Chapter 244 The Achievements of the Second Five-Year Plan

As time came to 1879, the Philippine colony was busy sending colonial teams to New Guinea to establish colonial outposts, while in Spain, Carlo was busy holding relevant meetings with the cabinet government.

Of course, this was not an ordinary government annual work report meeting, but a report meeting on the Spanish government's second five-year plan.

Needless to say, how important the five-year plan is to Spain. If the first five-year development plan formulated by Prime Minister Primo stopped Spain's decline, then the second five-year development plan would allow Spain to re-enter the fast lane of rapid development, with industry and economy moving towards first-class powers.

Because the first five-year plan achieved good results, the second five-year plan attracted great attention from the people.

As early as the end of last year, the people were discussing how much the second five-year plan had been completed and how Spain had changed in the past five years.

The first five-year plan was implemented quite smoothly. With Prime Minister Primo in the middle, Spain did not encounter too many problems during the implementation of the first five-year plan.

But only in the second year of the implementation of the second five-year plan, Prime Minister Primo was assassinated, and Carlo also took the opportunity to form a provisional government until now.

The performance of each department in the second five-year development plan is related to whether all members of the cabinet can still stay in the cabinet, the highest political institution in Spain, and also to the election of the Spanish cabinet government to be held this year.

It is for this reason that all over Spain, from the cabinet ministers of the cabinet government to every ordinary Spanish citizen, are paying attention to the government's upcoming five-year development plan summary report meeting and the details of the work completed by each department that the government will announce after the meeting.

Since the promulgation of the official recruitment and assessment system, whether it is the five-year development plan or some tasks assigned by the royal government to the regional governments, whether they are completed or not and the relevant results are related to the future and fate of officials.

Those who complete their work quickly and perform well will naturally have the possibility of being further promoted. But if the work is completed slowly, or even cannot be completed at all, the officials will get poor results in the performance assessment at best, and will not be promoted in the next year, or they will be held accountable or even dismissed from office.

Carlo attaches great importance to this aspect. Even the Senate and the Cabinet Government organize corresponding assessment results review every year to ensure that the assessment results of officials reported by the regional governments are correct and there will be no cheating.

If there is any cheating in the performance assessment of officials, all participants will be dismissed and held accountable. In serious cases, they may even face public execution.

Spain does not abolish the death penalty. For some officials who have offended the public, Carlo's attitude is very clear, that is, public execution to appease the public anger.

Facts have indeed proved that in addition to capitalists, Spanish street lights can also hang some officials who plunder the people's fat and corrupt.

Since the promulgation of the official assessment system, a total of more than 30 officials have been sentenced to death, of which more than 20 officials have been transferred to the square in the center of Madrid for public execution.

The public execution of criminal officials also makes the people admire Carlo and the current government.

If a king kills innocent people indiscriminately, the people will definitely panic. But if the king only killed corrupt officials and corrupt elements, the people would not panic, and would even applaud.

Any grassroots people would hate corrupt officials who abuse their power, especially since Spain had experienced the dark period of Queen Isabel's rule, and naturally had no good feelings towards such officials.

Not to mention that it took several years to execute 30 officials, even if Carlo executed more than 300 officials in a year, as long as there was enough evidence to prove that these officials deserved death, the people would not have the slightest opposition or dissatisfaction.

Facts have proved that doing so is still very effective. Especially after publicly executing some officials, the official assessment results reported by the various regional governments would not be too bad even if there were some deviations.

It is precisely because of this that major newspapers and most people in Spain pay close attention to the official assessment results announced by governments at all levels every year.

Officials who have achieved excellent results will naturally be written about by newspapers to publicize their political achievements. After hearing such news, the public will spontaneously support these officials who have achieved excellent results and regard them as good officials among the Spanish official group.

For those officials who have achieved poor results, the public will glare at each other and regard them as corrupt officials without thinking, and will never support such people in future elections.

It is precisely because the public trusts the results of the official assessment that Carlo has more say in the Spanish political arena.

After all, Carlo controls the Senate, which is the highest institution in the Spanish official performance assessment system and can directly determine the future political fate of an official.

For Carlo, he can already make a single statement about the life and death of an official. As long as Carlo thinks that an official is a corrupt official, this official will be shouted down by everyone in a short time, and then he will be dismissed from office due to public outrage, investigated and held accountable.

But if Carlo thinks that an official has good ability, he can also make this official praised by newspapers and media in a short time and loved by the public.

Although the love of the public does not affect the election of the cabinet government, it can affect the election of the House of Commons.

In other words, Carlo was able to control the elections in the House of Commons through the added advantages of the official assessment system.

If there are indeed some parties or individuals in Spain that endanger the royal power, Carlo can instantly make this person's reputation smell like a stinking street in this way, thus avoiding him being elected as a member of parliament.

