Actually, ever since getting married, Carlo has faced a new problem, which is the issue of bloodline inheritance.
In other words, Carlo’s biggest task after marriage is actually to have children.
Not only in the royal family, but for the vast majority of noble families, the primary task of nobility title inheritance is to have children, followed by finding ways to expand their own industries.
If there is no qualified heir to inherit one’s industries, what good is having an empty kingdom or empire?
The country will not perish, but if a family has no offspring to inherit, it will face a succession crisis.
There are countless examples in European history where succession crises led to the throne passing to branches or even other families, which is why European nobles place great emphasis on bloodline inheritance.
It’s fine before marriage, but if there are still no offspring after more than three years of marriage, arrangents will be made to find the cause of the problem.
Finding the problem is also simple: assign many mistresses to the noble. If a mistress gets pregnant, it proves the problem lies with the noble’s wife.
If the mistresses also cannot get pregnant, then it is most likely the noble himself who has the problem.
If it is the noble himself who has the problem, then it is necessary to select a qualified heir from among one’s relatives in advance to inherit the nobility title, such as the children of one’s brothers or sisters.
Carlo currently has no such worries. After all, it has been less than a year since his marriage, and given that both Carlo and Queen Sophie are still young, there are no imdiate plans to have offspring.
In the end, it is mainly because the dical technology of this era is too poor. To ensure Queen Sophie’s future health, Carlo plans to discuss having children only after she is fully grown and prepared.
Actually, it is not far off. Queen Sophie was born in March 1855, just three months away from adulthood.
However, considering the preparations before childbirth, the ti of pregnancy, and so on, Carlo’s first child will be born at least two years from now.
For the sake of the royal family branching out, the more children Carlo has, the better. Anyway, the royal family has no worries about child-rearing expenses, so naturally, the more the better.
This can also set an example for the Spanish people. If His Majesty the King is working hard to have children, what reason do the people have not to contribute to the growth of the Spanish population?
Of course, to make the Spanish people more enthusiastic about having children, their worries after the children are born must be addressed, naly various expenses.
In addition to popularizing at least primary compulsory education, Carlo also plans to establish subsidies and rewards in Spain for having more children.
However, such subsidy and reward policies will definitely need to be discussed with the governnt. After all, it is the governnt that will spend the money, and without governnt approval, there will inevitably be so conflicts in future policies on this matter.
Since population is currently one of Spain’s major shortcomings, proposals to encourage childbearing should naturally be implented as early as possible.
Just after Christmas ended, Carlo had Jovellar Soler propose a bill on encouraging childbearing in the House of Representatives to test Pri Minister Primó’s attitude.
The current parliant is controlled by Pri Minister Primó, and whether the proposal passes depends entirely on Pri Minister Primó’s attitude toward it.
This is also why Carlo had Jovellar Soler submit the proposal directly to the House of Representatives. If Pri Minister Primó supports it, the proposal will naturally pass easily.
But if Pri Minister Primó does not support it, even uniting with other parties would not secure a majority in parliant.
The proposal submitted to parliant was quickly known to Pri Minister Primó. Since Pri Minister Primó had long known that Jovellar Soler was loyal to Carlo, he naturally regarded this proposal as one put forward by Carlo.
First of all, in terms of content, Pri Minister Primó had little reason to refuse the proposal. The only point worth discussing is the rewards and subsidies for families with more children, but this can be fully discussed within the cabinet governnt.
After all, it is parliant that submits and revises laws, but it is the cabinet governnt that enforces them.
Even if the proposal passes parliant, how the legislation is implented is still up to the cabinet governnt.
Jovellar Soler being able to submit this proposal in the House of Representatives must an he has Carlo’s support.
Since that is the case, Pri Minister Primó naturally would not refuse. He holds Carlo in considerable respect, just as Carlo respects his power in the cabinet governnt.
Carlo knows that Spain’s reforms cannot succeed without Pri Minister Primó’s strong promotion, and Pri Minister Primó knows that the success of the reforms cannot be without Carlo’s strong support.
Royal power still has significant influence in Spain. As a pri minister who supports monarchy, Primó naturally hopes to gain Carlo’s support rather than stand in opposition to the king he himself helped elevate.
