Rise of Empires: Spain

When Andrew, the head of the Lanfang Military Guidance Group, sent the first telegram back to Spain, it was already July 28, 1875, exactly two months after Prince Juan Fernando was born.

Since the birth of his first child, Carlo's mood has become extremely wonderful, and he wants to be with his child all the time.

But unfortunately, Carlo needs to deal with more and more government affairs. Since Prince Juan Fernando's full month, Carlo can spare no more than five hours of free time every day.

The main reason for this is that Carlo has begun to get involved in more government affairs and exert his influence on the government as the King of Spain.

Some important documents of various government departments need Carlo's personal review and nod of approval before they can be approved, and some major construction and major projects require Carlo's autograph.

This is a manifestation of the king's power, and it is also a concession made by Prime Minister Primo to Carlo. Although neither side said it explicitly, a tacit understanding has been formed about the alternation of power.

Prime Minister Primo is letting Carlo get in touch with more government affairs, and Carlo is also carefully cultivating his own power, preparing to take over the new government after Prime Minister Primo's second term as prime minister ends.

Although Prime Minister Primo limited his power in the early stage, Carlo will not do anything to kill the donkey after it has done its job. For Spain, Prime Minister Primo certainly has merits, and great merits.

If it weren't for Prime Minister Primo's promotion of Spain's reforms at all costs, Spain's development would not have been so rapid.

Although a certain amount of royal power was sacrificed in the early stage, the overall development of Spain in return is what Carlo is willing to see.

Carlo has already had a plan for Prime Minister Primo's whereabouts after his term ends. Like Archduke Serrano, Prime Minister Primo will also be conferred the title of Grand Duke and enjoy his old age in Madrid.

Gradually getting in touch with more government affairs is a good thing for Carlo, but it also means that the leisurely life in the past is no longer there.

In the past, Carlo had plenty of time to arrange his schedule every day, whether it was sightseeing, hunting, or arranging sumptuous dinners and banquets, he just let his mood take him.

But after he began to deal with more government affairs, Carlo's free time every day did not exceed five hours, and at the most extreme time, he did not even have any entertainment time to arrange freely.

After getting up at 8:30 in the morning, Carlo had an hour and a half to wash and eat. Every day's breakfast was ordered a day in advance, and Carlo could enjoy food from all over Europe, and even from all over the world.

In terms of food, Carlo never treated himself badly. There were more than 20 chefs in the Royal Palace of Madrid, from various European countries and all over the world.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as there is food in the world, you can enjoy it in the Royal Palace of Madrid. Unless it is the kind of food that is not easy to transport, or seasonal food.

From 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Carlo met with government officials and other personnel. If there is nothing important, it can also be used to handle government affairs.

The one and a half hours from 11:30 to 1 o'clock is Carlo's lunch time. Carlo usually chooses to have lunch with Queen Sophie, and sometimes he also has lunch with some officials.

The one and a half hour from 1 o'clock to 2:30 is lunch break, and the four hours from 2:30 to 6:30 will be used to handle government affairs, attend meetings and other various activities.

After 6:30 in the evening, Carlo will have his own private time. But if there are not many government affairs on the day, or if there are not many meetings to attend or government officials to meet, the time to get off work can be advanced to three or four in the afternoon.

Although such days are very busy, Carlo is quite satisfied. After all, this represents the growth of power in his hands, which is completely different from the previous free days.

On the afternoon of July 28, when Carlo received the telegram from Andrew, he was dealing with not much government affairs.

It is called government affairs, but in fact it is some things reported by various departments of the cabinet. After discussion by the cabinet government, a preliminary solution has been reached, and it is only waiting for Carlo's signature and approval.

Carlo handled all the government affairs in a short time, and then concentrated on reading the telegram from Lan Fang.

The task that Carlo gave to Andrew was to form an army of more than 20,000 people in the Lan Fang Republic, so that the Lan Fang Republic would have enough strength to resist the Dutch colonial war.

