Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 80 Cooperation Agreement (Subscribe!)
Carlo, who had successfully won over Menotti, was in a good mood. Under Garibaldi's invitation, he enjoyed a simple but authentic Italian lunch.

Although Caprera Island is not a big island, it is an island after all, and there is no shortage of seafood.

In fact, Garibaldi's life on Caprera Island was basically based on hunting and fishing, supplemented by reading.

Because of his special status, Garibaldi seldom received guests, which made him look very lonely.

The good news is that after Garibaldi published his articles in The Sun and earned royalties, at least he didn't have to worry about his daily living expenses.

I usually farm, fish and hunt, and I have enough food and meat to eat, so I can be considered free and easy.

Carlo was relieved. After all, he had forced Garibaldi's two sons to work for him. If Garibaldi didn't live a good life, Carlo would really feel guilty.

Fortunately, Garibaldi had the company of his wife, and his daughter and son-in-law would visit him from time to time, so he was not lonely.

The time of reunion was always short, and Carlo could not stay on Caprera Island for long.

That afternoon, Carlo boarded the departing ship and abducted Garibaldi's eldest son Menotti.

Carlo actually had other plans for Menotti.

The matter about the African expedition team has been mentioned before. Carlo wants to form a formal African expedition team. The expedition team must have an armed force, at least to be able to protect the expedition team as it travels through the dangerous Africa.

At this time, the explored areas in Africa were only some coasts and outskirts, and there were still large tracts of land that had not been touched by the great powers.

There must be a large number of indigenous African tribes in these unknown lands, and it is inevitable that some of them are more xenophobic and may even actively attack the expedition team.

However, the African expedition was still very dangerous. Although the native Africans were not in great danger, the unknown geographical environment and some bacteria and viruses that Europeans had never encountered were the real dangers in Africa.

So Carlo would not force it. If Menotti was willing, he would become the leader of the African expedition. If not, there were also positions in the Guards for him to choose from.

It was already evening when we returned to Rome from Caprera Island.

Carlo wanted to go to bed early, but unexpectedly, government officials found him soon and reported on the negotiations with the Spanish government.

The negotiations between the two parties were quite fast, which was somewhat beyond Carlo's expectations.

I originally thought that this negotiation might take several days to ten days, but I didn't expect that after two days of negotiations, we would have achieved preliminary results. We only needed to work out some details before we could basically sign the agreement.

What the Spanish government needs now is funding and some industrial technology.

On this point, the Italian government is still willing to cooperate with the Spanish government. After all, Spain is not a powerful country and cannot pose a threat to Italy for the time being.

The cooperation between Spain and Italy can also help Italy alleviate the threat from France. After all, the unification of Italy was achieved by successively seizing Venice and Rome from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France.

In fact, it can’t be said to be robbing, it’s more like picking up bargains. But these two regions were indeed the sphere of influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France, and the unification of Italy was bound to affect these two countries.

As Carlo expected, the Italian government agreed not to attach some harsh conditions to the loan, but would not provide interest-free loans, only low-interest loans.

There is no result yet on the loan share, but it is unlikely to be too much, after all, Italy’s economic situation is not very good.

Carlo estimated that the loan Italy could provide to Spain would be between 5000 million lire and 1 million lire, or about 200 million pounds to 400 million pounds.

It is very easy for Italian capitalists to raise this money. It will not affect Italy's development and can actually help Spain. It is a win-win situation.

As for Italy's industrial technology, it can also be provided to Spain, but it requires the purchase of real money.

Carlo had no objection to this. After all, no country's industrial technology was obtained for free. They had to either develop it themselves or purchase technology from other countries at a high price.

Spain is relatively lacking in the latest steelmaking technology, steam turbine technology and chemical production materials.

Compared with countries like Britain, France and Germany, Italy is not an industrial power, but for Spain, Italy has enough experience in industry for Spain to learn from.

There is also Italy’s military technology, such as the rifles that Italy has just introduced and the technology for producing ironclad ships.

Italy's technology in naval construction is not weak at all and can be considered first-class in Europe.

In the 19s, Italy had the technological level to build ironclad ships of tens of thousands of tons, which was definitely top-notch at that time in history.

However, because Italy's national strength has always been at the bottom level among the great powers, and the country is located in the Mediterranean, the development of the navy is very restricted, so the size of the Italian navy has never been too large.

This is also the biggest flaw in Italy's geographical location. All of its coastlines are located in the Mediterranean. Even if it builds a huge navy, after the British blocked the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal respectively, the Italian navy can only roam in the Mediterranean and cannot go out at all.

The good news is that ironclad ships have only been around for more than a decade, and Italy's technology in this area is not that mature.

The Italian government did not have much objection to Spain's desire to introduce these industrial technologies, but it would not give these technologies to the Spanish government for nothing.

Carlo did not completely count on these technologies from Italy. Carlo's expectation for Spain was to be able to introduce advanced technologies from European powers, fully understand these technologies, and research more advanced technologies based on them.

At present, it is only the stage of introducing technology, and Carlo certainly welcomes all who come. After all, the technology in Italy is different from that in other countries, and learning more technology will be more helpful for developing new technology on this basis in the future.

After taking a quick look at the cooperation agreement with Italy, Carlo felt there was no problem and asked the officials who came to report to continue to promote cooperation with Italy.

At present, the purpose of this diplomatic visit has been basically achieved, and this diplomatic visit is quite successful. If we can attract some talents from Italy to return to Spain, it will be even more perfect.

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(End of this chapter)