Chapter 313: Reform Disputes
As time moved to March 1885, a topic that had once sparked heated discussions was brought up again, namely the redrawing of Spain’s administrative divisions.
For most countries, the division of administrative divisions is not that important. Administrative divisions that have continued for decades or even hundreds of years are reasonably justified to some extent.
If Spain’s land were not so poor, such administrative divisions would actually be completely acceptable.
But there was no way around it, because a considerable portion of land in Spain consisted of mountainous areas, making the existing administrative divisions seem unreasonable.
Spain had a total of 17 region-level administrative divisions, but a population of only about 87 million. This also meant that on average, each region-level administrative division had just over 1 million people, less than the population of a city in posterity.
More importantly, regions like Andalusia, Leon, and Catalonia already had populations exceeding 3 million.
This also meant that those region-level administrative divisions in Spain with relatively small populations had fewer than 1 million people, and some regions even had less than 500,000 people.
These regions with only a few hundred thousand people still maintained complete regional administrative systems, which seemed quite wasteful in Carlo’s view.
If several regions could be abolished, it would not only streamline the number of officials but also make the populations of Spanish Autonomous Communities more balanced, making management more convenient.
On March 11, 1885, during a regular meeting of the Lower House, a Progressive Party member of Parliament proposed reforms to administrative planning, immediately sparking widespread discussion among all members of Parliament.
This member of Parliament named Evans stated that Spain’s current administrative divisions were highly unreasonable and that at least five administrative divisions should be abolished, merging those with small populations into one, in order to reduce Spain’s administrative expenditure burden.
Evans had clearly investigated the situations of Spain’s various administrative divisions and proposed several suggestions of his own.
The total population of the five administrative divisions in northern Spain—Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country, Navarre, and La Rioja—added up to only 3 million, ranking only fourth among Spain’s existing administrative divisions, slightly higher than the population of the Galicia region.
Spain used five times the number of officials and government institutions of the Galicia region to manage five regions with similar populations, which was obviously a waste of political resources.
If these five regions could be merged into one or two regions, more than half of the officials and political resources could be saved, making such a reform absolutely meaningful.
Apart from the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands being overseas islands inconvenient for merging administrative divisions, Evans believed that all administrative divisions with populations under 1 million, except the capital Madrid, could be merged into regions with populations exceeding 1 million.
This would not only reduce Spain’s political resource expenditure but also improve the efficiency of regional governments and facilitate government management of various regions.
Evans’s proposal caused an uproar in the Lower House, with some expressing support for his ideas and many others expressing opposition.
During the free speech session, another Conservative Party member of Parliament, Alva, stood up directly and expressed his opposing view: “Everyone, our administrative divisions come from Spain’s history, the history of unification, and have been passed down for hundreds of years.
Such administrative divisions have witnessed Spain’s unification and also the integration process of Spain’s various ethnic groups.
For example, the Basque Country mentioned by Member of Parliament Evans—if it were merged, the name Basque Country would also be deleted from Spain’s administrative regions.
Undoubtedly, this would seriously damage the relationship between Spain and the Basque people. We are all part of the country, and we should respect these people’s wishes.
At this critical moment when our country is gradually prospering and thriving, I do not think administrative division reform is necessary.
If the reform of administrative divisions disrupts our high-speed development, it would be more loss than gain.
Everyone, developing industry and economy is more important; we have no need to focus on minor matters like administrative divisions.
Whether 17 administrative divisions or another number, it does not change the fact that we are Spaniards. How to more effectively unite all Spanish ethnic groups is still what we should consider.”
Alva’s views received agreement from some members of Parliament, with the main support coming from Conservative Party members of Parliament.
Some of these members of Parliament truly held the views expressed by Alva, believing that Spain had no need for political division reform.
Others were entitled beneficiaries of the existing political divisions and naturally did not want to change the political divisions, as it would harm their own interests.
Before proposing the reform of administrative divisions, Evans had anticipated that such a proposal would face strong opposition from many members of Parliament.
