Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 357 Prime Minister Selection

When the education department officially began the nine-year compulsory education pilot program, it was already January 1891.

1891 was a very important year for the Spanish cabinet government. It was the last year of this cabinet government and the last chance for those officials who wanted to enter the cabinet government or go further in the cabinet.

If you miss this year, you will have to wait another five years. Although Spain's cabinet government is mainly composed of young people, not everyone can endure five years of time.

What is certain at this point is that Prime Minister Canovas will not run for the next prime ministerial election.

He was born on February 1828, 2, and is now almost 8 years old. For Prime Minister Canovas, he has undoubtedly become a winner in life.

As the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain during Carlo's time, Prime Minister Canovas's achievements have been recognized by the public. Although he is currently only a count, Carlo has already told Prime Minister Canovas that after the term of this cabinet government ends, Carlo will reward all cabinet officials according to their merits, and Prime Minister Canovas will also be awarded the title of Duke.

Although the status of the new nobility is not as high as that of the old nobility, a duke among the new nobility is still a duke, and his status is not inferior at all.

Prime Minister Canovas also knew that his health could not support another term. More importantly, he also knew that he was not suitable for re-election.

Spain does not need a prime minister with too high prestige, and being re-elected for three terms is the greatest tolerance Carlo has for him.

Before, the main reason was that there was no candidate who could compete with Prime Minister Canovas. Those who were qualified were not trusted by Carlo, and those who were trusted by Carlo were not qualified.

Now, the Conservative Party's second-in-command, Jovillar Soler, and Defense Secretary Evan Bradley are both good candidates for succession.

If the former is chosen, Jovillar Soler will be able to take over the policies of Prime Minister Canovas well, and the Conservative Prime Minister will not cause much impact on Spanish politics.

Choosing the latter, Evan Bradley's loyalty to Carlo is beyond doubt. As Minister of Defense, Carlo will be able to take charge of more military power after becoming Prime Minister, and Spain's military expansion and actions will be easier.

These two are the most likely candidates for the next prime minister. In addition, there are actually several other candidates who may also be elected as the prime minister of the cabinet.

The competition for the fiscal budget at the beginning of the year shows how much each department values ​​its performance this year. The more fiscal budget a department has, the easier it will be to complete its tasks.

The more tasks you complete, the more achievements you will naturally get. These achievements are not only related to whether you can be re-elected, but also to whether you can make further progress in the cabinet.

It was due to these reasons that the cabinet entered into an unprecedented quarrel and stalemate when discussing the financial budgets of various departments.

The first thing to be determined was the defense budget. In addition to the prestige of Defense Secretary Evan Bradley, the unique status of the defense department was also the reason why the budget was approved quickly.

The approved financial budget for the defense sector is as high as 3.54 million pesetas, an increase of 1900 million pesetas compared to last year, which is still a considerable increase.

You know, last year's military expenditure already included 5000 million pesetas for shipbuilding. On this basis, the military expenditure can be increased by nearly 2000 million pesetas, which is enough to show that Carlo and the Spanish government attach great importance to the development of national defense.

Speaking of this, we have to mention Spain’s fiscal revenue and fiscal expenditure throughout last year.

Last year, Spain's total fiscal revenue reached 13.421 billion pesetas, and total fiscal expenditure reached 12.751 billion pesetas, setting new records for both revenue and expenditure.

Thanks to the growing fiscal revenue, the Spanish government also increased its total fiscal expenditure level in 1891 to a new scale, reaching an astonishing 12.925 billion pesetas.

The defense sector's fiscal budget was as high as 3.54 million pesetas, accounting for 1891% of total expenditure for the whole year of 27.39, which was slightly lower than last year.

The decrease was mainly due to an increase in funding for the education and industrial sectors.

There were not many changes in other sectors. The industrial sector was due to the integration of the shipbuilding industry and subsidies for other industries, and the education sector was due to the pilot implementation of nine-year compulsory education.

