Chapter 246 The Third Five-Year Development Plan (Happy New Year!)

Canovas, who successfully became the new cabinet prime minister, has great power, but he has not expanded because of this.

He knew who gave his power, and he also knew that his power could be easily taken back. On the second day after being elected as Prime Minister of the Spanish cabinet, Canovas went to the Madrid Palace to ask Carlo for his attitude towards the appointment of cabinet members.

Both Canovas and Carlo understand that Carlo himself doesn't care who the cabinet minister is. But Canovas must fully respect Carlo's opinions as a manifestation of loyalty.

Sure enough, Carlo was quite satisfied with Canovas' arrival. But when Canovas asked Carlo about his attitude towards the cabinet members, Carlo said he would not interfere with the government's decision.

The meaning of this is very simple, that is, Canovas has full authority to appoint. Of course, before appointing the Cabinet Secretary, Canovas must also be clear that the person he appointed must also have sufficient loyalty to Carlo.

Carlo really doesn't care about the candidates for cabinet ministers, because Carlo already has enough strength to deal with a cabinet government that is not under his control.

Fortunately, Canovas is indeed loyal enough, and Carlo does not want to change the cabinet government frequently, which will only make the political situation in Spain chaotic.

After Canovas became the Prime Minister of Spain, the first thing Carlo did was to appoint Grand Duke Serrano as the deputy prime minister of Spain.

The role of Grand Duke Serrano is also very obvious, that is, to give Canovas, the first time he served as prime minister.

Although Canovas was also a nobleman, his title was just a small earl. The Count was not bad in the European aristocratic system, and was also a real lord with his own territory in the Middle Ages.

But in Spain, a relatively special country, the Count is pitiful, like a reputation title, and has no sense of existence at all.

Even though Carlo's rebellion had caused Carlo to abolish hundreds of titles, the number of Spanish nobles was still as numerous as cows.

In an era when the dukes were everywhere and the marquis was not as good as dogs, the earl was really nothing. If it weren't for Carlo's strong support, Canovas would not have received support from the Conservative Party at all, and it would be even more impossible for him to become Spain's cabinet prime minister in just a short time.

Kanovas served as an important position as Prime Minister of the Cabinet for the first time, and it is still necessary to support Serrano, as the Grand Duke.

In addition, it is also very likely that Serrano will be the last time he served as Cabinet Minister. Grand Duke Serrano, born in 1810, is 69 years old this year. This is the retirement age in later generations more than 100 years ago, not to mention this era when the average life expectancy is only about 40 years old.

Because Grand Duke Serrano is old, Carlo does not intend to continue to let Grand Duke Serrano serve as Spain's Minister of Defense.

Although Grand Duke Serrano's ability and loyalty are sufficient, it is obviously too cruel to have a 69-year-old man in charge of a very busy and complex department.

Grand Duke Serrano's position as deputy prime minister is more of a false position, which is also to take care of his health. During his tenure as deputy prime minister, Canovas had actually handled the government affairs of the Spanish cabinet government, and after becoming prime minister, he would only be more comfortable.

Although Carlo did not intend to allow Grand Duke Serrano to continue as Minister of Defense, he also needed to continue to serve as a higher military vocational vocation to stabilize order.

Among several military leaders of the Spanish Military Commission, Carlo intends to promote Royal Army Commander-in-Chief Evan Bradley as Spain's new Minister of Defense, Chief of General Staff Mark Anthony Fleche replaces Evan as General of the Royal Army Commander, Grand Duke Serrano replaced Marca as the chief of staff of the Spanish Ministry of Defense.

Although the commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy and the Chief of Staff are both ranks of general, the power and importance of these positions are different.

The Secretary of Defense is of course the highest position in the Spanish military and the most powerful position. The military rank of the Minister of National Defense is generally Marshal, with the headquarters of the Army and Navy, General Staff, Logistics and other departments.

Under the Minister of Defense, the Royal Army's commander-in-chief is higher than the Chief of Staff, and the Chief of Staff is higher than the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.

As for the reason, it is Spain's different attention to the navy and army and the time of establishment of the General Staff.

Carlo made Grand Duke Serrano the Chief of Staff of Spain, and also allowed him to enjoy his last life safely in this relatively leisurely position during this peaceful period.

Although he no longer serves as Minister of Defense, the title of Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of General Staff are more than the Secretary of Defense.

After learning about Carlo's order, Grand Duke Serrano did not object at all and accepted Carlo's order very happily.

Since Carlo has made a decision, there is naturally no obstacle to the election of the Spanish Military Commission.

The Military Commission originally had only seven people, and Carlo also received support from the commander-in-chief of the Guards, the current Prime Minister and the current Secretary of Defense, and the current Commander-in-Chief of the Army. There were already five votes and it was naturally passed smoothly.

Although the position was demoted to the Chief of Staff, the rank of marshal of Grand Duke Serrano will be retained. Evan, the commander-in-chief of the Army who was promoted to Secretary of Defense, will be awarded the rank of marshal soon, and he will also officially take over the Spanish defense department.

