Chapter 279 Ship Purchase Order
When the Italian ambassador expressed to Carlo the Italian government’s request to purchase Spain’s new ironclad ships, Carlo was surprised for a moment, and then decisively agreed.

No matter what the Italian government’s intentions are in purchasing Spanish warships, Spain will not lose money.

Selling warships to foreign countries will increase the selling price, which is actually where shipyards really make money from warship orders.

After all, the cooperation with the domestic government is at friendly prices. It is impossible to make a huge profit. At most, you can ensure that you will not lose money.

Although Carlo agreed in principle to sell warships to Italy, the specific negotiations still had to be conducted between the Italian side and the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

The Matador-class ironclad ship was theoretically a product of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. Several other Spanish shipyards were able to build this warship only with the authorization of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

After all, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard is backed by the Spanish royal family. In a monarchy like Spain, no one can ignore the status of the royal family, not even the government.

When the Royal Guarnizzo Shipyard learned that Italy wanted to buy warships, they were also delighted.

After all, the shipyard’s income is related to the available funds for design experts, which has a great impact on whether the shipyard can develop the warships needed by the military.

However, considering the good relations between Italy and Spain, the shipyard does not intend to ask for too much. It should at least give the Italian side some concessions to reflect the friendship between Spain and Italy.

The Italian government also acted quickly. After confirming that Spain was willing to sell its latest warships, the Italian government immediately formed a purchasing group to come to Spain and the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to negotiate the purchase of the ships.

The main members of the purchasing group are Italian naval generals. The reason why the Italian Navy is so impatient is that Italy’s current shipbuilding level is far behind that of European powers.

All the warships of the Italian Navy are outdated products. Even the newest warships built in recent years are defective products with various defects.

Among them, the more representative ones are the Dulio and the Enrico Dandolo.

As a design that the Italian Navy wanted to break away from sailing warships, these two warships used vertical compound steam engines as their power source, with a maximum speed of 14.8 knots, which was considered excellent in terms of speed.

In terms of firepower, the two warships use 450mm 20-caliber muzzle-loading naval guns, and the caliber of the guns is enough to surpass all European warships.

But the problem is that the muzzle-loading gun and large caliber severely limit the firepower that the artillery can exert.

The 450mm main guns look attractive, but the Italian Navy discovered that the main guns of these two warships only have a firing rate of one round every five minutes, making them easy prey on the battlefield.

What’s even worse is that because Italian shipyards over-pursued artillery caliber, they ignored the compatibility issues between large-caliber artillery and warship design.

The Dulio has three exhaust chimneys, and the two main gun turrets are located between the chimneys. The scene is simply unimaginable.

The naval officers and soldiers operating the naval guns had to be careful not to aim at their own chimneys, otherwise they would become the creator of a big joke.

It is precisely because Italian shipyards have some defects in the design of ironclad ships that the Italian Navy is so looking forward to foreign warships.

Of course, the Italian government is certainly not just expecting Spanish warships.

They hoped to learn from Spain’s excellent experience in ironclad ship design and imitate and improve Italy’s own ironclad ships.

If you want to obtain data on Spain’s latest ironclad ships, you can only obtain Spanish warships by purchasing them.

Sending agents to steal intelligence might be feasible, but it would seriously damage the relationship between Italy and Spain, which would not be worth the cost for the Italian government.

The Italian ship purchasing delegation was warmly received by the Spanish government, and then they went directly to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard of Spain to inspect the warship construction site at the Guarnizo Shipyard.

As a military-industrial enterprise built with all the efforts of the royal family, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is definitely one of the best in Europe.

When the Italian ship purchasing delegation came to visit the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, they were also shocked by the development of the Guarnizo Shipyard.

Many Italians still hold the idea that Italy is more developed than Spain before coming to Spain. They believe that Italy’s current backwardness in shipbuilding is only due to the technological backwardness caused by the short period of national unification, and that Italy is not inferior to Spain in terms of industry and shipbuilding capabilities.