Any reform is never easy, unless one possesses the political status, influence, and military power once held by Prime Minister Primó.
Even Prime Minister Primó, who possessed these three, had faced assassination, let alone Evans, an ordinary Progressive Party member of Parliament.
However, some could see the benefits that political division reform would bring to Spain and chose to vote for Evans to support his proposal.
For a time, the number of supporters of political division reform and opponents of political division reform was roughly equal; the opponents could not fully veto the proposal, and the supporters could not push the resolution forward.
The meeting ended inconclusively, but Evans’s proposal and Alva’s opposing views sparked widespread discussion in Spain.
Some of the public supported merging administrative divisions, as some divisions not only had small land areas but also pitifully small populations, making them seem truly unnecessary.
Others, like Alva, opposed reforming the administrative divisions. The names of Spain’s administrative divisions bore much evidence of Spain’s history, such as Galicia, Basque Country, and Catalonia, among others.
The origins of these region names were either local ethnic group names or names of states that once existed there.
Although these ethnic groups and states had been unified into the large Spanish family for various reasons, this did not mean they had completely disappeared.
If administrative divisions were merged, it would mean several regions would be eliminated as a result. For those once-existing states and ethnic groups that still existed, this would absolutely be an injury.
Most opponents held such views, believing it was better to avoid trouble and that there was no need for major changes to the existing administrative divisions.
This widespread discussion across the country soon attracted Carlo’s attention. Or rather, it attracted Carlo’s overt attention.
Even before Evans proposed the administrative division reform, Carlo had already considered whether Spain’s existing administrative divisions were reasonable, and the corresponding administrative division reform was something Carlo had contacted Progressive Party members about, having the Progressive Party raise it in the Lower House.
The reason for choosing the Progressive Party over the Conservative Party was mainly due to these two parties’ different attitudes toward reform.
Although the Conservative Party was theoretically the Royalist Party, Conservative Party members lived up to their name, with most holding relatively conservative attitudes.
They would not oppose existing reforms but were unwilling to continue new reforms in Spain.
After all, they had become entitled beneficiaries, so why damage their own interests to push reforms?
On this point, even the Conservative Party’s representative figure, Prime Minister Cánovas, could not change the Conservative Party members’ views.
The Conservative Party was composed of large numbers of nobles, landlords, and conservative officials; their class determined their thinking, which no individual could change.
This was also why Carlo retained the Progressive Party and Liberal Party, allowing the three parties to compete freely.
If there were only the Conservative Party, any reform would face great resistance. Unless Carlo personally stepped in to push the reform, but doing so would make Carlo bear all the responsibility for the reform, which a king should avoid as much as possible.
Seeing the administrative division reform proposal stalemated, Carlo decided to secretly assist, helping the progressives push the proposal’s implementation more quickly.
How to assist? Of course, by reasonably utilizing Spain’s civilian public opinion.
Whether to reform administrative divisions, the Spanish Government also needed to refer to the public’s opinion.
As long as the public could reach a unified opinion, would these members of Parliament elected by the public dare to ignore the public’s opinion?
Of course not.
This also meant that as long as Carlo could guide the Spanish people to support political division reform, he could push the proposal for political planning reform through in the Lower House.
On March 12, the Spanish Sun Newspaper published an article 《The Benefits and Drawbacks of Administrative Division Reform for Spain》, sharply pointing out the benefits and drawbacks of administrative division reform, and illustrating the reasons why members of Parliament opposed administrative division reform.
This article immediately attracted readers’ attention and made administrative division reform Spain’s hottest news.
This was not all; another major newspaper, the Royal Daily, directly interviewed thousands of ordinary people in Spain’s two core cities, asking their attitudes toward administrative division reform.
The number of interviewed people reached over 5,000, with more than 3,000 supporting administrative division reform and over 1,000 saying that whether administrative divisions were reformed or not did not matter much, as no reform would affect their lives.
Only a few hundred expressed opposition to administrative division reform, because it would make representative region names disappear from Spanish history.
