Chapter 217: Inspecting Barcelona
Good times are always brief. After staying in Italy for a few days, Carlo eventually had to leave.
After all, Carlo was already the King of Spain at this time, and Spanish affairs were the most important to him.
This trip to Italy, besides visiting his father Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo also intended to sign a further cooperation agreement with the Italian Government. This was also the reason he stayed for several days.
Now that the cooperation agreement between the two governments had been signed, Carlo had no reason to linger in Italy any longer.
When parting with Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo still felt some reluctance. But there was no way around it—national affairs took precedence over everything. For Carlo to carve out some time to visit Italy had already put aside some political affairs.
Although the current Spanish Government appeared stable, Carlo dared not bet on that slim possibility. Only by personally presiding over Spain could he ensure Spain’s stability and development.
Guard Commander-in-Chief Giuseppe also returned to Rome from Garibaldi’s residence, ready at any moment to follow Carlo back to Spain.
Speaking of which, Giuseppe and Carlo were in similar straits. Vittorio Emanuele II’s condition was due to illness compounded by overwork, while Garibaldi’s was more due to advanced age.
Although they knew both elderly men did not have much time left, regrettably, Giuseppe and Carlo clearly did not have much time to accompany them.
Pessimistically speaking, perhaps Carlo’s next visit to Italy would be at his father Vittorio Emanuele II’s funeral.
Clearing the complex emotions from his mind, Carlo ordered the fleet to advance at full speed, striving to return to Spain in the shortest possible time.
The Tenth Russo-Turkish War was absolutely Spain’s best development opportunity, and Carlo did not want to waste even a single moment.
Just trading with Russia and the Ottoman Empire would provide Spain with massive funds and other resources, not to mention that with the attention of other European Powers almost entirely on the Balkan Peninsula, Spain would face much less resistance in pursuing some expansion.
When Carlo’s group left Spain, they departed from the port of Valencia, but on the return to Spain, Carlo chose to dock at the port of Barcelona.
The reason, of course, was to first inspect Barcelona, Spain’s second most populous city.
Since the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base, Barcelona’s development had accelerated like riding a high-speed train, with small achievements in its industrial economy.
Under the planning of the Spanish Government and Carlo, up to now, over 200,000 Spaniards had continuously migrated to Catalonia, with a considerable portion settling around the Barcelona Industrial Base.
This had also led to rapid population growth in Barcelona in recent years, faintly showing a trend of surpassing Madrid.
And indeed, Barcelona’s geographical position was far superior to Madrid’s, and it also possessed extremely developed sea transport—surpassing Madrid was entirely possible.
For Spain, Barcelona and its affiliated Catalonia region were one of Spain’s extremely important administrative regions, and also an absolutely indivisible part of Spain.
How to keep Catalonia in a stable state and deal with the troubles of the Catalans was a problem the Spanish Government had always been considering.
This trip to Barcelona, Carlo also wanted to see the current situation in Catalonia and check whether the policies implemented by the government in Catalonia had corresponding effects.
Upon arriving in Barcelona, Carlo’s first destination was the Barcelona Industrial Base in the suburbs.
The Barcelona Industrial Base was a key plan in the Spanish Government’s industrial construction, and future Barcelona would also become Spain’s industrial heart and largest industrial city.
Although the capital Madrid also had industry, some heavily polluting industries would gradually be transferred to other regions or even outside Spain.
Carlo did not want Madrid to become a foggy city like London—although that was also a symbol of industrial development and civilization, such a symbol was not very healthy for people.
The British Empire, as the most developed country in industry and economy, theoretically should not have such low life expectancy.
But precisely because of the existence of the Foggy City, the average lifespan of London citizens was reduced accordingly. This era had no corresponding anti-smog measures, nor masks with strong protective capabilities.
Londoners inhaling extremely high concentrations of smog every day—living long would be the strange thing.
Arriving at the Barcelona Industrial Base, the overall manager of the industrial base, Angelo Orcajo, was already waiting respectfully with the industrial base’s management personnel.
Angelo Orcajo was a talent Carlo had promoted from among the nobility. The Orcajo family name came from the Orcajo town in western La Mancha. Angelo’s ancestors had been enfeoffed as Baron Orcajo, with the fief from Orcajo town to a stretch of land westward to the Guadiana River.
After over a hundred years of development, the title of Baron Orcajo still existed, but Angelo’s family had lost most of its territory and was a true fallen noble in every sense.