In addition to Grand Duke Serrano as Deputy Prime Minister, Carlo also appointed Menotti as Minister of Royal Affairs of Spain.

Menotti is Garibaldi's eldest son. He performed very well after coming to Spain. He was previously awarded the title of Earl by Carlo.

Carlo also wanted to train his abilities to make him the royal minister. In the future, whether it is to serve as the Minister of Colonial Affairs or become the Governor of the Colonial, it will be a good place to go.

Joti, who served as commander-in-chief of the Guards, and Menotti, who served as minister of royal affairs, were also successfully revived the Garibaldi family in Spain.

As the commander-in-chief of the Guards, Giotti was awarded the title of Earl by Carlo early, and he and his younger brother Menotti are also one of the most promising nobles in Spain to be awarded the title of Duke.

The future of the Garibaldi family is brilliant, which also makes Garibaldi, who is far away in Italy very pleased.

After learning that both sons had been awarded the title of Earl and were both in high positions in the Spanish government, he was completely relieved and repeatedly told his two sons to do their best to serve Carlo and protect himself. Keep your loyal attitude.

Garibaldi certainly understood how important the trust between the king and his subordinates was. He didn't want his son to be stupid because he was suspicious of some of his choices.

As a nobleman, betraying the king is asking for trouble. With an extremely bright future, the best choice is to follow the king's footsteps and let the king see his loyal side.

Of course, Carlo's trust in the two is worthy of their loyalty. If Carlo hadn't had much trust in the two at the beginning, Garibaldi wouldn't have been willing to let his two sons go to Spain at the same time.

The adjustment of a series of important positions of the cabinet government has made Spain very busy, and major newspapers are always paying attention to changes in important positions in various departments of the cabinet.

Kavanos, who had asked Carlo, was also planning his own cabinet government. Since he already knew that Carlo would not participate in the appointment of cabinet members, Cavallos would have to submit himself to the ministerial candidates for nine cabinet departments.

These ministerial candidates are not submitted at will, and they must be sure that their political philosophy is basically the same as Kanovas, and they also have very good abilities, preferably the Conservatives' own people.

The first of the nine departments of the cabinet was the Foreign Minister, and the Marquis of Everton was still the role of the Marquis of Everton. Marquis Everton is a veteran Spanish nobleman and has clearly expressed his support for Canovas before. Canovas still needs his help.

Hovelliar Soler, who is a Conservative Party with Canovas, was promoted to the position of Minister of Industry, which is one of the easiest positions to win political achievements.

Evald continued to serve as the Chancellor of the Finance Department. His Progressive Party still has a certain reputation in Spain, and Canovas cannot completely ignore the Progressive Party's opinions.

The remaining cabinet positions have also changed more or less, and the Conservatives clearly occupy most of the Spanish cabinet government.

Although nine cabinet ministers were appointed, Prime Minister Kavanos was still quite sensible. He had no idea of ​​monopolizing power. The government he formed was more for Carlo's service, with the purpose of better implementing the orders issued by Carlo.

As long as Carlo can be satisfied, he will have a great chance of continuing to be re-elected in the next prime ministerial election in at least five years.

Canovas is only the title of Earl, but if he works as the Prime Minister of Spain for ten years, he can at least get the title of Duke when he retires in the future.

Although the title of Duke is not that noble in Spain, he is at least one of the top nobles. Canovas' children will also have a brighter future in the future. Whether they continue to enter politics, engage in business or other industries, they will have rich connections and support.

Of course, what Prime Minister Canovas values ​​is to gain Carlo's trust. Spain is a monarchy after all, and the opinions of the Spanish king are the most important in Spain.

If Canovas can gain Carlo's trust through his high cooperation, his children will also have a brighter future.

For Canovas, it is definitely something to be proud of if the family can carry forward it in its own hands.

Becoming Spanish Prime Minister has made a big step, which has also made Canovas more confident in achieving his goals.

Even if he could marry the Spanish royal family in the future, the Canovas family might become one of the most prominent noble families in Spain, accompanying the Savoy dynasty to become the top of the Spanish ruling class.

With the official establishment of the cabinet government, the biggest task of the new cabinet government is to discuss Spain's third development plan.

The first two five-year development plans have achieved a successful success, and the formulation of another five-year development plan has also become the expectation of everyone in Spain from the bottom up.

After all cabinet ministers of the new cabinet government unified allegiance to Carlo, Carlo immediately convened a cabinet meeting and asked the Cabinet government to come up with a new third five-year development plan in a short period of time.

The first two five-year development plans are more like laying the foundation for Spain, and the next development plan is the key to Spain's complete takeoff.

It is also because of this that Carlo put forward requirements for the third five-year development plan at the meeting, which specifically mentioned railway mileage, total industrial scale, heavy industry and military industry, and agricultural production, etc.

No mistakes, one song, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one reading!

In the first two five-year development plans, Spain's economic development was quite rapid. A large reason for this is because Spain attaches great importance to railway development.

