Chapter 144 Encouraging Childbirth Three Major Studies

In fact, since getting married, Carlo has faced a new problem, that is, the problem of blood inheritance.

In other words, Carlo's biggest task after getting married is actually to have children.

Not only in the royal family, for most noble families, the first task of inheriting the title is to have children, and the second is to find ways to expand their own industry.

If there is no qualified heir to inherit their own industry, what can they do even if they have a kingdom or empire?

The country will not perish, but if the family has no heirs to inherit, it will face the situation of extinction.

There are countless examples in European history where the throne fell to branches or even other clans due to extinction, which also made European nobles attach great importance to the inheritance of blood.

It's okay if you don't get married. If you don't have children after more than three years of marriage, you will be arranged to find the cause of the problem.

How to find the problem is also very simple, that is, to arrange many lovers for the nobles. If the lover can get pregnant, it proves that the noble wife has a problem.

If the lover can't get pregnant, then it is likely that the noble himself has a problem.

If it is a problem of the nobles themselves, then they need to select qualified heirs from their relatives in advance to inherit the title, such as the children of their brothers or sisters.

Carlo currently has no such worries. After all, it has been less than a year since they got married, and because Carlo and Queen Sophie are still young, they have no plans to have offspring for the time being.

In fact, it is because the medical technology of this era is too poor. In order to ensure the future health of Queen Sophie, Carlo plans to wait until she is fully adult and ready before discussing the issue of having children.

In fact, it is not far away. Queen Sophie was born in March 1855, only 3 months away from adulthood.

However, considering the preparations before giving birth, the time of pregnancy, etc., Carlo's first child will be born at least two years later.

For the consideration of the royal family's expansion, Carlo's children are of course the more the better. Anyway, the royal family has no worries about the expenses of having children, so naturally the more the better.

It just happens to set an example for the Spanish people. His Majesty the King is trying hard to have children, so why shouldn't the people share the worries about the growth of the Spanish population?

Of course, if you want the Spanish people to be more enthusiastic about having children, you have to solve the troubles after the birth of the children, that is, various expenses.

In addition to popularizing compulsory education at least in primary school, Carlo also plans to establish subsidies and rewards for Spain for having more children.

However, such subsidy and reward policies must be discussed with the government. After all, it is the government that spends money. If the government does not agree, there will definitely be some contradictions in the future policies in this regard.

Because population is currently the biggest defect in Spain, the proposal to encourage childbirth should be implemented as soon as possible.

Just after Christmas, Carlo asked Jovillar Soller to propose a proposal to encourage childbirth in the House of Representatives to test Prime Minister Primo's attitude.

The current parliament is controlled by Prime Minister Primo, and whether the proposal is passed or not depends entirely on Prime Minister Primo's attitude towards the proposal.

This is also the reason why Carlo asked Jovillar Soller to submit the proposal directly to the House of Representatives. If Prime Minister Primo supports it, the proposal will be easily passed.

But if Prime Minister Primo does not support the proposal, even if he joins other political parties, he will not be able to occupy the majority of seats in the parliament.

The proposal submitted to the parliament was soon known to Prime Minister Primo. Because Prime Minister Primo already knew why Jovillar Soler had been loyal to Carlo, he naturally regarded the proposal as proposed by Carlo.

First of all, Prime Minister Primo did not have many reasons to reject the content of the proposal. The only thing worth discussing is the content of rewards and subsidies for families with many children, but this can be discussed within the cabinet government.

After all, it is the parliament that submits and amends the law, but it is the cabinet government that implements the law.

Even if the proposal is passed by the parliament, how the bill is implemented is still decided by the cabinet government.

Jovillar Soler was able to submit this proposal in the House of Representatives, and I think he also got the support of Carlo.

In this case, Prime Minister Primo will naturally not refuse. He still respects Carlo, just as Carlo respects his power in the cabinet government.

Carlo knew that Spain's reforms could not be separated from the strong promotion of Prime Minister Primo, and Prime Minister Primo certainly knew that the success of the reforms could not be separated from Carlo's strong support.

The royal power still has a great influence in Spain. As a prime minister who supports the monarchy, Primo certainly hopes that he can get Carlo's support, rather than stand in opposition to the king he has supported.

