Chapter 286 Inspection
Carlo did not allow the newspapers to widely publicize the news of his order to open the floodgates. After all, sometimes too much publicity is not a good thing.

All the governments need to do is mention Carlo’s kindness when issuing notifications, and people will naturally continue to remember Carlo’s kindness.

If there is too much publicity, it will inevitably make some people tired of or even disgusted with such publicity of favors.

True gratitude needs to be inspired from the heart, not by one or two pieces of news. Carlo hopes to make the Spaniards love their rule from the heart, so in this regard, it will take decades of subtle influence.

So far, Carlo’s plan has been very successful. Although some of Carlo’s actions were purposeful, the Spanish people have indeed gained various benefits from it.

After all, to put it bluntly, being able to pretend to be kind and righteous for a lifetime can also be considered kind and righteous to a certain extent.

It’s nothing more than benevolence and righteousness with impure motives, but for the Spanish people, isn’t a monarch who can increase their income and make their lives better a wise monarch?

What Carlo did not expect was that the effect of not promoting the policy was actually the best. The drought had put a large number of farmers in a desperate situation. When they had almost lost hope of survival, news came that Carlo had ordered farmers to have access to water at all costs.

As the saying goes, it is better to help someone in need than to add icing on the cake. Carlo’s behavior is no different from helping someone in need.

What Carlo did not expect was that he had not originally intended to publicize his efforts in disaster relief, but those farmers who were rescued stood up one by one and continued to speak of Carlo’s achievements.

Through word of mouth among these people, Carlo’s attitude of completing the disaster relief at all costs attracted the admiration of the Spaniards, and they called Carlo a rare and benevolent monarch in a century and the savior of chaotic Spain.

Carlo did not expect such a situation, but he would never waste such a good opportunity.

On the second day, some of the regions that were severely affected by the disaster had strictly implemented the cabinet government’s order to open the floodgates and release water.

In the end, the water conservancy facilities built previously played a role. Although it could not completely offset the negative impact of the drought, it was able to save the income of some farmers.

Those areas where the drought is not too severe can still rely on the surrounding water sources to survive for a while. However, if the areas where the drought is more severe do not open the gates to release water, in a while only a large area of ​​wasteland will be left.

Of course, in those areas where the drought is more serious, farmers’ income will definitely be affected.

To this end, Carlo convened a cabinet meeting to discuss various strategies for dealing with the drought.

The first is to reduce taxes for all areas affected by drought, with different tax reductions or exemptions depending on the severity of the drought, with a maximum of two years of tax exemption.

Secondly, we will increase or reduce the rescue efforts for crops in drought-stricken areas and try our best to save the losses of farmers in drought-stricken areas.

Take Anthony for example. He is a pure grape grower, and his grape harvest is basically during this period.

As long as the water supply to the grape vines can be ensured within a month, Anthony can ensure that he can obtain the full income for this year.

The water supply to Anthony’s vines can then be reduced, allowing water resources to be diverted to other crops that need it more.

Of course, this is only the allocation of water resources in areas where the drought is particularly severe. In areas where the drought is not severe, the water demand can still be met by relying on local water sources and some water conservancy facilities.

For areas where the drought is particularly severe, after discussion at the cabinet meeting, it was decided to allocate 5000 million pesetas as drought relief funds to carry out disaster relief work for the people who are most severely affected.

In addition, Carlo also plans to build more water conservancy facilities in the drier areas of inland Spain to prevent similar droughts from occurring.

As one of the countries with the least rainfall in Europe, drought is very common in Spain. Drought affects farmers’ grain harvest and actual income. Preparing for drought is not only to avoid drought, but also to add a line of defense for Spain’s grain and agricultural production.

Of course, this also triggered more discussions within the cabinet government about the Spanish domestic environment and the urgency of vigorously developing the West African colonies.

Compared with the Spanish inland, the colonies controlled by Spain in West Africa have a much better geographical environment.

The Gambia colony, in particular, was not only close to the sea, facilitating transportation, but was also located in the tropics, so grain could be harvested twice or even three times a year.

More importantly, this is a vast plain with abundant rainfall, so there is no need to worry about drought.

If Spain grows large amounts of grain here, it won’t have to worry about natural or man-made disasters affecting its grain harvest.

Of course, earthquakes and tsunamis are inevitable, but the West African colonies are not located in any major earthquake zone, so the only thing they need to worry about is the tsunami, which has a very small probability.

Compared with the scarce rainfall in mainland Spain, the Gambia colony can be said to be a fertile land.

In addition to discussing plans to provide relief to drought-stricken areas, the cabinet is also exploring the development of colonies such as Gambia.

If the arable land in the Gambia colony could be reclaimed and cultivated as soon as possible, Spain could reduce the proportion of arable land in the mainland and not rely on the relatively fragile agricultural environment in the mainland.

Carlo would naturally not reject the government’s proposal to speed up the development of West African colonies. The Gambia colony controlled by Spain was larger than the later Gambia, and there was naturally more land available for cultivation.

After annexing Portugal’s colonies of Guinea and Ziguinchor in the future, the total area of ​​the colonies will reach more than 7 square kilometers, almost catching up with the total area of ​​Portugal.

Portugal has a lot of plains, and the Gambia colony is no exception. The Gambia River in the colony flows through most of the land, which makes the land not only suitable for agricultural development, but also for river shipping.

Food grown throughout the colony could be transported to the colonial capital of Banjul by rail or shipping, and then transported to mainland Spain by large transport ships.