According to Andrew's survey results on the Lan Fang Republic, the Lan Fang Republic has enough ability to form an army of 20,000 people, and the formation of the army has already begun.

According to Andrew's estimate of the current situation, the formation of the army is expected to be completed within three months, and it will have a certain combat effectiveness within half a year.

After discussions between Andrew and the Lan Fang Republic, the proportion of Lan Fang people in this army of 20,000 people will account for half, that is, about 10,000 people.

The remaining less than 10,000 people will be filled by local natives. Although these natives are not very reliable, with the same number of Lan Fang people suppressing them, there is no need to worry about problems with the army.

Anyway, the Dutch army is almost composed of this. There are actually very few real Dutch people. Most of the Dutch colonial army is a mixture of Dutch, mixed-race people and local natives.

The proportion of real Dutch soldiers is definitely less than half. In some unappreciated armies, only the middle and high-level officers are Dutch, and the other middle and low-level officers are all local natives.

Compared with such Dutch colonial troops, half of the new army of the Lan Fang Republic is Lan Fang, which is much higher than the Dutch army.

Although these new troops are armed with outdated muzzle-loading rifles, they are enough for the colony of Kalimantan.

"Report to Andrew, there is no need to rush to form the Lan Fang army, but a small-scale army should be drawn as soon as possible to prepare for the subsequent colonization of New Guinea. Menotti has some experience in this regard, and the preliminary work of exploring and colonizing New Guinea can be handed over to him.

In addition, in the process of forming the Lan Fang army, officers who have a good impression of Spain should be cultivated as much as possible to exert more influence on this army.

I hope that this formed army is pro-Spanish, which is also the key point of their work in forming the army." After reading the entire telegram sent by Andrew, Carlo gave his orders to the guards.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The guard nodded respectfully and went to convey Carlo's order.

After dealing with the affairs of the Lanfang Republic, Carlo had almost finished his government affairs for the whole day.

After thinking for a while, Carlo called Butler Loren to ask about the current development of the royal family's property.

Speaking of which, the last time Carlo knew the scale of the royal family's property was before the economic crisis. After the economic crisis, Carlo instructed Butler Loren to purchase excellent bankrupt assets abroad as appropriate and develop other industries of the royal family as much as possible. After that, he did not pay much attention to the royal family's property.

The main problem is the huge amount of royal property. Simply put, the amount of money owned by the royal family is countless, and Carlo can't spend it all.

Yes, it's that exaggerated. According to the annual expenditure of the palace, the royal family's property can be maintained for at least a hundred years even if there is no profit.

The expenses of the palace are divided into three parts, namely the maintenance of the palace buildings, the salaries of the palace staff and the annuities of the royal family members.

As one of the three largest palaces in Europe, the daily maintenance costs of the entire Madrid Palace are a huge number. According to the current funds required for the annual maintenance of the Madrid Palace, Carlo's average annual expenditure in this regard is nearly 1 million pesetas.

But this is just a small expense. The hundreds of servants and maids, guards, guards and other positions in the palace cost more than 2 million pesetas each year.

There are also the annual pensions of royal family members. Although there are only three members of the royal family at present, the annual pensions of these three people are not small.

When Carlo was in Italy before, the average annual pension he could receive was about 260,000 lire. Carlo thought this was already a very large amount of money at the time, and the value was close to 10,000 pounds, which was definitely an astronomical figure in this era.

But when Carlo became the King of Spain, Carlo realized that this amount was not enough to spend. In addition, the Spanish royal family's property continued to expand, and Carlo also increased the annual pensions of royal family members many times.

As the King of Spain, Carlo can receive an annual pension of up to 1 million pesetas, which is also the highest annual pension share that can be received by members of the Spanish royal family.

As Carlo's wife, Queen Sophie can receive an annual pension of up to 800,000 pesetas. These annuities can be spent by Queen Sophie, which also proves how extravagant the lives of European nobles and royal families are in this era.