With the tacit approval of Prime Minister Primo, the proposal was quickly passed in parliament. Although the Progressive Party occupies the majority of seats in parliament, the Conservative Party is still the second largest party in Spain.

Currently in the Spanish parliament, the Progressive Party is an absolute major party and the current ruling party in Spain. The leader of the Progressive Party is Prime Minister Primo, and the vast majority of its members are also reformists.

The second largest party is the Conservative Party. The current representative of the Conservative Party is the current Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Canovas del Castillo, who occupies 20% of the total seats in parliament.

The third largest party is the Liberal Party, which is also the last large-scale legal political party in Spain. The ideas of the members of the Liberal Party are between conservative and reformist. They maintain a relatively neutral attitude towards the monarchical government, that is, neither firmly opposed nor firmly supported.

After that, there are some small parties, which either have only one or two seats in parliament or no seats in parliament at all, and are completely small parties.

The reason why the Liberal Party is the last large-scale legal political party in Spain is that there is still an illegal large-scale party in Spain, that is, the party that supports the establishment of a republican Spanish government during the revolution.

After Carlo was chosen to become the King of Spain, the position of the Republican Party was more embarrassing. They support the republic and stand on the opposite side of the new Spanish Kingdom government.

However, for the stability of the Spanish government at that time, and considering that Carlo had just arrived in Spain, Prime Minister Primo did not target the Republican Party, and the Republican Party was still the top three parties in Spain.

But when the Carlos rebelled, many members of the Republican Party supported the rebellion in Catalonia and the Basque region, and had a serious impact on the stability of Spain.

Prime Minister Primo acted decisively and declared the Republican Party, the third largest party in Spain, illegal and banned the Republican Party in Spain.

This also made the Liberal Party the third largest party in Spain, and the Republican Party became a party with a large number of supporters but completely illegal.

However, the good news is that since Spain's reform and development have been smooth, the number of people supporting the Republican Party has been decreasing.

There are not many people who firmly support the republic, but more people who are disappointed with the original monarchy. They hope to establish a new system of government to change the situation in Spain. The real purpose is to change the current situation in Spain, not to change the government.

Since Carlo became the King of Spain, Spain has indeed been moving in a good direction. The actual income of the Spanish people has been greatly improved, which also allows those who are eager to change the situation in Spain to see the benefits of the monarchy.

They also understand that it is not the monarchy that has huge flaws, but the original King of Spain has major flaws.

This part of people gradually became reformists. They support the Spanish Kingdom government under the constitutional monarchy and are eager to reform some of the more backward and conservative directions in Spain to make Spain stronger and more advanced.

Under such evolution, Prime Minister Primo's Progressive Party has become the largest party in Spain, completely crushing the Conservative Party with a larger audience in terms of parliamentary seats.

Yes, although the Conservative Party does not have an advantage in parliamentary seats, it is still the largest party in Spain in terms of the number of supporters.

Because the Conservative Party has a large number of farmers as its audience, most Spanish farmers support more conservative parties. They do not want the country to change too much, and it is best for nothing to happen and for them to live and work in peace.

That is, the reform has brought practical benefits to farmers, and it has also made these farmers, who are mostly conservative in their thinking, not opposed to the reforms in Spain, and some farmers are even eager to see more reforms in Spain.

After all, the reform has actually reduced and abolished taxes, and the burden on farmers has been reduced, and the pressure on their lives has naturally been much less.

The most representative of the reduction of the burden on Spanish farmers is the growth of the Spanish population. Originally, during the Spanish Kingdom, the annual population growth was very small, and sometimes even less than 100,000.

This is very exaggerated, and it also proves that during the reign of Queen Isabel, the Spanish people did not live very well, which led to them having no extra energy to have children.

During Carlo's reign, as the burden on the people was lightened, they naturally had more thoughts on the issue of procreation.

Today's contraceptive measures are not so advanced, the technology of condoms is not mature, and they are not as thin as in later generations.

The common contraceptive measures used by the people are made of sheep intestines and flax, which are neither comfortable nor practical. Sheep intestines also have a fishy smell and are very uncomfortable to use.

But it is not possible not to use them. If you get pregnant accidentally, giving birth is a life-threatening problem. Even if you give birth, the survival rate of the baby is not that high.

