Chapter 22 Four Elements of Reform

Carlo knew that Spain was quite backward at this time, but he didn't expect that Spain's development in all aspects would lag behind so much.

As of the beginning of this year, the estimated population of Spain was 16.6 million. Why is it such a round number? Because the Spanish government at this time was unable to conduct detailed population statistics. This was just a rough estimate made by the Spanish government based on the birth registration and death of the population in various places.

What's terrible is that the illiteracy rate in Spain is as high as more than 70%. This also means that among the 16.6 million people, at least 11.6 million are illiterate.

The poor education level and the chaotic situation in recent years have led to Spain's per capita annual income being the lowest in Western Europe, only 87 pesetas, which is a little more than 3 pounds.

Although the lower-class people in all European countries in this era are not doing well, the exploitation of factory owners and the oppression of capitalists are common.

But an annual income of more than 3 pounds is obviously an extremely unhealthy level. The per capita annual income in the UK exceeds 9 pounds, and other European countries also maintain more than 6 to 7 pounds.

On average, the Spanish can only earn half or even one-third of the income of citizens in other countries. This is why the people rebelled against Queen Isabel, because the Spanish really couldn't survive.

Looking at such data, Carlo couldn't help but have a headache.

Carlo originally thought that the situation in Italy was already quite bad, but he didn't expect that it was not worth mentioning in front of Spain.

Except for the illiteracy rate, Italy and Spain were evenly matched, and Italy could crush Spain in other aspects.

Now Carlo has only one idea, that is, to quickly promote Primo's reforms and improve the bad situation in Spain first.

Now Spain, let alone achieving revival, whether the kingdom can continue to exist is a problem. Although Queen Isabel was driven away, she left Carlo an extremely bad Spain.

Facing a Spain that is almost rotten to the bone, this is no longer something that can be saved by focusing on development.

At the cabinet meeting a few days later, Carlo sat in the first seat, quietly waiting for Primo's proposal for reform.

For this reform, Primo was well prepared. The cabinet government nominated by Primo is basically reformist. The only two non-reformists, Serrano and Carlo, have also expressed their support for reform.

Secondly, Primo has been preparing for reform since he became prime minister. He combined the current situation in Spain and referred to a lot of successful reform experiences abroad, and finally formulated a perfect Spanish reform plan.

He handed the plan to Carlo and said to him very solemnly and seriously: "Your Majesty, this is the Spanish reform plan that I and dozens of officials have written after a long period of investigation and research.

The following is the initial plan for reform, please take a look."

The initial plan for reform is actually very simple, with only four categories, namely agricultural, educational, industrial and military reforms.

"Prime Minister Primo, please tell me about your reform plan in detail." Although he supports reform in his heart, this does not prevent Carlo from wanting to listen to Primo's perfect reform plan.

Primo nodded, stood up and introduced to all the cabinet officials: "Our initial reforms only have four aspects, namely agriculture, industry, education and military reforms.

In agriculture, I plan to promote agricultural tax reduction to increase the income of the agricultural population. At the same time, promote the export of grain so that the grain of the agricultural population has sufficient sales.

In industry, I think we should restore Spain's industrial construction in a short period of time, and invest in new factories and build our own industrial zones.

Building factories can provide more jobs, which will also help us further increase per capita income.

In education reform, I plan to build more literacy classes to reduce our illiterate population, but this requires huge capital investment, so it is the third choice of reform.

Finally, there is military reform. I hope to expand our army to about 100,000 and equip our army with more artillery.

A sufficient number of artillery has proven its effectiveness on the battlefield. Whether it is to guard against foreign enemies or stabilize the order in Spain, it is necessary to improve the combat effectiveness of the army."

After hearing Primo's reform plan, Carlo had not had time to express any opinions, and the Minister of the Army Serrano sitting next to him could not help it.

Serrano stood up, looked at Primo in disbelief, and asked in surprise: "Prime Minister Primo, don't you know how many pesetas are left in the Spanish treasury?

Each of your reforms requires tens of millions of pesetas, and our government has no money at all. With all due respect, if we can't prepare enough pesetas before the reform is implemented, this reform is doomed to fail."

"Don't we still have a lot of fields?" Primo looked at Serrano who raised objections with a plain smile on his face.

For a monarchy, the largest landowner in the country must be the monarch himself. Queen Isabel herself is a licentious and greedy monarch, so it is not surprising that the Bourbon dynasty has the most arable land in Spain.

After driving away Queen Isabel, all the arable land that originally belonged to the Bourbon dynasty was confiscated by the Spanish provisional government, and these lands were the basis for Primo to implement reforms.

Although these lands once belonged to the king, they will definitely not be inherited by Carlo along with the throne.

Carlo naturally understands this, and he has no idea of ​​being a landlord, let alone ruining his reputation for this little land.

On the contrary, if Carlo supports using these lands to exchange for enough funds for the government, this can become one of the topics to promote Carlo.

Seeing that Carlo has no idea about those lands, Primo finally breathed a sigh of relief and explained to Carlo and Serrano: "The Bourbon family owns a large amount of land, which is enough to provide enough funds for our reforms.

I plan to divide these lands into three parts, one of which will be distributed to Spanish farmers for free, so that farmers have enough arable land to grow food.

The other part will be sold to capitalists and farmers to accumulate enough funds for our reforms.

The remaining part will be nationalized and can be rented out to farmers at a low price for planting."

"I support your idea, Prime Minister Primo." Carlo nodded, and had no objection to the proposal of dividing the land into three parts: "

And I have another proposal to raise funds for reform. Why don't we try to issue national bonds?"

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