Chapter 176 Train Track Synchronization

After a brief greeting and courtesy, it was time to talk business.

Queen Sophie was very smart. She felt that the time was almost up, so she invited Carlo's sister Queen Maria to visit the gardens and other attractions in the palace, giving Carlo and King Louis enough private space to let them talk about the business they should talk about.

The two queens walked out of the banquet room one after another, and then the conversation between Carlo and King Louis became more formal.

After all, Carlo and King Louis themselves have no blood relationship, and they are not familiar with each other, so naturally they can only have a more formal conversation.

"Your Majesty Carlo, Spain has changed a lot in the past few years. Perhaps in a few years, Spain will indeed have the hope of revival under your rule, and Spain will once again become one of the six major European powers alongside Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria." King Louis I of Portugal first praised the changes in Spain in the past few years and complimented Carlo.

In the eyes of Louis I, Carlo was less than 24 years old, and even if he did not have much favor for such compliments, he would definitely not have obvious opposition.

After all, who doesn't like to hear good words? What's more, he is a young king.

"This is the result of Prime Minister Primo's efforts. It is his reforms that have created today's powerful Spain." Carlo said with a smile.

Spain's revival is indeed the result of Prime Minister Primo's reforms, and Carlo's contribution to it is not great. In addition to affirming the credit of Prime Minister Primo, this also tells Louis I that he does not have much power in the current Kingdom of Spain, so that the Portuguese royal family should not have too many expectations of the Spanish royal family.

"The prime minister is also under the leadership of the king, and the king is the master of a country." Louis I smiled and gave his objection, which was also his heart.

For traditional European nobles such as Louis I, they always believe that the king is the master of the country. Even if most of the power is divided by the constitutional system, as long as the king is still there, the country belongs to the king's property.

This can also be seen from Carlo's sister Queen Maria. Although Queen Maria has a good reputation in Portugal, she is even called a charity angel and the mother of the poor by the Portuguese.

But Queen Maria's extravagant behavior and some stubborn ideas are still opposed by some people, especially some officials.

Several stories passed down in later generations also prove this point. At a masquerade, Queen Maria changed her clothes three times in one night, and each piece of clothing cost hundreds of pounds, which was equivalent to wearing a body of gold and jewelry.

This is not an exaggeration at all. After all, 1 pound at that time was equivalent to 7.33 grams of gold. The cost of clothing was as high as hundreds of pounds, which was actually equivalent to several kilograms of gold.

When the Portuguese Parliament discussed the huge expenses of the queen, Queen Maria gave her attitude: "If you want a queen, you must spend money on her."

Queen Maria also implemented this point. Most of the interior decoration of the Ajuda Palace in Lisbon was carried out under the leadership of Queen Maria, and the Portuguese royal family and government spent more money on this than an ironclad ship.

Queen Maria's stubborn attitude and thoughts on monarchy are reflected in an incident that Carlo heard personally.

In the year when Carlo came to Spain, Queen Maria had a small-scale conflict with the current Duke of Saldanha in Portugal.

The conflict between the queen and the nobles was inevitable, but Queen Maria expressed a very tough and firm attitude, threatening the Portuguese noble Duke of Saldanha: "If I were the king, I would shoot you directly!"

The reason why Queen Maria had such a tough attitude was naturally that her father Vittorio Emanuele II was the King of Italy, her brother Carlo was the King of Spain, and her husband Luis was the King of Portugal.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with Queen Maria's way of doing things and thinking. After all, many nobles and kings thought the same way at that time.

There were nobles who were more extravagant than Queen Maria, and there were even more nobles who were more stubborn and autocratic than Queen Maria.

The only problem was that Portugal was facing the same serious weakness as Spain, and Portugal itself was not strong, which also exacerbated domestic changes.

After the death of King Luis, Maria continued to be active in Portugal as the Queen Mother, and even served as regent.

Under her teachings, Carlos I, who succeeded her, also showed a more autocratic attitude and carried out a rather harsh and autocratic rule.

The long-term autocratic rule made the Portuguese quite dissatisfied. After 270 years of rule in Spain, the Braganza dynasty finally collapsed.

The responsibility for the demise of the Kingdom of Portugal cannot be attributed to Queen Maria, but some of Queen Maria's actions did aggravate the demise of the Kingdom of Portugal.

But this is not bad news for Carlo, and it may even become an opportunity for Spain to re-annex Portugal.

Yes, in Carlo's future plan for Spain, annexing Portugal has always been an extremely important part of Spain, second only to Gibraltar in importance.

These two things are actually one thing, and whether they can be completed depends on the attitude of the British. When Spain is no longer afraid of the British, perhaps the recovery of Gibraltar and the annexation of Portugal can be carried out at the same time.

