Chapter 206 Bullfighting

For people in the 1876s, the society of this era was indeed less fun. A big reason for this was that factory owners constantly exploited workers, resulting in workers not having enough time to rest and have fun.

But it is undeniable that the backwardness of technology and the lack of various entertainment activities are also one of the reasons why people feel boring.

Although the Spanish public opinion industry has also produced entertainment newspapers that specialize in reporting gossip, not all Spaniards will buy newspapers.

Once the people do not have enough entertainment projects to vent their emotions, over time, various voices and forces against the government will exist.

This also means that Spain is currently in urgent need of an entertainment project that can mobilize the emotions of the vast majority of the people, and this entertainment project must be warmly welcomed in Spain.

Throughout Spain, there is currently only one tradition that meets this requirement, that is, the bullfighting activity that has been popular in Spain for hundreds of years.

Spanish bullfighting originated from ancient religious activities and has a long history and tradition in the two Iberian countries of Spain and Portugal.

According to historical records, the ancient Roman Caesar who once ruled Spain was keen on riding bulls, and bullfighters were also seen as a symbol of bravery and fighting.

Originally, this sport was only popular among Spanish nobles. After all, the training of bullfighting and the preparation of related activities require a lot of money.

However, because bullfighting brought a large number of casualties to the nobles, Felipe V banned bullfighting among the royal family members, which also made bullfighting evolve from aristocratic patents to a national event that ordinary people can participate in.

After a long period of development, bullfighting has become an irreplaceable tradition in Spain and an activity that many Spaniards are crazy about.

Bullfighters are regarded as brave and fearless men and are respected and worshipped by all Spaniards.

For Carlo, there is no activity more worthy of praise than bullfighting. Bullfighters originally symbolize the spirit of bravery and fearlessness. The more the Spanish people worship and admire this spirit, the more they can represent the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army.

The influence of national spirit on the combat effectiveness of the army is still very large. The combat effectiveness of the Italian army is not very strong, but it is definitely not too weak.

Why did Italy perform so badly in both World War I and World War II? The main reason is that Italy's national spirit is more inclined to freedom and enjoyment, and at the same time, the sense of national concept and identity is weak, so naturally it is not willing to fight for the concept of Italy as a country.

Spain, with its bullfighting tradition, obviously does not have such shortcomings as Italy. As long as it can be cultivated, even if the Spanish population is small, it can ensure that the army formed by the Spanish has a strong combat effectiveness.

The spirit of bravery and fearlessness has a great impact on an army. When all Spaniards admire this spirit, what reason is there to doubt the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army?

If it can be matched with the advanced rifles and artillery prepared by Carlo for his army, the Spanish army has the confidence to fight with the army of any country when the number is not much different.

Even if the number is inferior to the enemy, as long as it relies on the Pyrenees Mountains for defense, Spain is not afraid of the attack of any country.

This is the belief brought by the national spirit. When all Spaniards have enough national cohesion and identity, the Spanish army will become an enemy that no country in the world wants to encounter.

In addition to cultivating a fearless and heroic national spirit, promoting bullfighting has another major advantage: it can promote economic circulation.

People need tickets to watch bullfighting performances, which will increase the probability of currency circulation and promote the growth of the Spanish economy.

Bullfighting is also a major feature of Spain, attracting a large number of European people to travel and watch every year. There are no football or basketball games in this era, and bullfighting is one of the few large-scale events that can attract people's attention.

Although bullfighting also has many shortcomings, these shortcomings are not so important compared to the benefits brought by bullfighting.

Carlo decided to vigorously promote bullfighting. On the one hand, he integrated the heroic and aggressive character into the Spanish national spirit, and on the other hand, he gave the Spaniards more entertainment activities to vent their emotions and dissipate their energy, while stimulating economic exchanges.

The largest bullfighting arena in Spain is the Plaza de la Reta in the center of Madrid. There is a circular bullring in the center of Plaza de la Reta. From March to October every year is the bullfighting season in Spain.

The Lerta Bullring can accommodate more than 3,500 spectators at most. It is the largest bullring in Madrid and attracts the attention of a large number of Spaniards around Madrid.

Carlo's first step in promoting bullfighting activities is to personally experience the charm of bullfighting activities and at the same time feel the public's support for bullfighting activities.

At the end of September 1876, Carlo personally arrived at the Lerta Bullring and watched the bullfighting performance specially prepared for Carlo.

