Chapter 269: Second Colony Swap
The Pink Map Plan was not suddenly proposed by the Portuguese, but rather the Great African Colony Plan put forward by Portugal based on the conditions of its own African Colonies after the great powers accelerated their African Colonization.
Portugal’s West African Colony and Mozambique Colony have been established for a long time, and the merger of these two colonies has always been a topic secretly planned by the Portuguese Government and Royal Family.
The Portuguese are also exploring the geographical environment of the Congo Basin, but unfortunately Spain has completely gotten ahead of Portugal, establishing the Congo Territory before Portugal did.
This also seriously disrupted the Portuguese’s plans, forcing Portugal to settle for second best by carrying out colonial development south of the Congo Basin, attempting to establish Portugal’s Great African Colony between the Spanish and British colonies.
The difficulty of doing so is imaginable. Spain’s Congo Territory has been continuously expanding southward, while Britain’s Cape Colony has been continuously expanding northward.
Portugal’s goal is located between the Spanish and British colonies, which is instead the most awkward position. Any slight carelessness would offend both Spain and the United Kingdom at the same time, which has also made Portugal’s colonization progress very slow, and the proposal to merge the West African Colony and Mozambique Colony has almost stalled.
After hearing Prime Minister Cánovas’s proposal, the Portuguese diplomatic ambassador was first stunned, then felt some surprise and unexpected joy inside.
A plan that Portugal itself was about to abandon was unexpectedly proactively raised by the Spanish Government, which was even willing to help Portugal complete the merger of the two colonies.
Although inwardly joyful, the Portuguese ambassador did not show it, instead displaying an attitude of refusal: “Please forgive me, Prime Minister. Matters concerning colonies are of great importance, and I need to consult domestically first.”
Prime Minister Cánovas was not anxious and nodded, saying: “That is natural. This is just one of my ideas anyway. Regardless of whether this idea can be realized, it will not affect the relationship between our two governments.”
In order not to let the Portuguese discover that Spain’s purpose was to obtain Portugal’s West African Colony, Prime Minister Cánovas paused for a moment and then immediately proposed other suggestions, namely the customs union between Spain and Portugal.
The so-called tariffs are the taxes levied on import and export trade between countries and regions. Because the Iberian Peninsula is relatively closed off, for Portugal to obtain logistics, besides relying on supplies from the colonies, most of the time it must import from Spain, with only a small portion from other European Countries.
If a customs union could be established between Portugal and Spain, it would have both advantages and disadvantages for both countries.
For Spain, its industrial products and agricultural products could enter Portugal at lower prices, even achieving economic control over Portugal.
Because Spain holds advantages in industrial output and grain yield, the customs union brings far more benefits than drawbacks for Spain.
For Portugal, establishing a customs union would also allow continuous importation of cheaper industrial products and agricultural products from Spain.
The drawbacks are also obvious: Portugal’s industrial development and agricultural development would face corresponding restrictions. The lower the price of products imported from Spain, the greater the impact on Portugal’s domestic market environment.
The agricultural aspect is still manageable; Portugal’s grain yield is not high, but its own population is not large either, so it does not need to import too much grain.
What needs to be imported are vegetables and fruits, where Portugal’s production volume is also not high, so it basically will not affect the income of farmers and related planters.
But in the industrial aspect, the impact of the customs union is still relatively large. Once a large amount of cheap Spanish industrial products floods into the Portuguese market, Portugal’s industry will have no possibility of rising.
More importantly, Portugal and Spain are neighboring countries, so such an economic shock would be even more fatal. Once Spanish industrial products completely saturate the Portuguese market, wouldn’t Spain effectively control Portugal’s economy?
Precisely because of this, when Prime Minister Cánovas mentioned the customs union between the two countries, the Portuguese diplomatic ambassador showed a more explicit attitude of refusal.
Although the customs union also has benefits for Portugal, Portugal does not want to be led around by Spain. Portugal has a large number of colonies and can also import materials from other European Countries; materials are not as scarce as imagined.
This also means that the benefits of a customs union with Spain are limited, while the drawbacks are quite obvious and without an upper limit.
After the Portuguese diplomatic ambassador rejected Prime Minister Cánovas’s proposal, the two discussed some unimportant topics and soon ended the meeting.