1891年教育部门的财政预算成功突破了2亿比塞塔，达到了2.34亿比塞塔的新高。这也让教育部门的财政预算比例从去年的15.97%一下子增长到了今年的18.1%，是各部门当中财政预算增加最多的部门。

The industrial sector comes second, with a fiscal budget of 2.19 million pesetas, accounting for 16.94% of Spain's total annual fiscal expenditure.

After these three most important departments have discussed their shares of the fiscal budget, other departments will then obtain their own fiscal budgets.

Because the total fiscal expenditure has increased significantly, although the military, education and industrial departments have increased their own funding, it has not affected the budget proportion of other departments.

This is a blessing in disguise for other departments. As long as the fiscal budget is not affected, there will be no problem in completing the tasks assigned by the government as planned.

After each department received its own financial budget, the cabinet ministers began the final stage of struggle.

It is worth mentioning that since the beginning of 1891, cabinet ministers have reported to Carlo on their work almost every once in a while.

Their purpose was very clear. On the one hand, they wanted to make Carlo aware of their abilities and achievements through work reports, and on the other hand, they wanted to make their presence felt in front of Carlo.

It's worth mentioning that Carlo's presence here is still very important. If a position is in a stalemate of competition, once Carlo is familiar with one of the officials, he is likely to choose this familiar official.

After more than two decades of development, cabinet ministers naturally understand who has the final say in Spain today.

Compared to Prime Minister Primo, Prime Minister Canovas did not have military power. This also led to Carlo gaining more power in the government. Although Carlo would not actively express his opinions most of the time, no one could ignore Carlo's own ideas, including Prime Minister Canovas.

In the cabinet meeting, if Carlo wanted to reject something, no one could make it pass. Similarly, if Carlo wanted to promote something, no one could oppose its success.

Fortunately, Carlo basically never uses such power, which makes the cabinet government meetings relatively democratic on the surface.

Most of the time, the decision is made by voting among cabinet ministers, and Carlo will not interfere with the final result of the ministers' vote.

Of course, if it was really a proposal that Carlo strongly opposed, no one would allow it to appear in the discussion scope of the cabinet meeting.

Everyone was not stupid and it was impossible to offend Carlo and the royal power so openly. In February 1891, Carlo invited many Spanish writers and musicians to write lyrics for the Spanish national anthem "Royal March" and to compose a special song for the Spanish Royal Army, Royal Navy and Royal Guards.

Even in later generations, Spain's national anthem, "March Royale", is one of the few national anthems without lyrics.

The reasons for this phenomenon are complicated. Carlo does not want his country's national anthem to remain without lyrics.

Although the melody of "Royal March" itself is very majestic, it would be even better if the lyrics could add some color to it.

For Spain, the "Royal March" is a song exclusive to the royal family and is only used in some solemn occasions.

The military songs of the Army, Navy and Guards have less restrictions on usage scenarios.

Carlo wanted to create a special military song for the army, navy and guards in order to boost the morale of the army. If there is a war in the future, letting the soldiers charge to the accompaniment of their own military songs will definitely be much better than having no song accompaniment.

A suitable song can not only excite the soldiers, but also arouse their passion and enthusiasm to serve the motherland.

When the Spanish soldiers heard the military songs, their hearts were filled with emotion. Who could defeat this passionate, brave and fearless Spanish army?

Speaking of which, the Spanish have made quite good achievements in the field of literature.

Historically, Spain has not had many Nobel Prize winners in physics and chemistry, but there are quite a few winners in literature.

Carlo gathered almost all the famous writers and musicians in Spain, and with their joint efforts, it took less than three months to compose a satisfactory lyrics for the Spanish national anthem "Royal March".

In addition to praising Spain, the lyrics also praise Carlo's wise rule. Although the combination of lyrics and music is not so perfect, it is definitely a good work.

It was then easier to produce military songs for the Royal Army, Royal Navy and Royal Guards.

