Chapter 250: Political Contribution System Reform
Carlo had just been pleased by the gold rush bringing more population to the Congo Territory, when suddenly the Spanish Mainland faced a problem that made Carlo frown.
The emergence of this problem could still be blamed on the influx of French Capital into Spain; not all capital was willing to operate within the scope prescribed by Spain.
The greed of capital is well-known, and Marx’s Capital also mentioned the greed and crimes of capital: in the face of 10% profit, capitalists will be tempted; in the face of 20% profit, capitalists will become active; in the face of 50% profit, capitalists will take risks; in the face of 100% profit, capitalists will trample the law; in the face of 300% profit, capitalists will even dare to commit any crime.
The French Capital in Spain had not yet reached the point of committing any crime, but they had indeed begun to become active, wanting to obtain more privileges and preferential treatment in Spain.
In order to expand their right to speak, some French Capital began to invest in Spain’s political parties, trying to use political parties to change the current situation where capital was unwelcome in Spain.
Although the actions of French Capital could not temporarily change Spain’s political situation, this was indeed something Carlo did not want to see.
Political activities require a lot of funds, which is also the reason why most political parties cannot develop in Spain. The Spanish Government has no overly harsh requirements for the establishment of political parties; as long as one has at least one parliamentary seat in the regions’ councils, one can apply to the Senate to establish a political party.
Because of the lack of funds, most political parties, even if they can be established, are doomed not to develop.
Only political parties that truly gain popular support can obtain donated political donations from the public, thereby possessing the capital to engage in political activities.
Because previously the capital in Spain was not strong, the political parties that obtained more political donations were basically those supported by the public, in other words, political cash accumulated by numbers.
But under the intervention of French Capital, some political parties that are not supported by the public also have the opportunity to obtain more political cash, thereby engaging in more political activities.
Among the many parties in Spain, the first one French Capital contacted was the Liberal Party, which is also the party that Carlo is most wary of among the existing parties in Spain.
The Liberal Party has a history of supporting republicanism, and France is a republicanism country, which inevitably makes people suspicious and wary.
Carlo did not want French Capital to interfere too much in the affairs of the Spanish Government, so the best way was to change the current system and related regulations for Spanish political parties to obtain political donations.
Currently, Spain has no restrictions on the political donation system; as long as someone donates political donations to a certain political party, the political party can obtain the entire amount of funds and use them for political activities.
If this system continues, French Capital can easily cultivate a huge political party, posing a threat to Spain’s current ruling party, the Conservative Party.
The current slogan of the Liberal Party is to pursue democracy and freedom; if intervened by French Capital, will it become pursuing democratic republicanism?
Carlo does not believe in the integrity of capital; if turning Spain into a republic allows French Capital to earn more, French Capital will definitely do so.
Therefore, Carlo must reduce the opportunities for French Capital to gain more political influence from the source, avoiding them obtaining more political power by controlling a certain political party.
The simplest way is to change the political donation system, so that the money donated by French Capital goes into the pockets of all political parties, rather than a certain political party assisted by French Capital.
After having the plan, the next things became easy.
Carlo and Prime Minister Cánovas discussed for a few days and finally came up with a brand new political donation system proposal.
Originally, the political donations donated by the public to political parties went directly into the pockets of the political parties, but according to the new system, the political donations donated by the public to political parties need to be handed over to the party management institution of the Upper House first, and then distributed to various parties by the party management institution.
This political donation will be divided into two parts, of which 40% is directly distributed to the donated political party as political activity funds, with no requirements or preconditions; as long as it is a legal political party, it can obtain it.
The remaining 60% will be distributed to all political parties with seats according to the proportion of House of Commons seats occupied by each political party, achieving the purpose of all political parties partitioning the political donations.
The benefits of this system are obvious: it ensures that all political parties can have a sip of soup, and they will not be forced to dissolve due to no public donations.
The disadvantages are also obvious: a certain political party cannot obtain all the political donations, and the final proportion obtained depends on the proportion of House of Commons seats occupied by the political party.
Take Spain’s largest party, the Conservative Party, as an example: if someone donates 100 pesetas to the Conservative Party as political donations, the Conservative Party can directly get 40 pesetas, and relying on its own House of Commons seats, get 49% of the remaining 60 pesetas, that is, 4 pesetas.
According to the previous system, the Conservative Party could obtain all 100 pesetas of funds. But under the new system, the Conservative Party can only obtain 4 pesetas of funds, and the remaining 6 pesetas will be partitioned by other political parties according to proportion.
This also means that for every donation the Conservative Party receives, 6% of it will be partitioned by other political parties. Although it seems like a loss, it also needs to consider the situation of other political parties obtaining political donations.
