Chapter 246: Third Five-year Development Plan
Cánovas, who had smoothly become the new Cabinet Prime Minister, possessed immense power, but he did not become arrogant because of it.
He knew who had granted him his power, and he also knew that his power could easily be taken back. On the second day after being elected as the Spanish Cabinet Prime Minister, Cánovas went to the Madrid Royal Palace to seek an audience with Carlo and inquire about Carlo’s attitude toward the appointment of Cabinet members.
Both Cánovas and Carlo understood that Carlo himself did not care who the Cabinet Ministers were. But Cánovas had to fully respect Carlo’s opinions, as this was a manifestation of loyalty.
As expected, Carlo was quite satisfied with Cánovas’s arrival. But when Cánovas asked Carlo about his attitude toward the Cabinet members, Carlo stated that he would not interfere with the government’s decisions.
The meaning of this statement was also very simple: Cánovas had full appointment authority. Of course, before appointing Cabinet Ministers, Cánovas also had to make clear that the people he appointed must have sufficient loyalty to Carlo as well.
Carlo indeed did not care about the selection of Cabinet Ministers because Carlo already had sufficient strength to deal with a Cabinet Government not under his control.
Fortunately, Cánovas was indeed sufficiently loyal, and Carlo also did not want to frequently replace the Cabinet Government, as this would only make Spain’s political situation chaotic.
After Cánovas became the Prime Minister of Spain, the first thing Carlo did was appoint Grand Duke Serrano as Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister.
The role of Grand Duke Serrano was also very obvious: to steady the scene for Cánovas, who was serving as Prime Minister for the first time.
Although Cánovas was also of noble background, his nobility title was just a minor Count. A Count was not bad in the European noble system and in the Middle Ages was also a real-power lord with his own territory.
But in Spain, this rather special country, a Count was as pitiful as an honorary title, with hardly any presence.
Even though the previous noble rebellion had led Carlo to abolish over a hundred nobility titles, the number of nobles in Spain was still as numerous as hairs on an ox.
In an era where Dukes were everywhere and Marquises were inferior to dogs, a Count truly was not much. Without Carlo’s strong support, Cánovas would not have gained the Conservative Party’s support at all, let alone become the Spanish Cabinet Prime Minister in such a short time.
Cánovas’s first time serving as Cabinet Prime Minister in this important position made it very necessary to have Grand Duke Serrano, who was a Grand Duke, backing him up.
Additionally, this might also be Serrano’s last time serving as a Cabinet Minister position. Grand Duke Serrano, born in 1810, was already 69 years old this year—an advanced age that even in posterity over a hundred years later would be retirement age, not to mention in this era where life expectancy was only around 40 years.
Because Grand Duke Serrano was advanced in age, Carlo did not plan to continue having him serve as Spain’s Minister of Defense.
Although Grand Duke Serrano’s ability and loyalty were sufficient, having a 69-year-old man still responsible for a very busy and complex department was obviously too cruel.
Grand Duke Serrano’s Deputy Prime Minister position was more of a sinecure, which was also to take care of his health. Cánovas had already practically handled the political affairs of the Spanish Cabinet Government during his time as Deputy Prime Minister, and after becoming Prime Minister, he would only be even more adept.
Although Carlo did not plan to have Grand Duke Serrano continue as Minister of Defense, he still needed him to hold a high military position to stabilize order.
Among the several senior military officials in the Spanish Military Committee, Carlo planned to promote Royal Army Commander-in-Chief Evan Bradley to Spain’s new Minister of Defense, Chief of Staff Malca Antonio Fleche to succeed Evan as Royal Army Commander-in-Chief, and Grand Duke Serrano to succeed Malca as Spain’s Defense Department Chief of Staff.
Although both Army and Navy Commanders-in-Chief and Chiefs of Staff were General ranks, the power and importance of these positions were still different.