The complete Iberian Peninsula is an extremely perfect land, surrounded by sea on all sides and only bordering France on the northeast side.

Just deploy troops and build fortresses on both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains to keep the enemy out of the Iberian Peninsula.

If Portugal's large plains are added, Spain will gain a large amount of cultivated land and strengthen Spain's agricultural strength.

The entire Iberian Peninsula has no problem accommodating a population of more than 70 million people. Coupled with the Moroccan areas where Carlo plans to localize, the population that these lands alone can accommodate is close to 100 million people.

Although it is not as large as the United States and other huge countries with large areas of land and plains, compared with other European countries, such a population capacity is not weak.

Coupled with the control of the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain will become the controller of the Mediterranean and Atlantic transportation routes and the hegemon of the Western Mediterranean. It may not be unable to gain the opportunity to be on an equal footing with great powers such as Britain, France, and Germany.

Although this idea is beautiful, it is quite difficult to implement. At least for Spain now, Portugal, Gibraltar and Morocco are untouchable bombs.

Gibraltar is protected by the British, who do not allow Portugal and Morocco to be annexed by Spain.

What's more, for Spain at this time, even if there was a chance to annex Portugal, Carlo would not allow Spain to do so.

Despite its small size, Portugal has a population of more than 4.5 million. These people are already close to a quarter of the Spanish population, and it is quite difficult to assimilate them.

What's more, the Portuguese are orthodox Europeans, so it is naturally impossible for them to use relatively tough assimilation methods. Annexing Portugal is a very difficult process. You must wait for the right time, at least to make the Portuguese less opposed.

Before that, the relationship between Spain and Portugal still needs to be maintained at a certain level. Both countries are weak colonial powers and can cooperate to a certain extent.

At least Portugal cannot be allowed to completely fall to Britain, which will make it more difficult to annex Portugal and make Spain's other plans more difficult.

"Your Majesty Carlo, Portugal and Spain are neighbors of Iberia. I think it is necessary for us to maintain peace in Iberia and jointly deal with enemies outside Iberia.

The Portuguese government is happy to sign relevant treaties with the Spanish government to build a strong Iberian defense line, so that we can all focus on the outside world and the management of the colony. King Luis I of Portugal said with a smile.

As two former colonial powers, Spain and Portugal had one characteristic of their colonies, which was that they were spread all over the world.

Spain had many colonies throughout Africa and Asia, as did Portugal.

The comprehensive strength of Portugal and Spain has been weakened by more than half. Louis I's meaning is very clear, that is, he hopes that Spain, like Portugal, will focus its main attention on the external colonies rather than the internal affairs of the Iberian Peninsula.

After all, colonies can produce a steady stream of wealth, and there are large colonies in many places, including Africa, waiting to be developed by Portugal and Spain.

Carlo has no idea about Portugal in the short term, but this does not mean that Carlo will easily agree to King Louis' request for cooperation.

Portugal is currently on the weaker side. If it wants to exchange for the non-aggression treaty with Spain and further cooperation, it must pay something.

Strictly speaking, there is not much difference between the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and their languages ​​can barely communicate with each other.

If we can introduce some high-quality Portuguese talents, we can not only test the possibility of assimilating the Portuguese in advance, but also fill the vacancy of Spanish talents again.

There is also the entry of Spanish industrial products into the Portuguese market. Because they are both on the Iberian Peninsula, transportation costs between Spain and Portugal are very low.

If Spanish industrial products can enter the Portuguese market, although it is only a small market with a population of several million, the purchasing power will be stronger than the colonial market with tens of millions.

The entry of a large number of industrial products into the Portuguese market can also damage the Portuguese industrial system. By the time Portugal reacted, its industry had long been destroyed by cheaper industrial products.

Controlling Portugal's economy in this way can also influence the Portuguese government's decisions in certain situations. If the time comes to annex Portugal, it can also speed up the annexation of Portugal.

Carlo nodded, but did not directly agree to King Louis' proposal. Instead, he changed the subject and said with a smile: "The problem of different train track widths has been bothering us for a long time. The Spanish government is currently considering modifying the train tracks, and the European Mainstream train track widths are aligned with each other to facilitate better economic exchanges between Spain and the European continent.

Your Majesty Louis, what do you think of the proposal to change the width of the train tracks? "

Although countries around the world are vigorously building railways, the width of railways built in different countries is also different. As the first country to build railways, the UK built railways with a width of 1435 mm, which is also the standard width built in most countries.

The advantage of using this as the standard width of railway tracks is that railways can easily achieve cross-border connections, strengthen the railway's transportation capacity, and avoid unnecessary transfer and rail connection processes.

