Chapter 217: Inspection of Barcelona

Good times are always short. After staying in Italy for a few days, Carlo had to leave after all.

After all, Carlo was already the king of Spain at this time, and the affairs of Spain were the most important to Carlo.

In addition to visiting his father, Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo also planned to sign a further cooperation agreement with the Italian government, which was why Carlo stayed for several days.

Now that the cooperation agreement between the two governments has been signed, Carlo has no reason to stay in Italy.

When he parted with Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo still felt a little reluctant. But there was no way, national affairs were more important than anything else. Carlo was able to take some time to visit Italy, and he had put aside some government affairs.

Although the current Spanish government seems stable, Carlo dare not bet on that possibility. Only by sitting in Spain himself can he ensure the stability and development of Spain.

Commander-in-Chief of the Guards, Giotti, also returned to Rome from Garibaldi's residence, waiting to follow Carlo back to Spain at any time.

In fact, Giotti and Carlo share the same fate. Vittorio Emanuele II died of illness and overwork, while Garibaldi died of old age.

Although they knew that the two old men would not live long, unfortunately, Giotti and Carlo obviously did not have much time to accompany them.

To be pessimistic, perhaps the next time Carlo came to Italy might be at the funeral of his father, Vittorio Emanuele II.

Clearing away the complicated emotions in his mind, Carlo ordered the fleet to move forward at full speed and try to return to Spain as quickly as possible.

The Tenth Russo-Turkish War was definitely the best development opportunity for Spain, and Carlo did not want to waste any time.

Just trading with Russia and the Ottoman Empire was enough for Spain to obtain a lot of funds and other resources, not to mention that the eyes of other European powers were almost all on the Balkan Peninsula at this time, and Spain would face much less resistance to some expansion.

When Carlo and his party left Spain, they went to the port of Valencia, but when they returned to Spain, Carlo chose to dock at the port of Barcelona.

As for the reason, of course, it was to go to Barcelona to inspect the second most populous city in Spain.

Since the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base, Barcelona's development has been like taking a fast train, and the industrial economy has achieved some success.

Under the planning of the Spanish government and Carlo, so far, more than 200,000 Spaniards have continuously moved to Catalonia, and a considerable number of them have settled around the Barcelona Industrial Base.

This has also led to a rapid growth in the population of Barcelona in recent years, and there is a trend of catching up with Madrid.

Indeed, Barcelona's geographical location is much better than Madrid, and it also has extremely developed sea transportation, so it is very likely to catch up with Madrid.

For Spain, Barcelona and Catalonia, to which it belongs, are one of the most important administrative regions in Spain and an absolutely inseparable part of Spain.

How to keep Catalonia stable and solve the troubles of the Catalans is a problem that the Spanish government has always considered.

This time when he went to Barcelona, ​​Carlo also wanted to see the current situation of Catalonia and see whether some of the policies implemented by the government in Catalonia have corresponding effects.

After arriving in Barcelona, ​​Carlo's first destination was the Barcelona Industrial Base in the suburbs.

The Barcelona Industrial Base is a key plan of the Spanish government in industrial construction. In the future, Barcelona will become the industrial heart and largest industrial city of Spain.

Although the capital Madrid also has industries, some heavily polluting industries will gradually move to other regions or even outside Spain.

Carlo didn't want Madrid to become a foggy city like London. Although this is also a symbol of industrial development and civilization, such a symbol is not very healthy for people.

As the most industrially and economically developed country, the average life expectancy of the British Empire should not be so low in theory.

But it is precisely because of the existence of the foggy city that the average life expectancy of London citizens has been reduced. In this era, there are no corresponding anti-smog measures, nor are there masks with strong protective capabilities.

It is a strange thing that Londoners can live long while breathing extremely high concentrations of smog every day.

When they arrived at the Barcelona Industrial Base, Angelo Orcaho, the general manager of the industrial base, had been waiting respectfully with the managers of the industrial base.

Angelo Orcaho was a talent promoted by Carlo from the nobility. The name of the Olcaho family comes from the small town of Olcaho in the west of La Mancha. Angelo's ancestors were named Baron Olcaho, and their fiefdom was a piece of land from the town of Olcaho to the Guadiana River in the west.

After hundreds of years of development, the title of Baron Olcaho still exists, but Angelo's family has lost most of its territory and is a truly impoverished noble.

