Chapter 248: Population
The influx of foreign capital was something Carlo had not anticipated, but for Spain, it was a good thing.
Companies listed on the stock exchange benefited from this, especially railway companies, whose stock prices rose by at least ten percent.
The greatest impact on Spain was that many railway companies thereby obtained additional funds, making it a sure thing that they could smoothly complete the railway construction planned in the third five-year development plan.
The influx of French capital had both advantages and disadvantages, but for Spain at present, the benefits absolutely far outweighed the drawbacks. The large amount of funds brought by French capital could accelerate Spain’s industrial development, making Spain’s five-year development plan more effective.
Although this would also allow French capital to have a more profound influence on Spain, the extent of this influence could be controlled.
Spain followed the path of state capitalism, where the largest capital domestically was the government and the royal family. In such a situation, unless all French capital was transferred to Spain, partial capital could not influence the decision-making of the Spanish government.
In some cases, this foreign capital could even become lambs to the slaughter. Once relations between Spain and France broke down, the industries and property invested in by French capital in Spain would be forcibly taken back by the Spanish government.
Because the Spanish government did not prevent the influx of French funds into Spain’s stock exchange, the stock prices of all enterprises involved in railways experienced rapid growth.
At this time, Spain was indeed a good destination for French capital. Because of the previous economic crisis, the economies of European countries had not yet fully recovered.
In contrast, Spain, which had not been much affected by the economic crisis, had an economic growth rate that was absolutely among the fastest in all of Europe at this time.
Not only the railways in the five-year development plan attracted the attention of French capital, but other plans related to industrial construction also attracted capital from France and even various European countries.
The influx of large amounts of money caused a wave of investment in the Spanish stock market, and even many stockholders saw their assets multiply several times over in just a few days.
In Spain’s welcoming stance, French capital quickly reached intimate cooperation agreements with Spanish enterprises. This capital was not satisfied with merely purchasing stocks issued by Spanish enterprises; they even wanted to directly purchase large-scale stocks from shareholders of some railway companies.
Carlo adopted a laissez-faire attitude toward the actions of this French capital.
At least the current French capital posed no threat to Spain; on the contrary, it could accelerate Spain’s industrialization and make Spain’s capital force even stronger.
If Spain relied solely on domestic capital to promote its industrialization, by the time Spain completed industrialization, other European powers would have long achieved higher levels of industrial progress.
Even if only to accelerate the progress of Spain’s industrialization, absorbing this foreign capital was very necessary.
Since it was confirmed that large amounts of capital from France and even other countries were flowing into Spain, the most important thing to do now was to rationally utilize this foreign capital to promote Spain’s economic development.
Currently, foreign capital was mainly concentrated on Spain’s railway construction, and they mainly invested in industries related to railways.
As long as ways could be found to make them pay attention to other industries in Spain as well, Spain’s economy would have hope of achieving comprehensive growth.
Under Carlo’s deliberate promotion, Spanish newspapers also began reporting news related to other industries, and even industries related to finance were predicting that certain industries would achieve great development in the future.
Although it did not achieve effects similar to the railway industry, it did indeed attract a small portion of foreign capital to invest in Spain’s agricultural processing industry, manufacturing, and other industries.
It could be foreseen that with this foreign capital as a driving force, other industries in Spain would also usher in a golden development phase.
Although the influx of this foreign capital would make some local small and medium-sized enterprises face larger-scale competition or even the crisis of bankruptcy, it was helpful for the entire industry.
As long as it could help Spain’s various industries develop rapidly, sacrificing some small and medium-sized enterprises was very necessary. This era was originally the era of monopoly giants; these small and medium-sized enterprises did not play such a big role in Spain, and there was no need to regret them at all.
Of course, development was development, but it was also necessary to prevent the problem of overcapacity.
The hidden dangers brought by overcapacity were quite huge and could even trigger a new round of economic crisis. Although Carlo hoped that Spain’s economy and industry could achieve rapid development, Carlo even more did not want Spain to face a serious economic crisis.
Precisely because of this, in the context of foreign capital influx driving Spain’s economy to develop at high speed, Carlo also issued several requirements to the cabinet government, among which the main ones were to prevent overcapacity and blind development.
Spain’s development had to be purposeful, constructing those industries that Spain lacked and desperately needed, rather than generally focusing on industries in which Spain was already quite strong.
For example, in terms of steel manufacturing, Spain’s steel output had steadily ranked fifth in the world, and there was temporarily no need to pursue greater steel output, unless domestic demand for steel products in Spain expanded.
If steel output was blindly pursued, the unmarketable steel products produced would lead to the outbreak of an economic crisis.
The rapid development of various industries was certainly gratifying, but it was also necessary to resolutely prevent the occurrence of economic crises and avoid blind development in these industries, ultimately causing the problem of overcapacity.
