Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 412 Naval Development Plan
As the latter half of 1902 approached, the HMS Dreadnought's naval trials were already halfway complete.

Throughout the testing phase, some problems were revealed in the design of the Dreadnought battleship. After all, it was a completely new warship design, and all secondary guns had been eliminated; it was impossible to improve the new design perfectly all at once.

The good news is that the problems exposed during the Hainan Airlines testing phase were not serious. After several months of modifications and improvements, most of the problems have been resolved, and the remaining defects are only a matter of time.

The Navy has high expectations for this battleship that is about to be commissioned, and Carlo also has great ambitions and expectations for it.

For Carlos, having only one dreadnought would certainly not be enough. Since Spain has already taken the lead in dreadnoughts, why not make that lead even more pronounced?
Following the cabinet elections in 1902, Carlo immediately summoned Jordi, who had been re-elected as Minister of Defense, and senior naval officers to express his support for a major naval buildup in the coming years. He also requested that the navy and defense departments produce a naval construction plan for the next ten years and submit it to the cabinet meeting.

As the royal government, the budgets of the Spanish cabinet do not need to be approved by the Congress of Deputies; they only need to be reviewed by the cabinet meetings.

However, this has also made it more difficult for various departments to request budget allocations. If they want to increase their department's budget, they either need to obtain permission from the King or the Prime Minister, or they have to compete with other departments openly and covertly.

Although Spanish government departments generally cooperate amicably in their daily affairs, disputes inevitably arise during the annual budget battles.

After all, no department would complain about having too much budget, and they would have enough funds to freely develop projects, instead of carefully calculating every penny of the project cost for fear of exceeding the budget.

The naval authorities were quite excited after receiving Carlo's instructions. For the previous decade or so, the development of the Spanish Navy had been forcibly restricted by Carlo, and the number of warships built each year was negligible.

With the construction cost of a single battleship already exceeding 20 million pesetas, the navy's annual funding for warship construction and maintenance was only 25 million pesetas, meaning that on average, only one battleship could be built every two years, making the warship construction speed extremely slow.

The naval commanders had initially thought it would be several years before Carlo issued the order to build warships. However, before the naval trials of the Dreadnought battleship were even over, Carlo had already instructed them to produce a complete naval construction plan, outlining the warships to be built over the next ten years.

There's no need to hesitate; the main warships to be built in the next decade will definitely be the Dreadnought-class battleships. Just like the difference between battleships and ironclads, the difference between Dreadnought-class battleships and ordinary battleships is also enormous.

According to the Spanish Navy's estimates for all its warship models, once the Dreadnought battleship officially enters service, the role of all warships previously built by Spain, including the Monarch-class battleships, will be significantly reduced.

Despite their exorbitant cost, the Monarch-class battleships were virtually powerless against the Dreadnought-class battleship.

The speed of the Dreadnought battleship far exceeded that of the Monarch-class battleships because the caliber of the guns was standardized, and the range, power, rate of fire, and other factors of the guns were also standardized.

In this situation, the Dreadnought battleship could have easily adopted a strategy of getting close, firing, and then running away, reloading its shells, getting close again, firing, and running away.

In any case, no warship in the world could catch up with the Dreadnought battleship. Under these circumstances, unless other warships could spot the Dreadnought battleship first and quickly hit it when it entered firing range, there was no other way.

However, given the armor coverage of the Dreadnought battleship, even if one were lucky enough to hit the Dreadnought, unless the hit was on a relatively thin part of the armor, it would not cause much damage to the Dreadnought.

It was precisely because the Dreadnought battleship outperformed all previous battleships, including various battleship models from other countries, that the Spanish Navy was determined to develop the Dreadnought-class battleships.

Because the navy's top commanders already had a clear vision for the future of the navy, this ten-year naval construction plan was submitted to Carlo's desk in just a few days.

Carlo glanced at the naval construction plan but didn't say much, instructing the naval department to submit it to the cabinet for discussion.

