Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 493 The Four Great Academies of Sciences

Developing penicillin was no easy task. Even if Carlo was willing to invest a lot of manpower, resources, and money, he still had to pray that the researchers had enough luck.

To increase the likelihood that Spain was the first to discover penicillin, Carlo even had the Royal Society and pharmaceutical groups hire Alexander Fleming, the British bacteriologist, biochemist, and microbiologist who discovered penicillin, several years earlier.

For those who are not very familiar with medicine, the name Alexander Fleming may sound quite unfamiliar.

But for those who have some knowledge of medicine or are familiar with the history of human medical development, the name Alexander Fleming is absolutely well-known and leaves a deep impression.

Alexander Fleming, the scientist who first discovered penicillin, ranked 45th in the list of 100 most influential people in human history written by American scholar Michael Hart, which also confirms his contribution to mankind.

Although many more anti-infective drugs have been developed since then, penicillin played a pioneering role in the development of anti-infective drugs.

If Alexander Fleming hadn't been the first to discover penicillin, the time when humans had anti-infective drugs would have been delayed by several more years.

Penicillin played a vital role in World War II. It can be said that penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming, saved millions of wounded soldiers and civilians during the war, a contribution that cannot be forgotten.

Spain's invitation to Alexander Fleming was practically a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

Alexander Fleming was born in 1881 and is only in his early 30s, which is quite young in the scientific community.

Because of his young age, Alexander Fleming was unable to obtain enough external support to start his own research projects. He could only serve as an assistant to his mentor, Wright, helping Wright with various research projects while also conducting some research of his own interest in his spare time.

In this respect, Fleming's teacher, Wright, was quite lenient.

Although there were no strict regulations, academic authorities of this era generally did not support their assistants in conducting independent scientific research according to their own interests.

On the one hand, doing so would affect their own research progress, and on the other hand, they did not want their research and development funds to be wasted on their assistants.

Alexander Fleming's ability to conduct research that interested him in his spare time was quite rare in the scientific community of his time.

In the process of inviting Alexander Fleming to Spain, intelligence agents also discovered Fleming's close relationship with his mentor, Wright.

Considering that Wright himself was a renowned bacteriologist and microbiologist, the intelligence officers decided to go all out and directly invited Wright's entire research team to Spain.

When they first received the invitation from Spain, both Alexander Fleming and Wright were quite surprised and astonished.

At this time, neither Alexander Fleming nor Wright were nearly as famous as they would be in later generations. Alexander Fleming was merely an ordinary researcher who had obtained the qualification to open his own clinic but had abandoned surgery to devote himself to bacteriology and microbiology. His assistant's salary was also among the lowest of all Wright's assistants.

Although Wright had already gained considerable fame, it was limited to the research field in the UK and he had not yet achieved the level of being well-known in Europe.

Although the invitation from Spain was somewhat hasty and sudden, neither Wright nor Alexander Fleming took it lightly or dismissively after learning that it came from the Royal Spanish Academy.

European countries all have organizations similar to royal academies. Britain has the Royal Society, Germany has the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, France has the Academy of Sciences, and Spain naturally has its own Royal Academy of Sciences.

Although the Royal Academy of Spain was established relatively late compared to many European countries, it has gained considerable renown in Europe due to the significant investment made in it by the Spanish royal family.

In addition, Spain's outstanding achievements in airships, dreadnoughts, and electricity spread the name of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences throughout Europe.

Currently, the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain, the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences of Germany, and the French Academy of Sciences are known as the four major European academies of sciences, and are hailed as the four official academic organizations in Europe with the most talent and the most top scientists.

Wright and Alexander Fleming were not eligible to join the Royal Society of London, nor did they ever dream of joining any of the four academies of sciences.

Now that they have received an invitation from the Royal Academy of Spain, and after confirming that the invitation is genuine, it is hard for them not to be tempted.

Although Alexander Fleming and his mentor Wright were both British, Europeans of that era did not place much importance on nationality.

Immigration was a very common thing in this era. There was a lot of movement of people between European countries, and it was not difficult for people to go to other countries' academies of sciences to work.

In particular, when Wright and Alexander Fleming learned of the conditions offered by the Royal Spanish Academy, their initial interest immediately turned into excitement.

There was no way they could refuse the offer from the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences; the terms were simply too generous.

As Carlos's most valued academic research institution, the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences enjoys a level of importance in Spain that is comparable to that of the defense department.

The only difference is that the defense budget is provided by the government, while most of the research and development funding for the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain is provided by the Spanish royal family.

The "Royal" in the name of the Royal Academy of Sciences is truly fitting, as the Spanish royal family also participates in many of the research projects developed by scientists at the academy.

Many scientists are naturally aware of these regulations and do not object to them. Without financial support from the Spanish royal family, a large portion of these scientists would not even be able to continue their scientific research.

Although the Spanish royal family was involved in all the discoveries and inventions after receiving funding, wasn't this also a form of insurance?