On January 21, 1879, a super-large conference was being held in the giant conference room of the Spanish Parliament Building.

Because the Spanish Cabinet government is nominally responsible to the House of Commons, this has also led to the meeting of the summary report of the five-year development plan being held in Parliament and reporting to Parliament.

In addition to the participation of hundreds of members of the House of Commons, the large meeting also included all members of the Cabinet government, Carlo, the king of Spain, and a small number of invited newspaper media.

Of course, these invited newspapers and media have one thing in common, that is, they are either controlled by the government or controlled by the royal family.

Having these official newspaper media can also ensure that they do not disclose some important data when reporting the news.

As for those newspapers without an official background, they can only find some hot topics to report through some information disclosed to the outside world by parliamentary meetings, or news published by newspapers with official backgrounds, and then produce their own newspapers.

Spain is still relatively strict in the issuance of newspapers. After several severe crackdowns, almost no newspapers dare to publish news content that the government and the royal family do not allow.

Of course, news related to the Five-Year Development Plan is allowed to be reported, after all, this is also the time to promote the political achievements of government officials.

At a large parliamentary meeting, Grand Duke Serrano, as prime minister, took the lead in speaking and reported to many parliamentarians and Carlo the results of the Spanish government's second five-year plan.

"His Majesty the King, dear MPs. We have achieved considerable results and progress over the past five years.

Before the implementation of the second five-year plan. my country's annual fiscal revenue is 545.1 million pesetta.

After the implementation of the second five-year plan, my country's annual fiscal revenue has reached 897.9 million pesetas, and the annual fiscal revenue has increased by more than 352.8 million pesetas.

Before the implementation of the second five-year development plan, the total population of my country was 17.45 million. As of the end of last year, my country's population had exceeded 19.12 million, with a net increase of more than 1.67 million.

Five years ago, my country's steel production was only 123,000 tons, and the iron production was only 323,300 tons. After the completion of the second five-year development plan, my country's annual steel output has exceeded 200,000 tons and iron output has exceeded 670,000 tons.

At present, my country's steel production has exceeded that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia. According to our forecast, my country's total steel production ranks fifth in the world, which also proves that our efforts over the past five years have not been in vain.

Five years ago, my country's per capita annual income was only 115.32 pesetas, and most of the population could not achieve the goal of eating and clothing.

After the successful completion of the second five-year development plan, my country's per capita annual income has increased to 134.28 pesetas, and the per capita annual income of the workers and farmers has reached 146.37 pesetas and 128.22 pesetas, respectively, compared with There was a huge growth five years ago.

We believe that what His Majesty Carlo said to make Spain great again has become a reality that will be seen soon. Perhaps in a few years, Spain will be able to live a life where everyone can eat and wear warmly, and our future will be better. "

Although Grand Duke Serrano only briefly introduced some of the changes in Spain over the past five years, it still received warm applause from most of the members who attended the meeting.

Of course, the main reason for this is that Carlo is the first to stand up and applaud. The moment Carlo stood up and applauded, even if the other congressmen were unwilling to do so, they could only stand up and applaud with a smile.

For Carlo, the Cabinet government's work achievements over the past five years have definitely been quite excellent. Through the training of the second five-year development plan, Spain has officially returned to the ranks of European powers.

Although it is only a second-class power, compared with the situation where it has fallen out of the powers before, Spain is undoubtedly much stronger.

But this is just the first step to make Spain great again. Spain needs more five-year planning training to become a first-class power and have the qualifications to compete with superpowers like Britain, France and Germany.

After Grand Duke Serrano made a summary speech, the following were the respective summary of the five-year development plan by the ministers of each department.

The first to appear was Spanish Chancellor Ebard Batel. Judging from the paper data, the financial department's performance is still quite good.

Before and after the second five-year development plan, Spain's fiscal annual revenue gap reached 352.8 million pesetas, and Spain's fiscal annual revenue reached a rare pesetas of 897.9 million pesetas last year.

Such data makes Eibard Batel, as the Minister of Finance, very proud, and he has basically settled in the position of Minister of Finance.

Considering that the cabinet will be replaced next, candidates with important positions such as the Minister of Finance are not suitable for change. This also means that Minister Eibard can easily continue his third term as a cabinet minister and then strive for a higher position in power.

The Spanish cabinet government is quite special, and the Prime Minister does not control all the positions in the cabinet.

No mistakes, just go to the 6-9 book bar!

But the power of the Spanish Prime Minister is still very large. The nine departments of finance, industry, agriculture, people's livelihood, transportation, public security, medical care, education and foreign affairs are directly appointed by the Prime Minister.

The ministers of these nine departments have no term limits. As long as they are members of the upper and lower houses, they can be appointed by the Prime Minister as ministers of a certain department of the cabinet.