Even if the baby survives and is healthy, raising a child is a considerable expense.

In the future, Spain will definitely ban abortion completely. There is no other reason. The only reason is that the current abortion technology is too backward and the risk factor is too high.

Considering the subsidy and reward policy for families with many children that the Spanish government is about to issue, even if abortion technology is completely banned in Spain in the future, it will not cause too much burden to the Spanish people.     Perhaps it is also possible to consider the royal family and the government jointly establishing nursing homes and orphanages to help children from poor families get a better education.

Of course, foster homes and orphanages are definitely not free. Children raised in these two institutions have two choices in the future.

Either they can directly serve the country and be exempted from all expenses in orphanages or foster homes. Or they can work and earn money on their own to repay their debts.

Back to the subsidies and rewards for having more children, after being passed by the parliament, they were quickly submitted to the cabinet government for implementation.

After the promulgation of the previous assessment system, the administrative efficiency of governments at all levels in Spain is going to be greatly improved. There is no way not to improve it. As long as the assessment is poor, there will be no mercy in demotion.

At present, the mayors of several cities have been dismissed by the parliaments of their regions. It is related to their own positions and future prospects. It is impossible for these officials not to pay attention.

The parliament passed only a draft. How to implement it specifically needs to be determined according to the financial situation of the Spanish government.

When the parliament passed the draft, Prime Minister Primo convened a cabinet meeting and handed the task to the people's livelihood and finance departments.

After a period of discussion, the people's livelihood and finance departments finally came up with a more detailed "Law on Subsidies and Rewards for Families with Many Children and More Children"

The bill stipulates in detail that a family with 2 or fewer children is an ordinary family. On this basis, a government subsidy can be enjoyed for each additional child.

The government subsidy is 25% of the local per capita annual income, which is about 26 pesetas based on the current national per capita annual income. The government subsidy can be received once a year, or directly credited to the official bank account bound to the family.

In addition to government subsidies, there are certain rewards for families with many children. For example, if you have more than 5 children, Spanish state-owned enterprises or royal enterprises will give priority when recruiting employees.

If you have more than 8 children, you will be published in local newspapers and awarded the title of "hero parents" by the local government.

If you have more than 10 children, you can be personally received by Carlo and awarded the title of "hero parents" in Spain, and you will be invited to every official event organized by the Spanish government.

Although the corresponding subsidies and rewards are not very generous, for some families who originally have more than 2 children, they can indeed get an extra income.

Although the local 25% per capita annual income subsidy is not much, the combined annual income of several children can almost be equal to that of an adult.

With the continuous increase in per capita annual income, having more children can indeed become one of the choices for the Spanish. After all, reproduction is also one of the few entertainment activities for civilians in this era.

Considering that the population and economic scale of Spain are constantly changing, this bill is currently only temporarily implemented and is likely to undergo changes in the future.

This bill is not a big expense for the Spanish government. If a newborn can receive a government subsidy of 26 pesetas, according to the growth of the Spanish population, it is estimated that there will be about 200,000 newborns next year.

This also means that the government only needs to bear a subsidy of about 5.2 million pesetas to stimulate the population of Spain to grow to a higher range.

Even some of the newborns do not fall into the range of more than two, and the subsidy expenditure that the government needs to bear is lower.

This is almost in the range of spending small money to do big things. The fiscal revenue of the Spanish government is constantly increasing, and 5 million pesetas is indeed not a large expense for the current Spanish government.

When the Ministry of Finance approved this budget, it didn't even blink an eye. If it weren't for the fact that too high subsidies are not a good thing, the Minister of Finance would even consider increasing some subsidies on the basis of the provisions of the bill to stimulate Spain's population growth rate to a greater extent.

After the bill was promulgated, Carlo didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, the implementation of the bill is the government's business. If Carlo pays too much attention to it, it will damage the current good relationship with Prime Minister Primo.

Carlo is still quite relieved about Prime Minister Primo. Since the bill can be passed by the parliament, it proves that Prime Minister Primo maintains a supportive attitude towards the bill.

The only possible change is the subsidy intensity for families with many children in the bill, which can also be changed in the future after Carlo takes power, anyway, there is no rush.