After Carlo came to Spain, he decided to select a group of impoverished nobles from the Spanish aristocracy for his own use.

Compared with those powerful and high-ranking dukes and grand dukes, these impoverished earls and marquises will be more loyal to Carlo.

In this way, Baron Angelo Olcaho entered the political arena step by step, and because of his good ability in industrial development, he was promoted by Carlo to the Seville Industrial Base.

Ancarlo did a good job in the Seville Industrial Base. When the Spanish government decided to build a larger industrial base in Barcelona, ​​Carlo gave this important task to Ancarlo and appointed him as the general manager of the industrial base.

At present, Ancarlo has done a pretty good job in the industrial base. The Barcelona Industrial Base has successfully completed the first two phases of construction and is currently constructing the last phase.

If the three phases of construction can be completed, the Barcelona Industrial Base will become a super-large industrial base with more than 500,000 workers. Barcelona will also become the industrial heart of Spain, and its importance is no less than that of Madrid, the capital.

Of course, even if the third phase of the Barcelona Industrial Base has not been completed, the role of the industrial base that has only completed two phases cannot be underestimated.

The current Barcelona Industrial Base has more than 250,000 workers, thousands of large, medium and small factories and different enterprises.

The Barcelona Industrial Base accounts for more than 30% of Spain's total industrial capacity. The current industrial scale has exceeded Madrid and Seville. Catalonia is also the strongest industrial region in Spain.

The rapid development of industry has also benefited Catalonia. As the most powerful industrial region in Spain, Catalonia's workers' income is also the highest among all regions in Spain.

As of the beginning of this year, the Spanish fiscal department calculated that the average annual income of the Spanish people was about 131 pesetas, while the average annual income of the Catalonia region has exceeded this level, reaching a more exaggerated 144 pesetas.

This is because the level was lowered by farmers and other low-income people in Catalonia. The average income of workers in the Barcelona industrial base has reached 165 pesetas, which is far higher than the current average annual income.

The continuous increase in per capita income has made Catalonia's economy quite prosperous, and the area around Barcelona is not inferior to the Spanish capital Madrid.

If we talk about the total economic scale of the entire region, in addition to population, more Andalusia can barely be compared, and other regions including Madrid cannot match Catalonia's total economy.

Catalonia's prosperity has also attracted a large number of domestic and foreign workers to go there, and Barcelona is also the city in Spain that receives the most foreign immigrants every year.

At present, the population structure of Barcelona has changed greatly. The proportion of real Catalans has been decreasing, and the number of orthodox Spaniards and foreign immigrants has been increasing.

This makes those more extreme Catalan nationalists see the danger, but they have no way to deal with it.

The reason why Catalonia attracts domestic and foreign workers is the construction of the Barcelona industrial base. You can't stop the construction of the Barcelona industrial base, right?

You know, the current Barcelona industrial base has more than 250,000 workers and can accommodate more than 250,000 workers in the future.

If the construction of the Barcelona industrial base is stopped, let alone what the Spanish government will think, the opposition of the 500,000 workers alone is enough to destroy the plans of these extremists.

At present, more than half of the 250,000 workers are Catalans. Will these Catalans who have entered the factory still support their plans?

In the case that most extreme Catalans have been immigrated or suppressed, a small number of extremists have no way to deal with the current evolution.

They have no power to stop those Catalans who have entered the factory to work and earn higher incomes, nor do they allow these minorities to destroy their good lives.

"Your Majesty, the construction of the third phase of the Barcelona Industrial Base has come to an end. It is expected that within a year, all construction will be officially completed and enter production." Ancarlo Olcaho, the general manager of the industrial base, reported to Carlo with a smile.

The construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base has been nearly 7 years, consuming the entire Spanish government and all his efforts.

At present, the results achieved by the Barcelona Industrial Base are still quite gratifying. The scale of Spain's industry is also developing rapidly with the continuous construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base. At present, the scale of Spain's industry is no weaker than that of Italy.

Italy is not weak in industry at all. Although Italy is a country that has just been unified for a few years, Italy's predecessor, the Kingdom of Sardinia, is still quite strong in industry.

The unification of Italy has integrated several industrially powerful states and regions in the north, allowing Italy's industrial scale to reach a new level.

The industrial scale can catch up with Italy, which is a very good achievement for Spain. After all, Spain took less than ten years to complete the project, and it also experienced civil war and various chaos in the middle, which was not easy.