The Minister of Defense was of course the highest position in the Spanish military and also the position with the greatest power. The Minister of Defense’s military rank was generally Marshal, under whom were the Army and Navy command departments, Staff Department, Logistics Department, and other departments.
Below the Minister of Defense, the Royal Army Commander-in-Chief’s status was higher than the Chief of Staff, and the Chief of Staff’s status was higher than the Navy Commander-in-Chief.
As for the reason, it was Spain’s different emphasis on the Army and Navy as well as the establishment time of the Staff Department.
Carlo having Grand Duke Serrano serve as Spain’s Chief of Staff was also to let him enjoy the last part of his life in this relatively leisurely position during this peaceful era.
Although no longer serving as Minister of Defense, the titles of Deputy Prime Minister plus Chief of Staff were actually higher in status than Minister of Defense.
After learning of Carlo’s order, Grand Duke Serrano had no opposition at all and very readily accepted Carlo’s order.
Since Carlo already had a decision, the election in the Spanish Military Committee naturally had no obstacles.
The Military Committee originally had only seven people, and Carlo had also gained the support of including the Guard Commander-in-Chief, the current Prime Minister, the current Minister of Defense, and the current Army Commander-in-Chief—this already made five votes, naturally passing smoothly.
Although his position was demoted to Chief of Staff, Grand Duke Serrano’s Marshal military rank would be retained. Army Commander-in-Chief Evan, promoted to Minister of Defense, would soon be granted the Marshal military rank, and he would also formally take over Spain’s Defense Department.
In addition to Grand Duke Serrano serving as Deputy Prime Minister, Carlo also simultaneously appointed Menotti as Spain’s Minister of Royal Affairs.
Menotti was Garibaldi’s eldest son, and after coming to Spain, he performed quite excellently and had previously been granted a Count title by Carlo.
Making him Minister of Royal Affairs, Carlo also wanted to train his abilities. In the future, whether serving as Minister of Colonial Affairs or becoming a colonial Governor, it would all be excellent placements.
Giuseppe, serving as Guard Commander-in-Chief, and Menotti, serving as Minister of Royal Affairs—these two had also successfully revived the Garibaldi family in Spain.
Giuseppe, as Guard Commander-in-Chief, had early on been granted a Count title by Carlo, and he and his younger brother Menotti were also among the nobles in Spain most likely to be granted a Duke title.
The future prospects of the Garibaldi family were brilliantly bright, which also made Garibaldi himself, far away in Italy, very gratified.
After learning that both sons had been granted Count titles and were holding high positions in the Spanish Government, he could finally completely rest assured and repeatedly instructed his two sons to serve Carlo wholeheartedly, guard their proper duties, and maintain their loyal attitude.
Garibaldi of course understood how important trust was between a King and his subordinates. He did not want his sons to be foolish and incur Carlo’s suspicion due to wrong choices.
As a noble, betraying the King was asking for trouble. In a situation where they had extremely bright futures ahead, the best choice was to closely follow the King’s footsteps and let the King see their loyal side.
Of course, Carlo’s trust in the two was also worthy of their loyalty. If Carlo had not had much trust in them from the beginning, Garibaldi would not have been willing to send both sons far to Spain at the same time.
The adjustments to a series of important positions in the Cabinet Government made Spain very busy, and the major newspaper offices were also constantly paying attention to changes in important positions in various Cabinet departments.
Having consulted Carlo, Cánovas was also planning his own Cabinet Government. Since he already knew Carlo would not participate in Cabinet member appointments, Cánovas had to submit candidates for nine Cabinet department Ministers himself.
These Minister candidates were not submitted casually; he had to ensure their political ideology was basically the same as Cánovas’s, that they also possessed quite good abilities, and preferably were his own people from the Conservative Party.
Among the Cabinet’s nine departments, the first confirmed was Foreign Secretary, still served by the Marquis of Everton. The Marquis of Everton was an old-brand Spanish noble who had previously clearly expressed support for Cánovas, and Cánovas still very much needed his help.