The huge numerical gap between supporters and opponents immediately made the public believe the reasons pointed out by the Sun Newspaper for those members of Parliament opposing administrative division reform, namely that administrative division reform would harm their interests.
Such reporting directly put the once-opposing members of Parliament on the hot seat; they could neither explain nor not explain.
If they did not explain, the public’s discussion would rage on, and the blame they bore would grow larger and darker.
If they explained, it would seem to confirm the fact that they opposed proposals beneficial to the country for their own interests.
With no choice, the Conservative Party members of Parliament could only turn to their party’s highest-status and most powerful figure, Prime Minister Cánovas, seeking Prime Minister Cánovas’s help.
To be honest, Prime Minister Cánovas was unwilling to get involved.
While these members of Parliament could not see it clearly, Prime Minister Cánovas saw it crystal clear.
The one capable of mobilizing this public opinion power in all of Spain was only the cabinet government or King Carlo.
The cabinet government had taken no action during this period, proving that the one mobilizing public opinion power was King Carlo.
Although Carlo had not expressed his attitude toward administrative division reform, this act of mobilizing public opinion power to help the Progressive Party had indirectly expressed his attitude.
Prime Minister Cánovas was not Primó; he had no military power, nor the vast influence and status of Prime Minister Primó.
Moreover, Prime Minister Cánovas had been single-handedly promoted by Carlo, so he had no power to resist Carlo.
What’s more, Prime Minister Cánovas himself believed that administrative division reform was a good thing; it was just that as prime minister, he could not express his attitude too straightforwardly, lest it cause a large group of people to echo him and lose their ability to think and judge.
When several Conservative Party members of Parliament led by Alva found Prime Minister Cánovas, he had just finished his work at hand.
After hearing these members of Parliament’s various views on the drawbacks of administrative division reform and their request for him to issue a corresponding attitude in the name of the prime minister, Prime Minister Cánovas smiled and decisively refused their request: “In my view, administrative division reform is not entirely a good thing for Spain, but it is absolutely one where benefits outweigh drawbacks.
As long as we can overcome some problems brought by administrative division reform, we can obtain far more benefits than the problems.
Whether you truly oppose administrative division reform or not, you can no longer change the choice of public opinion.
Go back; when the next Lower House vote happens, you will know the result. Before that, I hope you properly investigate Spain’s public opinion and stand on the side of the Spanish people.”
“Prime Minister, if you also support opposing administrative division reform, we still have a chance to prevent the reform from happening.
Do you want to see historic names like Catalonia, Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia disappear in our reform?
As long as you oppose the reform, the Progressive Party can never promote its occurrence.” Some Conservative Party members of Parliament were still unwilling to see the reform happen and proposed this to Prime Minister Cánovas.
The smile on Prime Minister Cánovas’s face froze, his gaze turned to that member of Parliament, and after a moment he said: “First, I personally support administrative division reform. Perhaps some region names will disappear as a result, but for all Spaniards, such a sacrifice is worthwhile.
We will have more reasonable administrative divisions, and the saved political resources can be invested in other departments—is this not a good thing?
Moreover, even if I oppose the reform now, I cannot prevent it from happening.
I suggest you investigate Spain’s public opinion more; hasn’t the Royal Daily listed the views of thousands of interviewed Spaniards? Do you intend to go against the Spanish people’s public opinion?”
On the word “Royal” in Royal Daily, Prime Minister Cánovas deliberately emphasized his tone.
This somewhat deliberate shift in tone immediately made these members of Parliament suddenly understand.
They finally realized why Prime Minister Cánovas was unwilling to oppose the reform: the king stood behind it.
With all doubts in their hearts dispelled, these Conservative Party members of Parliament could only bid farewell to Prime Minister Cánovas and abandon the last shred of hope in their hearts to stop the reform.
At this time, Carlo was just like Prime Minister Primó back then, with both influence and status, and also mastering Spain’s military power.
If it was truly a reform that Carlo wanted to push, then indeed no one could oppose it. These Conservative Party members of Parliament were even less likely to change Carlo’s views, so they could only comply; after all, ants could not shake a great tree.
