Chapter 216: Western and Italian Cooperation Again

After chatting with his father, Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo's two elder brothers, Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo, also came to the manor.

Before Vittorio Emanuele II was critically ill, Prince Amadeo had been living in Turin. But because of his father's serious illness, Prince Amadeo also came to Rome.

Speaking of Carlo's two elder brothers, Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo have completely different personalities.

Crown Prince Umberto's desire for power is visible to the naked eye, and Prince Amadeo completely lost his desire for power after missing the opportunity to become the King of Spain.

Especially after the death of Prince Amadeo's wife, Duchess Maria, Prince Amadeo became a famous playboy in Italy, who only cared about having fun every day and didn't care about Italian politics at all.

Of course, perhaps such a Prince Amadeo is the least threatening younger brother to Crown Prince Umberto.

It is precisely because Prince Amadeo did not show any threat that the relationship between Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo is still very friendly.

The two came together, and Carlo also stood up to greet his two brothers.

"Carlo, long time no see." Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo came forward, first greeted each other with Carlo, and then greeted Carlo's wife Queen Sophie.

Although Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo are only princes, and Carlo is a king of a higher level.

But the two are Carlo's brothers after all, and the current occasion is a private meeting, so there is naturally no need for too formal greetings.

Vittorio Emanuele II looked at the three brothers who were in harmony and nodded with satisfaction.

Although many of his children died young, what made Vittorio Emanuele II satisfied was that the three surviving sons still had a good relationship with each other.

Brotherly harmony is also an important guarantee for the inheritance of the family, and internal fighting will only benefit others.

Through the conversation with Crown Prince Umberto, Carlo finally understood the physical condition of Vittorio Emanuele II.

There were no advanced examination methods in this era. The doctor could only give an estimate of the approaching end by judging the physical condition of Vittorio Emanuele II.

As for when the end would come, the doctor had no idea.

Carlo could only nod helplessly. This was the backwardness of medical technology in this era.

Whether it was ordinary people or the king of a country, doctors would be helpless in the last stage of life.

Of course, if you have to talk about methods, some doctors might suggest trying bloodletting. But bloodletting will only speed up the death, which is the experience of countless Europeans who died after bloodletting.

Carlo's family was arranged to a nearby manor. Although it is far from the city of Rome, the advantage is that it is close to Vittorio Emanuele II's residence, and the scenery is more beautiful, and no one disturbs.

This will be the residence of Carlo's family during their short stay in Italy. The Italian government has sent hundreds of soldiers to patrol and guard the surrounding area, and Carlo has also arranged most of the guards he brought with him near the manor.

In addition, whether Carlo or Queen Sophie go out, there will be several guards accompanying them to ensure safety.

This is to prevent assassinations by some assassins. Although Europe is the most developed region in this era, the lives of most European people are not very good.

This also leads to frequent assassinations in Europe. Carlo still attaches great importance to his personal safety.

The good news is that compared with other countries, Italy is still tending to be stable. There are not so many problems in the newly unified Italy, and the people's dissatisfaction with this new country has not accumulated to the upper limit.

In addition to the protection of the Italian government, as long as Carlo does not commit suicide, he does not have to worry about his life safety.

In addition to Garibaldi's second son, Giotti, some officials of the Spanish government also came to Italy with Carlo this time.

The purpose of these officials coming to Italy is to finalize the next cooperation with the Italian government.

In the previous cooperation between the Spanish and Italian governments, there were mainly some capital loans, industrial mutual assistance and military cooperation research and development.

With the help of Italy, Spain has the Vitali M1872 rifle, which is the standard rifle of the Spanish army at present, and is still very important to Spain.

Italy still has very good research and development capabilities in industry and military industry. Spain can also deepen cooperation with Italy. The two sides can cooperate more closely in the design and development of rifles, cannons and warships, and jointly develop and manufacture more powerful weapons.

From historical experience, Italy does have this ability. Although Italy's current navy is not strong, in the next few decades, Italy has built a very strong navy.

It is worth mentioning that the great expansion of the Italian army and navy occurred during the reign of Umberto.

After Umberto became king, he pushed Italy to participate in the arms race, expanding the number of Italian army from 10 armies to 12 armies with a total of 420,000 people, and also allowing the size of the Italian navy to grow at a very fast rate.

In the era of battleships, or pre-dreadnoughts, the Italian Navy also built the best battleships at the time, and in 1890 it had a total naval tonnage of 242,000 tons, ranking fourth in the world.