Meanwhile, Jovellar Soler, who was in the same Conservative Party as Cánovas, was promoted to Minister of Industry position, which was also one of the positions easiest to rack up political achievements.
Ewald continued to serve as Finance Minister; his Progressive Party still had a certain prestige in Spain, and Cánovas could not completely ignore the Progressive Party’s opinions.
The remaining Cabinet positions also had more or less changes, with the Conservative Party clearly occupying the majority of positions in the Spanish Cabinet Government.
Although nine Cabinet Ministers were appointed, Prime Minister Cánovas was still quite sensible. He had no idea of monopolizing power; the government he formed was more for serving Carlo, with the purpose of better executing the orders Carlo issued.
As long as he could satisfy Carlo, at least in the next Prime Minister election five years later, he also had a very high probability of continuing to be re-elected.
Currently, Cánovas was only a Count title, but if he could serve a full ten years in the Spanish Prime Minister position, by the time he retired in the future, he could at least mix in a Duke title.
Although the Duke title was not so prestigious in Spain, it was at least already a member of the top-tier nobility. Cánovas’s children in the future would also have even brighter prospects, whether continuing into the political arena or engaging in business or other industries; they would all have abundant connections and support.
Of course, what Prime Minister Cánovas valued most was gaining Carlo’s trust. Spain was ultimately a monarchy country, and the King of Spain’s opinion was the most important in Spain.
If Cánovas could gain Carlo’s trust through a high degree of cooperation, his children would also gain even brighter prospects.
For Cánovas, if the family could flourish in his hands, that would absolutely be something worth being proud of.
Becoming Spanish Prime Minister had already completed a major step, which also gave Cánovas more confidence to achieve his goals.
Even if in the future he could form a marriage alliance with the Spanish Royal Family, Cánovas’s family might rise to become one of Spain’s most prominent noble families, accompanying the House of Savoy to become the very top of Spain’s ruling class.
With the Cabinet Government formally established, the biggest task facing the new Cabinet Government was to discuss Spain’s third development plan.
The first two five-year development plans had all achieved complete success, and formulating another five-year development plan had also become the expectation of everyone in Spain from bottom to top.
After all Cabinet Ministers of the new Cabinet Government uniformly swore loyalty to Carlo, Carlo immediately convened a Cabinet Meeting and required the Cabinet Government to produce a brand-new third five-year development plan in a short time.
The first two five-year development plans were more like laying the groundwork for Spain; the upcoming development plans were the key to Spain’s complete takeoff.
Precisely because of this, Carlo put forward requirements for the third five-year development plan at the meeting, particularly mentioning railway mileage, overall industrial scale, heavy industry and military industry, agricultural production, and more.
In the first two five-year development plans, Spain’s economic development was quite rapid. A large reason for this came from Spain’s emphasis on railway development.
The benefits of building railways naturally went without saying, and the nationwide large-scale railway construction also brought synchronous growth to Spain’s industry and economy.
Originally, when Prime Minister Primó proposed the second five-year development plan, the goal was to elevate Spain’s total railway scale to over 11,000 kilometers before
This data had already been achieved in the mid-to-late part of last year, and by the end of December 1878, Spain’s total railway mileage had formally broken through 11,500 kilometers and was continuously advancing toward the 12,000-kilometer milestone.
After discussion among the various Cabinet members, the target for railway mileage in the third five-year development plan was formally determined.
Spain’s population was generally concentrated in coastal plain regions and around Madrid, which also meant railway construction did not need to cover every inch of territory.
For the railway mileage requirements in the next five-year plan, the Cabinet’s attitude was quite clear: abandon the radical construction method and stabilize railway mileage at around 13,000 kilometers.
Because the current railway mileage had already exceeded 11,500 kilometers, this also meant Spain only needed to build less than 1,500 kilometers of railway in the next five years, with an average annual railway mileage construction of less than 300 kilometers.