After hearing Ancarlo's report, Carlo nodded, and was very satisfied with the talents he promoted from the vast Spanish noble group.

Although he was a down-and-out noble, Ancarlo's ability was still worthy of recognition. If the Barcelona Industrial Base can be successfully built and fully put into production, it will not only be the achievement of the Spanish government, but also the achievement of Ancarlo himself.

After Canovas officially became prime minister, his concurrent post as Minister of Industry was vacant, which was just right for Ancarlo to exercise again.

If Ancaro does well as Minister of Industry, Carlo would not mind letting him form a cabinet after Canovas and become prime minister.

After all, for all countries in this era, developing industry is the most important thing. If we do well in industry, we will not go wrong in terms of national development.

With industry comes everything, which is an eternal truth in this era. One of the main reasons why the United States and Germany have risen rapidly in this era is that they have quickly built extremely large industries.

Although the UK is now the most powerful industrial country in the world, in the next 20 to 30 years, the United States and Germany will successively surpass the UK and become more powerful industrial countries than the UK.

Although industry does not represent everything, industry is also one of the basic factors that measure the strength of a country. If Ancaro really has quite good abilities, Carlo is willing to let him enter a higher stage and give full play to his abilities.

"Are there any problems that are difficult to solve during the construction of the industrial base?" Carlo asked with a smile: "Can the workers' wages and benefits be guaranteed? I don't want what happened last time in Madrid to happen again in Barcelona. Happened once."

In the construction and development of industrial bases, Carlo was most concerned about the attitude of workers.

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The construction of industrial bases will give birth to a large number of workers, and these workers are extremely powerful. Unlike the conservative peasant class, if the interests of the working class cannot be ensured, the interests of the ruling class may be destroyed.

Carlo can see this clearly. Anyway, the Spanish government and the royal family are not short of such a little money. On the premise of ensuring the interests of the workers, what the royal family and the government have to do is to ensure the interests of the workers as much as possible, and by the way, provide themselves with Promote publicity.

"The construction of the industrial base has indeed faced many problems so far, but under the leadership of Your Majesty and the government, most of them have been solved." Ancaro did not answer Carlo's questions in a hurry, but pretended to be serious. He looked like he was thinking, and after a while he finally answered: "

If there is a problem that has not yet been solved, it is the current vacancy of technical talents. Barcelona's industrial base now has more than 250,000 workers, but our vacancies for technical talent and skilled workers still exist and are quite large.

There is also a slight deviation between the development of the industrial base and our estimate before construction. Perhaps our Barcelona industrial base will be larger than expected. "

Carlo nodded. The problem of technical talent vacancies is not limited to Barcelona's industrial base, it is a problem faced by the whole of Spain.

Even if the government invests heavily in education, it will not be effective in just a few years.

It is true that attracting technical talents from abroad is also a way to solve the problem, but it is impossible to attract technical talents on a large scale. There are very few immigrants in the field of technical talents every year, adding up to only a few hundred or thousands of people.

"The industrial base can contact various factories and companies to calculate the types of technical work we are most lacking and in need of." Carlo thought for a while and gave his own solution: "

After identifying the most lacking and needed skills, the government will arrange for people to focus on finding these types of technical talents and workers.

The shortage of technical talents is a problem faced by the whole of Spain and cannot be solved in a short time. But we can address some of the more important talent deficiencies first, and the less important ones later. "

It is simply impossible to solve all the technical talent shortages in the industrial base in a short time. But it is still possible for the Spanish government to solve the problem of a certain type of technical talent shortage.

The worst case scenario is to use money. Anyway, the treatment of talents in this era is not that good, so using money can still bring some success.

Compared with the development of Barcelona's industrial base, it doesn't matter if some funds are sacrificed. A complete industrial base is extremely important to Spain. Not to mention some financial sacrifices, even the sacrifice of materials and other resources is not something that cannot be considered.

Hearing the solution proposed by Carlo, Ancaro showed excitement and said in agreement: "This is indeed a good idea, Your Majesty. This problem has troubled me for a long time. Thanks to Your Majesty, I can sleep well today. ”

"Haha." Carlo smiled. Although he knew that Ancaro was flattering, he was still very satisfied with this guy's attitude: "The scale of the Barcelona industrial base you mentioned may be different from what we expected. , what is the actual situation?”

