Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 355 Integration and Monopoly

Although Spain's five-year shipbuilding plan is progressing smoothly, the cabinet government has discussed the current status of the Spanish shipbuilding industry.

As the former empire on which the sun never sets, Spain's shipbuilding industry is ultimately a lean camel that is bigger than a horse, and even in its weakest period it was still able to rank among the top in Europe.

So far, in addition to Spain's four major official shipyards, there are dozens of medium-sized shipyards of a certain scale and hundreds of small shipyards of small scale.

The development of private shipyards was also quite rapid. As Spain's colonies expanded to Africa, shipping between Spain and Africa also promoted the development of the local shipbuilding industry.

But no matter how it develops, Spain's domestic shipbuilding industry still faces the dilemma of excess manufacturing and insufficient research and development.

It is not difficult for these medium-sized shipyards to build cruise and cargo ships of thousands of tons. The same is true for smaller shipyards, which can easily build commercial offshore vessels of hundreds of tons.

But asking them to design a brand new cruise cargo ship from scratch is a task that most of these shipyards are not capable of accomplishing.

The upgrading of science and technology is not a matter of course, but the result of years of hard work by hundreds of experts. This also means that every upgrade of related technology requires a lot of time, manpower, material and financial resources.

It is obvious that the role played by hundreds or even thousands of small shipyards in technological upgrading is not as great as that of dozens of medium-sized shipyards.

Although monopoly is not necessarily a good thing, it is better to integrate hundreds of small shipyards into a smaller number of medium and large enterprises so that they have the ability to independently develop and design new ships than to have hundreds of small shipyards concentrate on small civilian ships.

In December 1890, Jovillar Soler, the Minister of Industry of the Spanish Cabinet Government, introduced the situation of Spain's shipbuilding industry to all the ministers of the Cabinet Government and Carlo who was participating in the meeting.

"Your Majesty, everyone. At present, our shipbuilding industry has achieved great results along with the development of local industry and economy and the construction of colonies.

According to statistics from the industrial sector, there are a total of 322 approved and legally operating shipyards in my country, which build more than 1000 ships annually.

不过，这322家造船厂中有275家造船厂属于小型造船厂，只拥有200-500名造船工人。小型造船厂的比例达到了85.4%，这275家造船厂均只能建造八百吨以内的小型民营船只。

There are about 500 shipyards with more than 32 workers, and only 1000 shipyards in Spain with more than 11 workers.

As for shipyards with a total number of more than 5000 workers, we currently have only four, namely the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, the Valencia Union Shipyard, the El Ferrol Royal Naval Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard.

At present, there are about 13.4 shipbuilding workers in our country, which is about 6% more than last year. After the release of our five-year shipbuilding plan, it is expected that the growth rate of shipbuilding workers will remain above 5% in the next five years. Minister Jovillar Soller introduced the current situation of the Spanish shipbuilding industry in detail to the ministers and Carlo.

In general, Spain's shipbuilding industry is still quite good. The 13.4 shipbuilding workers reflect the huge scale of Spain's shipbuilding industry. The annual growth of 5% of shipbuilding workers is equivalent to 6700 more shipbuilding workers per year.

To sum up these data in one sentence, Spain's current shipbuilding industry is thriving and developing rapidly.

Of course, first praising and then criticizing is almost the usual method used by cabinet ministers to report on the situation.

Minister Jovillar then said: "Although our shipbuilding industry is expanding rapidly every year, except for the four official shipyards, the remaining expansion is mainly concentrated in small shipyards with less than 500 employees.

In the past two years, the number of small shipyards with less than 500 employees has increased by 9 and 11 respectively. The increase in the number of these small shipyards alone can bring us thousands of additional shipbuilding workers.

But the growing number of small shipyards is not a good thing. Due to the lack of workers, the warships built by these small shipyards are often small ships with low technical content.

Although the domestic demand for small ships is growing with the economic prosperity and the development of colonies, the growth in demand for small ships is limited compared to the growth in the number of shipyards.

After the industrial sector counted the number of orders and profits for civilian ships under 1,000 tons, we found a relatively tricky problem.

Compared to five years ago, the order profit of civilian ships under 15 tons has dropped by %.

On the one hand, it is because our per capita income is constantly increasing. On the other hand, with the surge in the number of small shipyards, the competitiveness of small ships is also increasing.

Judging from the current growth rate of small shipyards, perhaps in 10 years, these small shipyards will turn from profitable to loss-making, thus affecting the development of the entire shipbuilding industry. "

In fact, to put it bluntly, Spain's shipbuilding industry is currently at two completely opposite extremes in terms of large ships and small ships.

The competition for orders in the small boat market is quite fierce because there are too many shipyards. In order to obtain orders, the shipyards have to lower their selling prices.

This has resulted in lower and lower profits for small shipyards, and it is very likely that in the future they will face a situation where their income will be less than their expenditure, which will lead to large-scale losses or even bankruptcy for small shipyards.

However, when it comes to medium and large warships, Spain's shipbuilding industry is facing a situation where there are too many people and too few resources.

In addition to the four official shipyards that focus more on military ships, Spain has a total of 500 shipyards employing more than 43 people.

Among these 43 shipyards, 32 can only build medium-sized ships of tons and are unable to build large ships of several thousand tons.

There are only 11 shipyards that are truly capable of building large ships. The sizes of these 11 shipyards vary, and only a few of them can build several large ships at the same time.

As Spain developed its African colonies, economic exchanges between the mainland and African colonies became increasingly frequent.

Every day a large amount of goods are shipped from the mainland to Africa, and a large amount of goods are shipped from Africa to the mainland.