For the funds donated by the public to other political parties, the Conservative Party can also obtain 4% proportion. If the political donations obtained by other political parties are less than those obtained by the Conservative Party, the Conservative Party will lose some funds.
But if the political donations obtained by other political parties are more than those obtained by the Conservative Party, the Conservative Party will obtain more funds.
In this case, if French Capital still wants to fund the Liberal Party, they must invest more funds.
Of the funds donated by French Capital to the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party can only obtain 4% of them, and the remaining 6% will be partitioned by other political parties, so the Liberal Party will not gain any advantage in terms of funds.
After careful discussion and confirming that this system has no major problems, Carlo decided to implement the new system immediately to avoid French Capital over-investing in the Liberal Party before this.
With Carlo’s order, the Spanish Parliament was also very efficient and quickly passed this new proposal on the political donation system.
After the new political donation system was passed, French Capital was suddenly dumbfounded.
They originally planned to gain more political power and influence by supporting the Liberal Party, but now they had to abandon this idea.
According to Spain’s new political donation system, they would have to pay at least twice the original cost, and the results achieved might not be effective.
After all, these funds are partitioned by various parties; the truly invested Liberal Party can only get 4%, while the Conservative Party that did nothing can get 4%.
The new system is desperate for French Capital, but for some small political parties with low support rates, it is indeed hope and dawn for them to continue.
Although Spain’s per capita income has increased a lot compared to ten years ago, because there are still a large number of farmers domestically, most people can only barely have enough to eat and wear.
In this case, the political donations obtained by various parties cannot be too much, even for the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party.
As for those small parties with only one or two seats, it goes without saying that the political donations they receive each year are countable, and to engage in political activities, they can only rely on donations from party members.
Under the new system, these political parties can also obtain some political donations. Although not much, it is definitely much better than the previous situation with almost no income.
It is precisely because of this that these small political parties are quite welcome to the new political donation system. They basically have no losses and can even obtain more financial income.
For Spain’s existing three major parties, their losses are great. Especially the Conservative Party, as Spain’s largest party, it is also the party that obtains the most political donations.
Because the Conservative Party has many noble members, the Conservative Party’s political donation amount is large, and the losses under the new system will also be relatively large.
The Conservative Party is a party completely loyal to Carlo, and it will not express clear opposition to orders that harm its own interests.
But precisely because it is a party completely loyal to himself, there must still be certain compensation for the Conservative Party. Carlo’s compensation is simple: in the name of the fast food company under the royal family, donate 500,000 pesetas of political donations to the Conservative Party every year.
With this 500,000 pesetas of political donations, the Conservative Party can obtain 347,This amount of funds is enough to compensate for the losses caused by the new system to the Conservative Party, and it can also use the new system to let more political parties obtain activity funds.
The reason for donating in the name of the fast food company rather than in Carlo’s personal name is mainly because Carlo, as the king of Spain, cannot overtly support a certain political party too obviously.
For Carlo, whether it is the Conservative Party or the Progressive Party, or even the Liberal Party that he is wary of, they are actually the same.
Under the premise that they do not clearly oppose monarchy, these parties are all political powers that Carlo can use. If he only supports one of them, it also means that Carlo is distancing himself from the remaining parties.
Such practice is not wise, and Carlo is even less likely to let a certain party in Spain dominate alone.
The truly reasonable political situation should be competition and cooperation among several parties, all serving Carlo together.
Only in this way can Carlo stand above the major parties, and easily use the competitive relationship between several parties to ensure that these parties are loyal to him.
In this case, once a party starts opposing monarchy, even without Carlo taking action, other parties will unite to oppose this party for their own interests.
If Carlo overtly supports a certain party, the remaining parties may unite to oppose the party supported by Carlo, or even oppose Carlo.
After the new system was promulgated and implemented, the problems existing in Spain were resolved.
Without the support of French Capital, the Liberal Party cannot pose a threat to the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party.
Carlo can also safely focus on the population growth of the Congo Territory and the changes brought by the gold rush to the Congo Territory.
During this period, the war between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan officially ended, and the two countries signed the《 Treaty of Gandamak》, by which the United Kingdom formally obtained diplomatic control over Afghanistan and garrisoned troops in the Afghanistan region.
However, the British were not happy for long; this treaty instead aroused anti-British sentiment among Afghans and evolved into a prolonged uprising war.
Britain being mired in the Afghan quagmire is instead good news for Spain, because Spain has enough time to develop the Congo Territory without worrying about British intervention.
There is a meme in posterity about oil breeding the US military, but in fact, this era also has a meme about gold breeding the British army.