Christmas of 1872 has passed, and Carlo is currently more concerned about the upcoming economic crisis in 1873.

Fortunately, the impending economic crisis does not seem to have a big impact on Spain.

However, it is understandable to think about it. Compared with the powerful countries, Spain's industrial and economic scale is not large, so it is natural that it is less affected.

In addition, the reforms carried out by the Spanish government in Spain have kept Spain's economy in a state of steady growth, without too much exaggerated surge.

Even the production of many industries is not enough to meet the domestic needs of Spain, so there is naturally no possibility of an economic crisis.

Carlo has paid long-term attention to the Spanish stock market and industrial market. After confirming that Spain will not suffer too serious economic crisis, he was completely relieved.

Although the scale of the economic crisis that broke out in 1873 was not large, it did last for a long time and had a significant impact.

If Spain, which had just started, suffered a more severe economic crisis, it would be a devastating blow to Spain's industrial and economic development.

It would also affect the time of Spain's rise. Without the impact of the economic crisis, Spain would have hoped to complete the reform and achieve revival before 1880.

But if there was an economic crisis, the time to complete the reform and achieve revival might be postponed for more than ten years.

If so, Spain will definitely miss the best time to divide Africa. Even if Spain can wait until the reform and economic revival in the future, Africa will basically be divided up by the powers, and there will be no place that can be ruled by Spain.

Since the economic crisis suffered by Spain will not be too serious, Carlo naturally does not have to worry too much, but focuses on the development of royal enterprises, including the talents previously absorbed from Europe and their research.

At present, in addition to the more traditional steel and heavy industry, food industry and financial industry, the royal family's enterprises also include military industry, agriculture, mining and machinery manufacturing.

There are three research projects that Carlo is more concerned about, namely the research and development of machine guns and smokeless gunpowder conducted by the Maxim brothers, the engine research and development conducted by Benz, Daimler and Maybach, and the power research of Gramm.

If any of these three studies can be successful, it will have a far-reaching impact on Spain. If all three studies can be completed, Spain can rely on these three studies to greatly improve its comprehensive national strength and make great progress in the civil and military fields.

However, the difficulty of these three studies is very high, and it is even more difficult to achieve relatively good results.

For example, the popularization of electricity, generators are only the foundation, and it is also necessary to study the transmission of electricity and the equipment that uses electricity.

At present, Gram is trying to build a large thermal power plant to provide lighting for the most prosperous streets in Madrid.

If it is determined that there is no problem with the use of such electricity, in the future, lines will be laid in the royal palace and government buildings first to ensure the electric lighting of the royal palace and government buildings.

However, the popularization of electricity will take a long time. At least in the next ten years, it will be difficult for ordinary people to use electricity.

The current power plants generate limited electricity and cannot be transmitted over long distances. This also means that if you want to popularize the use of electricity throughout Spain, you must build corresponding power plants in every city.

Especially in large cities like Madrid, several power plants may not be enough. Before the power of the generator and the problem of power transmission are solved, it is basically impossible for electricity to be widely popularized.

The same is true for the engine developed by Benz. The engine is easy to invent, but it will be difficult to popularize the machinery using the engine in the next few years.

The engine can be installed on a carriage to make a simple car, but the stability, speed and safety of this kind of car cannot be guaranteed, so it is naturally impossible to produce it on a large scale for commercial use.

Moreover, the power of the current engine is very small, so it is better to use more horses to pull it.

Carlo is not in a hurry to study electricity and engines. As long as they can achieve certain results in the next 10 years and make considerable achievements in the next 20 years, Carlo will be quite satisfied.

What really makes Carlo pay more attention and keep looking forward to is the machine gun and smokeless gunpowder technology developed by the Maxim brothers.

Smokeless gunpowder was developed in 1884, that is, 12 years later. Considering Carlo's huge investment in the Maxim brothers, this time should be shortened by a large part.

After the invention of smokeless gunpowder, it has greatly promoted the development of rifles and machine guns. The Maxim machine gun may also be born in advance and become one of the heavy firepower weapons equipped by the Spanish Army.

If machine guns can be equipped earlier than other countries, it may make other countries suffer a big loss in future wars.

Especially when Spain is sure to retake Gibraltar in the future, it is necessary to work hard on the army's equipment.

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