The cheering crowd, the majestic bull and the bullfighter holding a red cloth and swearing solemnly together formed a shocking picture in the bullring.

Knowing that Carlo was going to watch the bullfighting performance in person, the bullring was carefully prepared. The bullfighter performing for Carlo is the most famous bullfighter around Madrid. He has been undefeated in recent years and easily defeated thousands of bulls.

Unfortunately, there is no so-called bullfighter march now. Such a thrilling scene can only be played with the audience's cheers and the bull's angry howl as background music.

This also gave Carlo a new idea. Before vigorously promoting bullfighting activities, he must first tailor a song for bullfighting activities, and the name is called Spanish Bullfighter March.

A majestic and magnificent background music, coupled with the bullfighter's brave and confident bullfighting, this is the most perfect match.

A bullfight is not just a fight with one bull, but three bullfighters appear one after another, fighting a total of six bulls.

For the safety of the bullfighter, the bullfighter is not alone, but is equipped with three flower darts and two lancers on horseback.

After watching the entire bullfighting performance, Carlo left the Lerta Bullring quite satisfied, and before leaving, he did not forget to encourage the person in charge of the Lerta Bullring.

Carlo, the King of Spain, personally watched the bullfighting performance at the Lerta Bullring, which also attracted the attention of some news media.

Although the distribution of newspapers will be controlled, because it is not a negative news, these newspapers have not been stopped from reporting the news about Carlo watching the bullfighting performance.

This also attracted the attention of the public. After all, during the Bourbon Dynasty, bullfighting was prohibited among royal family members, which is one of the reasons why bullfighting changed from aristocratic sport to a civilian sport.

Carlo watched the bullfighting performance at the Plaza de Lerta. Does it mean that the young king also has a certain interest in bullfighting?

The public is still quite concerned about this. They are all curious about how His Majesty the King treats this sport. After all, this is an ancient tradition of the Spanish.

After returning to the palace, Carlo discussed the plan to promote bullfighting with Butler Loren.

Butler Loren was quite supportive of this, but he also made several suggestions: "Your Majesty, if you want to vigorously promote bullfighting, the existing number of bullrings is not enough.

The largest bullring around the Madrid area is the Lerta Bullring, which has only 3,500 seats. Even if you count those standing next to it, the maximum capacity of the entire bullring will not exceed 5,000 people.

If your plan is to develop bullfighting into a large-scale national sport, the scale of such a bullring is far from enough.

I suggest that while vigorously promoting bullfighting, a large bullring should be built on the outskirts of Madrid to ensure that a single bullfighting performance in a large bullring can accommodate at least tens of thousands of spectators.

This is not only conducive to the promotion of bullfighting, but also to economic exchanges in the Madrid region. If each bullfighting performance can attract tens of thousands of people to watch, it will not only promote local economic exchanges, but also attract more tourists."

Carlo nodded, and he was quite in favor of Butler Loren's point of view.

Spain has a very long tradition of bullfighting, and there are bullrings built at different times in various places. Especially in Andalusia, the southern region of Spain, it is the region with the richest bullfighting culture in the whole of Spain, and it also has many historic bullrings.

But no matter how long the history of these bullrings is, they all have a significant disadvantage, that is, they cannot accommodate more spectators.

The scale of the bullring varies according to the size of the city and the financial resources of the builder.

The scale of the general bullring is about 2,000 to 3,500 seats. There are also some large bullrings that can accommodate more than 4,000 people, but basically no more than 5,000 people.

After all, if you want to have more seats, you can only continue to expand the area of ​​the bullring. And those seats that are farther away from the bullring, their viewing experience is not very good.

For the sport of bullfighting, a larger national-level bullring is very necessary. Bullfighting activities held in this larger bullring can also attract more attention from people at home and abroad, and even become a representative event in Spain.

After Butler Loren made his proposal, Carlo immediately expressed his affirmative attitude: "That's right, Butler Loren. Bullfighters do need a large bullring that can accommodate more than 10,000 spectators, and this new bullring will also become one of the representative buildings of Spain.

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Butler Loren, the task of building a large bullring outside Madrid is handed over to you. I don't care how much money it costs, but I hope that the bullring we build has enough Spanish characteristics and can attract bullfighters and spectators."