The British Empire possesses the world’s most vast colonies; these colonies were not obtained peacefully, but through repeated colonial wars and wars of aggression.
The gold rush in the Congo Territory has already formed; if the British were not tied down by Afghanistan, the British would probably find ways to create trouble for Spain or dispatch colonial teams to establish their own colonial outposts in the Congo River Basin.
Now it’s good; the British are tied down, and Spain also has enough time to complete its own plan.
In fact, the British have plenty of troubles. As early as January, Britain had broken out in a war with the indigenous nation Zulu in South Africa.
The 13,000 British Colonial Army led by Lord Chelmsford crossed the Tugela River and launched a large-scale attack on the Zulu Kingdom.
The arrogant British underestimated this indigenous nation and ultimately paid a heavy price. The Zulus surrounded the British army under the cover of night and launched a night attack.
Under the surprised gazes of the British soldiers, the Zulus charged into the British army’s camp under the fierce artillery bombardment of the British and engaged the British army in a brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Over 3,000 Zulu soldiers were killed or wounded, but they also inflicted more than 1,600 casualties on the British army.
The main reason was that the Zulu soldiers rushed into the British camp, turning the battle between the two armies into a melee. If the Zulu soldiers had not rushed into the camp, the British army could have easily crushed the Zulu army with firepower.
In this war, Britain lost more than 1,000 rifles, 500,000 bullets, and several cannons, and returned most of the occupied land.
But the Zulus did not end the war through this victory; Britain rejected any negotiation demands from the Zulus and continuously sent reinforcements to the South Africa region.
As the most powerful country in the world, when the British are determined to occupy a country, few countries can defeat the British offensive.
Although the Zulus inflicted heavy casualties on the British army in the war, even killing Louis, the son of Napoleon III, this did not change the outcome of the war.
In July 1879, the British army easily defeated the Zulu army with firepower advantage. Because they had gained experience in long-term combat with the Zulus, the British army prepared a large amount of bullet and cannonball supplies, firmly suppressing the Zulus outside the positions.
Because the Zulus could not approach the British positions, they naturally could not engage the British army in the melee they were familiar with.
In the case of long-distance engagement between the two sides, the Zulus could only be forced to accept the fierce firepower of the British, and exposure meant instant death.
With the Zulus suppressed, the British cavalry charged out in force and easily routed the Zulu army.
This victory also established Britain’s advantage in Zulu; the Zulu Kingdom was divided by Britain into 13 small emirates, all incorporated into its sphere of influence.
Of course, fully occupying Zulu does not mean the end for the British, but rather the beginning of a new conflict.
Britain’s South African Colony was established by the Dutch; Dutch Immigrants established Cape Town, which later developed into the Cape Colony.
But with Britain’s occupation, the Cape Colony was ultimately taken by Britain. The descendants of local immigrants are called Boers, who were forced to flee north under the oppression of British Colonizers.
The destination of the Boers’ flight was the Zulu Kingdom, which not only has an estuary but also relatively fertile land, with a considerable number of indigenous people who can serve as slaves.
The British also eyed this land and ultimately gained control of it.
But this actually deepened the conflict between the Boers and the British; there is no buffer zone between the land controlled by the Boers and the land controlled by the British.
Compared to technologically backward indigenous nations, the Boers evolved from European Immigrants are obviously more advanced, and their combat effectiveness is also stronger.
The conflict between Britain and the Boers will inevitably make the competition in the South Africa region more intense.
The historical Boer War also proved that Britain’s army can only bully colonial indigenous people; when facing more advanced armies, it does not have as great an advantage as imagined.
Carlo certainly understands that the Boer War is a major opportunity for Spain, and there is even hope to take this opportunity to annex Portugal and recapture Gibraltar.
But the problem is that there are two Boer Wars in total, and the second one is the real war. The first Boer War is more like a small-scale conflict between Britain and the Boers rather than a war.
The Second Boer War broke out from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, about 20 years from now.
This also means that Spain is at least more than 20 years away from the goal of annexing Portugal and recapturing Gibraltar.
Of course, time being early is also considered good news.
Spain can complete the layout in these 20 years; in the historical Second Boer War, Britain won a pyrrhic victory; although they achieved victory, they also paid a considerable heavy price.
If layout can be done in advance, even if the war result cannot be changed, it will certainly make the British pay a heavier price.
The greater the British losses, the greater the opportunity for Spain to take advantage to annex Portugal and recapture Gibraltar. Even if the British are mired in the Boer War quagmire, Spain has the opportunity to annex Portugal and Morocco, taking the chance to establish a great empire spanning the two continents of Europe and Africa.
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