Empire Rise: Spain-Chapter 22: The Four Elements Of Reform

Carlo knew that Spain at this time was quite backward, but he did not expect Spain’s development in all aspects to be so backward.
As of the beginning of this year, Spain’s estimated population was 6 million. Why is it such a round number? Because the Spanish Government at this time simply lacked the ability to conduct a detailed population census; this was merely a rough estimate by the Spanish Government based on population birth registrations and death situations in various places.
The fatal thing was that Spain’s illiteracy rate was over 70 percent. This also meant that among the 6 million population, at least 6 million were illiterate.
The poor education level, combined with the chaotic situation in recent years, led to Spain’s average annual income being at the lowest level in Western Europe, only 87 pesetas, which was just over 3 pounds sterling.
Although in this era, the grassroots people of all European countries did not have it easy, and exploitation by factory owners and oppression by capitalists were common occurrences.
But an annual income of just over 3 pounds sterling was clearly an extremely unhealthy level; the United Kingdom’s per capita income exceeded 9 pounds sterling, and other European countries also maintained levels above 6 to 7 pounds sterling.
Spaniards could on average only earn half or even one-third of the income of citizens in other countries, which was also why the public rebelled against Queen Isabella—because the Spaniards really could not survive.
Looking at such data, Carlo could not help but feel extremely headache.
Carlo had originally thought that Italy’s situation was already quite bad, but in front of Spain, it was not worth mentioning at all.
Except for tying with Spain in illiteracy rate, Italy could crush Spain in all other aspects.
Now Carlo had only one thought: to quickly promote Prime Minister Primó’s reforms and first improve Spain’s dire situation.
Let alone achieving revival, whether the Kingdom could continue to exist was a question. Although Queen Isabella had been driven away, she had left Carlo with an extremely dire Spain.
Faced with a Spain that was rotten to the core, this was no longer something that could be saved by burying one’s head in development.
At the Cabinet Meeting a few days later, Carlo sat in the lead position, quietly waiting for Prime Minister Primó’s reform proposals.
For this reform, Prime Minister Primó was fully prepared. The Cabinet Government nominated by Prime Minister Primó consisted basically of reformists; the only two who were not reformists, Serrano and Carlo, had also successively expressed support for reform.
Secondly, since becoming Prime Minister, Prime Minister Primó had been preparing for reform. He combined Spain’s current situation, referenced a large amount of successful foreign reform experience, and finally formulated a complete Spanish reform plan.
He handed this plan to Carlo and said very solemnly and seriously: “Your Majesty, this is the Spanish reform plan that I and dozens of officials wrote after a long period of investigation and research.
The following is the initial plan for the reform; please review it.”
The initial reform plan was actually very simple, consisting of only four categories: agriculture, education, industry, and military reform.
“Prime Minister Primó, please explain your reform plan in detail.” Although he supported reform inwardly, this did not prevent Carlo from wanting to hear Prime Minister Primó’s complete reform plan.
Prime Minister Primó nodded, stood up, and introduced to all Cabinet officials: “Our initial reform consists of only four aspects: agriculture, industry, education, and military reform.
In the agricultural aspect, I plan to promote reduction and exemption of agricultural tax to increase the income of the agricultural population. At the same time, promote export of grain to ensure sufficient sales channels for the agricultural population’s grain.
In the industrial aspect, I believe we should restore Spain’s industrial construction in a short time, invest in new factories, and build our own industrial zone.
Building factories can provide more jobs, which will also help us further improve per capita income.
In educational reform, I plan to build more literacy classes to reduce our illiterate population, but this requires huge funds investment, so it is the third choice for reform.
Finally, there is military reform. I hope to expand our army numbers to around 100,000 and equip our army with more cannons.
Sufficient quantities of cannons have proven their role on the battlefield; whether for defense against foreign enemies or stabilizing Spain’s order, improving the army’s combat effectiveness is necessary.”
Hearing Prime Minister Primó’s reform plan, before Carlo could express any opinion, Minister of War Serrano sitting beside him could not hold back.
Serrano stood up, looking at Prime Minister Primó with disbelief, and asked in surprise: “Prime Minister Primó, do you not know how many pesetas are left in Spain’s treasury?
Every one of your reforms requires tens of millions of pesetas, but our government simply has no money. To be blunt, if we cannot prepare sufficient pesetas before implementing the reform, this reform is destined to end in failure.”
“Don’t we still have a lot of fields?” Prime Minister Primó looked at Serrano who raised the opposing opinion, with a calm smile on his face.
For a monarchy country, the biggest landlord domestically is definitely the monarch himself. Queen Isabella herself was a debauched and greedy monarch, so it was not surprising that the Bourbon Dynasty owned the most arable land in Spain.
After driving away Queen Isabella, all the arable land originally belonging to the Bourbon Dynasty was confiscated by the Spanish Provisional Government, and these lands were the basis for Prime Minister Primó to implement reform.
Although these lands once belonged to the king, they certainly would not follow the throne to be inherited by Carlo.
Carlo naturally understood this point, and he had no intention of becoming a landlord, let alone ruining his own reputation for such lands.
On the contrary, if Carlo supported using these lands to exchange for sufficient funds for the government, this could instead become one of the topics for propagating Carlo.
Seeing that Carlo had no ideas about those lands, Prime Minister Primó finally breathed a sigh of relief and explained to Carlo and Serrano: “The Bourbon family owns vast lands; these lands are sufficient to provide enough funds for our reform.
I plan to divide these lands into three parts: one part to be distributed free to Spain’s farmers, allowing farmers to have sufficient arable land to plant grain.
Another part to be sold to capitalists and farm owners to accumulate sufficient funds for our reform.
The remaining part to be nationalized, which can be rented to farmers at low prices for planting.”
“I support your idea, Prime Minister Primó.” Carlo nodded, having no objection to the proposal of dividing the land into three parts: “
Moreover, I have a proposal that can prepare funds for the reform: why don’t we try issuing national debt?”
First update, seeking support!