After arriving in Spain, Carlo decided to select a batch of fallen nobles from Spain’s aristocratic class for his own use.
Compared to those powerful and extremely high-status dukes and grand dukes, these already fallen counts and marquis would have higher loyalty to Carlo.
In this way, Baron Angelo Orcajo stepped into the political arena, and because of his good abilities in industrial development, Carlo promoted him to a position at the Seville Industrial Base.
Angelo did well at the Seville Industrial Base. When the Spanish Government decided to construct a larger-scale industrial base in Barcelona, Carlo entrusted this heavy responsibility to Angelo and appointed him as the overall manager of the industrial base.
So far, Angelo had done quite well at the industrial base. The Barcelona Industrial Base had successfully completed the first two phases of construction and was proceeding with the final phase.
If it could complete all three full phases of construction, the Barcelona Industrial Base would become an ultra-large industrial base with over 500,000 workers, and Barcelona would become Spain’s industrial heart, with importance not inferior to the capital Madrid at all.
Of course, even though the third phase of the Barcelona Industrial Base had not yet been completed, the role of the current two-phase industrial base was still not to be underestimated.
The current Barcelona Industrial Base employed over 250,000 workers and had thousands of large, medium, and small factories and enterprises.
The Barcelona Industrial Base accounted for over 30% of Spain’s total industrial production capacity, and its current industrial scale had already surpassed Madrid and Seville. Catalonia was also Spain’s strongest industrial region.
The rapid development of industry had also brought benefits to Catalonia. As Spain’s most powerful industrial region, Catalonia’s workers’ income was also the highest among all Spanish Autonomous Communities.
As of the beginning of this year, according to statistics from the Spanish Treasury Department, Spain’s average annual per capita income was around 131 pesetas, while the Catalonia region’s average annual per capita income had already exceeded this level, reaching the rather exaggerated figure of 144 pesetas.
This was still pulled down by Catalonia’s farmers and other low-income populations. The average income of workers at the Barcelona Industrial Base was even higher, reaching 165 pesetas—a level far exceeding the current average annual per capita income.
The continuous rise in per capita income had made Catalonia’s economy quite prosperous, and the area around Barcelona was in no way inferior to Spain’s capital Madrid.
If speaking of the total economic scale of the entire region, aside from Andalusia—which, with more population, could barely compare—other regions, including Madrid, could not match Catalonia’s total economy.
Catalonia’s prosperity also attracted large numbers of laborers from both domestic and abroad, and Barcelona was also Spain’s city receiving the most foreign immigrants each year.
Currently, Barcelona’s population structure had undergone significant changes; the proportion of true Catalans was continuously decreasing, while the numbers of orthodox Spaniards and foreign immigrants were continuously increasing.
This made those more extreme Catalan nationalists see danger, but they had no way to counter it.
The reason Catalonia attracted laborers from domestic and abroad was the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base—surely they could not stop the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base?
One must know that the current Barcelona Industrial Base already had over 250,000 workers and could accommodate over 250,000 more in the future.
If they tried to stop the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base, never mind what the Spanish Government would think—even the opposition from those 500,000 workers alone would be enough to sabotage these extremists’ plans.
Among the current 250,000 workers, over half were Catalans. Would these Catalans who had already entered the factories still support their plans?
In the situation where most extreme Catalans had already been dealt with by immigration or suppression, the remaining few extremists had no means to counter the current developments.
They had no strength to stop it, and those Catalans who had entered factory work and obtained higher incomes would not allow these minorities to destroy their good lives.
“Your Majesty, the construction of the third phase of the Barcelona Industrial Base has entered its final stage. It is estimated that within a year, all construction can be officially completed and enter production status.” The industrial base’s overall manager, Angelo Orcajo, reported to Carlo with a smile on his face.
The Barcelona Industrial Base had been under construction for nearly 7 years now, consuming all the efforts of the entire Spanish Government and himself.
So far, the results achieved by the Barcelona Industrial Base were quite gratifying. Spain’s industrial scale was also rapidly developing as the Barcelona Industrial Base continued to be built, and currently, Spain’s industrial scale was no longer inferior to Italy’s.
Italy was by no means weak in industry. Although Italy was a country that had only unified a few years ago, its predecessor, the Kingdom of Sardinia, had been quite strong in industry.
Italy’s unification had also integrated several industrially strong states and regions in the north, taking Italy’s industrial scale to the next level.