The transportation of these goods all depends on the participation of large cargo ships, which is why the Spanish shipbuilding industry is said to have a shortage of large ships. Large ships are in short supply in Spain, and even the transportation companies established by nobles and capitalists have to purchase large transport ships abroad.

In addition to economic exchanges between Spain and its colonies, Spain's foreign imports and exports also required a large number of cargo ships to support them.

Faced with the disadvantage of insufficient number of medium and large shipyards, it is indeed necessary to consider merging some small shipyards to increase Spain's foundation and number of medium and large shipyards.

After listening to Minister Jovillar Soler's report, Carlo nodded and asked, "What does the industry think about our problems in the shipbuilding industry?"

Minister Hovillar nodded and replied: “Your Majesty, in my opinion, we do not need so many small shipyards.

The construction cost of a small shipyard is too low, and a small shipyard of considerable size can be built with a certain amount of funds. However, as for medium-sized and large shipyards, even if there is sufficient funds, it is not necessarily possible to build a medium-sized and large shipyard in a short period of time.

Considering our increasing demand for larger ships, I believe it is necessary to integrate some of the small shipyards and increase the number of our medium and large shipyards to more than 50.

At the same time, the government should introduce certain subsidy policies to help these medium and large shipyards gain a better foothold. Only after these medium and large shipyards have gained a firm foothold in the domestic and foreign markets can our shipbuilding industry compete with other European powers.

Before that, the government needs to pay a certain amount of money and perhaps help these shipyards train a new batch of skilled shipbuilding workers."

The Spanish government is actually no stranger to such tactics.

Spain took the same approach in the field of military shipyards more than a decade ago.

Originally there were more than a dozen military shipyards in Spain, but after integration, only the current four major military shipyards remain.

Minister Jovillar's proposal is actually to integrate some civilian shipyards based on Spain's experience in integrating military shipyards.

Small shipyards do not bring much improvement to the country, but medium and large shipyards do bring certain improvement to the country and also have strategic value.

Civilian shipyards can be converted into military shipyards in wartime, and this conversion is much faster than building a military shipyard from scratch.

If Spain can build dozens of medium and large shipyards, it means that Spain will have dozens of military shipyards to build warships during wartime.

At that time, the four major shipyards can be fully focused on building battleships, and the medium and large shipyards converted into military shipyards can be used to build cruisers and other types of warships weighing thousands of tons.

Carlo nodded, but did not directly agree with Minister Jovillar's proposal. Instead, he looked at Prime Minister Canovas and asked, "What do you think, Prime Minister? Does anyone else have any ideas?"

Prime Minister Canovas was no longer the upstart who needed the support of Archduke Serrano to keep his position. Since he officially became the Prime Minister of Spain in 1877, Prime Minister Canovas had spent 13 years as the top leader of the Spanish government.

Being re-elected as Prime Minister of the Cabinet Government for three consecutive times, on the one hand, reflects Carlo's trust in Prime Minister Canovas, and on the other hand, it also reflects Prime Minister Canovas' ability and influence.

The current Prime Minister Canovas is undoubtedly the most influential person in Spanish politics. His influence is no less than that of the former Prime Minister Primo, but his control over the military is still a little lacking.

Hearing Carlo's question, Prime Minister Canovas shook his head and said with a smile: "I agree with Minister Jovillar's proposal. For the problems that have already appeared in the shipbuilding industry, perhaps this approach is the best solution."

Since Prime Minister Canovas had no objection, it was natural that no one else would stand up and express their own views.

After all, neither Carlo nor Prime Minister Canovas expressed any opposition. Wouldn't it be a slap in the face of the king and the prime minister to stand up and oppose at this time?
Seeing that no one expressed opposition, Carlo nodded and then gave an order: "Since no one objects, let's adopt the method proposed by Minister Hovillar.

The industrial sector should come up with a plan as soon as possible, and the issue of subsidies for shipyards can be communicated and resolved with the financial department.

Once you have a complete plan, your cabinet can vote on it."

Carlo's greatest experience during his 20-year career as king was not to express too many opinions during cabinet meetings.

As long as the king does not have a clear attitude, the final responsibility has nothing to do with the king. If this matter succeeds, Carlo will definitely be credited.

Because this method has been used once in a military shipyard, Carlo is not worried that such a plan will fail.

Even if the integration of small shipyards will give birth to several powerful medium and large shipyards, these shipyards will not be able to achieve a monopoly position.

Even if there are companies that can achieve a monopoly, it is destined not to affect Carlo's power in Spain. The biggest difference between Spain and other European countries is that official companies with royal family and government as background have become the giants in Spanish capital.

With the help of the capital of the nobility, it is difficult for domestic or foreign capital to gain power in the Spanish government.

The benefit of state capitalism is that capital can indeed have an impact on the government. However, the biggest capital is the royal family and the government, which ensures that only the royal family can have an impact on the government. Other capital is just child's play in front of official capital.

The royal family owns certain shares in all of the four major shipyards in Spain. The largest Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is fully controlled by the royal family. This is a super-large shipyard with nearly 10,000 employees. How can other shipyards compete with this giant?
In the past twenty years, the royal family's capital has already penetrated all walks of life in Spain. Some of the more important industries, such as heavy industry, chemical industry, military industry, oil and agriculture, all have royal capital.

Not to mention a monopoly enterprise in a certain industry, even if several monopoly enterprises were combined together, they are destined to be unable to match the capital power of the current royal consortium.

Whether it is a competition of influence on the government or a competition of pure capital, there is not much capital in the world that can rival the Spanish royal family.

(End of this chapter)