But not all countries will adopt the standard width of 1435 mm. The two countries on the Iberian Peninsula each have their own railway track width standards.

The railway width in Spain is 1674 mm, which is a truly wide-gauge railway. There are many benefits of wide-gauge railways. First of all, wider carriages make trains more comfortable to ride, and also enhance the transportation capacity of train carriages.

Whether it is used to carry passengers or goods, trains running on wider tracks can transport more total tonnage and have stronger transportation capacity.

Wider tracks are also more stable, greatly enhancing the safety of trains and not prone to derailment.

But this does not mean that wide-gauge railways have no disadvantages. Wide-gauge railways occupy a larger area, and more rails and other materials are needed to build railways, and the corresponding costs are also higher.

Especially in countries with more mountainous areas such as Spain, building railways requires digging tunnels, which greatly increases the cost of railway construction.

Why did Spain resolutely choose wide-gauge railways that are very different from mainstream European countries when it knew that building railways in this way would increase its costs infinitely?

The main reason is to guard against France in the north. As Spain's only neighbor besides Portugal, France has always been very powerful.

Since the Napoleonic Empire, France has always been the overlord on the European continent. France during the Napoleonic Empire also occupied Spain, which also made Spain's defense against France increasingly deepened.

When France was strong, the French army could easily break through the Pyrenees and enter the Spanish mainland.

If the train tracks were exactly the same as those in France, the French could easily use the railways built in Spain to greatly enhance their logistics supply capabilities.

It is for this reason that the railways in the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula are completely different from the standard railway widths used in France, making it difficult for the French to use the railways in Spain and Portugal.

Similarly, in order to guard against the Spaniards, Portugal also made certain modifications based on the wide-gauge railway. Although Portugal and Spain also use wide-gauge railways, the width of Portugal's railway tracks is slightly narrower by nine millimeters, ensuring that the Spaniards cannot easily use Portugal's railways either.

Carlo suddenly raised the issue of connecting the Spanish and French railways, and it was naturally impossible for him to really want the Spanish and French railways to connect.

Spain's industry is not as strong as imagined. Connecting with the railways of continental Europe will only allow industrial products of industrially powerful countries such as Germany and France to quickly enter the Spanish market.

This is not a good thing for Spain, and it will also strengthen France's influence on Spain.

The reason why the issue of train tracks was raised at this time was actually to tell King Louis that if he wanted to sign a non-aggression treaty between Spain and Portugal, Portugal must connect its railways with those of Spain, and the Iberian two countries must adopt the same railway track standards.

To a certain extent, it is very beneficial for the two countries to adopt the same railway track standards.

The train lines between the two countries can be easily connected. Trains can reach the railways from the Spanish railway to the Portuguese railway without any special steps and can pass smoothly.

This can greatly facilitate the flow of population and the transportation of goods, and the economies of Portugal and Spain can also be rapidly improved.

But this is ignoring the impact of industrial products pouring into the Portuguese market on Portuguese industry. Doing so can indeed promote economic improvement, but the sacrifice may be Portugal's industry.

Spain's industrial scale is not large compared to superpowers such as Britain, France and Germany. For the tail-end powers such as Italy, Spain's industry is still very competitive.

For Portugal, a country that is not even considered a superpower, if Spanish industrial products enter the Portuguese market, it may be a devastating blow to Portugal's industry.

The larger the industrial scale, the lower the price of industrial products. The small-scale Portuguese industry cannot compete with the Spanish industry at all unless the government can vigorously support the development of local industry, such as raising tariffs, restricting imports, etc.

But wouldn't this directly offset the impact of synchronous train tracks? Will the Spaniards allow this?

It turns out that Louis I is not a stupid king. He immediately understood the meaning of Carlo's words, but it was precisely because of this that he was very hesitant.

With Louis I's authority, there is basically no resistance to promoting the synchronization of train tracks between Portugal and Spain.

But the impact of this on Portugal needs to be thought about. Is it really worth it for Portugal to pay such a price just for a non-aggression treaty?

"Your Majesty Louis, our country has won a comprehensive victory in the colonial war in the East Indies. I believe your country has already heard the news?" Seeing that Louis I had not responded, Carlo changed the question and asked with a smile.

"Of course." Louis I nodded, with a hint of envy in his eyes, and said: "The strong combat effectiveness of your army is enviable, and Spain's colonies have expanded a lot."

Carlo smiled. King Louis obviously didn't know that Spain had already secretly begun to colonize the larger land in the Congo River Basin.

Portugal's West African colonies happened to be in the lower reaches of the Congo River Basin, and it can be said that they were only separated from the Congo River by a wall.

This act of secretly colonizing the land in the Congo River basin without telling the largest colonizer near the Congo River even made Carlo feel like he was committing a crime.