The new cabinet government still has Baron Angelo Orcajo as prime minister. Carlo is quite satisfied with his abilities, so his re-election is only natural.

It is worth mentioning that the elderly Havilaire Soler is no longer serving as Minister of State, and the new cabinet government has appointed Count Menotti as Minister of State.

Apart from that, the cabinet positions were almost identical to those of the previous cabinet, except that the Minister of Colonial Affairs was Helen Hax, the former Governor of the Congo Territory, because Count Menotti was the Minister of State.

When Defense Secretary Jyoti submitted this naval development plan to the cabinet, its details sparked heated discussions among the cabinet ministers.

The first to express his dissatisfaction was Finance Minister Orr Acosta, who was shocked by the budget requirements of the naval development plan proposed by the Ministry of Defense.

Yes, it was shocking.

How outrageous is this naval development plan proposed by the Ministry of Defense?
According to this development plan, the Spanish Navy would build an average of two Dreadnought-class battleships, five auxiliary warships of several thousand tons, three new submarines, and other small warships every year for the next ten years, from 1902 to 1911.

During this decade, Spain will build a staggering 75 tons of warships. Once the naval construction plan is completed, Spain will have a full 21 dreadnoughts, dozens of battleships and ironclads, hundreds of cruisers and small and medium-sized warships of various types, as well as dozens of submarines, with a total naval tonnage exceeding one million tons, making it a true super fleet.

With such a fleet, Spain could undoubtedly roam freely in the Mediterranean and even throughout Europe.

At that time, neither France nor Britain will be able to match the size of their fleets in the Mediterranean.

Not to mention the size of the Mediterranean fleet, the total tonnage of the Spanish fleet will be roughly the same as that of the British fleet at present. With the advantage of 21 dreadnoughts, Spain could easily defeat the British Royal Fleet, just as Britain had defeated the Spanish Armada, and regain its maritime supremacy in Europe and even the world.

So the question is, how much would the navy need to build a fleet with a total tonnage of over 75 tons?

Given that each Dreadnought battleship costs close to 40 million pesetas, and each cruiser of several thousand tons and other small and medium-sized warships cost between several million and tens of millions of pesetas, Spain will have to pay at least 150 million pesetas annually for this naval construction plan, totaling at least 1.5 billion pesetas, or £60 million, for the ten-year naval construction plan.

The fact that the navy costs at least 1.5 million pesetas a year is what made Finance Minister Orr Acosta stand up instantly.

Despite Spain's annual government revenue approaching 16 billion pesetas, the actual annual government surplus is only tens of millions of pesetas. This is under relatively good economic conditions; in poorer economic circumstances, fiscal deficits are possible.

Under such conditions, isn't it putting the finance department in a difficult position by demanding 1.5 million pesetas annually for naval construction?
For Spain's current finances, coming up with 1.5 million pesetas is not difficult, but coming up with 1.5 million pesetas every year is still quite difficult.

The only options are to sacrifice the budgets of various departments and piece together the 1.5 million peseta, or to issue naval construction bonds to the public or to obtain loans from banks controlled by the government and the royal family to make up for the shortfall.

Finance Minister Orr Acosta is unwilling to burden the Spanish government with debt, at least not without the orders of the Prime Minister or His Majesty the King.

After all, the previous Spanish government cleared its debt, which was considered one of the achievements of the finance department. If the government is now burdened with debt again, who will bear the responsibility?

To avoid incurring debt, it would be necessary to offend other departments in the cabinet and extract funds from their budgets in order to raise the 1.5 million peseta.

Doing this would offend people. As I said before, unless the Prime Minister or His Majesty the King issues an order, Minister Orr Acosta would not unilaterally approve the Navy's construction plan.

Although the Ministry of Defense wields considerable influence, it is clearly not worthwhile to offend other departments of the cabinet for the sake of the Ministry of Defense.