You know, Italy at the time was not a very powerful country, and it still ranked at the bottom among the great powers.

Being able to equip an army of more than 400,000 and the fourth-largest navy in the world can already prove Umberto's ambition and the fact that the Italians' military technology research and development capabilities are indeed quite excellent.

At least in terms of the navy, Spain can still learn a lot from Italy. If it can deepen cooperation with Italy, by the time of the pre-dreadnoughts, Spain and Italy can quickly become countries with battleships.

Although Spain and Italy alone do not seem so powerful, if the two countries unite, their naval power is enough to threaten Britain.

Of course, this can only happen if Italy builds a large number of navies as it did in history, and Spain still maintains its current naval status.

Considering that Spain's comprehensive national strength is constantly rising, such a situation is very likely to happen. Spain and Italy unite, and the danger shown by the navy alone is enough to make Britain pay more attention to the two countries.

With both Crown Prince Umberto and Prime Minister Agostino both interested in strengthening cooperation with Spain, the discussions between the Spanish and Italian governments became extremely smooth.

It took only one day for the two sides to finalize close cooperation on military technology, and put the focus on warships.

At present, it is still in the era of ironclad ships. The purpose of the cooperation between Spain and Italy is to develop the next generation of more advanced ironclad ships as the main warships in service of the two countries' navies.

Of course, the developed products can only be used as reference templates. The two countries will make further improvements based on this reference template and their own needs to build derivative products of the reference template.

For example, strengthening firepower, strengthening power and strengthening armor protection capabilities, etc., the most important factors for warships are these three factors.

On the basis of the joint development of warships, Spain and Italy have also signed cooperation agreements in other aspects, such as the joint development of naval guns on warships, the development of warship power groups and the development of armor materials.

Armor materials are still very important for warships. Good materials can make the armor thinner and lighter while having protection, thereby improving the power of warships.

Even if it is just a simple improvement in protection, it is a great improvement for warships. Any improvement in firepower, speed and protection will greatly improve the warship. If all three can be improved at the same time, the warship can be completely transformed.

The process of upgrading from ironclad to pre-dreadnought and from pre-dreadnought to dreadnought is the same. It is a comprehensive qualitative change caused by technology, which makes warships have great breakthroughs in firepower, speed and armor protection.

Of course, in addition to technology, there are also the ideas and habits of various countries in warship design.

Ironclad to pre-dreadnought and then to dreadnought are three completely different products, which are completely different in appearance, structure and technology used.

Carlo does not know much about shipbuilding, which can only be improved by cooperation with Italy and by warship designers from Spain and Italy.

Since Italy has the ability to design the most advanced battleships in history, Spain and Italy will not suffer from cooperation.

Moreover, Spain's ability in warship design is also not weak. The combined warship design capabilities of the two countries, even if they cannot compare with the British, are definitely not much worse than other powerful countries, and can even maintain a slight lead.

In addition to cooperative research and development in military technology, Spain has also signed some other cooperation agreements with the Italian government.

The most important one is the agreement on the introduction of Italian population.

As early as the last cooperation agreement signed by the two governments, population introduction was a very important link.

It's just that Spain was not so stable at that time, and Carlo was not in a hurry to introduce population from Italy.

In the past few years, the total number of Italians introduced by Spain has not exceeded 100,000, and the average number of Italians going to Spain each year does not exceed 10,000.

With the continuous growth of the Spanish population, coupled with the fact that Spain has stabilized, it is time to increase this limit.

In this cooperation agreement with Italy, the two governments reached a consensus on the introduction of Italian population.

Spain can recruit some immigrants in Italy on its own, but the number of immigrants shall not exceed 20,000 per year.

Check out the correct version in 16-9 Book and Bar!

All expenses of immigration are borne by the Spanish government. For every Italian who chooses to go to Spain, the Spanish government should pay Italy 50 pesetas as compensation.

For the Italian government, the number of immigrants not exceeding 20,000 per year is not painful. Because southern Italy is relatively backward, a large number of people choose to leave Italy every year and go to other European countries or even the United States and more distant regions.

Instead of letting these people go to other countries in vain, it is better to let Spain introduce some of them. Every Italian immigrant who goes to Spain cannot make the Italian government get 50 pesetas in compensation, which is also an additional income for the Italian government.

For Spain, since there are no more than 20,000 immigrants per year, the maximum immigration fee paid to the Italian government is only 1 million pesetas.

