Empire Rise: Spain-Chapter 26: Massive Expansion Of Royal Industries

While reforms and construction in Spain were in full swing, Carlo was already deploying his own public opinion empire.
As early as in Italy, Carlo had Loren acquire a newspaper office in Spain, though keeping it on a very small scale.
Now that he had become King of Spain, it was time to expand the newspaper office in Spain and establish a newspaper institution with high influence like the Italian Sun Newspaper.
The naming intent of the Italian Sun Newspaper was still very good, and plus, due to the previous extensive propaganda for monarchy, the Sun Newspaper had gained some popularity in Spain. Carlo naturally directly copied the name of the Sun Newspaper.
In October 1869, the Spanish Sun Newspaper was formally established in Madrid, becoming Carlo’s first main industry in Spain.
The development potential near Madrid was no less than that of Northern Italy. Carlo’s expectation for the new Spanish Sun Newspaper was also to become a major newspaper with daily sales of 20,000 copies within two years.
In addition to the Spanish Sun Newspaper used to build fame, Carlo also had Loren quietly acquire more than ten small newspaper offices to expand the number of newspaper offices in his public opinion empire.
These newspaper offices were also dispersed in various places in Spain, able to influence more Spanish families.
In addition to the public opinion layout, Carlo also formally began the major expansion of royal assets.
To realize the plan in his heart in Spain amid internal and external troubles, sufficient funds were indispensable.
Although newspaper offices could earn a little money, for the royal palace with very high expenses, it was just a drop in the bucket.
The land and most property of the Bourbon Dynasty had been confiscated by the government. Besides taking over the Madrid Royal Palace and some other castles and manors, Carlo had not obtained much of those valuable industries and land.
Currently, the income from Carlo’s these industries could barely maintain the expenses of the royal palace, and this was without Carlo forming the Guard.
Whether for the formation of the Guard or for larger-scale reforms and expansion in the future, investing in more industries was very necessary.
The first step in the expansion of royal assets, Carlo set his target on the food and red wine industry sector.
Food naturally goes without saying; it is essential materials needed for humans to maintain normal life, consumables, and basically never worries about sales.
As for the status of wine in the Western world, it naturally goes without saying. As an alcoholic beverage pursued by upper-class people and indispensable for lower-class people, wine in Europe never worries about sales; just banquets among nobles alone can consume large amounts of wine.
In posterity, Spain was the world’s third largest wine production area, and itself was also very suitable for the development of the wine industry. The wine produced by Carlo’s winery basically never worried about sales, after all, a king’s private winery was inherently more prestigious than those ordinary wineries.
In mid-October 1869, United Food was formally founded in Madrid. Carlo acquired a flour mill in Madrid and prepared to expand it into a food processing plant based on the flour mill.
What to produce?
Carlo actually already had a plan in his heart, something similar to fast food in posterity.
However, it wouldn’t be very complex, roughly two large pieces of bread with a bit of meat paste and jam in between, focusing on good quality and low price.
In this regard, food practitioners in posterity had already blazed too many trails. Carlo had many ways to reduce the cost of food while making it look substantial in portion and good in taste.
As for the food safety issues that everyone in posterity talks about, in this era, there was no concern at all.
Of course, as king, Carlo could not disregard the personal safety of Spaniards. All products under United Food could at least guarantee no fatal poisoning, at most diarrhea caused by food quality.
A cheap food with meat and vegetables would surely be welcomed in Spain where income was not high.
Carlo could also take the opportunity of opening the food factory to set a benchmark for Spanish enterprises. After Spanish workers everywhere envied the welfare system of royal enterprise employees, it would be time to promulgate labor law in Spain.
Although labor law would gain the favor of workers, what it confronted were those big capitalists and factory owners.
Without absolute certainty or massive worker support, Carlo did not plan to promote the promulgation of labor law in the early stage.
After all, those big capitalists were also a part of supporters of monarchy. Confronting those big capitalists before mastering his own strength would be tantamount to digging his own grave.
The United Food factory was quietly established. It still needed some time before formal production, and Carlo did not plan to extensively publicize his food factory before generating good response.
Compared to the food factory, Carlo’s propaganda efforts for his own winery were much greater.
Fortunately, several wineries of Queen Isabella were well preserved and not distributed to farmers as land.
After all, what truly made a winery valuable were those planted grapevines; the value of the land itself was not as great as imagined.
Also because Carlo actively abandoned those lands, Primo ultimately decided to hand over the several wineries left by Queen Isabella to Carlo, at least to guarantee that the royal family had some income.
This also greatly facilitated Carlo. After all, starting a wine processing plant from scratch would not only require a lot of time cost but also massive fund investment.
Just cultivating his own grapevines would require a long time, or purchasing ready-made grapevine seedlings would also require a lot of fund investment.
Now with several ready-made wineries and grape manors, Carlo only needed to revamp these wineries and establish his own private wine brand.
For his own wine enterprise, Carlo planned to split it into two parts.
The first wine enterprise was named Royal Winery; the wine sold in the future would all carry the name of royal exclusive supply and collection, focusing on mid-to-high-end wine, with target customers being those wealthy big capitalists and nobles.
The second wine enterprise did not have the word “royal,” named Iberian Manor, with its red wine focusing on cost-performance, targeting ordinary Spaniards with little money.
Through the strategy of hitting both high-end and low-end markets, it could ensure that Carlo’s wine industry occupied market share in the Spain wine market at extremely fast speed.
Relying on the Spain market, Carlo could advance to attack or retreat to defend, and also seize more of the Europe wine market, thereby quickly realizing the profit plan of the wine industry.
The money-making ability of the wine industry sector was stronger than that of newspaper offices. If it could seize a considerable portion of the Spain market, it could ensure that when Carlo formed the Guard next, he would not even be unable to afford equipment.
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