Chapter 104: Labor Policy
As time entered 1871, one matter drew the attention of Spaniards and many European royal families: King Carlo of Spain’s marriage.
Now Carlo had firmly secured the throne in Spain, and with his upcoming 20th birthday, he had reached the age for marriage discussions among European nobles.
As King of Spain and a member of the House of Savoy, there were no shortage of European royal families eager to form a marriage alliance with the Spanish Royal Family, including several great power royal families.
For one, Spain’s geographical position was indeed important; for another, Spain’s comprehensive national strength was not bad either, placing it in the top tier below the great powers.
Moreover, Carlo was the son of King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy, so forming a marriage alliance with the Spanish Royal Family was effectively the same as doing so with the Italian Royal Family.
Because Carlo’s mother Adelaide had already passed away, European royal families proactively approached Carlo as well as his father Vittorio Emanuele II.
Seeing letters from various European royal families, along with several photographs enclosed in them, Carlo’s head practically swelled.
Some age-appropriate princesses among them were one thing, but how were there even little girls just turned ten? Then looking at the letter from his sister Princess Maria Pia, it even recommended a Portuguese princess.
Carlo rubbed his brow and replied to his sister with a letter, stating that he had no intention of a marriage alliance with Portugal for the time being.
Leaving other matters aside, a marriage alliance between current Portugal and Spain was fundamentally impossible. The British absolutely would not want to see Portugal and Spaniards united; a unified Iberian Peninsula would be a powerful enemy for Britain in the western Mediterranean Sea.
As the saying goes, one mountain cannot hold two tigers; relations between Portuguese and Spaniards had never been that friendly. From 1580 to 1640, over those 60 years, Portugal had briefly been under joint rule by Spain, and both sides had established the Iberian Union.
But this union was clearly not as smooth as the one over 100 years earlier between the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon. The Kingdom of Castile and Kingdom of Aragon had united to create the powerful Kingdom of Spain, whereas the union of Spain and Portugal instead led their publics to begin hating each other.
Moreover, marrying a Portuguese princess did not align with Carlo’s own interests. Even if an alliance with Portugal could be forged, the disadvantages it would bring to Spain would far outweigh the benefits.
Britain would absolutely nail shut any alliance between Portugal and Spain; this would not only cause the Spanish Government to miss the golden opportunity for development in vain, but Portuguese and Spaniards would also grow even more rife with conflicts under constant British provocation.
Because of Queen Victoria’s hemophilia, Carlo had excluded the British Royal Family from his marriage prospects from the start.
And among all European great power countries, the royal families currently available for Carlo’s marriage were really only those of Germany, Austria, and Russia.
If Carlo absolutely had to choose, he would prefer a marriage alliance with Germany. Germany itself posed no major issues, and its performance in the future World War I would be extremely powerful.
In contrast, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia had domestic problems riddled with conflicts, which were basically irredeemable.
However, after the end of World War I, these three countries—Germany, Austria, and Russia—all abolished their monarchies, so the flaws of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia were not as severe.
Among these three countries, Carlo would definitely prioritize Germany, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire as backup, and Russia last.
Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be stronger in industry, and their military technology could also help Spain achieve real and effective improvements.
Russia, aside from having more population and richer resources, was far inferior to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in industry and economy.
In fact, before the outbreak of World War I, the initial alliance was the Three Emperors Alliance between Germany, Russia, and Austria. But why did it evolve into the Franco-Russian Alliance? Because the French, through constant financial aid, firmly grasped the economic lifeline of the Russians.
But there was currently a problem: the Hohenzollern Family and Habsburg Family seemed to lack many age-appropriate princesses available for a marriage alliance with Carlo.
Fortunately, Carlo was not in a hurry at this time; he could select candidates he favored while waiting for news from other countries’ royal families.
Time entered February 1871, and the Spanish Government approved another major engineering project: constructing a railway running through the entire South Morocco Colony.
Since there were no railways within Morocco, this railway needed to be fully invested in and constructed by the Spanish Government, with a total length exceeding 300 kilometers.
The railway’s starting point was Agadir, the capital of the South Morocco Colony, and the endpoint was the southernmost city Tantan, passing through small cities like Tiznit and Guelmim.