But when they came to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and saw that this enterprise had become a super-large shipyard due to the huge investment of the royal family, they began to face up to the development of Spain during this period and carefully examined the gap between Italian shipyards and Spanish shipyards.

The Italian delegation’s correct attitude made the subsequent visit much smoother.

After the Spanish government announced its naval construction plan, it had already paid a deposit for two warships to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, and the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard had already been working at full capacity to build two ironclad ships.

Although only less than half a month had passed, the keel laying of the first Matador-class ironclad ship, the Matador, had been half completed. The Italian ship purchasing delegation visited the keel laying stage of the Matador.

Whether in the ironclad era or the sailing warship era, building a large ship was not easy.

As warship technology entered the era of ironclad ships, the cost and time required to build an ironclad ship continued to increase because the technology became more complex and required a large amount of steel.

The keel-laying phase of the Matador-class ironclad ship takes at least one and a half months, which shows how huge the size of the Matador-class ironclad ship is.

When the Italian ship purchasing group saw with their own eyes that the workers in the shipyard were laying the keels of the Matador and the ironclad, even though they were already prepared for the strength of Spain in building warships, they couldn’t help but sigh.

“My God, what a huge warship this is?” The leader of the Italian ship purchasing group, the Italian Navy Vice Admiral, looked at the keel that had been laid more than half in the dock with a look of surprise, and his excitement was beyond words.

“Sir, may I ask how large the displacement of the warship built by your country is?” A general in the Italian ship purchasing group looked curiously at the Spanish diplomatic official in charge of reception and asked.

“Of course, General.” The Italian government had long expressed to Spain its desire to purchase warships, and the basic data of these warships must be shown to the Italians.

It is for this reason that after hearing the Italian naval admiral’s inquiry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official immediately answered according to their prior knowledge: “According to design estimates, the conventional displacement of the Matador-class ironclad ship is approximately 9552 tons, and the full load displacement is approximately 1.07 tons. It is a truly -ton giant ship.” Upon hearing that the Matador-class ironclad ship developed by Spain could have a full load displacement of more than tons, the naval generals of the ship purchasing group looked at each other and saw excitement in their eyes.

As for other officials affiliated with the Italian government, especially those in the financial department, their expressions suddenly became not so good.

The larger the displacement of an ironclad ship, the more expensive it is. After all, in addition to the thickness and laying area of ​​the steel plate, the caliber of the ship’s guns and the size of the turrets also affect the weight of the ironclad ship.

Spain’s previous generation of ironclad warships, the Renaissance-class, was sold for as much as 60 pounds. The Matador-class ironclad, which is more powerful than the Renaissance-class, must have been sold for at least 70 pounds, right?

Italy wants to order two ironclad ships, which means Italy will need to spend more than 140 million pounds, or 3500 million lire.

Italy’s financial situation has been relatively good since its unification. However, Umberto I’s ambition to expand his army is obviously not limited to this, which makes some officials of the Italian government unsure whether to be happy or worried. After all, with the increase in military spending, the reduction of the financial budget of other departments is inevitable.

After visiting the keel laying of the ironclad Matador with great anticipation, the naval generals in the Italian ship purchasing group could not wait to start negotiations with the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

They wanted to negotiate the details of purchasing warships with the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard as soon as possible so that the Italian Navy could have such a powerful ironclad ship as soon as possible.

Compared with these naval commanders, Italian government officials were not so anxious. When they learned that the price of a Matador-class ironclad ship was as high as 80 pounds, they even thought about returning to Italy immediately.

The price of 80 pounds was too expensive, and the money was enough for Italy’s own shipyard to build an ironclad ship with some left over.

Even if the Spanish warships are more powerful than the Italian ones, there is no reason why they should be so expensive.

After some haggling, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard finally gave Italy a friendly price, which was a 80% discount on the original price of 95 pounds, and sold it to Italy at an internal price of 76 pounds per ironclad ship.

