Chapter 151 The value of treasure and national integration

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister, after four days of statistics, we have finally determined the contents of all the treasures in this batch of treasures.

There are nearly 80 tons of gold and gold products alone, nearly 3 tons of various precious gems and precious metals, more than 500 kilograms of diamonds and other property.

According to our conservative estimate, if we only calculate the value of the property itself and do not calculate the added value brought by antiques, the total value of this batch of treasures has reached 900 million pesetas.

But unfortunately, only gold and its products, as well as various gems, pearls, diamonds, etc. can be sold directly. The value of the property that can be sold directly is about 620 million pesetas, and the property of nearly 280 million pesetas will take longer to sell." The palace steward Loren respectfully reported the statistical results of the guarantee to Carlo and Prime Minister Primo.

When they heard that the total value of the treasure had exceeded 900 million pesetas, the faces of Prime Minister Carlo and Prime Minister Primo changed significantly.

Prime Minister Primo was delighted and excited, and at the same time he admired Carlo for providing the information.

Although the treasure was valuable, it was more important that Carlo provided clues about the treasure, which gave the Spanish government the opportunity to obtain the treasure.

If there were no clues, the treasure would continue to be buried underground and discovered by the British colonial government or the Indians several years later.

As far as the current situation is concerned, although the government can only get half of the treasure, it is worth nearly 450 million pesetas, which is almost close to the government's total fiscal revenue for one year.

This money is even more important to the Spanish government than the 500 million franc loan from the French government. After all, the French loan is interest-bearing, while this treasure does not require any interest or even repayment.

The only pity is that because many of the gold products have obvious Hindu symbols, they can only be forced to be remelted.

This will destroy the value of many gold products, turning them from antiques that are hundreds of years old or even hundreds of years old into ordinary gold products.

But there is no way around it. If these gold products with conspicuous Hindu symbols flow into Spain or other markets, they will definitely attract the attention of the British.

After all, Hinduism is not very popular in other regions except India. Gold products with Hindu symbols are most likely from India. After the temple was stolen, the British will definitely pay more attention to the circulation of gold and jewelry in markets around the world.

Now that the value of the temple treasure has been roughly determined, the most important thing next is naturally the distribution between the government and the royal family.

Carlo was also very excited. According to the agreement with Prime Minister Primo, the royal family can get half of the treasure, which is about 450 million pesetas.

At present, the total value of all the companies in Carlo's hands is just over 100 million, which is equivalent to expanding Carlo's property several times just by digging for treasure this time.

"Prime Minister Primo, since there are a lot of pearls, gems and diamonds in this treasure, why not distribute these things without Hindu symbols to the royal family?

The royal family can take less gold and its products, which will benefit both the royal family and the government." Carlo proposed.

For the government, the gold and gold products in these treasures are obviously more important. Those gems, pearls and diamonds that seem to be worth a fortune are not of much use to the government.

It is better to distribute these properties to the royal family as much as possible, on the one hand to increase the storage of royal treasures, and on the other hand to distribute more gold to the government, thereby expanding the Spanish government's gold reserves.

"Of course." Prime Minister Primo nodded, without any refusal.

He also knew that Carlo was giving more gold reserves to the government by doing this, and strictly speaking, the government was making money.

After a simple distribution by Carlo and Prime Minister Primo, the proportion of gold and jewelry that the royal family and the government each received was finally successfully determined.

Of the more than 80 tons of gold and gold products, the government received a full 50 tons of gold to increase the government's gold reserves.

Although the royal family only obtained a little over 30 tons of gold, the good news is that the royal family obtained a full 3 tons of gems, pearls, diamonds and other treasures totaling more than 3.5 tons.

The 0.5 tons obtained by the government is because these treasures have obvious Hindu symbols, which are difficult to sell for the time being. The royal family and the government will share the financial resources with Hindu symbols 50-50, and wait for the right time in the future to slowly sell them.

Although it is a 50-50 split, the specific distribution is definitely not detailed to the unit of pesetas.

The overall distribution is a bit of a bargain for the government, but it is not too much. The total value of this treasure is about 930 million pesetas, and the total value of the government's financial resources is as high as 480 million pesetas.

The royal family got a little less, but there were also 450 million pesetas, which has met Carlo's expectations for this treasure excavation operation.

On the day when the specific financial distribution was determined, Prime Minister Primo sent people to quietly transfer the government's finances to a more confidential warehouse.

All the gold with obvious Hindu symbols was remelted, and all the gold without obvious symbols was put into the warehouse as the government's gold reserve.

With this new batch of gold reserves, Spain's Monetary Board can also prepare to issue new currency.