For Spain’s industrial scale to catch up to Italy was already quite an achievement. After all, Spain had only used less than ten years in total, and midway through had experienced civil war and all sorts of chaos—this was already quite remarkable.
Hearing Angelo’s report, Carlo nodded, quite satisfied with the talent he had promoted from among Spain’s vast noble class.
Although he was a fallen noble, Angelo’s own abilities were still commendable. If the Barcelona Industrial Base could be smoothly completed and fully put into production, this would not only be an achievement of the Spanish Government but also Angelo’s personal achievement.
After Cánovas formally became Prime Minister, the Minister of Industry position he had held concurrently became vacant, which was a perfect opportunity for Angelo to gain more training.
If Angelo also performed well in the position of Minister of Industry, Carlo would not mind letting him form a cabinet and become Prime Minister after Cánovas.
After all, for all countries in this era, developing industry was the most important thing. If one did well in industry, there would be no major mistakes in national development.
With industry, one had everything—this was an eternal unchanging truth in this era. The reason the United States and Germany rose rapidly in this era was, most importantly, that they quickly built extremely massive industries.
Though Britain was currently the world’s most powerful industrial nation, in the next twenty or thirty years, the United States and Germany would successively surpass Britain and become even more powerful industrial nations than Britain.
Although industry did not represent everything, it was also one of the basic elements for measuring a country’s power. If Angelo truly possessed quite good abilities, Carlo was also willing to let him enter a higher stage and fully utilize his capabilities.
“Were there any problems during the industrial base construction process that were difficult to solve?” Carlo asked with a smile: “Can workers’ salaries and welfare benefits be guaranteed? I do not hope that what happened last time in Madrid happens again in Barcelona.”
In the construction and development of the industrial base, what Carlo cared about most was the workers’ attitudes.
The construction of the industrial base would give birth to a large number of workers, and these workers’ strength was extremely powerful. Unlike the conservative farmer class, if the interests of the working class could not be ensured, it might be the ruling class’s interests that would be sabotaged in the end.
Carlo saw this clearly. In any case, the Spanish Government and Royal Family did not lack this bit of money. Under the premise of ensuring workers’ interests, what the Royal Family and government needed to do was to ensure workers’ interests as much as possible, while also doing some propaganda for themselves.
“The industrial base construction has indeed faced many problems up to now, but under Your Majesty’s and the government’s leadership, most of them have already been solved.” Angelo did not rush to answer Carlo’s question but pretended to think seriously. After a short while, he then spoke: “
If there are still unsolved problems, the shortage of technical talent is one. The current Barcelona Industrial Base has over 250,000 workers, but we still have significant shortages of technical talent and skilled workers, and they are quite substantial.
Another is that the industrial base’s development deviates somewhat from our pre-construction estimates—perhaps our Barcelona Industrial Base will be larger than anticipated.”
Carlo nodded. The problem of technical talent shortage was not unique to the Barcelona Industrial Base; it was a problem faced by all of Spain.
Even with the government’s heavy investment in education, it could not produce results in just a few short years.
Luring technical talent from abroad was indeed a way to solve the problem, but large-scale attraction of technical talent was impossible; annual immigration in technical talent amounted to only a few hundred to a thousand people.
“The industrial base can contact various factories and enterprises to compile statistics on the most lacking and needed skilled worker types.” Carlo thought for a moment and gave his solution: “
After determining the most lacking and needed technical types, the government will arrange people to focus on finding talent and skilled workers in those categories.
The shortage of technical talent is a problem faced by all of Spain and cannot be solved in the short term. But we can first solve some of the more important talent shortages, and less important ones can be addressed later.”
Solving all the technical talent shortages in the industrial base was fundamentally impossible in the short term. But if it was just solving shortages in a certain category of technical talent, it was still achievable for the Spanish Government.
Worst case, throw money at it—after all, in this era, talent treatment was not that good, and money could still attract some.
Compared to the development of the Barcelona Industrial Base, sacrificing some funds was negligible. A complete industrial base was extremely important to Spain—not to mention sacrifices in funds, even sacrifices in materials and other resources were worth considering.
Hearing Carlo’s proposed solution, Angelo showed an excited expression and said with strong approval: “This is indeed a good idea, Your Majesty. This problem has troubled me for a long time. Thank you, Your Majesty—I can sleep well tonight.”