There is no need to say much about the benefits of building railways. The large-scale construction of railways in the country has also achieved synchronous growth in Spanish industry and economy.

When Prime Minister Primo proposed the second five-year development plan, the goal was to increase the total scale of Spain's railways to more than 11,000 kilometers by 1879.

This data was completed as early as mid-to-late last year. At the end of December 1878, Spain's total railway mileage had officially exceeded 11,500 kilometers, and is constantly moving towards the milestone of 12,000 kilometers.

After discussions by the members of the cabinet, the targets for railway mileage in the third five-year development plan were formally determined.

Spain's population is generally concentrated in coastal plains and around Madrid, which also prevents the construction of railways from taking into account every land.

The cabinet's attitude towards the railway mileage requirements in the next five-year plan is relatively clear, that is, to abandon radical construction methods and stabilize the railway mileage at about 13,000 kilometers.

Because the current railway mileage has exceeded 11,500 kilometers, which also means that Spain only needs to build less than 1,500 kilometers of railways in the next five years, with an average railway mileage built per year being less than 300 kilometers.

This figure is only half the railway mileage built in Spain every year in the second five-year development plan, which is the most unique thing about the third five-year development plan.

Of course, this does not mean that Spain needs to slow down the development of railways across the board.

The only thing that is suspended is the local railway construction. The railway construction of each colony must be accelerated to ensure that the colony’s materials can be transported to the Spanish mainland quickly, and at the same time, it will increase control over each colony.

Local railway construction is not without other tasks. Because of the mountainous areas of Spain, railway construction is quite difficult and takes more time and funds than those countries with more plains.

In addition, due to the immature technology, some railway lines have become fragile under frequent railway transportation.

One of Spain's tasks in its third five-year development plan is to comprehensively transform existing railway lines and to convert single-line railways into double-line railways in some busy areas to increase the railway's transportation capacity.

A single-line railway is one railway, while a double-line railway is two side-by-side railways. It can also be seen from the literal perspective that the transportation capacity of a double-line railway is at least twice that of a single-line railway.

It is worth mentioning that in the calculation of railway mileage, the mileage calculated by single-line railways and multiple-line railways are the same.

This also means that when the length of single-line railways and double-line railways are both 100 kilometers, the calculated railway mileage will also be 100 kilometers, and the double-line railway will not be doubled.

What Spain needs to do is to increase the proportion of double-line railways, especially on some relatively busy railway lines, turn the railway into a double-line railway as much as possible to increase the railway's transportation capacity.

The Spanish population will still grow in the future. Carlo does not want to wait until the Spanish population reaches tens of millions in the future before renovating the railway lines.

Currently, there are two busiest railways in Spain, namely the railway from Madrid to Barcelona and the railway from Madrid to Seville.

Carlo's expectations for Madrid and Barcelona are not a small city with a population of 500,000, but a large city with a population of at least 2 million.

Although this goal is still far away for the two cities, the construction of railways in Spain must take into account this phenomenon.

Spain acquires many immigrants every year, and many of these immigrants are arranged to industrial strong cities like Madrid and Barcelona.

This has also caused the population of the two cities to continue to rise. Currently, the population of Madrid has exceeded 550,000, and Barcelona has exceeded 460,000, making it the most dazzling Gemini city in Spain.

No city further down can match these two cities. A larger city like Seville has a population of only about 150,000.

It is also because of the large population of Madrid and Barcelona, ​​and the two cities have a considerable industrial scale, which has led to the railway line between the two cities becoming one of Spain's busiest railway lines.

The biggest task of the Spanish transportation department in the next five-year development plan is to convert all the railway lines between these two cities into double-track railways, and to be responsible for more cities around the railway lines as much as possible, such as Zaragoza, etc. .

In addition to certain requirements for railway mileage, the third five-year development plan also stipulates a series of problems and development directions including industrial scale, total steel production, population education, etc.

It is estimated that before the end of the third five-year development plan in 1884, Spain's population will reach at least 21.5 million, the total steel output will reach 300,000 tons and 750,000 tons respectively, and the total steel output will exceed 1 million tons.

In addition, the third five-year development plan also mentions the foreign debt currently owed by the Spanish government.

Although Spain's fiscal revenue is rising steadily, the government's fiscal expenditure is also growing. Considering that Spain still has a lot of foreign debts to be repaid, in the next five years, Spain will save as much fiscal expenditure as possible while taking into account its own development, and the money saved will be used to repay foreign debts.

The earliest debts to be paid were Italy and Austro-Hungarian Empire, but these were basically low-interest and interest-free loans, so it was relatively easy to repay.

The French debt repayment took longer, and the Spanish government could consider repaying France's debts after its economy was better.

Anyway, France has great achievements and is not short of such a little capital. If the loan is returned to France, the French may lend the money back to other European countries, and perhaps even Spain will be included.

It’s better to keep this money in your hands. At least in the next few years, this money can accelerate Spain’s development speed and allow Spain’s economy and government revenue to continue to grow at a high rate.

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