This is another new gain for the government and the royal family. After all, there are only two banks in Spain that can legally issue currency, namely the National Bank controlled by the government and the Royal United Bank controlled by the royal family.

In fact, if you calculate it this way, Carlo is more profitable. After all, the government does not have shares in the Royal United Bank, but Carlo does have shares in the National Bank.

In order to ensure the stability of Spain's currency, the newly issued currency will definitely not flow into the market quickly, but will be slowly put into the market in batches.

After a brief discussion by the Currency Issuance Committee, it was decided to issue a total of 500 million pesetas of currency in the next three years, of which 100 million pesetas will be issued in 1873, and 200 million pesetas will be issued in 1874 and 1875.

If the economic crisis occurs this year, then the next three years must be the time when the economic crisis has the most serious impact.

The purpose of issuing pesetas in these three years is actually very simple, that is, when countries around the world are suffering from the economic crisis, Spain will catch up and try to narrow the gap with the European powers.

When other European powers gradually get out of the impact of the economic crisis, they will be surprised to find that Spain's industry and economy have grown a lot, and are even approaching the level of the great powers again.

While the government is planning the development plan for the next three years, Carlo is also counting the property obtained by the royal family in this treasure hunt plan, and together with Butler Loren, he is making a more detailed plan for the future development of the royal enterprise.

Of the approximately 450 million pesetas of property obtained by the royal family, only less than 300 million pesetas can be easily sold. The remaining 150 million pesetas of property need to wait for a more suitable opportunity to be sold, and may even have to stay in their hands for the next few years.

But it doesn't matter. With up to 300 million pesetas of property to sell, the future development of the royal enterprise can be ensured, and there will be no shortage of funds.

Among all the royal enterprises, the largest one is the Royal United Bank with dozens of branches.

The Royal United Bank currently has more than 30 bank branches, and the total number of users has exceeded 400,000. At present, the total savings of the Royal United Bank has officially exceeded 100 million, and it can bring at least 10 million pesetas of net income to the royal family every year.

Yes, that's how banks make money. Just by investing hundreds of millions of pesetas in industry, the annual income is already as high as tens of millions of pesetas.

Not to mention that the bank also takes into account loans and other businesses, and the annual total income is even close to 20 million pesetas. However, after deducting other expenses, the net profit has been reduced to about 10 million pesetas.

The Royal United Bank is also the company with the highest annual profit among all the companies in which Carlo has shares. The Spanish National Bank is second only to the Royal United Bank, and its annual revenue also exceeds 10 million pesetas.

However, after deducting various expenses, the National Bank's profit is only over 3 million pesetas. Carlo's 45% stake can share 1.4 million pesetas of income, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the Royal United Bank.     There is nothing we can do about it. Compared with the Royal United Bank established by the royal family and the nobility, the internal structure of the National Bank is obviously more complicated.

Fortunately, Carlo does not need to worry about the operation of the National Bank. He only needs to wait for the National Bank to sort out the income and expenditure statements every year and wait quietly for the dividends from the National Bank.

Compared with the two major banks, the income of major factories is lower. After all, factories are not like banks that have branches all over the country. Basically, all factories are calculated separately.

But if all factories are added together, the income is also a number that cannot be ignored. The income of all factories and enterprises currently controlled by the royal family is higher than the income loaned to Carlo by the National Bank.

In 1872, the total income of all royal enterprises and factories was close to 20 million pesetas, of which the Royal United Bank contributed more than 51%, the National Bank contributed 7%, and the total income of all factories accounted for nearly 32%. The remaining less than 10% of the income was obtained from the leasing of major newspapers and royal land.

The income ratio of the royal industry actually proves the eternal truth of this era, that is, the financial industry and industry are always the most profitable.

Of course, another major reason is that the royal family does not have much land. Even though a lot of land has been purchased from the nobles and the church, the land owned by the royal family still does not rank among the nobles.

However, Carlo does not care how much land the royal family has. After all, farming is not profitable in this era. The real money is in factories and banks.

Because this treasure hunt has brought huge gains, Carlo will not be stingy with the development of royal enterprises.

After discussing with Butler Loren, Carlo decided to take out 100 million pesetas to promote the development of royal enterprises.

Considering that it is difficult for the Royal United Bank to expand to a large extent in the future, Carlo will focus on supporting enterprises in the industrial sector.

There are three main types of enterprises supported, namely heavy industry, chemical industry and military industry.

Needless to say, military industry. At present, Carlo has two major military enterprises, namely the Royal Military Factory and the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

With enough funds, Carlo's ambition began to grow. Regarding the future development of the Spanish navy, Carlo issued a new order to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, which is to use the strength of the entire shipyard to design a world-leading ironclad ship with faster speed, higher firepower, and stronger armor protection.

