Chapter 161 The Second Five-Year Plan

The split of the Ministry of Industry is just a minor episode for both Prime Minister Primo and Carlo, and will not damage the current tacit cooperation between the two.

Ruiz, the previous Industry Secretary, also successfully became the first Secretary of Transportation after the establishment of the Transportation Department, retaining his position as Cabinet Minister.

After the Minister of Transport has been selected, all members of Spain's new cabinet government have been newly announced.

According to the Spanish constitution, after the Prime Minister nominates candidates for ministers of various departments, he needs to submit the final list to the King of Spain.

Only after the King of Spain personally signs the appointment of cabinet members can the people nominated by the Prime Minister become cabinet members.

Of course, as the king of Spain, Carlo also has the power to reject the nominations of cabinet members and ask the prime minister to re-select cabinet members.

It's just that such power is not usually used. After all, the cabinet ministers nominated by the Prime Minister are basically his confidants. Direct refusal is equivalent to falling out with the Prime Minister.

After the candidates for the cabinet were confirmed, Prime Minister Primo non-stop disclosed the expectations of the second five-year plan to the cabinet government and asked each department to carry out a certain scope of work tasks for each department in the five-year plan based on their actual situation. adjustments within.

It is necessary to have practical discussions with various departments. After all, the details of the five-year plan still need to be implemented by each department.

If this step is missing, the goals of the five-year plan may become false or empty, or the goals may not be achieved at all, which will lead to people in various departments below to commit fraud. Either the goal will be easy for Spain to achieve, and the five-year plan will lose its original significance.

The Second Five-Year Plan planned by Prime Minister Primo is even more important than the First Five-Year Plan and serves as an important link between the past and the future.

Just look at the expressions of the ministers of various departments after receiving Prime Minister Primo's second five-year development plan, and you will know how exaggerated Prime Minister Primo's second five-year plan is.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, is it a bit unreasonable to increase the scale of railways to 11,000 kilometers before 1879?" Although I don't want to stand up against Prime Minister Primo, for the sake of the smooth operation of the transportation sector in the next five years To complete the task, Ruiz could only stand up and express his different opinions.

Spain's current total railway mileage is only a little over 7,500 kilometers, which was only achieved last year when the industrial sector vigorously built railways.

There is currently a gap of 3,500 kilometers between the 11,000 kilometers of railway mileage. If we want to build more than 3,500 kilometers of railways in five years, the average annual railway mileage will be more than 700 kilometers.

700 kilometers does not seem like much, but the problem is that Spain only built a total of 2,100 kilometers of railways in the last five-year plan, and the average number of railways built per year is just over 400 kilometers.

This was only achieved in 1873 when the Ministry of Industry frantically built railways. If we go by the level of the first four years of the five-year plan, the average number of railways built each year is actually only more than 300 kilometers.

The Second Five-Year Plan proposed by Prime Minister Primo requires the construction of more than 700 kilometers of railways per year on average, which is almost twice the railway construction speed of the First Five-Year Plan.

The transportation sector has just become independent from the industrial sector, and it is unknown whether it can quickly reach the speed of railway construction in the industrial sector.

Prime Minister Primo had long expected that someone would raise different opinions. He nodded calmly, looked at Minister Ruiz and said, "Does the transportation department have any other opinions?"

“Your Excellency Prime Minister, I believe that the goal of the transportation department should be to increase our total railway mileage to 10,000 kilometers within the five-year development plan.

Our current railway construction speed cannot meet the requirement of 11,000 kilometers unless the government is willing to increase financial investment and start more railway construction. " Transportation Secretary Ruiz said through gritted teeth.

"Considering the difficulty of each department completing its tasks, this year's fiscal budget will be increased. As for other issues besides funding, you need each department to find a solution on your own." At this point, Prime Minister Primo's face changed. He must be more serious, and he is not polite when facing his subordinates from the same party: "

If you feel you are unable to complete such a task, you might as well bring it up early. This will give me more time to report to His Majesty the King and change the position of cabinet minister as soon as possible. "

"Follow your orders, Your Excellency Prime Minister. The transportation department will make every effort to complete your mission." Ruiz immediately understood that Prime Minister Primo was killing the chicken and giving it to the monkey. He nodded very solemnly and did not dare to raise any opinions again. .

With Ruiz's appearance, other cabinet ministers dared to put forward different opinions, so they could only nod their heads to show that they understood.

Prime Minister Primo nodded with satisfaction, and the new five-year development plan was officially determined.

Although this development plan has more ambitious goals than the previous one, it is not an unachievable dream for each department.