This data was only half of the annual railway mileage construction in Spain during the second five-year development plan, which was also the most distinctive aspect of the third five-year development plan.
Of course, this did not mean Spain was to comprehensively slow down railway development.
What was temporarily slowed was only mainland railway construction; colonial railway construction still needed to be accelerated to ensure that colonial materials could be quickly transported to the Spanish Mainland while increasing control over the various colonies.
Mainland railway construction was not without other tasks either. Because Spain had many mountainous areas, railway construction was quite difficult, consuming more time and funds than those plains-heavy countries.
In addition, due to somewhat immature technology, some railway lines had become fragile under frequent railway transport.
One of the tasks in Spain’s third five-year development plan was to comprehensively upgrade existing railway lines and, in some busy regions, convert single-track railways to double-track railways to increase railway transport capacity.
A single-track railway was one railway line, while a double-track railway was two parallel railway lines. From the literal meaning, it could be seen that a double-track railway’s transport capacity was at least twice that of a single-track railway.
It was worth mentioning that in railway mileage calculations, the mileage for single-track railways and double-track railways was calculated the same.
This also meant that in the case where both single-track and double-track railways were 100 kilometers long, the calculated railway mileage would also be 100 kilometers, and double-track railways would not be double-counted.
What Spain had to do was increase the proportion of double-track railways, especially on some relatively busy railway lines, converting railways to double-track as much as possible to increase railway transport capacity.
Spain’s future population would still grow, and Carlo did not want to wait until Spain’s population reached tens of millions in the future before upgrading railway lines.
Currently, Spain’s busiest railways totaled two segments: the railway from Madrid to Barcelona and the railway from Madrid to Seville.
Carlo’s expectations for Madrid and Barcelona were not small cities of just 500,000 population, but large cities with at least over 2 million population.
Although this goal was still very distant for both cities, Spain’s railway construction had to take this phenomenon into account.
Spain gained many immigrants every year, and among these immigrants, many were arranged to industrial powerhouses like Madrid and Barcelona.
This also made the population of both cities continuously climb; currently, Madrid’s population had exceeded 550,000, and Barcelona’s population had also exceeded 460,000, making them Spain’s most dazzling twin-star cities.
The cities below had none that could compare to these two, like larger cities such as Seville, which had only around 150,000 population.
Precisely because Madrid and Barcelona had large populations, plus both cities had quite huge industrial scales, this led to the railway lines between the two cities becoming one of Spain’s busiest railway lines.
The biggest task of Spain’s Transportation Department in the next five-year development plan was to convert the railway lines between these two cities entirely to double-track railways and, as much as possible, take responsibility for more cities around the railway lines, such as Zaragoza.
In addition to certain requirements for railway mileage, the third five-year development plan also stipulated a series of issues and development directions including industrial scale, total steel output, population education situation, and more.
It was expected that before the end of the third five-year development plan in 1884, Spain’s population should at least reach 5 million, with steel output reaching 300,000 tons and 750,000 tons respectively, for a total steel output exceeding 1 million tons.
In addition, the third five-year development plan also mentioned the foreign debt currently owed by the Spanish Government.
Although Spain’s fiscal revenue was steadily climbing, government fiscal expenditure was also continuously growing. Considering that Spain still had quite a lot of foreign debt to repay, in the next five years, Spain had to save fiscal expenditure as much as possible while balancing its own development, and use the saved money to repay foreign debt.
The earliest to repay were the debts to Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but these were basically low-interest and interest-free loans, relatively easy to repay.
The French debts had even longer repayment times, and the Spanish Government could consider repaying France’s debts after its own economic development was even better.
Anyway, France was big and powerful and did not lack this bit of funds. Repaying the loans to France, the French might lend this money again to other countries in Europe, which might even include Spain.
It was better to keep this money in hand; at least for the next several years, this money could accelerate Spain’s development speed and keep Spain’s economy and government revenue at a high growth rate.
5200-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!
