Empire Rising: Spain - Chapter 170 - 139: The Two Pillars of Military Industry (Double-length - )

Chapter 170: Chapter 139: The Two Pillars of Military Industry (Double-length Chapter)

The main reason for this is Spain’s own decline, leading the Spanish Government to repeatedly reduce its emphasis on the Navy, to the point where they barely develop the Navy anymore.

After the four major shipyards lost domestic orders from Spain, in order to survive, they could only find ways through foreign warship orders, or by building civilian vessels that were needed by the public.

However, the tonnage of civilian ships was very small, with the smallest being only a few tons. While military ships had evolved into ironclads, most civilian ships were still wooden ships wrapped in iron, some not even having iron plating.

Building such civilian ships didn’t earn much money, and with income decreasing, the shipyards could only reluctantly scale down, even waiting for the day of bankruptcy.

As Spain’s largest shipyard once, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard had very rich shipbuilding experience and once possessed the most advanced shipbuilding technology.

According to common sense, such a large-scale shipyard should not fall into such a situation, even if it lacked domestic orders.

After all, there were many countries around the world that could become partners, and selling just one or two ironclads annually could help the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard maintain its expenses.

But obviously, neither the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard under the Bourbon Royal Family nor the shipyard under the Provisional Government could find an excellent manager to save the company.

The shipyard weakened alongside Spain, naturally unable to compete with traditional powers like England and France.

Now, Spain’s shipbuilding industry is barely holding on with its past foundations, and the overall scale is slowly shrinking.

Had Spain not been relatively strong overall, plus that Spain’s period of decline hasn’t been very long, its shipbuilding industry might not even compete with countries like the Netherlands.

However, thinking about it carefully, the Dutch were once also the masters of the sea. They also have quite a foundation in shipbuilding, building ironclads is certainly not an issue.

If not for the Netherlands’ small land area and population, the country would also be more competitive in the Navy and shipbuilding industries.

Returning to the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, having acquired all the shares of the shipyard, the next step is to restore the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard to the pinnacle of Spain’s shipbuilding industry and expand Spain’s military shipbuilding market abroad.

Although Spain currently does not need to build ironclads, it does not mean that other countries do not need ironclads to show prestige.

The Royal Guanizuo Shipyard is located in a small port between Cavargos and the Mariano Peninsula in Santander Bay.

From an overall position perspective, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard is located in northern Spain, facing the Bay of Biscay. Another major shipyard, El Ferrol, is located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, directly facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Another large shipyard is located in eastern Spain, facing the Mediterranean. The three main shipyards are in a triangle layout, but more facing towards the Atlantic, because Spain once had vast colonies there.

Fifty years ago, Guanizuo Port was relatively prosperous. But as the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard weakened, Guanizuo Port also reverted to its previous small village state.

Upon reaching the vicinity of the Guanizuo Shipyard, Carlo’s first reaction was to the decline of the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard.

However, this could be considered good news; in the future, when Spain builds warships domestically, it will be a bit easier to keep things under wraps.

Directly entering the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, Carlo met with the current manager, Antonio.

How should I put it, Antonio left a very poor first impression on Carlo, further strengthening Carlo’s idea of changing the shipyard’s leadership.

The Royal Guanizuo Shipyard is very important to the Royal Family and Spain’s future development, and the choice of shipyard manager is paramount, potentially determining the shipyard’s future direction.

“Your Majesty, as you can see, this is the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard’s current dock. We are repairing a sailing warship for the Navy, which is expected to be completed in half a month.” Antonio explained with a smile to Carlo about the current situation of the shipyard, obviously not foreseeing that his tenure as manager would only last a few more days.

“Can the current Royal Guanizuo Shipyard still build ironclads? Or, how many tons of warships can the existing docks build? How long does it take to build the most advanced ironclad?” Carlo asked his series of questions, which were what Carlo was most concerned about.

“We certainly have the capability to build ironclads, Your Majesty,” Antonio hurriedly nodded and replied: “Currently, we still maintain the largest dock, capable of building a warship with a maximum tonnage of 6200 tons.

However, because we haven’t built an ironclad for a long time, please forgive me for not being able to provide you with a precise construction time. But if the entire factory is working at full capacity to build an ironclad, I think it can be completed within three and a half years.”

Carlo shook his head, clearly more disappointed with such an answer.

If it takes three and a half years just to build the ironclad, adding in subsequent sea trials and training time, the whole warship from start to combat readiness might take more than five years.