As long as the government increases investment and officials from various departments work a little harder, there will be no problem in achieving the goal.

Take the 3,500 kilometers of railways in the transportation sector as an example. Although Spain built more than 2,100 kilometers of railways in the last five-year development plan, only 1,500 kilometers of railways were built in the first four years, and more than 600 kilometers of railways were built in the last year.

According to the development trend, it is not difficult for the transportation sector to achieve the annual average of 700 kilometers of railway construction, at least it is hopeful to achieve it.

The situation in other departments is not much different. Although the goal is difficult, as long as you work hard, there is still great hope.

After the cabinet department determined the final five-year development plan, Prime Minister Primo submitted the complete plan to Carlo.

Because it is just a plan, it does not need to be submitted to the Senate for a vote. In fact, this is more like a goal set by the cabinet government for itself to spur cabinet ministers to work hard to achieve it.

But if the goals in the five-year plan can be successfully completed, it will definitely be a great achievement and will be conducive to the re-election of the cabinet government five years later.

Even if they cannot be elected as prime minister, they can still show their achievements and abilities to the next prime minister of the cabinet government, and thus have the opportunity to be promoted to cabinet minister again.

Spain has specific requirements for the prime minister's term of office. Each term is five years, and he can only be re-elected for two terms.

But there are no specific requirements for other cabinet ministers. As long as they are capable and have the trust of the prime minister, they can be re-elected until death.

The reason why there are no specific requirements for the term of office of cabinet ministers is to make better use of these capable talents.

If a person is very capable, but has to bid farewell to the cabinet government at a young age because of the term of office of the cabinet minister, it will be a loss for Spain.

When Carlo saw the five-year development plan formulated by Prime Minister Primo, his first reaction was a little surprised, but then he quickly understood Prime Minister Primo's idea.

Although the overall goal of the five-year plan is more ambitious than before, the problem is that Spain now is definitely not the Spain of five years ago.

What's more, the economic crisis is still going on. Spain's buying and digging actions are still ongoing. Every day, a large amount of foreign equipment and technical data are transported to Spain and then transferred to other enterprises and factories.

There may be no results in one or two years, but after three or four years, when Spanish enterprises and factories have completely absorbed these foreign equipment and technical data and are able to independently produce and research and develop, Spain's industry and other industries will experience a blowout growth.

In other words, such a grand goal may seem difficult now, but considering that there are five years to complete the goal, there is actually great hope.

Besides, national development is a process of facing challenges head-on. If development is really so smooth and easy, doesn't it mean that anyone in the cabinet government position can perform it perfectly?

What are these cabinet ministers for? Isn't it to let them face challenges head-on and lead various departments to promote the development of Spain?

Carlo took a general look at the five-year development plan formulated by Prime Minister Primo, and he is still looking forward to Spain five years later.

If all the goals in the five-year plan can be properly completed, Spain can proudly call itself a powerful country in five years. Why do you say that? Because after the completion of this five-year plan, Spain's total industrial scale, heavy industrial scale, and military scale will completely catch up with Italy.

In terms of economic scale, it may not be as good as Italy, after all, Italy has a larger population. In addition, Spain's military expansion will be completely completed, and the total combat effectiveness and scale of the navy and army will exceed Italy.

If Italy can be called a great power, why can't Spain be called a great power?

Carlo is most looking forward to the population of Spain. In the first five-year plan, Spain's population growth exceeded 1.15 million.

Prime Minister Primo's initial expectation for the specific scale of Spain's population growth in the second five-year plan is about 1.5 million.

This is not blind imagination. First of all, the increase in the number of newborns caused by the growth of Spain's population size. A country with a larger population must have more newborns than a country with a smaller population.

The second is the immigrants from various countries during the economic crisis. Although Spain mainly recruits technical and scientific talents, a large number of Europeans have immigrated abroad with the economic crisis.

Spain is quite special in this economic crisis. In addition, a large number of mining and buying have attracted the attention of many countries and people. It is expected that it may be welcomed by European immigrants in the future.

However, for these European immigrants, their number should be controlled. This is also the reason why Prime Minister Primo initially estimated the scale of population growth in the five-year plan at 1.5 million.

If the number of immigrants is not restricted, the population of Spain may even increase to 20 million in five years.

But such a blind population increase is not a good thing. The main ethnic group in Spain is the Spanish, and the proportion of the Spanish in the total population will also determine the stability of Spain.

The most obvious example that can reflect this is the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not small, at least more than 37 million, second only to Germany among the European powers, and more than France and Britain.

