Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 75 Father’s Love
Seeing Carlo looking troubled when hearing the word marriage, Vittorio Emanuele II thought Carlo was shy and said with a smile: "It's okay, Carlo, this is a step you have to go through.

Your two elder brothers are already married, and now it's your turn."

Carlo was certainly not shy, but it was difficult to explain anything at this time, so he could only nod.

After all, although some members of the British royal family were diagnosed with hemophilia at this time, the harm of hemophilia to the entire European royal family had not yet been fully revealed.

"All right, kid. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye out for you. If there's a suitable marriage partner, I'll notify the Spanish government.

However, you should not be too demanding in your conditions for finding a queen. After all, for us nobles, political interests are more important than our own love.

If you really have a girl you like, you can also let her be your lover, right? "Emanuele II touched Carlo's head again and said with a smile.

When Carlo was still a minor, Emanuele would try to avoid discussing the subject of lovers.

But now that Carlo has grown up and become the King of Spain, such topics naturally need to be discussed.

"However, child, although you can have mistresses, it is best not to have too many, and do not mess around too much with married women.

With your status as a king and the wealth of the royal family, there are plenty of young and beautiful girls for you to choose from. "If you don't want to get a bad reputation because of promiscuity, you'd better remember my words, child."

Although it was almost a default status quo for European nobles to have lovers, it did not mean that the people were willing to see their king having affairs with many married women.

After all, as the ruler of a country, reputation is very important. If you anger the people, at best you will be forced to abdicate, or at worst you will be driven off the throne by a revolution, which is not worth the loss.

If it's just a short-lived romance, it's okay. Generally, after it's over, you'll just become familiar strangers.

But if you want to live with someone as a mistress for a long time, it is better to find unmarried girls with a clean family background so that there will not be too much trouble in the future.

Carlo could only nod again.

Carlo also understood this.

There were no small umbrellas designed in this era, and even the contraceptive technology was very backward.

If Carlo were to be infected with any related disease, it would be a total loss for him.

Seeing Carlo nodding frequently and looking well-behaved, King Emanuele II was in a good mood and said with a smile: "I heard that you moved the Sun to Madrid, how is it going now?
You have a good business sense, right? The Spanish royal family should have a lot of assets now, right?"

The Sun, founded by Carlo in Italy, has now become one of the largest newspapers in Italy. Because Carlo became the King of Spain, after discussing with his father Emanuele, Carlo sold 51% of the shares to the Italian royal family, and only retained 49% of the shares to wait for dividends.

More than a year later, today's Italian Sun has become one of the top three newspapers in Italy, and its daily sales have exceeded Carlo's original goal of 5 copies.

Of course, the reason for such high sales is that The Sun has opened branches in Rome and Turin, which combined have enabled the daily sales to exceed 5 copies.

Although 5 copies may not seem like a large number, it can directly affect more than 5 families, or at least hundreds of thousands of people.

If we talk about the group that can be indirectly affected, I am afraid there must be at least millions of people. If the spread time is longer, it is not impossible to even millions of people.

After all, most illiterate people in Italy would not buy newspapers, and the way they obtained information from the outside world was through word of mouth.

If nothing unexpected happens, the sales of Italy's Sun will basically remain at this level and will not increase much in the short term. After all, the illiteracy rate in Italy is close to 70%, and before the education level is improved, not so many people will buy newspapers.

But no matter what, the success of The Sun has proved that Carlo has an excellent business acumen.

Emanuele holds more than half of the shares of the Sun, so he naturally knows how much money his youngest son has made by founding the Sun.

"Father, you know that the income from the newspaper is only a small part of the income." Carlo said helplessly, "Spain's development plan means that the steel mill will not be short of money, but the Spanish royal family does not have that much money to build a steel mill.

The royal family's income is only enough to cover the expenses of the palace and the 2000-strong guards. If it were a little more, the royal family would go bankrupt."

Although Carlo's current assets have increased many times compared to when he just left Italy, he still has to cry poor when facing his father.

The Savoy family had been in Italy for much longer than the Bourbon family had ruled Spain, so the wealth they had accumulated was naturally considerable.

Carlo naturally wanted to get some money from his father. Even if it was through an interest-free loan, it would be much better than borrowing from other countries.

After all, not only are the loan interest rates from other countries high, but there are also various additional conditions that are not conducive to Spain's future development.

But if it is a loan from the Italian royal family, the loan amount may not be large, but it is likely to be an interest-free or low-interest loan, and there will not be too harsh additional conditions.

For Carlo, who is extremely short of money now, of course he would take as much as he can. No matter how little, it is still meat and he will not complain.

"You kid, you've become the King of Spain, why do you come back to me and complain about your poverty?" Vittorio Emanuele II didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he still didn't reject Carlo:

By the way, it has been more than a year since you left Italy, so this trip is just the right time to return your pension to you.

If you are really short of money, I can give you a share of an interest-free loan of 1000 million lire in the name of the Italian royal family, and you just need to pay it back within 10 years.

If the Spanish government is short of money, let them go to the Italian banks to negotiate. I can't help them. Even if the Italian banks are willing to lend money to the Spanish government, they will have to pay the interest and at most exempt some additional conditions.

Those bankers are not doing charity. If Primo wants to borrow money from Italian banks, he should be prepared to pay high interest rates. "

King Vittorio Emanuele II naturally felt sorry for his son, but that didn't mean he would support the Spanish government out of love for his son.

The Spanish royal family and the Italian royal family are naturally a close family, but if it comes to the interests between Spain and Italy, then they will naturally settle the accounts clearly.

King Vittorio Emanuele II would not harm the interests of Italian capitalists because of Carlo's relationship, and Carlo naturally understood this.

In fact, Carlo was already very moved by the fact that Vittorio Emanuele II was willing to provide him with an interest-free loan of 1000 million lire.

1000 million lira is worth 40 pounds. If used to invest in a steel plant, it would be no problem to multiply the assets several times within ten years.

The fact that he provided Carlo with an interest-free loan of funds sufficient to build the most powerful ironclad ship shows his love for his son.

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(End of this chapter)