Chapter 183 Land Exchange

The total assets of the Spanish royal family have exceeded 500 million pesetas, and the annual net profit is close to 100 million pesetas.

Carlo is quite satisfied with this, after all, the total assets of the enterprise do not include the value of the treasures obtained from the Indian temple. If the value of those treasures is added, all the assets in the hands of the Spanish royal family add up to nearly 1 billion pesetas.

The scale of these assets is of course huge. If converted into the most valuable currency, the pound, it is about 38.432 million pounds, or 281.7 tons of gold.

Except for the British royal family and the Habsburg family, there are few noble families in Europe whose assets exceed Carlo.

Of course, most of the royal assets that seem to exceed 1 billion are real estate such as factories, enterprises and land, as well as temple treasures that cannot be quickly converted into cash.

The cash that the royal family has available at any time is less than 200 million pesetas, which is just over 7 million pounds.

Although the Spanish royal family has become one of the richest royal families in Europe, this is not Carlo's ultimate goal. It is just a small achievement that Carlo has accomplished in the process of achieving his goal.

For a powerful king, money is indeed easy to get. It's not that being rich is bad, but money does not represent everything. Power is more important than money.

Although Prime Minister Primo has allowed Carlo to get in touch with more government affairs, Carlo is not in a hurry to extend his hand to the cabinet government, but pays more attention to the affairs of the church.

For Spain, religion still has considerable power. The history of the founding of Spain is also a history of blood and tears, telling the story of the brutal rule of the Arabs over Spain and the brave struggle of Catholicism.

Spain completely drove Arabs and Muslims out of the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, and before that, the Arabs had ruled the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 700 years.

The impact of the 700-year rule of Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula is not small, which also makes the process of de-Islamization quite difficult.

During this process, the Catholic Church played an extremely important role, and also allowed the Catholic Church in Spain to gain considerable power, becoming the second largest force after the nobility.

Although the influence of the church has been greatly reduced in Spain at present. But the influence of religion cannot be said to be gone. The Spanish Catholic Church is still a major force in Spain and has a very high influence in the hearts of some fanatical Catholics.

Even in the later generations with highly developed science and technology, people's belief in religion still exists. Although some people are indeed atheists, there are also quite a few people who still believe in religion.

For Carlo, the Spanish Church is a power that must be in his hands. The church can brainwash believers and promote its own doctrines and dogmas.

If it can be used well, the Catholic Church can become a sharp blade in Carlo's hands, while strengthening his dominance and status.

In the Royal Palace of Madrid, Carlo met Pedro, the current chief archbishop of the Spanish Church again.

The archbishop, who was already mixed with white hair, was very respectful when he met Carlo. He is a smart man, and he also knows that after bowing to Carlo last time, he no longer has the right to choose.

The Spanish Archbishop has officially become the chief archbishop of the Spanish Catholic Church. This position and the Archbishop of Toledo are appointed by the King of Spain.

This also means that if Carlo is not satisfied with him, he can appoint a new Spanish Archbishop at any time to compete with him for the rights of the Spanish Catholic Church.

Although the Archbishop of Toledo has a longer history in Spain and has a greater influence, the current church is already at a disadvantage and it is impossible to win against Carlo and the Spanish government in the power struggle.

"Your Majesty." Archbishop Pedro saluted Carlo very respectfully.

Carlo nodded and said with a smile: "Long time no see, Archbishop Pedro. How is the church recently?"

"Everything is fine, Your Majesty." Archbishop Pedro nodded and replied respectfully to Carlo: "In Catalonia and the Basque region, many Spanish schools have been successfully held, enrolling thousands of children and teenagers learning Spanish.

We are also vigorously promoting the use of Spanish, and strive to make Catalonia and the Basque region become administrative regions that only use Spanish in a short period of time."

Carlo nodded, very satisfied with the cooperation of the church. In some cases, the role of the church is indeed greater than that of the government.

For example, in promoting the use of Spanish, if the government forcibly promotes it in these two regions, it will cause opposition from some Catalans and Basques.

But if the dogma of the Catholic Church is modified through the church, and the use of Spanish is expanded in a subtle way, it will not cause opposition from Catalans and Basques, and can effectively increase the use of Spanish in the local area.

"That's good. I called you here for no other reason. I have decided to donate 5 million pesetas to the church in the name of the royal family for the construction of the new Iberian Cathedral. What is Archbishop Pedro's opinion?" Carlo asked with a smile.

As Carlo's newly created archbishop position, there must be a corresponding church. The church corresponding to the Spanish archbishop will be named Iberia Cathedral, located in the south of the Madrid region, north of Toledo.