To strengthen control over internal regions of the South Morocco Colony, this railway also had a branch line extending eastward from Agadir, passing through Grudant and Tata, basically connecting all the larger cities and towns in the colony.
Since it was a colonial railway, the Spanish Government had no plans to tender this project but instead invested in its construction itself.
The good news was that the South Morocco Colony had over a million Moroccans, all of whom could serve as laborers for building the railway.
Part of the Moroccans’ indemnity could also be invested into the railway construction; a 300-kilometer railway would not consume too much funding overall, making this railway a steady profit with no loss.
Once the railway was completed, all resources in the South Morocco region could be easily transported by rail to Agadir and then shipped to Spain via the port.
Morocco’s mineral resources were relatively abundant, after all, most of the area consisted of mountainous regions. The South Morocco’s mineral resources were similarly plentiful, including phosphates that could be used to make chemical fertilizer.
Speaking of phosphates, a remote, uninhabited area in southern South Morocco—later known as Western Sahara—also possessed considerable phosphate reserves.
According to the agreement reached last time between the Spanish Government and British Government, the British Government would not obstruct Spain’s colonization of the Western Sahara region, meaning the entire Western Sahara region was basically in Spain’s pocket.
It was easy to understand why the British agreed to Spain colonizing Western Sahara. Western Sahara was, after all, a region mostly composed of desert, not only sparsely populated but also of very low overall economic value.
If this region could be used to attract the Spanish Government’s attention and temporarily halt Spain’s expansion into northern Morocco, it would be acceptable to the British.
What the British truly cared about were regions rich in mineral resources and fertile land; regions like Western Sahara could naturally be abandoned.
And for Spain, both South Morocco and Western Sahara held considerable importance.
The rich phosphate ore in these two regions could enable Spain to vigorously develop the chemical fertilizer industry and rapidly popularize the use of chemical fertilizer.
Although Spain’s land had too many innate shortcomings, large-scale use of fertilizer could still increase Spain’s overall crop production volume.
Raising crop production volume meant being able to support more population, which was a good thing for the Spanish Government.
In Carlo’s future plans, Spain’s population needed to at least exceed 20 million to have the confidence to return to the ranks of great powers.
If Spain wanted to master its own destiny and avoid becoming a pawn on the world chessboard, it needed at least over 30 million population, along with world top-five industry and economy.
This was still a huge challenge for current Spain; achieving this goal might take decades.
At least in the first decade, it was basically impossible to see. Completing Prime Minister Primó’s reforms within ten years would already be very good; for Spain to become powerful, it might still need to rely on opportunities from the future Boer War and World War I.
Regarding colonial policy for the South Morocco Colony, the Spanish Government had no intention of adopting a soft attitude.
Although Moroccans were white people, they were not proper Europeans and were destined not to enter Spain’s dominant ethnic group.
Aside from a small number who could be assimilated—or rather, willing to accept Spanish rule—the remaining Moroccans would be treated as ordinary African indigenous people.
Aside from creating a steady stream of economic benefits for the Spanish Government, they had no other value.
However, compared to the small number of black indigenous people, Moroccan white people’s treatment was slightly better.
Although Moroccan white laborers also had to do relatively grueling work, their working hours could be limited to 12 hours, and they could receive two meals of food per day.
In contrast, those black laborers had daily working hours exceeding 14 hours, and their daily food was only one barely satiating meal of black bread.
The so-called black bread was made from flour mixed with wood shavings and bran, with extremely low production cost; it was the food provided to indigenous people by most European countries.
Of course, many capitalists also provided it to factory workers, since for capitalists, how to reduce factory expenditure was the most important thing—whether eating such black bread would kill people was none of the factory’s business.
Prime Minister Primó could also understand Carlo’s attitude of disgust toward black people. In this era, such an attitude was not strange; Prime Minister Primó himself had no good impression of black people.
Precisely because the two people with the highest power and status in the Spanish Government both extremely disliked black people, the colonial policy in South Morocco became a hellish torment for black people.
Starting from the official commencement of railway construction in February 1871, an average of at least double-digit numbers of black laborers died at their posts every day, and the daily number of black laborer deaths was still increasing.
Perhaps it would not take much longer for the South Morocco Colony to become a white-only pure land, with black people completely vanishing from this region.
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