine producing regions, it is obviously unable to compete with France in terms of wine.

Not to mention France, Italy, across the Mediterranean Sea to the east, also has the world's top ten wine producing regions and is also a competitor for Spanish wine exports.     Soon, the Spanish nobles received news that His Majesty the King would hold a large court banquet at the palace on Christmas Day.

These nobles naturally had no reason to refuse the invitation personally from His Majesty the King. Of course, no one would refuse the invitation from His Majesty the King. After all, this was not only an opportunity for the King to get closer to them, but also an opportunity for them to get closer to the King.

This large-scale court banquet invited most of the archdukes and dukes near Madrid, which could be regarded as a high-level gathering of the Spanish aristocracy.

Including Prime Minister Duke Primo and Defense Minister Archduke Serrano, the nobles who participated in this banquet were either highly influential in the aristocracy or high-level people with certain prestige in the government and the military.

Of course, Antonio Canovas del Castillo and Jovillar Soller were also among them.

Cavanos is the current Minister of Agriculture of the Cabinet Government and the main leader of the Spanish Conservative Party. Although Jovillar Soller was just an ordinary member of parliament, he was reused by Carlo because he showed his loyalty to Carlo earlier.

After all, there are only so many seats in the Spanish parliament, most of which are in the hands of Prime Minister Primo. It is more important for members like Jovillar Soller to support Carlo.

Just like the last low-rent housing proposal, if Carlo wants to submit anything to the parliament, he can let Jovillar Soller submit it on his behalf and get rid of the risks he has to bear.

Moreover, members of the parliament not only have the power to elect the cabinet government, but also the power to participate in the election of the cabinet government.

In the future, after Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano gradually withdraw from Spanish politics, the next cabinet government is destined to be born in the election of members of the parliament.

In other words, the current members of the parliament are likely to be members of the next cabinet government.

Of course, the premise is that they are still members of the parliament during the election of the next cabinet government.

According to the Spanish Constitution, localities elect a certain number of members according to the population ratio to jointly form the Spanish Senate, which is the so-called parliament.

Senators are elected every three years and can theoretically have unlimited terms. As long as they are supported by the local Spanish people, they can always serve as members of the Senate.

Because the current cabinet of the Spanish government was elected in February 1869, the election time for the next cabinet government will be in February 1874, five years later.

When February 1874 comes, members of the Senate can take the initiative to run for the position of prime minister of the cabinet, and the final candidate for prime minister will be determined after the vote of all members of the Senate.

Although there is no party requirement for running for prime minister, the members who run for prime minister must either be non-partisan members or must be the actual leaders of a party.

Party members have no right to run for prime minister. They can only help the leader of their own party to run for the position of prime minister, and then obtain a seat as a cabinet minister in the cabinet.

After all, the prime minister is the leader of the Spanish government. If he cannot serve as the supreme leader in the party, wouldn’t it be more difficult for the Spanish prime minister, who is above ten thousand people, to be the top leader?

If there is a requirement that the party leader must run for election, it is actually screening the prestige of the prime minister candidate. Only with enough prestige can the entire cabinet government be suppressed. On the contrary, a prime minister with no prestige will make the cabinet more chaotic.

Although there is no such requirement for non-partisans, in fact, it is more difficult for them to run for election. If you run for election as a party leader, you can also mobilize the power of the entire party to help you run for election.

But if you are a non-partisan, you can only rely on yourself, and the difficulty is definitely increased several times.

According to the Spanish Constitution, the one who obtains more than 60% of the votes for Senate seats will be the prime minister of the Spanish government.

If you can get 60% of the votes through your own efforts or the efforts of your party, such a prime minister has complete freedom to form a cabinet.

But if your party alone cannot get 60% of the votes, you can also join other parties and get 60% of the votes together.

However, the prime minister position obtained through a coalition will also have too many restrictions. After all, others will not unconditionally help you run for prime minister, and there must be some concessions when forming a cabinet.

The Spanish Constitution stipulates that if a coalition fails to obtain more than 60% of the votes, the individual or party leader who receives the most votes will become the Prime Minister of Spain, but other parties and non-partisans will have the right to run for other cabinet seats.

In other words, if 60% of the votes cannot be obtained, all cabinet seats in Spain will be obtained through elections, rather than appointing a cabinet after the Prime Minister is elected.

In any case, no matter which method is used to form a cabinet government, the cabinet government needs to swear allegiance to Carlo as the king.

This step was previously a common practice in monarchical countries, with the purpose of showing the king's supreme power to the cabinet government and letting them know who is the master of the country.

The main reason why Prime Minister Primo retained this practice is to protect the monarchy and stability of Spain. After all, since he chose the monarchy as the main body of the government, the monarchy and him have been linked.

The more stable the monarchy of Spain is, the more energy the government led by Prime Minister Primo will have to promote reforms in Spain.

On the contrary, if the monarchy in Spain is not stable, as a supporter of the monarchy, Prime Minister Primo will naturally not have much energy to promote reforms.

The cabinet government is elected by the Senate, and the mayors of the regions are also elected by the regional parliaments, including cities and towns, which are basically through the election process.

The Senate and the regional parliaments also have the power to impeach officials. Spain's current political system is more like a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, and power is basically concentrated in parliament.

The more similar is the British political system, or in other words, when Spain formulated the constitution, it largely referred to the provisions of the British Constitution.

After all, Britain was the world's most powerful country at the time, and it was also a representative of the constitutional monarchy. It was common to refer to the British Constitution.

As the king of Spain, Carlo is relatively special in the Spanish political system. The nominal power is great, but it requires a high influence.

If there is no influence in politics and the military, the power is more like empty and basically cannot be exercised.