A large bullring that can accommodate tens of thousands of spectators will immediately become a landmark building in Spain once it is built. Although this requires a lot of money, if the promotion of bullfighting activities is relatively smooth, the income from subsequent tickets and corresponding commercial operations will be enough to pay for the cost of building the square.

It is precisely because of this that Carlo is not worried about the investment in building a bullring. Building such a large venue is completely more beneficial than harmful.

Hearing Carlo's instructions, Butler Loren nodded solemnly, indicating that he understood.

The fact that there was no limit on the funds proved Carlo's trust in him, so he naturally had nothing to say.

There were no technical difficulties in building the bullring, and the Spanish construction team had a lot of experience in this kind of project.

The only difficulty is the location of the bullring. It should not only be located in a place with convenient transportation to facilitate the arrival of subsequent tourists, but also be located far away from the center of Madrid so as not to affect the future expansion of Madrid.

You know, Madrid is currently the most populous city in Spain, and its population is growing at a very fast rate.

Barcelona is the only city that can rival Madrid in terms of population growth, and these two cities are also the twin stars of Spain.

Because of the growing population, the scale of Madrid is also expanding compared to a few years ago. If the location of the new bullring affects the subsequent urban expansion of Madrid, this may be a problem in the future.

It is better to consider the problem of urban expansion in Madrid earlier, which will not affect the construction and subsequent operation of the bullring, and will facilitate the urban expansion of Madrid, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

So far, Madrid has officially become the first and only city in Spain with a population of more than 500,000.

With a population of more than 520,000, the capital of Spain has become a veritable big city, and it is also the current cultural center, economic center and religious center of Spain.

Barcelona's population is only over 430,000, which is still inferior to Madrid. But Barcelona's population expansion rate is not inferior to Madrid at all. Perhaps one day in the future, Barcelona's population will still have the hope of surpassing Madrid.

After all, Barcelona has the advantage of sea transportation, which Madrid does not have. Madrid is located in the center of the Spanish territory, and its geographical location is relatively important.

But precisely because it is located inland, Madrid's transportation can only rely on railways and roads, which to a certain extent also restricts Madrid's development.

The problem of large bullfighting venues has been solved, and the next thing to do is to think about how to promote the faster development of bullfighting activities.

If you want to make bullfighting activities develop faster, the easiest way is to hold more official competitions and prepare rich prizes at the same time, so that Spanish newspapers and media can spread them widely and arouse the spontaneous attention of the public to bullfighting competitions.

But there is bad news at present, that is, the Spanish bullfighting season is about to pass. The time of Spanish bullfighting is generally from March to October. It is already early October and the bullfighting activities are about to end.

This also means that if you want to vigorously promote bullfighting activities, you can only start from March next year.

Fortunately, there are only a few months in between, which is just right for preparing the bullfighting activities and spreading the bullfighting activities to all parts of Spain in the form of news, attracting more tourists and public attention, increasing the attention and popularity of the competition, and also increasing the excitement.

Within a few days, Carlo established the Spanish Bullfighting Association, which is specifically responsible for promoting bullfighting activities and operating subsequent bullfighting events.

A few days after its establishment, the Spanish Bullfighting Association announced their carefully prepared first national Spanish bullfighting competition.

The Spanish Royal Bullfighter Competition is the official name of this competition. The whole competition will be divided into two major stages, which will be held in various parts of Spain and the capital Madrid.

The first major stage will be held from March to July next year in the bullrings of various regions in Spain. Ten outstanding bullfighters from various regions in Spain will be selected and then gathered in Madrid for the second round of competition.

The second major stage will be from August to October next year. The outstanding bullfighters selected from various regions will gather in Madrid to present more exciting bullfighting performances in Madrid.

The three-month competition will select the best bullfighters in Spain. In addition to the traditional applause, bull ears and bull tail awards, the winning bullfighter will also be personally received by Carlo and be awarded the title of Spanish Royal Bullfighter.

In addition to these honorary awards, the top ten bullfighters in each region will receive varying amounts of financial rewards. After the last three months of competition, the ten best bullfighters in Spain will be selected. These ten bullfighters will receive even more generous rewards, with the lowest being a check of thousands of pesetas.

As for the best bullfighter who won the title of Royal Bullfighter, in addition to the honorary award, he will also receive at least a check of more than 10,000 pesetas, which is dozens of times the annual income of an ordinary Spanish person.