Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 200: Chapter 149: The Value of the Treasure and National Integration (Part 3)

With sufficient funding, Carlo’s ambitions began to grow. Regarding the future development of Spain’s navy, Carlo issued a new order to the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, which was to design the world’s most advanced ironclad, with faster speed, greater firepower, and stronger armor protection.

With the end of the economic crisis, it was about time for Spain to develop its navy. According to the current costs of ironclads around the world, building one ironclad for Spain would cost at least tens of millions of Pessetas.

In addition to cultivating naval soldiers on the warships and the specific training of these soldiers after the ships are launched, each warship would require at least 15 million Pessetas to become combat-ready.

Considering that more than half of the existing Spanish naval fleet consists of decades-old sailing warships and outdated ironclads, if Spain wants its navy to securely rank fifth in the world below the UK, France, Germany, and Russia, it must invest more funds in the Spanish Navy.

Fortunately, after this treasure hunt the government truly has money. Although Carlo and Prime Minister Prim did not have detailed discussions, it is certain that Spain will develop its navy in the future.

According to the current pace of Spanish development, once the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard designs a reasonable and powerful warship, it might be time for Spain to resume building ironclads and stabilize its position as the world’s fifth-strongest naval power.

Whether Spain is a major power in Europe does not matter. As long as Spain can firmly establish itself as the fifth-strongest naval power in the world, the Spanish Government can proudly declare that Spain remains a strong European power, and no country would oppose this claim.

The rewards for all personnel involved in the treasure hunt actually came from joint funding by the government and the Royal Family.

Carlo also considered bestowing titles to the two commanders of this operation and a few personnel who made significant contributions during the action.

But considering the need for strict confidentiality, this was ultimately abandoned. However, when Spain bestows titles on a large scale in the future, they will still be rewarded with appropriate titles based on their contributions to the operation.

They just have to be patient for a while, which is why Carlo increased the rewards for everyone.

Although the rewards for these people nearly amounted to half a ton of Gold, because the funds were jointly shouldered by the government and the Royal Family, the expense for the Royal Family was actually less than 500,000 Pessetas.

Of course, the expenses for this treasure hunt were not limited to rewarding the personnel involved, but also included the transportation costs of the treasure, as well as the disguise and equipment expenses for all personnel.

Even if considering only the portion belonging to the Royal Family, the total expenses still amounted to millions of Pessetas.

Yet, when compared to the 450 million Pesseta revenue, the expenditure of millions of Pessetas is insignificant.

This batch of treasure brought minimal changes to the Royal Family, merely expanding their corporate investments. However, for the government, the effects of this treasure were extremely significant.

The previously mentioned military expansion of Spain can now be conducted on a large scale thanks to the newfound wealth. Considering that the Royal Military Factory alone can hardly meet the weapon production required for Spain’s massive military expansion, the Spanish Defense Department, after comprehensive consideration, decided to purchase a batch of cannons from Austria-Hungary to alleviate the production pressure on the Royal Military Factory.

The rifles still need to be produced by the Royal Military Factory itself, as the Italian Vitali Rifle and the Spanish Vitali Rifle are not the same.

For the logistical convenience of the Spanish Army, it is more economical to entirely use the same type of rifle.

To accelerate the development of Spain’s military industry, the Spanish government also decided to organize a group of military technology students to go study in countries with advanced military technology, led by the United Kingdom and Germany.

Once these students complete their studies and return to Spain, they will play a more crucial role in the development of Spain’s military industry and can address the issue of talent shortage in the industry.

The reason for dispatching these students is also because almost half of the military industry talent from Austria-Hungary was absorbed by the Royal Military Factory.

This is unavoidable. For Spain’s military industrial development, it is necessary to foster a large-scale military enterprise as the representative of Spain’s military industry.

However, this is not good news for small-scale military enterprises. To improve the overall development level of the military industry, it is necessary to send students abroad to enhance capabilities in military affairs.

While formulating future development plans, Prime Minister Prim is also considering how to quickly advance the national integration of Spain.

Undoubtedly, this economic crisis is an opportunity for Spain to accelerate national integration.

When the economic crisis erupts, countries worldwide will be too preoccupied to intervene, which is the best time for Spain to stabilize internally.

How to promote national integration in Spain? During a conversation between Prime Minister Prim and Carlo, three plans were actually confirmed.

The first plan is the most gentle, promoting the use of Spanish language subtly in Catalonia and the Basque Region, and constructing numerous factories in these regions to advance economic exchanges between Spaniards, Catalans, and Basque.

Judging from the achievements so far, the first plan might be effective but progresses very slowly.

If solely relying on the first plan for Spain’s national integration, it would take at least several decades to unify the small numbers of Catalans and Basque.

After much contemplation, Prime Minister Prim finally decided to adopt a relatively tough second plan amidst the economic crisis to truly encourage integration between the Catalans, Basque, and Spaniards.