“In our previous estimates, the Barcelona industrial base could accommodate approximately 500,000 workers and produce 700,000 tons of pig iron and 300,000 tons of steel.

However, according to our statistics on the scale of the existing industrial base and estimates of the construction of the third phase of the industrial base, after the industrial base is completed, the number of workers it can accommodate will increase to about 550,000, and may even reach 600,000.

Total industrial output is also expected to increase by 10% to 15%, which also means that Barcelona needs more workers. The population of Catalonia alone is completely insufficient. ” Ancaro replied.

The construction plan for the Barcelona Industrial Base has been determined long ago, but the plan will definitely deviate from the actual situation.

Currently, based on the development and construction of the industrial base, there will be a certain gap between the fully completed industrial base and previous estimates.

Of course, this deviation is actually a good thing. As long as the problems of workers and technical talents can be solved, the bigger the industrial base, the better.

Although there is only about 10% more industrial production capacity, for a very large industrial base with hundreds of thousands of workers, this 10% industrial production capacity in steel alone is as high as more than 100,000 tons.

The Barcelona Industrial Base is a comprehensive industrial base that includes chemical industry, heavy industry, machining industry, military industry, electric power industry, light industry and many other industrial fields. This 10% increase can even affect the total industrial scale of Spain.

After hearing Ancarlo's report, Carlo smiled and was completely relieved: "This is a good thing. Don't worry about the workers. There will be a steady stream of workers coming to Barcelona in the future.

Just complete the third phase of the construction plan. Any problems you face can be submitted to the government or come to me directly.

The construction of the industrial base is a top priority and I will not allow anyone to destroy our industrial base. Ancaro, as long as you can successfully complete the third phase of the Barcelona Industrial Base, the position of Minister of Industry in the next cabinet government will be yours. "

Ancarlo was originally a member of the Spanish aristocracy, and to Carlo he was a well-deserved one of his own.

Because of this, Carlo's importance to Ancaro is visible to the naked eye, and he even did not hesitate to agree to the very important position of Minister of Industry.

The industrial department is definitely one of the most important departments among the cabinet departments. Perhaps the only two departments that can be compared with it are the defense and finance departments.

Upon hearing Carlo's promise of the position of Minister of Industry, Ancarlo nodded excitedly and loudly assured Carlo: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will supervise the successful completion of the Barcelona Industrial Base.

Before the election of the next cabinet government, I will let your Majesty see a complete and huge industrial base in Barcelona, ​​and I will never betray your trust. "

Carlo nodded, still trusting Ankaro's words.

It is not easy to establish an industrial base in Catalonia. Those extreme Catalans will sometimes cause sabotage or secretly obstruct it.

The reason why the establishment of Barcelona's industrial base has been so smooth so far is that, in addition to the government's attention and the presence of the army, Ancalo's sleepless nights and food are also very important reasons.

According to reports from the Royal Security Intelligence Department, Ankalo has been busy until late almost every day since he became the general manager of the industrial base.

In addition to the need to supervise the construction of the industrial base to ensure the construction quality of the industrial base, it is also necessary to continuously contact the factories and companies that have moved in to ensure their production and transportation.

Carlo did provide Ancaro with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he did take advantage of it. Not only did he fully demonstrate his abilities and value through this opportunity, he also gained Carlo's trust through his attitude.

At present, in Carlo's view, Ankalo is a talent worth cultivating, which is what Ankalo wants to do.

"Have the factories and enterprises in the industrial base strictly followed the relevant provisions of the labor law, paid workers' wages and provided benefits?" Carlo continued to ask.

In fact, the workers' requirements are not high, and they are nothing more than not deducting wages and a certain amount of rest time.

Workers do not object to overtime work; they object to overtime work without any gain. No one is willing to work overtime without overtime pay. If enough overtime pay is given, workers will of course be willing to work overtime for several hours in the factory every day.

"The industrial base attaches great importance to this point. Every once in a while, I will organize personnel to investigate all factories and enterprises in the industrial base to ensure that they will not deduct workers' wages. At present, there are still many problems within the Barcelona Industrial Base. No such problem arises and workers’ working hours are strictly limited to less than 11 hours,” Ankalo replied.

6200 words two-in-one chapter, please support!

I came back late today, and the update of 10,000 words has been changed to tomorrow. As compensation, a 6,200-word chapter is updated today. Thank you for your support!