If the discovered and invented items don't yield significant benefits, the entire research project is highly likely to be unprofitable. If these scientists were to bear the losses themselves, they would likely go bankrupt. However, under the regulations of the Royal Society, even if a project loses money, the Royal Society will bear the burden, and the scientists conducting the research will not face significant consequences. This is why many scientists do not oppose the Royal Society's regulations.

In addition, the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences provides many scientists with the most advanced research laboratories available at the moment, and some outstanding scientists can even get their own dedicated research laboratories and a large amount of research funding.

Under these circumstances, the vast majority of scientists not only had no objection to the demands of the Royal Spanish Academy, but they were also very willing to serve the Academy, leaving all the miscellaneous matters related to funding to the Academy, while they only needed to focus on the scientific research that interested them.

For many scientists, the prospect of being able to focus solely on scientific research without having to worry about anything else or funding is a dream come true.

Over the decades, the number of members of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences has been increasing, and many scientists from various European countries have submitted applications to the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, hoping to work there.

This also shows the appeal of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences. For most scientists who lack sufficient financial resources, entering an official scientific research institution like the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences is definitely much more secure than raising funds for their research on their own.

The intelligence officers tasked with inviting Alexander Fleming and his mentor Wright were quite confident in the success of the mission.

Few scientists can refuse the conditions offered by the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, unless the scientist is already quite wealthy or their scientific research has already received attention from their country.

But there are countless scientists in Europe, and how many of them have considerable wealth or the support of their respective countries?
The United States was able to acquire a large number of European scientists and technical experts during the two World Wars, partly due to the wars in Europe, and partly because there were simply too many scientists and technical experts in Europe. Although some of them gained attention from capital and the state, most remained unknown.

As expected, although both Wright and Alexander Fleming said they needed a few days to think it over, the very next day, they contacted the Spanish intelligence officer who had contacted them and expressed their willingness to go to Spain to take up their posts.

Although they were native-born British, their research projects did not receive support from the British government, and even Wright was only somewhat well-known in his own field.

Instead of staying in the UK and relying on fundraising for scientific research, it would be better to go to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Spain and, with the help of the large amount of research funding provided by the Spanish royal family, conduct the scientific research you want more freely.

The reasons why the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, despite its relatively short history, has rapidly risen to become one of the four major academies of sciences in Europe have been the subject of much speculation and discussion among European newspapers and the public.

One of the most frequently mentioned aspects is the vast wealth of the current Spanish royal family of Savoy.

It's quite surprising. The current King Juan Carlos was once just an ordinary prince in Italy, and his wealth was not great.

Spain was undergoing a revolution at the time, and the original Queen Isabella was driven out. Through a royal election, Carlos eventually became the King of Spain.

To rise from an ordinary Italian prince to become the King of Spain is certainly a remarkable achievement.

The problem was that the royal family, which had once controlled vast tracts of land in Spain, was driven out, and the royal lands fell into the hands of the revolutionaries.

Ultimately, apart from a few valuable castles and manors, most of the land was taken by the government and sold to the Spanish people at prices slightly below market value, or rented out.

This also resulted in the Spanish royal family being quite poor in the first few years after Carlos became King of Spain.

The royal family's income mainly comes from government revenue. Although Carlo owns some valuable castles and estates, these castles and estates cannot provide much income on their own and require a lot of funds to maintain.

Most of the manors are in good condition; most were built in recent decades and don't have a long history.

Those historic castles require a lot of money to maintain, and their historical significance is greater than their economic value. No matter how valuable these castles are, the royal family cannot easily sell them.

This is also why the Spanish government at the time returned these castles to the new royal family. These castles served as a symbol of the royal family, which is quite important for a monarchy.

It can be said that in the first few years after Carlos became King of Spain, the Spanish royal family's wealth was pitiful, not even comparable to that of some small countries' royal families, let alone the royal families of other great powers.

This is also something to admire.

Upon his arrival, Carlos not only secured his throne but also expanded the Spanish royal family's wealth through various means, eventually reaching such an astonishing scale.

Although the Spanish royal family's accounts are not publicly disclosed, it can be inferred from the large companies and enterprises controlled by the royal family that the Spanish royal family's annual income is already comparable to, and probably even greater than, that of small and medium-sized European countries.

Given the immense wealth of the Spanish royal family, it's not surprising that they were able to rapidly develop the Royal Spanish Academy into one of the four major academies of sciences in Europe.

After all, this era doesn't lack scientists; what it lacks is sufficient research funding. Many people remain unknown not because they are incompetent, but because they never encountered their mentor, possessing some ability yet unable to utilize it.

After learning that Wright and Alexander Fleming were both willing to go to Spain, the intelligence officers first told them to inform their families to pack their bags, then gave them a settlement allowance of tens of thousands of pesetas, and then quickly arranged for them to travel from England to Spain.

Unlike in the past, the waters near Britain were relatively safe at this time because Britain was not involved in the war.

The relationship between Britain and Germany in this world is relatively good, which has led to Germany not imposing any blockade on the waters surrounding Britain and allowing ships flying the British flag to pass freely.

Under the cover of the British flag, a cruise ship carrying Alexander Fleming, Wright, and their research team quietly sailed from Britain to Spain without attracting anyone's attention.

(End of this chapter)