It seems that the royal family donated 5 million pesetas to the church for free to build the church, but in fact Carlo is reminding Archbishop Pedro that the church can only choose to submit to his rule, otherwise his position in the church will be replaced by others.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. On behalf of the church, I thank Your Majesty and the royal family for the donation. May Spain move towards greater things under your leadership, and the church is willing to make a contribution to the greatness of Spain." Archbishop Pedro did not understand what Carlo meant, and quickly stated his position and said very respectfully.

Carlo nodded, with a deeper smile on his face: "If you want to make Spain great again, you can't do without the joint efforts of the government, the royal family, the church and all Spaniards.

Catholicism is the state religion of Spain, and this will never change and can never change. Archbishop Pedro, as the Archbishop of Spain and the chief bishop of the Spanish Catholic Church, you need to lead the church to cooperate with the government's actions and contribute to the development of Spain.

Of course, I will also remember your contribution to Spain. The royal family will not treat any country's heroes unfairly, and the church is definitely not just a sacrifice and a contributor. The church should be the beneficiary of Spain's great achievements."

The core content of this conversation is actually very simple, that is, to tell Archbishop Pedro that if the church cooperates with Carlo's rule, it will continue to maintain its position as the second largest force in Spain.

But if it does not cooperate with Carlo's rule, not only will Archbishop Pedro's own position be challenged, but even the church's position in Spain will no longer exist.

Fortunately, Archbishop Pedro himself is a very sensible person. He certainly understands the continuous weakening of the influence of the Spanish Catholic Church, and naturally it is impossible for him to fight against the royal power and the government.

For Archbishop Pedro, it is better to keep the current power of the church and be an archbishop with little power but huge assets than to take risks and fight for power with the king and the government.

Carlo was very satisfied with Archbishop Pedro's understanding. In contrast, the Spanish aristocracy was not as sensible as Archbishop Pedro.

As the saying goes, there are all kinds of birds in a big forest, which is very appropriate to describe the huge aristocracy in Spain.

Spain's population can only rank last among the great powers, but the number of nobles is not inferior to other European countries.

What's more terrible is that the Spanish nobles control a large amount of land in Spain, and some nobles with a long history have more land in their hands than Carlo currently has.

It is precisely because they control a lot of land in their hands, coupled with the long history, that some nobles do not have much support for Carlo, an outsider, and even have some xenophobia.

Although there are sensible people like Duke Jacobo who expressed their support for Carlo from the beginning, most people remain on the sidelines, and there are even nobles who secretly express opposition.

Even at this moment, Carlo has already secured his throne and has a certain amount of power, but there are still a considerable number of nobles who are outside Carlo's Royal Parliament.

The Royal Parliament is the institution used by Carlo to supervise the nobles. Doesn't the fact that the nobles are outside the Royal Parliament mean that they are unwilling to be monitored by Carlo?

For such a large noble class in Spain, Carlo has already made a decision to deal with them as soon as possible, at least to solve some of the troubles.

The nobles own too much land in Spain, and through these lands they control a part of the agricultural population, thereby exerting their influence on the government.

If it were the mainstream nobles in Spain, it would be fine, but I'm afraid of the nobles in Catalonia and Basque, who are one of the main sources of promoting regional autonomy.

Holding the land of Spain in hand, but secretly promoting the autonomy of various regions in Spain, this is something Carlo absolutely cannot accept.

Look at Spain in later generations, the regions have become autonomous regions, which has greatly diverted the power in the hands of the Spanish government. Fortunately, Spain can still maintain its unified legal principles through the monarchy, and the Spaniards occupy the majority of the domestic population, so that the country's stability and unity can be barely maintained.

But this still gave the Catalans a loophole, and in the 21st century they even held a referendum to express their independence.

It turns out that being kind to these nobles and separatists is completely ineffective. If they are given autonomy, their next thought is to be completely independent from Spain.

Even Spanish nobles will breed corruption and a series of other things that harm the country. Carlo has no good feelings for those nobles who do not stand with him. His only thought is to find a suitable opportunity and reason to deal with them.

It is indeed a good time to colonize the plateau in the Congo River Basin, at least to recover some land from the nobles.

How to recover the land?

Of course, it can be done by exchanging Spanish land with land in the Congo River Basin. The Congo Territory belongs to Carlo, and Carlo can certainly promote the exchange of land between the nobles and the royal family.

Spain's base camp is still the Iberian Peninsula. It is definitely a good thing for the development of the country if the government and the royal family have more land in the Iberian Peninsula.

It would not be a loss to exchange more Congolese land with the noble Carlo, after all, this land was originally obtained through colonization, and Carlo did not pay too much.

On the contrary, the nobles can use their energy to cultivate this land, speed up the colonization of the Congo River Basin, and speed up the construction of the Congo Territory.

The nobles built a large number of plantations in the Congo River Basin, which not only made full use of the local indigenous labor force, but also produced a large number of crops and other cash crops to be shipped back to Spain, or shipped to other European countries and regions for sale.