These three military songs were named "March of the Royal Army", "March of the Royal Navy" and "March of the Royal Guards" respectively. The tunes of the army and navy military songs are the same, but the lyrics have some changes.

The "March of the Royal Guards" is quite different from the other two songs. The lyrics mainly tell about the greatness of the Spanish royal family and the passion, bravery and loyalty of the Guards soldiers in serving the royal family.

After these three marches were completed, Carlo immediately ordered them to be handed over to the Army, Navy and Guards, and officially made these three songs the military songs of the three armies.

When the military song was played in the army for the first time, the soldiers were quite fond of it.

Most of the people who joined the army were young men in their 20s. They loved their motherland very much, and naturally they loved this song that praised and loved the motherland.

When the exclusive military songs of the three troops were established, the soldiers began the task of learning the military songs on their own, without the need for officers to deploy them.

With such active learning, the soldiers only took a few days to learn the military songs that belonged to their own troops.

Carlo was quite satisfied with this result. Military songs are very effective in improving morale, and the Spanish navy, army and guards should also have their own military songs.

When the soldiers learned that Carlo had invited famous Spanish writers and musicians to create such military songs, they could only be filled with love and loyalty for Carlo.

The three military songs were one of the few interludes in 1891. Thanks to the efforts of the cabinet ministers, the Spanish government in 1891 achieved quite good results, and time quickly came to 1892.

An event of great importance occurred at the beginning of 1892: the election of the Spanish cabinet government.

So far, Spain has gone through five cabinet governments. These five cabinet governments have greatly improved Spain. Spain has also become an upper-middle country among the powers from a weak country that was not considered a great power. It can be said that it is second only to the four great powers, and its comprehensive strength is not much worse than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This improvement took only five cabinet governments and 5 years, which is undoubtedly a very good result. Every cabinet government election also attracts the attention of all Spanish people. They are curious about who will take over such an important position as Prime Minister after Prime Minister Canovas.

According to public opinion polls conducted by some newspapers on the Spanish public, the more popular candidates for prime minister include Industry Minister Jovillar Soler, Defense Minister Evan Bradley, Foreign Minister Carrel, Civilian Affairs Minister Alton Alvez and Royal Affairs Minister Menotti.

The most popular ones are the first two, one is Jovillar Soler, who is fully capable of inheriting the policies of Prime Minister Canovas, and the other is Evan Bradley, a hardliner in the military.

Carlo is also quite hesitant about these two candidates. In fact, it stands to reason that the current Spanish government should have some changes.

Continuing with Prime Minister Canovas' policies would indeed allow the country to continue to develop, but the current situation in Europe is quite chaotic and complicated, and Carlo cannot guarantee whether World War I will happen as it did in history.

If there are any special changes in the European situation, Spain is likely to join the war for its own interests. If there is a war in a short period of time, then Evan Bradley should be the Prime Minister of Spain.

As for the Conservative Party's second-in-command, Jovillar Soler, he would definitely be qualified if he were to become prime minister.

But there is no difference between Jovillar Soler as prime minister and Canovas as prime minister. Their political attitudes are almost the same, and their policies will basically continue in accordance with those when Canovas was prime minister.

This is somewhat unnecessary for Carlo. After all, if a new prime minister is elected, these policies will most likely continue.

As long as Carlo is there, Spain's policies will not change much, and will not affect the country's development.

If Evan Bradley becomes the Prime Minister of Spain, Spain is bound to take bigger military actions in the future.

If Jovillar Soler were to assist Evan Bradley, it might be a more appropriate choice at the moment.

On the one hand, as Deputy Prime Minister, Jovillar Soler was able to continue the policies of Prime Minister Canovas and ensure that Spain's economic and industrial development would not be affected.

On the other hand, a hard-line prime minister can also promote the growth of Spain's military power more quickly. If a war breaks out in the next few years, Spain will have a stronger military power, which means it will have more trump cards and confidence.

(End of this chapter)