The Portuguese diplomatic ambassador left with a blank expression, but as soon as he sat back in his own carriage, his mood immediately became excited.
“Hurry back to the embassy; I have important news to report domestically.” The Portuguese diplomatic ambassador hurriedly instructed.
The attendant responsible for driving the carriage respectfully nodded, cracked the whip in his hand, and the entire carriage began to move.
On the Spanish side, after Prime Minister Cánovas proposed the colonial exchange, the Spanish Government no longer paid attention to Portugal’s movements.
If the Portuguese Government intends to exchange colonies, they will naturally proactively make the relevant proposal. If Portugal has no ideas for the time being, it is useless for the Spanish Government to be anxious.
As time reached 1881, the Spanish Government’s work, besides carrying out the West Africa Development Plan, also involved continuing major construction on the Spanish Mainland.
Since the last Madrid Nightless City, European Countries have clearly increased their emphasis on the electric power industry.
As the current leader in the electric power industry, Spain naturally cannot lag behind in this aspect.
A year has passed since Madrid Nightless City; what achievements has Spain made in the electric power industry?
First is the spread of electricity. As of now, the Madrid Electric Company and Barcelona Electric Company have both expanded to a considerable scale.
The Madrid Electric Company’s cumulative users exceed 7,200, with 4,200 enterprise users and about 3,000 residential users.
Simply put, approximately 4200 factories and enterprises in Madrid have connected to electricity, and 3000 households have connected to electricity.
In terms of quantity alone, the achievements of the Madrid Electric Company are quite good. But in reality, among the 3000 households connected to electricity, nobles, capitalists, and high-ranking officials account for the majority, with truly proactive commoner households numbering less than 300, or one-tenth.
Barcelona’s situation is even worse. Although the Barcelona Electric Company also has 6,500 users, but these users are mostly enterprise users, that is, factories in the industrial zone and related enterprises.
The households connected to electricity are less than 1000, and the real commoners enjoying electricity are less than one-tenth.
The good news is that the electricity development in other European countries is not much different from Spain, and some countries are even worse than Spain.
Although this era is Europe’s era, for most European commoners, this era is quite bad.
The Industrial Revolution drove the development of capital, and the development of capital intensified the exploitation of commoners. While industry developed rapidly in various countries, workers and farmers were exploited more and more severely.
This also leads to a common phenomenon in European countries: ordinary people cannot afford electricity. Those who can afford electricity are only factories and enterprises, or rather the capitalists behind the factories.
But not all capitalists are willing to use electricity on a large scale, after all, the electricity cost at this time is not small, let alone fully popularizing electricity in factories.
To say the fastest electricity spread speed, besides Spain, perhaps only Germany, which has a keen sense for electricity.
As early as mid-last year, Germany built a large number of streetlights in Berlin and announced that Berlin has entered the Nightless City era.
On the evening of the news report, Berlin’s urban area lit up one streetlight after another, illuminating the proud faces of the Teutons under the streetlights.
Germany’s electricity development advanced at an astonishingly fast speed. If Spain hadn’t prepared early, Germany might surpass Spain in just one year.
For the development of electricity, Carlo is extremely serious.
Half of the funds obtained by the electricity company from selling technology are used to popularize electricity in Spain, and the other half is used to research and develop more advanced electricity technology.
The main research direction of the current Spain electricity laboratory is generators and electric motors with greater power. If achieved, perhaps electric machinery can replace part of steam machinery, allowing Spain to officially enter the electricity industry era.
After a year of development, Spain’s rail transit system has also taken shape.
Currently, both Madrid and Barcelona have built two tram tracks. Notably, the first track built in both cities is the one connecting the city and the industrial zone.
This also shows the emphasis both cities place on industry. In this era, the stronger a country’s industry, the stronger its overall strength.
Although this statement is not absolute, the currently powerful Britain, France, and Germany lead the world in industry.
The only exception is the United States, mainly because the United States does not value military development.
Ultimately, the United States’ geographical position is too advantageous, and without strong enemies, it naturally neglects military development.
European countries are different. Competition among European countries has always existed, and many are deadly enemies.
In such a situation, if a European country abandons military development, it is equivalent to abandoning territorial security and national independence.