Spain’s rapid economic development meant that the aggrieved party could only be Portugal, which was forced to engage in economic trade with Spain.
Since the train tracks of the two countries were synchronized, economic trade between Spain and Portugal had become quite frequent. Spain was Portugal’s only land neighbor and also the only channel for Portugal to conduct land trade with other European countries.
Since the two countries engaged in economic trade and synchronized their train tracks, the total import and export trade volume between Spain and Portugal had achieved a huge increase in a short time.
In the early stage of the first five-year development plan, the total import and export trade volume between Spain and Portugal was less than 1 million pesetas, and relations between the two countries could be described as tense, with basically no trade relations existing.
But after the end of the second five-year development plan, the total import and export trade volume between Spain and Portugal had reached 46 million pesetas, and Portugal had become an important trade partner of Spain.
Of course, in such trade relations, only Spain gained benefits, while Portugal suffered far more disadvantages than advantages.
The first was the impact on Portugal’s industrial environment brought by the influx of a large number of industrial products. Under the premise that the impact of the economic crisis had not been completely eliminated, Portugal’s industry had suffered quite serious damage.
Many smaller-scale factories directly went bankrupt in the economic crisis, which also caused Portugal’s total industrial output to plummet by nearly a quarter.
The remaining factories appeared so powerless when facing the impact of Spanish industry.
During the period when the economic crisis was relatively severe, Spain’s export of industrial products to Portugal had little effect.
After all, at that time many Portuguese workers had lost their jobs and could not afford to buy Spanish industrial products at all.
But when the impact of the economic crisis gradually decreased and these unemployed workers found jobs again, Spain’s dumping of industrial products achieved obvious results.
Compared to Portugal’s industrial manufactured goods, Spain’s industrial manufactured goods were not only more comprehensive but also had better quality and lower prices.
This was also the reliance of Spanish industrial manufactured goods in impacting the Portuguese market. In such a situation, the total import and export trade volume between Spain and Portugal continued to climb, and the trade deficit between the two sides continued to widen.
As of now, Portugal had to import more than 30 million pesetas worth of goods from Spain every year, covering various industrial manufactured goods, even including steel rails, trains, and other large items.
There was no way around it; Portugal domestically also needed to build railways. Under the premise of the collapse of output in Portugal’s steel mills, Portugal could only purchase cheaper steel rails from its neighboring country Spain, which could even reduce Portugal’s expenditure on railway construction.
The total value of goods Spain imported from Portugal was only about 16 million pesetas, and the trade deficit between the two sides reached an astonishing 14 million pesetas.
Companies engaged in import and export trade and bulk commodity transactions thereby made a fortune, and most of those engaged in these industries were Spanish nobles and capitalists.
Currently, the import and export trade between Spain and Portugal mainly relied on the railway from Badajoz to Portugal, which was also the only connection point between the Spanish and Portuguese railways.
It could also be seen from the map that Spain’s railways were already well-connected, but only a small section in the lower left corner connected with Portugal’s railways.
The Spanish government had also proposed to the Portuguese government the requirement to connect more railways, but they were ultimately all rejected by the Portuguese government.
The reason was also very simple: if the Portuguese government fully connected railways with Spain, Portugal’s safety would be at the mercy of Spain.
Although Spain had many mountains, the route from Toledo to Lisbon was almost flat plains, defenseless.
If Spain really had any ideas about Portugal, it could completely rely on the connected railway between the two countries to reach Portugal’s capital Lisbon in a short time.
This was something the Portuguese absolutely could not accept, and it was also the reason they always only wanted to connect one railway with Spain.
With only this small section of railway connected, if cracks appeared in relations between the two countries, the Portuguese side could blow up this railway at any time to ensure that the Spanish army would not quickly enter Portugal’s border via the railway.
If the northern, central, and southern regions all connected railways with Spain, it would become quite difficult to stop the advance of the Spanish army by blowing up railways.
Carlo still felt regretful about this. If railways could be fully connected with Portugal, the railways of Iberia would form a super-large railway network, promoting economic exchange in various regions of Iberia.
This was of course a good thing for Spain, but not necessarily for Portugal, which was also the reason for the Portuguese government’s refusal.
As of now, Spain’s domestic development had been relatively smooth, but the development of the colonies still had many problems.
A long time had passed since the establishment of the Congo Territory, and population had always been a major difficulty in the development of the Congo Territory.
Currently, the total population of the Congo Territory, great and small, did not exceed 30,000, and many of them were Russian immigrants forcibly sent there.
After these Russian farmers arrived in the Congo Territory, they quickly reclaimed a large area of land with the help of local indigenous people. If no accidents occurred, they would permanently settle in the Congo Territory and contribute their strength to the agricultural development of the Congo Territory.
Of course, Spain would not treat them poorly. After these Russian farmers arrived in the Congo Territory, they enjoyed absolute freedom and were first-class citizens of the colony, possessing some privileges.
