Empire Rising: Spain - Chapter 300 - 181: Land Exchange

The total assets of the Spanish Royal Family’s enterprises have surpassed the scale of 500 million pessetas, with an annual net profit approaching 100 million pessetas.

Carlo is quite satisfied with this, after all, the total assets of the enterprises do not include the value of treasure obtained from the Indian Temple. If those treasures are included, the total value of all assets held by the Spanish Royal Family approaches 1 billion pessetas.

The scale of these assets is undoubtedly enormous, and if converted into the currently most valuable currency, pounds, it is approximately 38.432 million pounds, which is 281.7 tonnes of gold.

Besides historical royal families and aristocracies like the British Royal Family and the Habsburg family, there are few noble families in Europe whose assets exceed those of Carlo.

Of course, the seemingly over 1 billion royal assets mostly consist of properties like factories, enterprises, and land, as well as temple treasures that cannot be quickly liquidated.

The cash that the Royal Family has on hand that can be used at any time is less than 200 million pessetas, or just over 7 million pounds.

Although the Spanish Royal Family has become one of the wealthiest royal families in Europe, this is not Carlo’s ultimate goal, but rather a small achievement accomplished in the process of realizing his own goals.

For a king with power, money is indeed something that can be easily obtained. It’s not that having money isn’t good, but money does not represent everything; power is more important than money.

Although Prime Minister Prim has already allowed Carlo to come into contact with more government affairs, Carlo is not in a hurry to extend his influence into the Cabinet Government, but instead focuses more on matters of the Church.

For the country of Spain, religion still holds considerable power. The history of Spain’s establishment is also a history of blood and tears, telling the story of the brutal rule of the Arabs in Spain and the courageous resistance of Catholicism.

The time when Spain completely expelled Arabs and Islam from the Iberian Peninsula was 1492, and before that, the Arabs had ruled the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 700 years.

The 700 years of Muslim rule had a significant impact on the Iberian Peninsula, making the process of de-Islamization quite difficult.

During this process, the Catholic Church played an extremely important role, and the Spanish Catholic Church gained considerable power, becoming the second largest force after the nobility.

Although for the current Spain, the influence of the Church has been greatly reduced, the influence of religion cannot simply disappear. The Spanish Catholic Church is still a major force in Spain, and has a very high influence among some devout Catholic followers.

Even in the technologically advanced future, people’s belief in religion still exists. While some people are indeed atheists, there are also a considerable number of people who still believe in religion.

For Carlo, the Spanish Church is a force that absolutely must be controlled. The Church can brainwash believers and propagate its doctrines and dogmas.

If used well, the Catholic Church can become a sharp blade in Carlo’s hand, strengthening his control and status.

In the Madrid Royal Palace, Carlo again met with the current chief archbishop of the Spanish Church, Pedro.

This archbishop, already mingled with white hair, showed great respect when meeting Carlo. He is a smart person, and he knows that after bowing to Carlo last time, he has no more choices.

The Spanish archbishop has officially become the chief archbishop of the Spanish Catholic Church, a position appointed by the King of Spain along with the archbishop of Toledo.

This also means that if Carlo is not satisfied with him, he can appoint a new Spanish archbishop at any time to compete for the rights of the Spanish Catholic Church.

Although the archbishop of Toledo has a longer history and greater influence in Spain, after all, the Church is currently at a disadvantage, and it is impossible to win a power struggle against Carlo and the Spanish Government.

“Your Majesty.” Archbishop Pedro greeted Carlo with great respect.

Carlo nodded, also smiling, and said, “Long time no see, Archbishop Pedro. How is the Church doing recently?”

“Everything is well, Your Majesty.” Archbishop Pedro nodded, respectfully replying to Carlo, “In Catalonia and the Basque Region, several Spanish language schools have been successfully established, enrolling thousands of children and teenagers to learn Spanish.

We are also vigorously promoting the use of Spanish, striving to make Catalonia and the Basque Region into administrative areas where only Spanish is used in a short time.

Carlo nodded, very satisfied with the Church’s cooperation. In some cases, the role of the Church is indeed greater than that of the government.

For example, in promoting the use of the Spanish language, if the government forcibly promoted it in these two areas, it would instead arouse opposition from some Catalans and Basques.

However, by changing the doctrine of the Catholic Church and expanding the use of Spanish subtly through the Church’s method, it can effectively increase the local use of Spanish without causing opposition from Catalans and Basques.

“That’s good. This time I called you here for no other reason, I decided to donate 5 million pessetas in the name of the Royal Family to the Church for the construction of the new Iberian Cathedral, what does Archbishop Pedro think?” Carlo asked with a smile.