This will not only promote the economic development of Spain, but the land obtained by the royal family and the government can also be rented and sold to civilians, increasing the per capita arable land area in Spain, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Of course, exchanging land is definitely a long process. There is enough land in the Congo River Basin to exchange with the nobles, but this does not mean that the nobles are willing to exchange the Spanish land that has been cultivated for many years in their hands for the uncultivated Congo land.

Even if you can get several times the land, it will take a long time to cultivate and fertilize the land. It can be expected that there are not many nobles willing to exchange land in a short period of time, or even very few.

But why did Carlo think that this method could solve the problem of nobles occupying most of the country's land? The main reason is that most of Spain's land is desert, and because of many mountains, there are not many fertile plains that can be reclaimed into arable land.

Coupled with the gradual industrialization of Spain, a large number of agricultural population are destined to move into cities and become workers or other employees.

The agricultural population is getting smaller and smaller, and the value of the large tracts of land in the hands of the nobles is getting lower and lower. In addition, due to the geographical environment of Spain, most of the arable land is here and there, and it is difficult to carry out centralized mechanized agriculture.

Instead of this, it is better to replace it with large tracts of connected Congolese land, hire local cheaper natives as labor, and establish various crop plantations.

Coupled with a lot of public opinion propaganda and certain guidance, there will definitely be many nobles who will be tempted to exchange Spanish land for more Congolese land.

As long as that day comes, the entire land exchange plan will be successful. The royal family and government that have obtained more land can also better carry out industrialization and agricultural centralization and mechanization.

The whole process may take more than ten or twenty years to complete, but when the land exchange is almost done and the Spanish land is centralized and mechanized, Spain's comprehensive national strength will be further improved.

If these arable lands are in the hands of farmers and nobles, the food produced can feed at most 25 million people. But if the land is centralized and mechanized, the food produced by these lands can feed at least 50 million people.

In addition to the land of Portugal and Morocco, Spain will have no problem feeding more than 80 million people in the future with these three major regions.

These arable lands and food production will also serve as Spain's capital to stand in the western Mediterranean and a guarantee for Spain to compete for regional hegemony.

In order to speed up this progress, Carlo decided to make arrangements in advance. This also requires the efforts of newspapers and the church. After all, if you want to make these Spanish nobles believe that Congo has a lot of fertile land, it is impossible to make people believe it just by relying on the royal family's words.

Only when the church and newspapers are promoting such things, and some nobles are the first to enter Congo and make a fortune by plantations, will it arouse the interest of other nobles.

Fortunately, some nobles also surrendered to Carlo's rule. The first noble to go to Congo to try it out can be selected from these more loyal nobles.

In fact, the nobles will not suffer any loss if they exchange Congo's land. Congo is an undeveloped land that can be reclaimed into a large amount of fertile arable land. In addition, Congo also has extremely rich mineral resources. The nobles will not lose money if they come to this land and operate it with their toes.

After all, there are countless indigenous laborers here, and they are the kind of laborers who do not need to be treated as human beings at all. The profits obtained by squeezing these laborers casually are incomparable to farming in Spain.

"Archbishop Pedro, I believe you have already known about the establishment of the Congo Territory?" Carlo, who had a full plan, looked back at Archbishop Pedro and asked with a smile.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Archbishop Pedro nodded, waiting for Carlo's further instructions.

He knew that Carlo would not mention the Congo Territory for no reason, and there must be a specific task.

Carlo continued, "After the exploration of the expedition team, the plateau in the upper reaches of the Congo is a fertile land that has not yet been cultivated. It has extremely rich mineral resources, a large number of natural rubber trees and other materials.

If the church is interested, I suggest that the church can organize people to cultivate the land in the Congo River Basin and establish plantations. You can also send missionaries to understand this land. Believe me, this is an undeveloped land full of treasures." Carlo said with a smile.

Although Carlo can also directly order the church to send people to cultivate the land of the Congo River, the people in the church may not be willing to do so.

Although it will not be lip service, it will definitely be passive. It is better to let the church personally understand the vastness and fertility of the land in the Congo River Basin, so that they can spontaneously go to cultivate the land and manage the Congo territory.

As long as it can promote the development of Congo territory, it is acceptable to Carlo. The church's desire to develop land in Congo territory is certainly not free. For the fertile land in the Congo River Basin, they must also pay something, such as the less fertile arable land in Spain.

The church's secret actions, coupled with some nobles who took the lead and the propaganda of public opinion, will definitely attract the attention of most other nobles.

When they also noticed that the church and some nobles made a fortune in the Congo River Basin, they would naturally be tempted.

At that time, there would be no need for Carlo to take the initiative. Naturally, there would be nobles who wanted to join the development of Congo territory through land exchange.

And Carlo, through the sovereignty of Congo territory, can sit on the fishing platform and wait for these fish that are about to bite the bait to take the bait.

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