Empire Rising: Spain

Although very satisfied with the development of Spain’s agriculture, Carlo still decided to find time in the second half of the year to personally inspect Andalusia and the Extremadura Region.

This is not because Carlo does not trust the data reported by Minister Jovellar, but as the King of Spain, Carlo still needs to personally see the development of Spain’s agriculture and animal husbandry, and personally understand the problems faced by local farmers and herders, and then solve them.

If he only looked at the data reported by various departments in the Madrid Royal Palace, Carlo would not be able to understand the true local development in detail.

Doing so would only make Carlo more and more unfamiliar with the development of Spain, ultimately losing control over the country.

If one wishes to formulate a development plan for Spain, the first thing to do is to personally see how the various departments and regions of Spain are developing, and then formulate plans based on the data one has.

If unless a detailed understanding of Spain’s basic conditions is not obtained, and plans are blindly made, development may not proceed smoothly, or the wrong path might be taken, making initially small problems more serious.

After some encouragement to Minister Jovellar, Carlo ended his conversation with him and began handling the government affairs that had accumulated during his time in Italy.

Actually, there were not many government affairs. Most of the affairs were manageable by Duke Serrano and Earl Canovas, and Carlo mostly reviewed the resolutions promulgated by the Spanish Government during this period and the latest situation in various departments.

Due to the arms trade agreements signed with Russia and the Ottoman Empire, Spain’s military factories were still rushing to produce around the clock.

Military factories are also factories, and the various raw materials needed by military factories, such as gunpowder, steel, and other parts, are supplied by various other factories.

While military factories are rushing to produce, the factories supplying materials are also rushing to produce. Although it looks like only the military factories received orders, in reality, dozens of factories behind the scenes were affected, along with tens of thousands of workers employed by these factories.

This is also the reason why the United States quietly made a fortune during World War I and World War II. It seemed like the United States was only making money through various trades, but in fact, the industry’s economy kept developing and expanding through these trades.

Meanwhile, European countries, due to warfare, had their factories destroyed, and the economy was in shambles, making them more reliant on the United States, the external factory giant.

The ultimate result was that the United States extracted wealth from European countries, and due to both world wars, Europe eventually became desolate, with the potential of European countries repeatedly diminished.

After reviewing the latest reports from various departments, Carlo was still quite satisfied with Spain’s development. According to the current development trend, the second five-year plan would also be successfully completed, indicating that Spain’s industrial and economic scale would reach a new high.

Once the second five-year plan is fully completed, Spain’s overall strength will take a big step forward, surpassing Italy, which is at the bottom of the great powers, not being a difficult task.

In other words, Spain has presently become a great power again, qualified to stand at the negotiation table with other great powers, rather than becoming a pawn in the game between them.

After staying in the Royal Palace for a few days, with nothing to do, Carlo decided to inspect the construction of the capital, Madrid, to see if there were any problems in its construction.

Whether or not to trust his subordinates, appropriate inspections are quite necessary. Besides understanding the actual situation in various regions, another point is to put pressure on officials in those regions to let them know Carlo is not so easily fooled.

With a small number of guards, Carlo exited the Royal Palace, crossed Byron Street in front of it, and reached the busiest area in the Madrid City Center.

Facing away from the Royal Palace, to Carlo’s left was Spain’s newly built Upper House Mansion, and to the right was Saint Andrew’s Cathedral. Behind the cathedral was the Spanish House of Representatives Building, which is also the largest parliamentary building in Spain.

The city center of Madrid was still quite bustling and clean, as this is Spain’s public face, and Carlo had specifically requested to maintain the cleanliness and sanitation of the streets.

Although Europe was the most developed and advanced region during this era, in terms of sanitation, Europeans’ performance was exceptionally poor.

Although not as exaggerated as defecating everywhere in the Middle Ages, many trash and excrements could still be seen in the street corners.

Due to the lack of large public toilets, many citizens would use corners of the street, making those already dark and damp corners even more foul-smelling.

This is no exaggeration but rather a phenomenon commonly existing in cities across European countries. There’s even a self-mocking phrase about "fragrant cars and fine wines, smelly London" for London, one of the most developed cities.

Of course, London’s stench comes not only from trash and excrement on the streets but also from the smelly pollutants in the smog.

Compared to London, the environment in Spain was not as bad. Carlo had also emphasized street sanitation, and at least in the Madrid City Center streets, there were no phenomena of defecating everywhere or littering.

Madrid is the capital of Spain, and the streets in the city center are the face of Spain. The Spanish Government had placed many trash bins here and cleaned them on time every day to ensure no foul smells existed.