Although Juan Fernando is only a two-month-old child, according to the provisions of the royal family annuity, he can still receive an annual pension of up to 500,000 pesetas every year.

Fortunately, the Spanish royal family has only three people at most, and the annual expenditure on annuities is only 2.3 million pesetas, which is less than 100,000 pounds when converted into pounds, which is only a drop in the bucket for the royal family's property.

It is not surprising that the annuities of Spanish royal family members are higher than those of Italian royal family members.

After all, the Italian royal family is a huge family, and the Spanish royal family is just a small branch of the Italian royal family. The number of people determines the difference in annuities between the two sides.

Carlo only needs to pay annuities for his family, while Vittorio Emanuele needs to pay annuities for the huge Italian royal family. The gap and cost between the two are very different.

Fortunately, the Savoy family has been running the Kingdom of Sardinia for a long time, and the family's wealth is also huge. Especially after the unification of Italy, the property of the Savoy family has expanded again, and the property of the Italian royal family and the per capita property of the royal family members are no longer the middle and lower class among the European royal families.

"Your Majesty." Butler Loren was waiting outside Carlo's office. Hearing Carlo's summons, he hurried in and waited for Carlo's orders with a respectful face.

"Butler Loren, tell me about the recent development of the royal property. How is our business developing? What is the scale? At present, what level has the total value of the royal property reached?" Carlo smiled and motioned Butler Loren to sit down, and at the same time raised his own questions.

Butler Loren's loyalty is completely sufficient, and Carlo also regards him as his absolute confidant and is very confident in him.

Butler Loren took out a thick account book and gave Carlo a detailed introduction to the Spanish royal family's property: "Your Majesty, after the outbreak of the economic crisis, we used more than 120 million pesetas to purchase excellent foreign companies, and have achieved very good results.

Our steel mills have been well expanded. The total amount of steel produced by the steel mills controlled by the royal family is close to two-fifths of Spain's total steel production.

Under your instructions, we have also increased our investment in the experimental area. This year, our total expenditure is as high as 170 million pesetas, of which more than 35 million pesetas have been invested in various research projects of the Royal Academy of Sciences and experiments in the experimental area.

According to the research progress of the Royal Academy of Sciences, some projects are expected to make certain progress this year and even obtain certain research results.

In terms of automobiles, the value of the automobile company and engine company we invested in reached 5 million pesetas and 3 million pesetas respectively. This year, the research and development funds invested in automobiles and engines reached 2.2 million pesetas and 1.7 million pesetas respectively.

Mr. Benz Report, the car you saw last time has a second-generation experimental model, and it is expected that the finished product will be manufactured within this year.

The stability and speed of the finished product will be improved to a certain extent, and the appearance will also change to a certain extent. This is also based on the progress made in the engine, which has promoted the change of the entire car.

In terms of power experiments, the power laboratory is currently exploring power storage devices. The power laboratory has conducted deeper research on the generation and use of electricity. This year, the research and development funds we invested in the power laboratory exceeded 3 million pesetas, which is also the project with the highest research and development funds in the entire experimental area.

Compared with the expenditure of 170 million pesetas, the total income of all royal enterprises remains at a relatively stable level. Last year, our income was about 230 million pesetas and our net profit was 60 million pesetas. In the first half of this year, our income has reached 133 million pesetas, and we are expected to achieve a new record in terms of income. "Butler Loren respectfully reported the various enterprises and project research invested by the royal family, as well as the total income and expenditure of the royal industry.

In fact, from the income and expenditure of the royal enterprises, it can be seen that after a long period of development, the royal enterprises have become the leaders and giants in Spanish enterprises.

Especially in the military and heavy industries, the enterprises controlled by the royal family have occupied the majority of the Spanish industry. As long as Carlo stamps his feet slightly, the military and heavy industries in Spain will be shaken.