Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 25 Italian Labor

After hearing Primo's explanation of the funding preparation for industrial construction, Carlo nodded and asked, "When will the industrial construction preparation begin? What is our initial construction goal?"

“I plan to build a small industrial base in Seville, Andalucia, and increase our steel production.

After increasing steel production, we will invest in railway construction, and we expect to increase the railway mileage to more than 6000 kilometers in the next five years, connecting the east, west, south and north regions of Spain." Primo replied.

Even though it is just railway construction, it has a huge impact on the industry.

The steel rails needed for the railways require steel mills to work overtime to increase steel production, which can drive the development of a series of ancillary industries.

Spain has considerable reserves of coal and iron ore resources in Andalucia, which is convenient for industrial development.

Although most of the coal in Spain's coal mines is of relatively poor quality, there is still no problem in carrying out initial industrial production.

After all, the total steel production of various countries in this era was not large, and did not reach the exaggerated level of tens of millions of tons in later generations.

The most powerful industrial country at present is the British Empire, but the British steel production is only about 30 tons, which is not yet such an exaggerated scale.

However, Spain's steel production is even lower. Because of the abandonment of industrial construction during the reign of Queen Isabel, Spain's annual steel production is only at the thousand-ton level, or a pitiful 2000 tons.

Although part of the reason for this is that Spain does not have excellent iron ore and coal reserves, as a second-rate European country with a population of more than 1600 million, such an industrial level is still too shabby.

"Once our steel mills go into mass production, we hope to increase steel production to more than 10,000 tons in the next five years. At least our steel production must meet domestic industrial construction needs. Spain is incomplete without industry," said Primo.

Building 1000 kilometers of railway in five years may seem slow, but it is not easy for Spain, whose steel production is quite poor.

In the nearly 1840 years from 1869 to 30, Spain only built 5000 kilometers of railways. This construction speed was far behind that of countries such as Britain, France, Germany and the United States.

Spain is mountainous, and building railways is necessary to better strengthen the connection between regions.

This will not only strengthen the royal government's control over various regions, but also accelerate population mobility and economic connectivity between regions.

"I approve of your plan, Prime Minister Primo." After hearing Primo's complete explanation, Carlo nodded and approved Prime Minister Primo's plan without any hesitation.

Obviously, this industrial plan is very necessary for Spain. Although the investment is not that large, it is a good start for Spain's industrial development.

"Your Majesty, there is something that perhaps only you can do." After hearing Carlo approve the industrial plan, Primo first nodded with a smile, and then quickly made another request to Carlo.

"Oh? What's the matter?" Carlo asked curiously.

“Whether it is building an industrial base or laying railways, we need a large number of workers. But your Majesty, you also know that the black workers we bought from Africa are not very peaceful, and they are also a destabilizing factor for Spain.

Compared to these lowly black laborers, I think it is a more appropriate choice to introduce foreign white laborers. When I went to Italy before, I found that a large number of agricultural population in Italy chose to immigrate overseas.

If possible, can we contact the Italian government to introduce some Italian immigrants and workers?
Doing so will not only solve our labor shortage problem, but also speed up our industrial construction. I think it is necessary to give it a try. "Primo said. If you want to build an industrial base and lay railways, you must prepare a large number of workers as a labor force.

This is difficult for Spain to do. Although Spain has a large agricultural population, these agricultural populations are scattered across the vast Spanish territory and own their own land. It is impossible for them to cross half of Spain for a small income from labor.

But these Italian farmers are different. They can hardly survive in Italy, which is why they choose to emigrate overseas.

In this case, why not find an opportunity to attract some Italian immigrants to Spain and at the same time make up for the shortage of Spanish workers?

You have to know that most of Italy's agricultural population is located in southern Italy, which was ruled by the autocratic Kingdom of the Two Sicilies not long ago.

These peasants had experienced a long period of absolute monarchy and were much easier to rule than the black laborers and republicans.

This is also one of the reasons why Primo set his sights on Italian workers. Workers who are down-to-earth, capable of working and not causing trouble will be welcomed everywhere.

Carlo was a little surprised to hear Primo say this.

Because introducing Italian workers was originally part of Carlo's plan, this was also beneficial to Carlo's rule.

After all, Carlo was born into the Italian royal family. These Italians who came to Spain would certainly not oppose Carlo's rule, and compared with the native Spaniards, the Italians would be closer to Carlo.

Carlo certainly would not object to such a request that was completely beneficial to him.

"For the development of Spain, I am willing to do this." Carlo said with a smile: "If the government is ready, then our industrial construction can start immediately.

I will take care of the labor issue, and I hope our industrial construction will go as smoothly as expected."

Primo nodded and said very respectfully, "As you command, Your Majesty."

After all, Carlo still has too few people.

Now the only ones available are Jyoti and Loren. Jyoti needs to take charge of the palace guards, and Loren is the only one who can go to Italy to discuss labor issues.

Fortunately, this was not a big deal, and Italy was not short of thousands of workers. In addition, Carlo and Vittorio Emanuele II had a good father-son relationship, so it was not a problem to sign an agreement with Italy to introduce workers.

Sure enough, Laurent's entire journey took only more than ten days, and he brought back a "Labor Introduction Agreement" for Carlo.

Carlo's requirements were not high. In the past few years, introducing thousands or tens of thousands of workers from Italy every year was enough to meet Spain's development needs.

Once Spain's construction has achieved certain results and people's living standards and incomes continue to rise, it will naturally attract some European people who can no longer survive in their hometowns to immigrate to Spain.

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(End of this chapter)