Carlo knew that Spain at this time was quite backward, but he didn’t expect the development of Spain in all aspects to lag behind so much.
As of the beginning of this year, Spain’s estimated population was 16.6 million.
Why such a round number?
Because the Spanish government at this time was completely incapable of conducting a detailed census; this was just a rough estimate made by the Spanish government based on local birth and death registrations.
What was fatal was that Spain’s illiteracy rate was as high as over 70%.
This meant that out of the 16.6 million population, at least 11.6 million were illiterate.
The terrible level of education, coupled with the chaotic situation in recent years, led to Spain’s per capita annual income being at the lowest level in Western Europe, only 87 pesetas, which was a little over 3 pounds.
Although the lower-class masses in all European countries during this era did not have it easy, and exploitation by factory owners and capitalists was commonplace.
But an annual income of a little over 3 pounds was obviously at an extremely unhealthy level.
The per capita annual income in Britain exceeded 9 pounds, and other European countries maintained it above 6 to 7 pounds.
The average Spaniard could only earn half or even a third of the income of citizens in other countries.
This was also why the masses rebelled against Queen Isabella, because the Spanish people truly could no longer survive.
Looking at such data, Carlo couldn’t help but feel a massive headache.
Carlo had originally thought that Italy’s condition was already quite poor, but he didn’t expect it to be completely incomparable to Spain.
Except for being evenly matched in terms of the illiteracy rate, Italy could crush Spain in all other aspects.
Right now, Carlo only had one thought: to quickly push forward Prim’s reforms and improve Spain’s terrible situation first.
Let alone achieving a revival, whether the Kingdom of Spain could continue to exist was currently a question.
Although Queen Isabella had been driven away, she left Carlo with an extremely messed-up Spain.
Facing a Spain that was almost rotten to the core, this was no longer something that could be saved just by keeping their heads down and developing.
At the cabinet meeting a few days later, Carlo sat in the main seat, quietly waiting for Prim’s proposal regarding the reforms.
For this reform, Prim had prepared extensively.
The cabinet government nominated by Prim essentially consisted of reformists; the only two who weren’t, Serrano and Carlo, had both successively expressed their support for the reforms.
Secondly, Prim had been preparing for the reforms ever since he became Prime Minister.
He combined Spain’s current situation and referenced a massive amount of successful reform experiences from abroad before finally drafting a comprehensive Spanish reform plan.
He handed this plan to Carlo and said very solemnly and seriously: “Your Majesty, this is the Spanish reform plan that dozens of officials and I have finally written after a long period of investigation and research.
The following is the initial plan for the reforms, please review it.” The initial reform plan was actually very simple, consisting of only four categories: agricultural, educational, industrial, and military reforms.
“Prime Minister Prim, please explain your reform plan in detail.” Although he supported the reform internally, this didn’t stop Carlo from wanting to listen to Prim’s comprehensive reform plan.
Prim nodded, stood up, and introduced to all the cabinet officials: “Our initial reforms have only four aspects: agriculture, industry, education, and military reform.
In agriculture, I plan to push for the reduction and exemption of agricultural taxes to increase the income of the agricultural population.
At the same time, we will promote grain exports so that the agricultural population has an ample market for their grain.
In industry, I believe we should restore Spain’s industrial construction in a short period, invest in new factories, and build our own industrial zones.
Building factories can provide more jobs, which will also help us further increase per capita income.
Regarding educational reform, I plan to build more literacy classes to reduce our illiterate population, but this requires massive financial investment, so it is the third choice of the reform.
Finally, there is military reform.
I hope to expand our army to about 100,000 men and equip our army with more cannons.
A sufficient number of artillery pieces have proven their effectiveness on the battlefield.
Whether defending against foreign enemies or stabilizing Spain’s order, improving the army’s combat effectiveness is necessary.” Upon hearing Prim’s reform plan, before Carlo even had time to express any opinions, the Minister of Defense, Serrano, sitting to the side, could no longer hold back.
Serrano stood up, looked at Prim in disbelief, and asked in surprise: “Prime Minister Prim, do you not know how many pesetas the Spanish national treasury still holds?
Every single one of your reforms requires tens of millions of pesetas, and our government simply has no money.
With all due respect, if we cannot prepare enough pesetas before the implementation of the reforms, this reform is destined to end in failure.” “Don’t we still have plenty of land?” Prim looked at Serrano, who had raised the objection, with a calm smile on his face.
For a monarchic country, the largest landlord in the country was undoubtedly the monarch themselves.
Queen Isabella was a promiscuous and greedy monarch, so it was not surprising that the Bourbon dynasty owned the most arable land in Spain.
After driving away Queen Isabella, the arable land originally belonging to the Bourbon dynasty was all confiscated by the Spanish provisional government, and this land was what Prim relied on to implement his reforms.
Although this land used to belong to the King, it would certainly not be passed on to Carlo along with the throne.
Carlo naturally understood this, and he had no intention of becoming a landlord, much less ruining his reputation over this bit of land.
On the contrary, if Carlo supported using this land to exchange for sufficient funds for the government, it could instead become one of the topics to promote Carlo.
Seeing that Carlo had no designs on the land, Prim finally breathed a sigh of relief and explained to Carlo and Serrano: “The Bourbon family possessed vast amounts of land.
This land is enough to provide sufficient funding for our reforms.
I plan to divide this land into three parts.
One part will be distributed for free to Spanish peasants so they have enough arable land to grow crops.
Another part will be sold to capitalists and farm owners to accumulate enough funds for our reforms.
The remaining part will be nationalized and can be rented to peasants at a low price for farming.” “I support your idea, Prime Minister Prim.” Carlo nodded, raising no objections to the proposal to divide the land into three: “Moreover, I have another proposal to raise funds for the reforms.
Why don’t we try issuing national bonds?” (END CHAPTER) Thank you for the support, friends.