After all, the military cannot directly intervene in the budget to help a particular department; the military must remain neutral in these positions.

If that's the case, then why sell it to the military?
"General Jordi, I have no major objections to the warship construction plan proposed by the Navy, but please allow me to state the current financial situation."

Last year, our fiscal surplus was only 2500 million pesetas, which was clearly insufficient to cover the annual cost of naval construction, which is as high as 1.5 million pesetas.

To push forward this naval construction plan, either the budgets and funds of various departments need to be squeezed, or national bonds for naval construction need to be issued domestically to raise funds from the private sector.

The former requires the permission of the ministers of each department, while the latter requires the permission of the Prime Minister and His Majesty the King; neither can be easily pushed forward.

"If you can persuade the other ministers to agree, or obtain the permission of the Prime Minister and His Majesty the King, then I am willing to approve the Navy's warship construction plan." Finance Minister Orr Acosta, not wanting to offend the Defense Minister, spoke rather tactfully.

Finance Minister Orl Acosta's point is valid. While military development is very important to Spain, not all cabinet ministers are willing to give up a portion of the budget, since only with sufficient budget can one achieve adequate political achievements.

Jyoti nodded, agreeing with what Finance Minister Orr Acosta had said.

However, the reason he proposed this naval development plan was entirely because he had Carlo's support.

As long as the development plan isn't too outrageous, Jyoti is confident that she can win the support of the other cabinet ministers.

Minister Jordi explained why so many dreadnoughts were being built: "Gentlemen, since the birth of the Dreadnought battleship, all our previous ironclads and battleships have become obsolete."

The Dreadnought battleship held a significant advantage over warships from all over the world, which was of great importance to our navy.

If we can build more than 20 dreadnoughts, our naval power in the Mediterranean will far surpass that of Britain and France, which is very significant for our strategic deployment.

As for the annual cost of 1.5 million pesetas, I believe it is worthwhile for the development of the navy.

"General Jordi, are you saying that after the Dreadnought battleship enters service, it will be able to completely overwhelm all other countries' warships?" Minister of Industry Roger Wells asked with a look of surprise.

The industrial sector has been quite busy in recent years, which has led to Industry Minister Roger Wells not paying much attention to Spain's newest battleship, the Fearless.

If, as Jyoti claims, the Dreadnought battleship's performance surpasses all other warships, then what's wrong with sacrificing the budgets of other departments for such a warship?

In any case, the development of each department is for the benefit of Spain as a whole. Prioritizing the development of other departments is no different from prioritizing the development of the navy.

"General Jordi, you said that after the Dreadnought battleship entered service, its combat power far exceeded that of all the warships we had built before. Is it possible that a new battleship will be born in the future, with all its data far exceeding that of the Dreadnought battleship, which we spent a lot of money to build?" Minister of Industry Roger Wells inquired.

He did not oppose the diversion of funds from other departments, nor did he oppose issuing debt to foreign entities. For Industry Minister Roger Wells, his primary concern was whether the Spanish-built Dreadnought was truly as powerful as it seemed, and whether a more powerful battleship could replace it in the near future.

Jyoti has also given this question his own thought.

Indeed, after the Dreadnought battleship was built, the Monarch-class battleships, which had previously cost a lot of money to build, were no longer as powerful.

However, without the Monarch-class battleships supporting the foundation of the Spanish navy, it would not have been able to become one of the top three navies in the world.

The current Dreadnought battleship is indeed very powerful, but there was no Dreadnought battleship more than a decade ago.

If we only consider whether the Dreadnought battleship will be replaced in the future, then the answer is yes.

However, for Spain at this time, building more Dreadnought-class battleships was also very necessary. Moreover, as the most advanced battleship model at the time, the Dreadnought-class battleships could maintain a certain level of combat capability for 20 years, and would definitely be considered top-tier warships for 10 years. Building a large number of Dreadnought-class battleships would not result in a loss for the Spanish government.

(End of this chapter)