Empire Rising: Spain

The first two five-year development plans were more like preparing the groundwork for Spain, and the upcoming development plan is the key to Spain’s complete takeoff.

Therefore, Carlo put forward the requirements for the third five-year development plan during the meeting, specifically mentioning factors such as railroad mileage, total industrial scale, heavy industry, military industry, and agricultural production.

In the first two five-year development plans, Spain’s economic development was quite rapid. A significant reason for this was Spain’s emphasis on railroad development.

The benefits of building railroads are self-evident, and the nationwide large-scale railroad construction allowed Spain’s industry and economy to grow synchronously.

Originally, when Prime Minister Prim proposed the second five-year development plan, the goal was to increase Spain’s total railroad mileage to over 11,000 kilometers by 1879.

This target was achieved as early as mid to late last year, and by the end of December 1878, Spain’s total railroad mileage had officially exceeded 11,500 kilometers, steadily moving towards the 12,000-kilometer milestone.

After discussion among the cabinet members, the target regarding railroad mileage in the third five-year development plan was officially determined.

Spain’s population is generally concentrated in coastal plains and around Madrid, which means railroad construction doesn’t need to cover every part of the territory.

Regarding the railroad mileage requirement for the next five-year plan, the cabinet’s attitude is quite clear, which is to abandon radical construction methods and stabilize the railroad mileage at around 13,000 kilometers.

Since the current railroad mileage has already exceeded 11,500 kilometers, this means that Spain only needs to build less than 1,500 kilometers of railroad in the next five years, averaging less than 300 kilometers of railroad construction per year.

This figure is only half of the annual railroad mileage construction in the second five-year development plan, which is the most distinctive aspect of the third five-year development plan.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Spain will fully slow down railroad development.

What’s postponed is the domestic railroad construction, while the railroad construction in various colonies needs to accelerate, ensuring that resources from the colonies can be quickly transported to mainland Spain, while also enhancing control over each colony.

Domestic railroad construction isn’t without other tasks. Due to the mountainous terrain of Spain, railroad construction is quite challenging, consuming much more time and funds than countries with more flat terrain.

Plus, due to immature technology, some railroad lines have become increasingly fragile under frequent railroad transportation.

One of the tasks in Spain’s third five-year development plan is to fully renovate existing railroad lines and convert single-track railroads into double-track railroads in busy areas to increase railroad transportation capacity.

A single-track railroad is a single railroad, while a double-track railroad consists of two parallel railroads. As can be inferred, the transportation capacity of a double-track railroad is at least twice that of a single-track railroad.

It is worth mentioning that in the calculation of railroad mileage, single-track and double-track railroads are calculated the same way.

This means if both the single-track and double-track railroads are 100 kilometers long, the calculated railroad mileage is also 100 kilometers; the double-track railroad is not counted double.

What Spain needs to do is increase the proportion of double-track railroads, especially in busier railroad routes, to convert as many railroads as possible into double-track railroads to increase transportation capacity.

Spain’s population is expected to continue growing in the future, and Carlo does not want to wait until Spain’s population reaches tens of millions to remodel the railroad lines.

Currently, Spain has two busiest railroads, namely the line from Madrid to Barcelona and the line from Madrid to Seville.

Carlo’s vision for Madrid and Barcelona is not for them to be small cities of just 500,000 people but large cities with a population of at least over 2 million.

Although this goal is still distant for both cities, Spain’s railroad construction must take this prospect into consideration.

Spain receives many immigrants every year, many of whom are settled in strong industrial cities like Madrid and Barcelona.

This results in the populations of both cities continuously increasing, with Madrid already exceeding 550,000 people and Barcelona over 460,000, making them Spain’s most dazzling twin cities.

No other city can compare to them, with larger cities like Seville having a population of only around 150,000.

With the large populations of Madrid and Barcelona, along with their substantial industrial scales, the railroad line between the two cities has become one of the busiest in Spain.

The major task of Spain’s transportation department in the next five-year development plan is to convert the railroad line between these two cities into a double-track railroad as much as possible and cover more cities around the railroad line, such as Zaragoza.

Apart from certain requirements on railroad mileage, the third five-year development plan also included a series of questions and directions for development related to industrial scale, total steel production, population education level, and more.

It is expected that before the conclusion of the third five-year development plan in 1884, Spain’s population should reach at least 21.5 million, and the total steel production should respectively reach 300,000 tons and 750,000 tons, with a total steel output exceeding 1 million tons.

Besides, the third five-year development plan also mentioned the foreign debt currently owed by the Spanish Government.

Although Spain’s fiscal revenue is continuously climbing, the government’s fiscal expenditure is also growing. Considering that Spain still has a considerable amount of foreign debt to repay, in the next five years, Spain needs to save as much on fiscal expenditure as possible while ensuring its development, with the saved money used for debt repayment.

The debts to Italy and Austria-Hungary need to be repaid first, but these are mostly low-interest and interest-free loans, making them relatively easy to repay.

The repayment period for the French debt is longer, and the Spanish Government can consider repaying the French debt after its own economic development is more robust.

After all, France is a large and established country, not short of such funds. If loans are repaid to France, the French might loan this money to other European countries, among which might even include Spain.

It’s better to hold onto this money, as at least in the next few years, it can accelerate Spain’s development speed, allowing Spain’s economy and government revenue to maintain a high growth rate.