But the comprehensive national strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was obviously inferior to that of Britain and France. One of the main reasons was that the ethnic distribution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was too complicated, and the main Austrians, or the South Germans, did not occupy a high proportion.

One of the main reasons for the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I was that other ethnic groups had already occupied a considerable voice.

Although the estimated population growth was only about 1.5 million, Spain still had the hope of reaching a population of about 19.25 million in 1879.

Although Spain could not absorb too many immigrants, there was an exception in one region, that is, immigrants from countries that were once Spanish colonies.

American countries such as Mexico, Argentina and Chile were among them. Although the population of these countries was not pure Spanish, they definitely had Spanish ancestry.

In addition, speaking Spanish and believing in Catholicism made it easier for Spain to assimilate.

Attracting and accepting more immigrants from former colonies in the Americas and assimilating them into Spaniards may be the only way for Spain to quickly increase its population in a short period of time.

Unfortunately, the population of these American countries is not too large at present, and there is a limit to the number of immigrants that Spain can absorb.

Looking at Prime Minister Primo, who has been sitting on the luxurious sofa very respectfully since handing over the five-year development plan, Carlo asked with a smile: "Prime Minister Primo, how is the government's work on foreign immigration going?"

This is not a regular foreign immigration, but an encouraging foreign immigration in Catalonia and the Basque region, as well as other areas with non-Spanish people.

Simply put, through the method of asset conversion, these non-Spanish people are encouraged to immigrate to other areas outside Spain.

After Spain promulgated the bill on the unification of ethnic religions and languages, the living environment of these other ethnic groups who shouted that they were not Spanish every day in Spain was not so good.

According to Spanish law, those who do not recognize themselves as Spanish are not recognized as citizens by the Spanish government.

Without the status of Spanish citizens, they cannot go to the government and royal enterprises to work. You know, although Spain also has a minimum income guarantee, it is obvious that the income and welfare benefits of the government and royal enterprises will be higher.

Not being able to enter these enterprises is equivalent to them losing a lot of welfare policies. Some private companies will also refuse to allow non-Spanish people to join, which makes it difficult for these groups who do not admit that they are Spanish to find a high-paying job.

For most civilians, they already admit that they are Spanish. For those who have been severely brainwashed and even become radical nationalists, they certainly do not want to admit that they are Spanish.

But this is also the case. Spain does not welcome these radical nationalists.

The policy of encouraging foreign immigration is also specifically aimed at these radical nationalists, using relatively gentle means to persuade them to immigrate abroad.

At this time, there is a problem, that is, what should be done with those radical nationalists who are unwilling to accept gentle persuasion and are unwilling to immigrate to other regions outside Spain?

This problem is also easy to solve, that is, using tougher means to force them to immigrate or rebel.

"Your Majesty, the current foreign immigration in Catalonia is relatively smooth. Since the promulgation of our policy of national unity, at least tens of thousands of people have chosen to immigrate abroad.

Currently, most of the radical nationalists in Catalonia have immigrated, and it is expected that most of the more radical Catalans will be able to immigrate abroad in the next five years." Prime Minister Primo reported.

As a Catalan, Prime Minister Primo is relatively familiar with the situation in Catalonia.

Now most Catalans still admit that they are Spanish. As for why the Catalan independence tendency in later generations is so serious, the main reason is the long-term brainwashing of nationalism and the blood sucking of Catalonia by Spain.

Yes, Spain has been sucking blood from Catalonia for a long time in later generations.

If we talk about responsibility, it actually has to be attributed to the Bourbon royal family. Why is Spain weak? There are many reasons, one of the main reasons is that Spain has been unstable since the Industrial Revolution and missed two very important industrial revolutions.

The Carlos War that has plagued Spain for decades was actually caused by Queen Isabel's succession to the throne.

And Queen Isabel's own incompetent rule also caused Spain to fall from the altar of the great powers. The industry and economy of other parts of Spain have not developed much. Instead, Catalonia has become one of the most developed regions in Spain under the development of republicans and nationalists.

The developed Catalonia and Barcelona naturally became the target of blood sucking for the whole of Spain. The Catalans were not very satisfied with this. Under the instigation of radical nationalists, it was normal for the independence sentiment to intensify.

Hearing that tens of thousands of Catalans have emigrated, Carlo is still quite satisfied with the government's progress.

Although the population of the entire Catalonia region is as high as millions, those more radical nationalists are at most tens of thousands.

As long as we can send most of them out, the problems in Catalonia will be solved. Without radical nationalists, Catalonia will be easier to assimilate.

Although it is not as deep as other regions, it is not a problem to ensure that the vast majority of Catalans recognize themselves as Spanish and are proud of being Spanish.

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