Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 34 Taking Over the Factory
Although Carlo had no experience in dealing with the Carlists, this did not mean that others in the Spanish government did not.

It is worth mentioning that the current Prime Minister Primo was not only born in Catalonia, but also participated in the First Carlist War, so his buffs can be said to be full.

Carlo also did everything he could do now, which was to hand over the full command of the army to Primo and let Primo solve all the troubles.

This is the huge difference between having Primo and not having Primo. Amadeo had almost no way to deal with the rebellion of the Carlists, because there were no other officials and military leaders in Spain who had a say in him except Serrano.

But Carlo was different. With two high-ranking military officials, Primo and Serrano, in charge, Carlo never considered losing this war.

In order to ensure that everything was safe, at Carlo's suggestion, the Spanish army imposed martial law on Madrid and focused on protecting important institutions such as the government and parliament.

In addition to the 500-man palace guard, Carlo's palace also had an additional -man army patrolling around it.

Considering that the entire Madrid was under martial law, it was basically impossible for the Carlists and other opponents to pose a threat to Carlo and other senior government officials unless they could directly break through Madrid.

Before Carlos VII's army left Catalonia, the Spanish government received another piece of bad news.

A large-scale demonstration broke out in Vitoria, Basque Country, where the demonstrators attacked the Vitoria City Hall and engaged in large-scale clashes with local police.

It is clear that the Basques, who share the Catalan fantasy of independence, also have certain ideas.

Compared to Catalonia, which supported the Carlists and incited workers, the reasons for the march in the Basque side were more radical, which was to demand independence or autonomy for the entire Basque region.

The Basque region here refers to the Basque Country, Navarre in Spain and the Northern Basque Country in France.

The Basques who occupied these areas were a very fierce people in the Iberian Peninsula and the last people to be conquered in the entire peninsula.

Fortunately, the entire Basque population is only about 60, and is scattered across the two regions of Basque and Navarre, so the threat is not as great as that of Catalonia.

Regarding the demonstrations that broke out in the Basque region, Primo's advice was to use appeasement as the main approach and suppression as a supplement.

After all, this ethnic group is still very combative. If it can be absorbed into the large Spanish ethnic group, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army will also be guaranteed.

Controlling the Basque and Navarre regions is also very simple. Just migrate a certain number of Spaniards to these two regions to reduce the proportion of Basques.

Since the big bourgeoisie, the Carlists, and the independence activists in Catalonia and the Basque region have all jumped out, naturally no one else will oppose the Spanish government's reforms.

While Primo organized the army to prepare for war with the Carlists, he also took the opportunity to vigorously promote reforms around Madrid and strictly enforce labor laws.

Those factory owners who took the initiative to instigate marches and rebellions became the targets of Primo and Carlo's liquidation.

In just a few days, Madrid police arrested dozens of factory owners and took over hundreds of factories and businesses of all sizes.

In order to maintain production in businesses around Madrid and protect jobs for workers in factories and businesses, the government and the royal family took over most of the industries.

Although the bulk of the profits were taken by the government, Carlo also made a lot of money.

Because Carlo firmly supported Primo during the reform, in return Carlo acquired more than a dozen factories around Madrid at a very small cost.

These factories are all high-quality assets, with a value of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pesetas. There are also large factories like the Madrid Steel Plant, which has nearly a thousand workers. Carlo has also rapidly expanded his industry with these factories. At present, the total value of Carlo's industry has reached tens of millions of pesetas, not to mention that Carlo has more than 10 million pesetas in funds.

Excluding the royal palace, royal residences and estates taken over from Queen Isabel, Carlo would already be among the top ten richest people in Spain.

If all his assets were counted, Carlo could easily become the richest man in Spain.

However, Carlo did not care about these false reputations, and even secretly handled some of the royal family's enterprises to make them seem to have little to do with the royal family.

Among these industries, except for wineries which have the word "royal" in their names because they want to be high-end, other industries do not have the word "royal" in their names. It is impossible to tell whether they are royal industries just by looking at the names.

As the King of Spain, Carlo must of course firmly enforce the provisions of the labor law.

As soon as he took over the more than ten factories, Carlo had someone calculate the wages owed to all his workers, and basically repaid all the unpaid wages the next day.

Without exception, the current situation of these dozen companies was successfully reported in Madrid newspapers and became a hot topic among people living in the surrounding areas of Madrid.

Carlo's purpose in doing this was very simple, which was to set a good example for Spanish capitalists.

As king, Carlo firmly abided by Spanish labor laws and even paid off the wages owed by the previous factory owners.

What reason do the capitalists have to continue to withhold wages? Do they really think the working class is easy to bully?
As public opinion fermented, Carlo successfully gained a certain reputation.

Paying back wages is normal, but paying workers' back wages for the previous factory owner is not so common.

For the workers in Madrid, the biggest difference between Carlo and the capitalists is revealed.

Since the beginning of February, residents of Madrid have occasionally mentioned their King Carlo when chatting, and added a heartfelt compliment.

Although Carlo only paid the unpaid wages to less than 1000 workers, it affected nearly 1000 families.

Because they are all around Madrid, after the spread of the word from person to person, at least tens of thousands of people have a better impression of Carlo.

And this is the purpose of Carlo's doing this, to gradually improve the Spaniards' favorability towards him, and to make them support and love him from the bottom of their hearts.

Once workers have friends who receive the wages they deserve, they will naturally no longer accept deductions from factory owners.

The capitalists of this era are always greedy, and it is impossible for them to pay more attention to the opinions of workers like Carlo.

This will make it difficult for capital and workers to unite again against the monarchy, and the influence of the big capitalist class on Spain will always be limited to a smaller range.

As for the future when Spain's economy flourishes due to reforms, Carlo's industry will continue to expand and even become the largest consortium in Spain. Naturally, there will be no need to worry about the comeback of the capitalist class.

As long as Carlo can become the largest capital in Spain, what capital in Spain can compete with Carlo?

No matter how powerful capital is, it can never defeat the government, because holding the gun is the ultimate authority.

First update, please support!


(End of this chapter)