For the current Spanish government, 1 million pesetas is just a drop in the bucket, which is nothing compared to the Italian immigrants introduced.

This cooperation can be said to be a win-win for both parties. Italy's population is close to 29 million, and with a large number of immigrants flowing out every year, the population still maintains a fairly stable growth.

Twenty thousand immigrants per year are also nothing to Italy, which will not affect the data of Italy's population growth at all.

After signing a cooperation agreement with Italy on population introduction, Carlo was more satisfied with this trip to Italy.

If 20,000 Italian immigrants can be introduced every year, the population growth will be faster for Spain.

Don't forget that the Spanish and Russian governments also have cooperation agreements in this regard. In addition to immigrants from other European countries, Spain can ideally obtain nearly 50,000 immigrants every year, which is something Spain did not dare to think of before.

Combined with the current population growth rate in Spain, Spain's net population growth will exceed 300,000 people per year.

This is already a very good level in today's European countries, after all, Spain's population is only 18.66 million.

According to this population growth rate, it will only take a few years for Spain's population to exceed 20 million. As the population grows, the annual population growth will also break new highs.

Although it cannot completely solve the problem of insufficient population in Spain, a bright future is indeed just around the corner for Spain.

In addition to the cooperation agreement on population, the cooperation agreement signed between the Spanish government and the Italian government also involves capital introduction.

Carlo is taking the path of state capitalism in Spain, and the royal family and government lead Spain's industry and economy as official capital.

The advantage of doing this is that the royal family and the government have enough funds to quickly scale up a certain industry in Spain.

Spain's industry is also growing rapidly on this development path, and the current industrial scale is almost the same as that of northern Italy.

But this does not mean that Spain has no problems. Because most industries are monopolized by state capital, private capital in Spain is too weak to spontaneously develop a certain industry.

In this regard, Italian private capital is stronger than Spanish private capital, and it is more powerful than a little bit.

The purpose of cooperating with Italy in this regard is to attract some Italian capital to invest in Spain.

With more private capital, Spain's industry can develop at a faster pace. If it relies solely on government and royal funds to promote it, the time for the effect will definitely be extended.

In fact, compared with Italy, the private capital of France, Spain's northern neighbor, is obviously stronger.

Spain and France also have certain cooperation, and it is no problem to attract some French private capital to invest in Spain.

However, the relationship between Spain and France is not so good, it can only be said that they use each other.

After this trip to Italy, Carlo will also consider contacting the French government to introduce some French capital to Spain.

Compared with the inferior powers like Italy, Spain can obviously get more benefits from France. France's industrial scale and economic scale are not comparable to countries like Italy, and Italy cannot catch up with France even if it is given decades.

Italy's population of nearly 29 million seems a lot, but France's population has exceeded 36 million a few years ago.

Although there is no clear data, it is certain that the current population of France is at least 37 million, which is twice the population of Spain.

Such a large population is one of the reasons why France is so strong. In addition to these people, France also has extremely strong industry and economy, which is why France was the hegemon of Europe before the Franco-Prussian War.

Although this European hegemon failed in the Franco-Prussian War, it still faced the threat of Germany's policy of isolating France after the war.

But it is undeniable that a lean camel is always bigger than a horse. France is still the powerful European hegemon in front of Italy and Spain.

Among all European countries, only Britain and Germany can really reach the strength of France.

Russia is worse than France, and Austria-Hungary is worse than Russia. Except for Britain and Germany, which can be compared, and Russia and Austria-Hungary, which are worse, the gap between the remaining powers and France is very huge, even the world hegemon of the future, the United States, is the same.

The United States had to wait until World War I and World War II, or more precisely, after World War II to become the world hegemon.

Before Britain, France, and Germany were greatly weakened by the two world wars, the United States was just an upstart and had no resistance in front of Britain, France, and Germany.

Vittorio Emanuele II was also aware of the fact that the Spanish officials brought by Carlo were negotiating a cooperation agreement with the Italian government.

After learning that the two governments had successfully signed a cooperation agreement and reached comprehensive and close cooperation in industry, economy, agriculture, military technology, etc., Vittorio Emanuele II also breathed a sigh of relief.

In his view, Italy and Spain, which have reached close cooperation, will have the confidence to fight against the great powers. Facing any of the five traditional European powers, the two countries have nothing to fear.

The second update of 5,000 words, please support!

Today successfully completed the daily task of 10,000, and will continue tomorrow!