“Haha.” Carlo laughed. Although he knew Angelo was flattering him, he was still quite satisfied with the man’s attitude: “You mentioned that the scale of the Barcelona Industrial Base might deviate from our estimates— what is the actual situation?”
“In our previous estimates, the Barcelona Industrial Base’s scale could accommodate about 500,000 workers, with production volumes of 700,000 tons of pig iron and 300,000 tons of steel.
But according to our statistics on the existing industrial base scale and estimates for the third-phase construction, once completed, the industrial base can accommodate around 550,000 workers, or even possibly up to 600,
Total industrial output is also expected to increase by 10% to 15%, which also means Barcelona will need more workers—relying solely on Catalonia’s population is completely insufficient.” Angelo answered.
The construction plan for the Barcelona Industrial Base had long been set, but plans always deviated somewhat from reality.
Based on the current development and construction situation of the industrial base, the fully completed industrial base would have certain gaps compared to previous estimates.
Of course, this deviation was actually a good thing. As long as worker and technical talent problems could be solved, the bigger the industrial base, the better.
Although it was only about 10% more industrial capacity, for an ultra-large industrial base with hundreds of thousands of workers, this 10% in steel alone exceeded 100,000 tons.
And the Barcelona Industrial Base included comprehensive industrial fields such as chemical industry, heavy industry, machining, military industry, electric power industry, light industry, and more—this 10% increase could even affect Spain’s total industrial scale.
Hearing Angelo’s report, Carlo smiled and was completely reassured: “This is good news. Do not worry about the workers—there will continue to be a steady stream of workers coming to Barcelona.
Just complete the third-phase construction plan. Any problems you face can be submitted to the government or brought directly to me.
Industrial base construction is of utmost importance—I will not allow anyone to sabotage our industrial base. Angelo, as long as you can ensure the smooth completion of the Barcelona Industrial Base’s three phases, the position of Minister of Industry in the next Cabinet Government will be yours.”
Angelo was originally one of Spain’s aristocratic class, and to Carlo, he was unquestionably one of his own.
Precisely because of this, Carlo’s emphasis on Angelo was visibly strong, even promising the quite important position of Minister of Industry.
The Industry Department was absolutely one of the most important departments among the Cabinet’s many departments—perhaps only on par with Defense and Finance.
Hearing the Minister of Industry position promised by Carlo, Angelo nodded excitedly and guaranteed loudly to Carlo: “Rest assured, Your Majesty—I will oversee the smooth completion of the Barcelona Industrial Base.
Before the next Cabinet Government election, I will let Your Majesty see a complete and massive Barcelona Industrial Base. I absolutely will not fail your trust.”
Carlo nodded, having great trust in Angelo’s words.
Establishing an industrial base in Catalonia was not that easy—those extreme Catalans would occasionally cause some sabotage or secretly obstruct things.
The reason the Barcelona Industrial Base had progressed so smoothly up to now, besides the government’s emphasis and army garrison, was also due in large part to Angelo’s tireless efforts.
According to reports from the Royal Safety Intelligence Department, since becoming the overall manager of the industrial base, Angelo had been working late almost every day.
Besides supervising the industrial base construction to ensure building quality, he also had to continuously liaise with the factories and enterprises that had relocated, ensuring their production and transportation.
Carlo had indeed given Angelo a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he had truly seized it. Not only had he fully demonstrated his abilities and value through this opportunity, but he had also earned Carlo’s trust through his attitude.
Currently, in Carlo’s view, Angelo was a talent worth cultivating—this was also what Angelo wanted to achieve.
“Have the factories and enterprises in the industrial base strictly followed the relevant provisions of the labor law in paying workers’ salaries and providing welfare benefits?” Carlo continued to ask.
Actually, the workers’ demands were not high—just no deduction of wages and some rest time.
Workers did not reject overtime; they rejected overtime with no reward. No one wanted overtime without overtime pay, but with sufficient overtime pay, workers were of course willing to work a few extra hours in the factory every day.
“The industrial base places great emphasis on this. Every so often, I organize personnel to investigate all factories and enterprises within the industrial base to ensure they do not deduct workers’ wages. So far, no such problems have arisen inside the Barcelona Industrial Base, and workers’ working hours are strictly limited to under 11 hours.” Angelo answered.
6200-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!
Came back late today, so the ten-thousand-word update is moved to tomorrow. As compensation, a 6,200-word big chapter update today—thank you everyone for your support!