About a week later, the Portuguese Government finally proactively contacted the Spanish Government.
This also relieved Prime Minister Cánovas. The Spanish side was almost giving up on the idea of exchanging colonies with Portugal. If Portugal didn’t contact Spain proactively, Spain might have to continue colonizing the southern lands of the Congo Territory.
Although Spain currently controls sufficient land, colonies are something you can’t have too many of.
If Spain doesn’t colonize, this land will eventually be colonized by other countries. Even if Spain doesn’t need this land, holding it can be used for interest exchange.
After the Portuguese Government proactively contacted the Spanish Government, it immediately expressed interest in the colonial exchange proposal put forward by the Spanish Government.
It is undeniable that all of Portugal is very interested in establishing a horizontal great colony connecting West Africa and Mozambique.
If this plan is established, the new African Colony will have a total area of millions of square kilometers, similar to the area of the Brazil colony once controlled by Portugal.
As a weakened colonial empire, Portugal eagerly desires a new large colony and is willing to make great efforts for it.
The current proposal from Spain is a great opportunity. Even knowing the Spaniards won’t be so kind-hearted, the Portuguese Government and King Louis of Portugal are unwilling to give up such a good opportunity.
The diplomatic representative sent by Portugal also shows Portugal’s emphasis.
This diplomatic representative is not the diplomatic ambassador, but the Cabinet Minister in charge of colonial affairs in Portugal. As a former colonial empire, Portugal also has cabinet ministers similar to Spain’s Minister of Colonial Affairs.
Moreover, such cabinet ministers have high status and power, even ranking in the top three of the cabinet in Portugal.
Portugal’s diplomatic mission is led by the Colonial Secretary, plus the Foreign Secretary, diplomatic ambassador, and a group of Portuguese officials.
Notably, this is the second colonial exchange negotiation Spain has conducted in less than half a year.
However, the previous colonial exchange negotiation was proposed by the British, an empty-handed trick: allowing Spain to conquer the Oman Region as a condition, with Britain paying nothing itself.
Now, instead, Spain has proposed a similar idea. Spain allows Portugal to colonize the lands south of the Congo Territory, with Spain paying nothing except not colonizing south of the Congo.
Considering that Spain has established a territory of millions of square kilometers in the Congo, giving up the lands south of the Congo Territory is not a loss.
After all, the larger the colony, the more troops needed to guard it. Before Spain has sufficient population and financial strength to develop the colony, the larger the colonial area, the greater the corresponding expenditure, and the smaller the returns the colony brings to Spain.
The main topic of negotiation between the Portuguese Government and the Spanish Government is the respective conditions for the two countries’ relevant exchange.
Although Portugal is very interested in the lands south of the Congo Territory, they are unwilling to give up all West African colonies.
After all, on the surface, Portugal still possesses including the Portuguese Guinea Colony, Portuguese Cacheu, Cape Verde, Portuguese Viseu, and Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe in West Africa.
Regardless of the area, population, and economic value of these colonies, just in terms of quantity, possessing these colonies boosts prestige, right?
The sovereignty of these colonies is not what the Portuguese Government cares about most. What the Portuguese Government truly cares about is the land Spain is willing to let Portugal colonize. They hope that after Portugal fully colonizes these lands, the Portuguese Government then hands over the sovereignty of the West African Colony.
But Spain will definitely not accept such conditions. This would mean the Spanish Government gains nothing for a long time.
Although Spain allows Portugal to colonize south of the Congo, both Carlo and the Spanish Government know that it is very difficult for Portugal to fully colonize south of the Congo.
From Britain’s actions in South Africa, it can be seen that the British have considerable ambitions for lands north of South Africa.
The British certainly won’t want Portugal to block in front of Britain, obstructing the northward expansion of the South African Colony.
If Britain stops Portugal’s colonial expansion, doesn’t that mean Portugal can never fully colonize south of the Congo?
Then Portugal gets part of the land south of the Congo, Britain gets the rest, and Spain gets nothing—who to reason with?
Spain’s attitude is also very clear: it can allow Portugal to first colonize part of the land, then transfer the sovereignty of the West African Colony to Spain.
Spain can even provide support to Portugal, including weapons and equipment and grain materials, to help Portugal colonize south of the Congo faster.