With Pri Minister Primó’s tacit approval, the proposal quickly passed in parliant. Although the Progressive Party holds the majority of seats in parliant, the Conservative Party remains Spain’s second largest party.
Currently in Spain’s parliant, the Progressive Party is the absolute dominant party and the current ruling party. The leader of the Progressive Party is Pri Minister Primó, and the vast majority of mbers are also reformists.
The second largest party is the Conservative Party. The current representative figure of the Conservative Party is the incumbent Minister of Agriculture Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, holding about twenty percent of the total parliantary seats.
The third largest party is the Liberal Party, also Spain’s last relatively large-scale legal political party. The ideology of Liberal Party mbers lies between conservative and reformist; they maintain a relatively neutral attitude toward the monarchical governnt, the so-called neither firmly opposing nor firmly supporting.
Further down are so small parties, either with only one or two parliantary seats or none at all, completely minor parties.
The reason for calling the Liberal Party Spain’s last relatively large-scale legal political party is that there is still one illegal large-scale party within Spain, naly the party that supported establishing a republican Spain during the revolution.
After Carlo was chosen as King of Spain, the Republican Party’s position beca rather awkward. They support republicanism and stand in opposition to the new Kingdom of Spain governnt.
However, at that ti, for the stability of the Spanish governnt and considering that Carlo had just arrived in Spain, Pri Minister Primó did not target the Republican Party, and it remained one of Spain’s top three parties.
But during the Carlist faction rebellion, many Republican Party mbers supported the rebellions in Catalonia and the Basque Country, causing considerable damage to Spain’s stability.
Pri Minister Primó acted decisively, declaring the Republican Party, which ranked third in Spain, illegal and abolishing it within Spain.
This also propelled the Liberal Party to beco Spain’s third largest party, while the Republican Party beca a party with many supporters but completely illegal.
The good news, however, is that since Spain’s reforms and developnt have progressed smoothly, support for the Republican Party has been steadily declining.
There are not many who firmly support republicanism; most are those disappointed with the original monarchical governnt. They hope for a completely new system of governnt to change Spain’s situation, with the real purpose being to change Spain’s current situation rather than the governnt itself.
Since Carlo beca King of Spain, Spain has indeed been developing in a positive direction. The actual inco of the Spanish people has seen considerable improvent, which has allowed these people who desire change in Spain’s situation to see the benefits brought by the monarchy.
They have also realized that it is not the monarchy that has major defects, but the previous King of Spain who had serious shortcomings.
This portion of people has gradually turned into reformists; they support the Kingdom of Spain governnt under constitutional monarchy and desire reforms in Spain’s more backward and conservative areas, making Spain more powerful and advanced.
Under such evolution, Pri Minister Primó’s Progressive Party has surged to beco Spain’s largest party, completely overwhelming the Conservative Party in parliantary seats despite its larger popular support.
Yes, although the Conservative Party does not hold an advantage in parliantary seats, in terms of supporter numbers, it remains Spain’s largest party.
This is because the Conservative Party has a large number of farrs as its base, and most Spanish farrs support more conservative parties. They do not want too much change in the country; best if nothing happens and they can live peacefully.
That is, the reforms have produced real benefits for farrs, and even these mostly conservatively minded farrs do not oppose Spain’s reforms, with so farrs even desiring to see more reforms in Spain.
After all, the reforms have substantially reduced and abolished taxes, lightening the burden on farrs and naturally reducing their living pressures considerably.
The most evident sign of the lightened burden on Spanish farrs is in the growth of the Spanish population. In the previous Kingdom of Spain era, annual population growth was very low, sotis less than 100,
This is extrely exaggerated and proves that during Queen Isabella’s rule, the Spanish people did not live well, leaving them with no surplus energy to have children.
But during Carlo’s rule, with the people’s burdens lightened, they naturally have more mind to consider continuing the family line.
Current contraceptive asures are not so advanced; condom technology is immature and not as thin as in posterity.
The commonly used contraceptive asures among the people are made from sheep intestine and linen, which are neither comfortable nor practical, and the sheep intestine has a fishy sll, making it extrely unpleasant to use.
But not using them is not an option either; an accidental pregnancy ans childbirth is a life-threatening issue. Even if the baby is born, infant survival rates are not high.