In addition to these nine cabinet departments directly appointed by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense elected by the Military Committee also has no term limit.

Considering that the officers trained by the military academy have not grown to the level of senior officers, the position of Minister of Defense can only be given to Archduke Serrano at present.

The Minister of Royal Affairs appointed directly by the King also has no term limit. This is also the last position without a term limit except for the Prime Minister.

The remaining Minister of Colonial Affairs, Minister of Justice and Secretary of State, that is, Deputy Prime Minister, are all subject to term limits.

The term of re-election for these three positions is two terms, and the term of office is three terms. After two consecutive terms, they must withdraw from the election and appointment of these three positions. After three terms, they can no longer hold a full term.

Spain's current cabinet is special. It is a temporary cabinet established after Prime Minister Primo was assassinated.

This also means that the temporary cabinet is not counted in the term of office of cabinet members. At present, all ministers in the Spanish cabinet have only served two terms.

The three positions of Minister of Colonial Affairs, Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister were established during the interim cabinet period.

This also means that all ministers in the current cabinet have not exceeded their term of office, and they can continue to hold their positions.

Of course, this depends on whether the prime minister of the new cabinet government is willing. The prime minister controls the power to appoint ministers of nine cabinet departments and can completely change the composition of the cabinet by himself.

Although the financial department reports good news, it does not mean that Spain's financial situation is very good.

In fact, in the ten years from 1869 to 1878, Spain's fiscal revenue and expenditure were in a state of fiscal deficit for eight years.

The only two years of fiscal surplus were only 9.7 million pesetas and 5.8 million pesetas respectively.

In the past ten years, Spain's total fiscal revenue has reached 6.20358 billion pesetas, while fiscal expenditure has reached 6.8531 billion pesetas, and the total fiscal deficit has reached 649.52 million pesetas. The average annual fiscal loss is close to 65 million pesetas, which can build four or five most advanced ironclad ships.

If it were not for the fact that the Spanish government successively obtained loans from Italy, Austria-Hungary and France, and then obtained a large amount of unexpected wealth from the treasures of Indian temples, I am afraid that the Spanish government's finances would have long been unable to support such a huge fiscal deficit.

Especially during the implementation of the first five-year plan, Spain's annual fiscal losses exceeded 100 million pesetas, and the fiscal loss in 1873 was close to 200 million pesetas.

Fortunately, although the second five-year plan was also in a loss state for most of the time, the fiscal loss has been reduced to less than 20 million, which is completely acceptable.

After Finance Minister Ewald finished his report, it was the turn of Industry Minister Canovas, who also served as Deputy Prime Minister.

In addition to reporting the growth of Spain's total steel production, Canovas also reported on the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base.

According to the estimates of the industrial department, the third phase of the Barcelona Industrial Base is expected to be completed between mid- to late 1879.

This also means that starting from 1880, Spain's industry will enter a state of rapid growth. It may be difficult to catch up with the three major industrial powers of Britain, Germany and the United States, but it is still very promising to catch up with France, the former European hegemon whose industrial growth has obviously slowed down.

Although France has not announced its total steel production for the whole year, according to the investigation and estimates of various French factories by intelligence personnel, France's steel production in the whole year of last year was only a little over 300,000 tons at most.

Although it is 100,000 tons more than Spain, this is also because France's industrial base is much better than Spain.

According to the current slow growth rate of French industry, as long as the Barcelona Industrial Base can be fully built, Spain's industry may have the hope of catching up with France in the next five years.

Although it seems very simple, it took Spain at least 15 years to get to this point.

This is because the total industrial output of European countries is not huge at present, and even the steel production of each country before was only a few hundred thousand tons.

When the steel production of industrial powers in the future reaches millions of tons, it will not be easy to catch up with these industrial powers.

After all, it is very difficult to build millions of tons of steel production, and it is even more difficult to consume these steel production. If you only focus on increasing steel production without considering the domestic steel consumption demand, you will definitely face a serious economic crisis.

Although Spain's industrial development speed is fast, it is also based on a comprehensive consideration of Spain's industrial product demand.

In addition, Spain has two large colonies in Cuba and the Philippines, so it is not a problem to export some industrial products.

Spain can even export economically to Portugal. Portugal's industry is vulnerable to Spain, which also facilitates the faster consumption of Spain's industrial products.

At least so far, Spain's industrial production and demand remain at a healthy ratio, which is enough to ensure that Spain's industrial development will not face the troubles of economic crisis.

With the future growth of Spain's population and the expansion of its colonies, Spain's domestic consumption of industrial products will increase again.

This is also the reason why Spain regards France as its target in terms of industry, because Spain, with its large colonies, is qualified to build a larger-scale industry, at least it will not let itself explode because of blind development.

5,000-word two-in-one chapter, I wish you all a happy New Year's Eve and a happy New Year!