Empire Rising: Spain

Looking at the development trend, achieving the target of 700 kilometers of railway construction annually in the transportation department is not difficult; at the very least, it is hopeful.

The situation in other departments is not much different. Although the targets are quite ambitious, with a bit of effort, there is still great hope.

After the Cabinet departments finalized the five-year development plan, Prime Minister Prim submitted the complete plan document to Carlo.

Since it’s only a plan document, it doesn’t need to be submitted to the Senate for voting. In fact, it is more like a goal set by the Cabinet Government for itself to motivate Cabinet Ministers to strive to achieve it.

However, if the goals of the five-year plan can be successfully completed, it would be a great achievement and will favor the re-election of the Cabinet Government in five years.

Even if one is not elected as Prime Minister, it can serve as a testament to one’s political achievements and abilities, showcasing them to the next Prime Minister of the Cabinet Government, thus having the opportunity to be reappointed as a Cabinet Minister.

Spain has specific requirements for the term of the Prime Minister, each term lasting five years, with a maximum of two consecutive terms.

But there are no specific requirements for other Cabinet Ministers; as long as one is capable and gains the trust of the Prime Minister, they can be reappointed indefinitely.

The reason there are no specific requirements for the term of a Cabinet Minister is entirely to better utilize these capable individuals.

If someone is highly capable but has to leave the Cabinet Government at a young age due to term limits, it would be a loss for Spain.

When Carlo saw the five-year development plan set by Prime Minister Prim, his first reaction was somewhat surprised, but he quickly understood Prim’s intentions.

Though the overall goals of the five-year plan are more ambitious than before, the issue is that Spain today is not the Spain of five years ago.

Moreover, the economic crisis is still ongoing. Spain’s actions of buying and digging continue, with large amounts of foreign equipment and technical materials being transported to Spain daily and then transferred to other enterprises and factories.

In one or two years, perhaps no results will be visible, but after three or four years, when Spain’s enterprises and factories thoroughly absorb these foreign equipment and technical materials and can independently produce and develop, Spain’s industry and other sectors will experience explosive growth.

In other words, these grand targets may seem challenging now, but considering the timeline of five years to complete, there is actually great hope.

Additionally, national development is inherently a process of overcoming challenges. If development were truly that smooth and easy, wouldn’t it mean that anyone could perfectly execute the Cabinet Government’s role?

What are these Cabinet Ministers for? Aren’t they supposed to lead and overcome challenges, driving the development of Spain across various departments?

Carlo took an overall look at the five-year development plan set by Prime Minister Prim and is quite hopeful for Spain in five years.

If all the goals in the five-year plan can be properly completed, Spain can proudly call itself a powerful nation among the powers in five years.

Why say so? Because once this five-year plan is completed, Spain’s total industrial scale, heavy industry scale, and military industry scale will completely catch up with Italy.

In terms of economic scale, it may not surpass Italy, particularly because Italy has a larger population. Plus, with Spain’s army expansion completely finished, the total combat power and scale of its naval and land forces will exceed those of Italy.

If Italy can be considered a major power, why can’t Spain be considered one?

Carlo is most looking forward to Spain’s population situation. During the first five-year plan, Spain’s population growth exceeded 1.15 million.

And Prime Minister Prim’s preliminary expectation for Spain’s population growth during the second five-year plan is around 1.5 million.

This is not blind speculation. First, the increase in population in Spain has led to a rise in the number of newborns. A nation with a larger population is bound to have more newborns than a nation with a smaller population.

Secondly, there is immigration amid the economic crisis across countries. Although Spain mainly attracts technical talents and research talents, a large number of Europeans are emigrating due to the economic crisis.

Spain is quite unique in this economic crisis, plus the buying and digging actions have drawn much attention, making it likely to be welcomed by European immigrants in the future.

However, the number of these European immigrants needs to be controlled. This is also why Prime Minister Prim’s preliminary estimate of the scale of population growth in the five-year plan is set at 1.5 million.

If the number of immigrants were not controlled, Spain’s population could even reach 20 million within five years.

But such blind population increases are not a good thing. The main ethnic group in Spain is Spaniards, whose proportion in the total population will also determine the stability within Spain.

The most obvious example reflecting this is Austria-Hungary. The population of Austria-Hungary is not small, at least 37 million or more, ranking second to Germany among the European Powers, with more people than France and the United Kingdom.