Even if the infant survives and is healthy, raising a child is no small expense.
Future Spain will definitely comprehensively prohibit abortion, not for other reasons, but solely because current abortion technology is too backward and carries too high a risk.
Considering the subsidy and reward policies for families with more children that the Spanish governnt is about to promulgate, even a comprehensive ban on abortion technology in Spain will not impose too great a burden on the Spanish people.
It might even be possible to consider the royal family and governnt jointly establishing nurseries and orphanages to help children from poor families receive better education.
Of course, nurseries and orphanages will definitely not be free. Children raised in these two institutions will have two choices in the future.
Either directly serve the country, which exempts all expenses from the orphanage or nursery. Or work independently to earn money and repay the debts they once owed.
Returning to the subsidies and rewards for having more children, after passing parliant, it was quickly submitted to the cabinet governnt for implentation.
Following the promulgation of the previous assessnt system, administrative efficiency in all levels of Spanish governnt has improved considerably. If it did not improve, there would be no choice; poor assessnts lead to demotion without any favoritism.
Already, several city mayors have been dismissed by their regional councils. Concerning their own positions and future prospects, these officials cannot afford not to take it seriously.
What parliant passed was only a draft; how exactly it is implented still needs to be decided based on the Spanish governnt’s financial situation.
When parliant passed this draft, Pri Minister Primó convened a cabinet eting and assigned the task to the welfare and finance departnts.
After a certain period of discussion, the welfare and finance departnts finally produced a relatively detailed bill on 《subsidies and rewards for families with more children》
The bill stipulates in detail that families with 2 or fewer children are ordinary families. On this basis, for each additional child, one governnt subsidy can be enjoyed.
The governnt subsidy is 25% of the local average annual inco; based on the current national average annual inco, it is about 26 pesetas. The governnt subsidy can be claid once a year or directly credited to the family’s linked official bank account.
In addition to governnt subsidies, there are certain rewards for families with more children. For example, families with more than 5 children will be given priority consideration when Spanish state-owned enterprises or royal enterprises recruit employees.
Families with more than 8 children will be featured in the local newspaper and awarded the title of “heroic parents” by the local governnt.
Families with more than 10 children can receive a personal audience with Carlo and be awarded the Spanish “heroic parents” title, and will be invited to every official event organized by the Spanish governnt.
Although the corresponding subsidies and rewards are not very generous, for so families that already have more than 2 children, it does provide an extra inco.
The local 25% average annual inco subsidy is not much, but adding up several children can yield nearly one adult’s annual inco level.
With average annual inco continuously rising, having more children can indeed beco one of the choices for Spaniards; after all, procreation is one of the few entertainnt activities for commoners in this era.
Considering that Spain’s population and economic scale are constantly changing, this bill is only temporarily implented for now and may undergo changes in the future.
This bill does not represent a large expense for the Spanish governnt. If one newborn receives 26 pesetas in governnt subsidy, based on Spain’s population growth, it is estimated there will be about 200,000 newborns next year.
This ans the governnt only needs to bear about 2 million pesetas in subsidy expenses to stimulate broader population growth in Spain.
Even among them, so newborns do not fall into the category of two or more, so the subsidy expenses the governnt needs to bear will be even lower.
This is almost like achieving great things with small money. The Spanish governnt’s fiscal revenue is continuously increasing, and 5 million pesetas is no longer a large expenditure for the current Spanish governnt.
When the Ministry of Finance approved this budget, they did not even blink. If not for considering that too high a subsidy is not a good thing, the Finance Minister even contemplated increasing the subsidy sowhat beyond what the bill stipulates, to stimulate Spain’s population growth rate to a greater extent.
After the bill was promulgated, Carlo paid little further attention to it.
After all, implenting the bill is the governnt’s business; if Carlo paid too much attention, it would damage his current good relationship with Pri Minister Primó.
Carlo is quite reassured about Pri Minister Primó. Since the bill could pass parliant, it proves that Pri Minister Primó maintains a supportive attitude toward it.
The only possible change is the level of subsidies for families with more children in the bill, which Carlo can adjust to so extent after he grasps power in the future; anyway, it is not urgent.