If Italy ordered two ironclad ships at one time, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard would also donate some shells and torpedoes, which would reduce some of Italy’s expenses again.

Although the selling price of 76 pounds is more expensive than the internal price of the Spanish government, it has indeed demonstrated the sincerity of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

After all, the Royal Guarnizzo Shipyard also needs to make money. Being able to resist making a fortune from Italian orders is already giving face to the Italian government.

The ship purchasing group has the right to decide on the purchase of warships, which also means that the ship purchasing group only needs to discuss internally and does not need to seek the consent of the Italian government.

After several days of continuous meetings within the Italian ship purchasing group, and with the Italian naval generals’ arguments, the group finally agreed to the price of 76 pounds offered by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and purchased two ironclad ships at once.

The total purchase price of the warships, worth 152 million pounds, will be paid in three installments. The first payment will be made immediately after the order is signed, when Italy will pay a deposit of 30 pounds to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, and Spain will also start the construction of the two Italian warships within three months after the order is paid.

The second and third payments were made during the launching and delivery of the two warships respectively. After the three payments were completed, it also meant that the purchase of the warships was officially completed. The warships will officially belong to the Italian Navy and will no longer have any relationship with Spain.

When the Italian ship purchasing group and representatives of the Spanish Royal Guarnizo Shipyard signed the order documents and took photos, the deal was officially concluded.

The news that Italy purchased two ironclad ships from Spain immediately became hot news in European countries, and Spain’s newly developed Matador-class ironclad ships also immediately attracted the attention of European countries.

When the British learned that the Spanish ironclad ships were truly 10,000-ton giant ships, they did not modify their shipbuilding plans without authorization, but ordered the shipyards to speed up the construction of warships.

After all, the British themselves also have giant ships of 10,000 tons. As long as the comprehensive performance of the Spanish ironclad ships is not far superior to that of the British ironclad ships, or the number of Spanish main battleships is not able to threaten the British fleet, the British reaction will not be so intense.

Although the British did not react too strongly, the French reacted more strongly.

France had already experienced a colonial conflict with Spain and Italy, and relations had not yet been fully repaired.

As Spain and Italy announced their naval expansions, the French could not help but announce their own construction plans for the next five years.

Spain and Italy planned to build a total of six ironclad ships in the next five years. The French government immediately decided to build six ironclad ships in response in the next five years.

This is not only for the sake of saving face, but also to weaken the influence of Spain and Italy in the western Mediterranean.

France’s naval power is very strong, stronger than Italy and Spain. But the problem is that France faces the same problem as the United States, that is, it faces the sea on both sides, and the distance between the two coasts is quite far.

Of course, the situation in France is much better than that in the United States. The connection between the east and west coasts of the United States needs to bypass the entire South America, a distance of nearly 20,000 kilometers.

The distance between the west coast and the south coast of France only requires going around the Iberian Peninsula, which is only about 3000 kilometers.

Because of the two non-adjacent coasts, France had to establish two fleets to protect its coastal security.

France deployed the Channel Fleet in the English Channel and the Mediterranean Fleet in the Mediterranean. Although this effectively protected the security of both coasts of France, it also dispersed France’s naval power.

The French navy is generally far superior to that of Spain and Italy, but if we only compare in the Mediterranean, there is not much difference in strength between the Spanish or Italian armies and France.

Especially when the two countries join forces, even the French Mediterranean Fleet will be unable to withstand the combined fleet of the two countries.

This is also the reason why France decided to build six ironclad ships, in order to strengthen the strength of the Mediterranean fleet and protect the security of France’s North African colonies.

Of course, there is another important reason, which is to save face for not fully occupying Tunisia during the Tunisian War.

Prime Minister Jouffry’s intention of building six ironclad ships in the next five years is clear. He wants to tell all French people that France is still the powerful France, France is still the hegemonic power in Europe, no country should provoke it, and France is capable of dealing with any provocation from any country.

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(End of this chapter)