After the impact of this economic crisis, it is almost time for Spain to develop its navy. According to the current cost of ironclad ships in various countries in the world, the cost of building an ironclad ship in Spain is at least tens of millions of pesetas.

In addition to the training of naval soldiers on warships and the specific training of naval soldiers after the warships are launched, at least 15 million pesetas of funds are needed for each warship to form combat effectiveness.

Considering that most of the current size of the Spanish navy is sailing warships from decades ago and ironclad ships that are outdated, if the Spanish navy wants to stabilize in the world's fifth place below Britain, France, Germany and Russia, more funds must be invested in the Spanish navy in the future.

Fortunately, the government is really rich after this treasure hunt. Although Carlo and Prime Minister Primo did not have specific discussions, it is certain that Spain will develop its navy in the future.

According to the current development speed of Spain, when the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard designs a reasonable and powerful warship, it may be time for Spain to start building ironclad ships again and stabilize its position as the fifth most powerful naval power in the world.

It doesn't matter whether Spain is a great power. As long as Spain can completely stabilize its position as the fifth most powerful naval power in the world, the Spanish government can proudly declare that Spain is still a powerful European power, and no country will express opposition.

The rewards for all personnel involved in the treasure hunt are actually funds jointly provided by the government and the royal family.

Carlo also considered awarding titles to the two commanders of this operation and several operators who made greater contributions to this operation.

But considering that this operation needs to be kept strictly confidential, he finally gave up. However, when Spain awards titles on a large scale in the future, they will still be awarded corresponding titles according to their contributions in the operation.

It's just that they have to be wronged for a while, which is why Carlo increased the rewards for everyone.

Although the reward for these people is close to half a ton of gold, because the government and the royal family jointly paid for this money, the royal family actually spent less than 500,000 pesetas.

Of course, the cost of this treasure hunt is not only the reward for the operators, but also the transportation cost of the treasure, as well as the cost of disguise and equipment for all operators.

All the expenses added up, even if only the royal family's part is counted, are still as high as millions of pesetas.

But compared with the income of 450 million pesetas, the expenditure of millions of pesetas is obviously not worth mentioning.

This batch of treasures did not bring much change to the royal family, it just expanded the investment of the royal enterprises. But for the government, the effect of this treasure is extremely obvious.

The expansion of the Spanish army mentioned earlier can also be carried out on a large scale after having money. Considering that the Royal Arsenal is difficult to meet the weapons production of the Spanish military expansion, after comprehensive consideration, the Spanish Defense Department decided to purchase a batch of cannons from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to reduce the production pressure of the Royal Arsenal.

The rifles still have to be produced by the Royal Arsenal itself, after all, the Italian Vitali rifles are not the same as the Spanish Vitali rifles.

For the convenience of logistical supply for the Spanish army, it is more cost-effective to use the same rifle in all aspects.

In order to accelerate the development of the Spanish military industry, the Spanish government also decided to organize a group of military technology students to study in countries with relatively developed military technology, led by Britain and Germany.

When these students complete their studies and return to Spain, they can play a more critical role in the development of the Spanish military industry and solve the problem of insufficient talents in the military industry in Spain.

The reason for sending students in this area is also because almost half of the military talents from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were divided up by the Royal Arsenal.

This is also a matter of course. For the development of the Spanish military industry, a large military enterprise must be fostered as the representative of the Spanish military industry.

But doing so is not a good thing for those small-scale military enterprises. In order to improve the overall development level of the military industry, it is necessary to send students to other countries to improve their military capabilities.

While formulating future development plans, Prime Minister Primo was also considering how to quickly promote the national integration of Spain.

There is no doubt that this economic crisis is an opportunity for Spain to accelerate national integration.

When the economic crisis breaks out, countries around the world will have no time to care about other things, and this is also the best time for Spain to stabilize.

How to promote the national integration of Spain? In a conversation between Prime Minister Primo and Carlo, three plans were actually determined.

The first plan is the most moderate, that is, to promote the use of Spanish in Catalonia and the Basque region in a subtle way, and to build a large number of factories in these areas to promote economic exchanges between Spaniards and Catalans and Basques.

Judging from the current results, the first plan may be effective, but the progress is very slow.

If we rely solely on the first option to promote the great integration of the Spanish nation, it will take at least several decades to unify the small Catalans and Basques.

Prime Minister Primo pondered for a long time and finally decided to adopt the tougher second option when the economic crisis came, to truly promote the integration between the Catalans and Basques and the Spanish.

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