Christmas of 1872 has passed, and what Carlo is currently more focused on is the impending economic crisis of
Fortunately, the upcoming economic crisis seems to have little impact on Spain.
But thinking about it makes sense; Spain’s industrial and economic volu is not huge compared to great power nations, so a lower impact is only natural.
Moreover, the reforms carried out by the Spanish governnt dostically have kept Spain’s economy in steady growth, without excessive exaggerated surges.
Even many industries’ production is insufficient to et dostic demand in Spain, so naturally, there is no possibility of an economic crisis erupting.
Carlo has long paid attention to Spain’s stock market and industrial market, and after confirming that Spain will not suffer severe economic crisis impacts, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the economic crisis that erupted in 1873 was not large in scale, it did last quite a long ti, with considerable influence.
If the newly started Spain suffered a relatively fierce economic crisis impact, it would be a devastating blow to Spain’s industry and economic developnt.
It would also affect the tiline of Spain’s rise. Without the economic crisis impact, Spain has hope of completely completing reforms and achieving revival before 1880 arrives.
But with the economic crisis impact, the ti to complete reforms and achieve revival might be delayed by more than a decade.
If so, Spain would definitely miss the best ti to partition Africa. Even if it can wait until Spain completes its reforms and economic revival in the future, Africa will have been basically partitioned by the great powers, with no places left for Spain to rule.
Since the economic crisis impact on Spain will not be too severe, Carlo naturally does not need to worry too much, but instead turns his gaze to the developnt of royal enterprises, including the research by the talents previously drawn from Europe.
Currently, the royal enterprises, besides the more traditional steel and heavy industry, food industry, and finance industry, also include military industry, agriculture, mining, and chanical manufacturing.
Carlo is paying attention to three research projects: the machine gun and smokeless powder research and developnt by the Maxim Brothers, the engine research and developnt by Benz, Daimler, and Maybach, and Gram’s electricity research.
The success of any one of these three research projects would have a profound impact on Spain. If all three could be completed, Spain could significantly enhance its comprehensive national strength through them and achieve great progress in civilian and military fields.
But the difficulty of these three research projects is very high, and achieving relatively good results is even harder.
For example, with the popularization of electricity, generators are just the foundation; research is also needed on electricity transmission and equipnt for using electricity.
Currently, Gram is attempting to build a large thermal power plant to provide lighting for Madrid’s most prosperous streets.
If it is confird that such electricity use has no problems, wiring will first be laid in the royal palace and governnt buildings to ensure electricity lighting for the royal palace and governnt buildings.
However, popularizing electricity will take a long ti; at least in the next decade, it will be very difficult for ordinary people to use electricity.
The current power plants have limited electricity generation and cannot achieve long-distance transmission. This also ans that to popularize electricity use across all of Spain, corresponding power plants must be built in every city.
Especially for large cities like Madrid, several power plants might not be enough. Before issues with generator power and electricity transmission are resolved, electricity basically cannot be popularized on a large scale.
The sa goes for the engine developed by Benz. It is easy enough to invent the engine, but popularizing machinery using engines will be very difficult in the next few years.
Mounting an engine on a carriage can make a simple car, but such a car’s stability, speed, and safety cannot be guaranteed, so naturally, it cannot be mass-produced for comrcial use.
Moreover, the current engine power is also very small; it is better to use several horses to pull instead.
Carlo is not in a hurry with the research on electricity and engines. As long as they achieve so results within the next 10 years and considerable achievents within the next 20 years, Carlo will be quite satisfied.
What truly has Carlo paying close attention and maintaining expectations is the machine gun and smokeless powder technology being developed by the Maxim Brothers.
Smokeless powder was developed in 1884, which is 12 years from now. Considering Carlo’s substantial investnt in the Maxim Brothers, this tiline should be shortened considerably.
After the invention of smokeless powder, it would be a huge boost to the developnt of rifles and machine guns. The Maxim machine gun might also erge earlier and beco one of the heavy firepower weapons equipped by the Spanish Army units.
If machine guns can be equipped earlier than other countries, perhaps in future wars, other countries can be made to suffer a big loss.
Especially since Spain will definitely need to recapture Gibraltar in the future, it is also very necessary to focus on army equipnt.
Six thousand word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!
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