In Russia, they were at the bottom of society, working themselves to death for a year without earning much income, and even facing large debts for renting nobles’ land.
But in the Congo Territory, any physical labor could rent a few slaves from the colonial government, or even directly buy a few black slaves to do the work.
The identities of these Russians instantly transformed, which also made them not opposed to settling in the Congo Territory, and even glad that immigrating had changed their lives.
Facts proved that these Russian immigrants were very useful.
Their arrival accelerated the agricultural development of the Congo Territory and also allowed the Congo Territory to barely meet its own demands in terms of agricultural products.
If the Congo Territory had not formed a colonial division with a full force of 20,000 troops, the current agricultural scale of the Congo Territory would actually already be sufficient to meet self-sufficiency requirements.
Because food sources needed to be provided to the army, the agricultural scale of the Congo Territory still needed to continue expanding. Grain had no crisis of overcapacity, after all, there were always people in this world who could not eat their fill.
Even during economic crisis periods, grain prices would instead rise. After all, not using industrial products would only make life inconvenient, but not eating grain would lead to starvation in just a few days.
The issue of how to increase the population of the Congo Territory had troubled the Spanish government for a long time.
At a cabinet meeting, the new Minister of Colonial Affairs William proposed a suggestion that brightened Carlo’s eyes: using a gold rush to attract a large number of gold prospectors, thereby expanding the population of the Congo Territory.
The so-called gold rush was actually attracting gold prospectors by publicly disclosing gold mines. When a large number of gold prospectors flooded into regions with gold mines to prospect for gold, such events were also called gold rushes.
Many colonies had gradually developed precisely because of gold rushes, among which famous cities included San Francisco and New Gold Mountain, and these two cities had become large cities precisely because of the gold rush.
Do not underestimate the obsession of gold prospectors with gold mining. Even in remote mountains and forests, as long as news of a gold mine spread to the gold prospectors, it would attract a large number of them.
The Lanfang Republic had also developed because of a gold rush, and at its peak, it even gathered tens of thousands of gold prospectors.
As long as Spain released news that the Congo Territory had a large gold mine, it would definitely attract many gold prospectors.
As long as a portion of the gold prospectors could be left behind, the population shortage problem in the Congo Territory would be solved.
Of course, attracting population through a gold rush was double-edged. These gold prospectors would indeed leave a portion to settle in the Congo Territory, but the gold rush would also attract attention from other countries.
This was gold, one of the most valuable rare metals in the world. Small gold mines were destined not to trigger a gold rush; gold mines that could trigger a gold rush were basically large-scale and unexploited ones.
Such large gold mines that could attract gold prospectors would naturally also attract attention or even coveting from other countries.
Therefore, before adopting the gold rush to attract population, it was also necessary to consider whether the gold prospectors in the Congo Territory would attract the attention of other great powers.
After careful consideration, Carlo ultimately decided to adopt the method proposed by William.
The Congo Territory was relatively special, with few colonial competitors on this land, at least for now.
In the entire Congo River Basin, there were actually only two colonizers: Portugal and Spain. The nearest colonizers were the French, whose colonies were still over 500 kilometers away from the Congo River.
Moreover, at this time France needed Spain to escape the influence of the isolation policy on France, so the French would not conflict with Spain over gold, at least not in the short term.
In the absence of French participation, Spain only needed to pay attention to Portugal’s colonial movements.
Carlo did not take the small Portugal seriously, and precisely because of this, Carlo decided to adopt the suggestion proposed by William.
In fact, besides France, the British might also meddle in the gold rush of the Congo Territory.
But the British colonies were relatively far from the Congo River Basin, with the nearest being the Gold Coast nearly 2,000 kilometers away.
Spain’s Congo Territory was located in the African inland, so if the British wanted to meddle, they could only occupy the downstream of the Congo River and then advance deep into the Congo Basin.
If the British really did that, Carlo would laugh out loud instead.
Because at this time, it was Portugal that was entrenched downstream of the Congo River. If the British seized Portugal’s colony, relations between Britain and Portugal would deteriorate sharply.
Without British support, Portugal would be a lamb to the slaughter for Spain. If the plot really developed this way, the merger of Spain and Portugal might be in the near future.
The paper strength after the merger of the two countries would still be quite exaggerated. Based on last year’s data, if Spain and Portugal merged, they would have a combined population of over 24 million and an army of 250,000, with industrial output maintaining the world’s fifth level, the navy also fifth in the world, and overall strength relatively strong.
If the two countries merged, Spain’s rapidly developing economy would also influence Portugal, putting Portugal’s industry and economy on the fast track of rapid development.
After several years of low-key development, the federated entity after merger could be called the number one great power under Britain, France, and Germany, and even compete with the French.
Last month the monthly tickets reached one thousand, adding an extra chapter today, begging for more monthly tickets!