The straight-line distance between here and the Spanish mainland is only more than 2700 kilometers. In addition, because it passes through Spain’s Canary Islands and southern Moroccan colonies, the safety of grain transportation can be guaranteed.

Developing the West African colonies is certainly a good thing, but it also requires a lot of capital investment.

5000 million pesetas have been allocated for drought relief, and it is worth considering how much money the Spanish government should use to develop its West African colonies.

The good news is that this drought has made many nobles realize the shortage of land in Spain. While the cabinet government was discussing the development of West African colonies, the nobles were also planning to work together to develop agriculture in Spain’s colonies and establish new grain companies in Spain’s colonies.

Carlo certainly welcomed the Spanish nobles’ love of farming. If Spain wanted to become a powerful country, it had to ensure domestic food self-sufficiency.

Food cannot rely on exports from other countries, after all, the import-export relationship will be destroyed by war.

Only when there is enough food production in the country can we ensure that when the war comes, the country will not be in economic chaos due to food shortage, which will lead to more intense conflicts. Lack of food is no joke. As the saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people. For ordinary people, they can lack anything except food.

Since the Gambia colony is so suitable as a large agricultural production area for Spain, Carlo naturally would not miss this good opportunity.

At the end of August, the Spanish government first announced a 5000 million pesetas drought relief plan, and then announced that it would increase imports of food and agricultural products to cope with this drought crisis.

The drought will definitely lead to a reduction in Spain’s grain and agricultural product production. In order to prevent food prices from rising too much, it is necessary to import more food in a timely manner.

Fortunately, at present only the Iberian Peninsula is experiencing relatively serious drought, and it is mainly concentrated in the inland areas occupied by Spain.

Although there are droughts in some areas of Portugal, the situation is not serious overall.

After all, Portugal’s annual rainfall is quite abundant. In addition, its land is long and narrow, and most of its territory is along the coast, so there is no need to worry about drought.

Only Spain suffered from drought, which was a blessing in disguise.

Spain can purchase enough food from other European countries to alleviate the domestic food crisis caused by drought.

Of course, the current drought has not evolved into a food crisis. There are still many major grain-producing countries in Europe, so it is still very easy to buy food.

After the government announced a detailed relief plan, the people in the disaster-stricken areas finally felt relieved.

In order to appease the emotions of the people in the disaster-stricken areas, the cabinet government issued orders to the regional governments affected by the disaster on the same day it announced the corresponding relief plan.

Prime Minister Canovas personally issued an order, requiring regional governments to promptly convey the disaster relief decisions issued by the cabinet government, try to calm the people’s emotions, and avoid emotional outbursts caused by heavy losses.

Although the government will try its best to rescue people in the disaster-stricken areas, there will be some unlucky people who suffer heavy losses before they even receive any relief.

The government can do nothing about it. It can’t make an exception and give them more compensation, right?
Such exceptions will only make future relief work more difficult, and in the future when people lose their families and lives due to natural disasters or man-made disasters, they will make more demands on the government.

In order to prevent these unfortunate people from hating society or even creating chaos in revenge, it is necessary to strengthen the security forces in the affected areas during the drought.

The regional governments attached great importance to the instructions of the cabinet government and issued specific documents to the municipal governments as soon as they received the orders.

Because of Spain’s official performance evaluation system, government officials at all levels attach great importance to the orders issued by the higher level of government.

The cabinet government only needs to supervise the regional governments, and the regional governments will supervise the municipal governments under them.

By supervising the town governments and villages within their territories, each municipal government can achieve top-down political supervision from the cabinet government.

No matter which level of government has problems, the higher level of government can be held directly accountable.

For example, if a city government has serious problems, the Spanish cabinet government will not directly hold the city government accountable, but will hold the regional government to which the city government belongs accountable.

If the regional governments do not want to take responsibility for their subordinate municipal governments, they must exercise stricter supervision over their subordinate municipal governments.

In this way, the cabinet government can penetrate its influence to the grassroots towns and villages without too much effort.

In addition, regional and municipal councils also play a supervisory and regulatory role.

The parliaments also have direct relations. The Spanish lower house leads the regional parliaments, and the regional parliaments lead the municipal parliaments.

This will ensure that there will be no problems at all levels of government, and that each level will have corresponding supervisory bodies to ensure that the cabinet government and the House of Commons, which are at the center of power, can exercise their powers quickly.

In order to express his concern for the people, after the government issued corresponding relief measures, Carlo took some guards and officials by train to the mountainous area north of Madrid to personally see the disaster situation of the farmers.

As mentioned before, Madrid is located in a valley between two large mountains in the north and south, which is a relatively flat and open area.

Although located in the heart of the inland Iberian Peninsula, as the capital of Spain, the Madrid City Government has the most water conservancy facilities among all regions of Spain.

This also means that Madrid, as an inland city in Spain, has not suffered from severe drought.

On the contrary, in the mountainous areas north of Madrid, the drought is still quite serious due to the lack of sufficient water conservancy facilities.

The destination of Carlo’s inspection was the Castile and León region in the north of the Madrid region. The capital of the region is Valladolid, a small city with a population of less than 100,000.

Why did Carlo choose this small city as the location for the inspection? The reason is very simple, that is, it is located in the center of the drought. Valladolid and the mountains in the south are almost the driest places, and it has not rained for several months.

Carlo’s personal visit attracted great attention from the Valladolid municipal government, and even the officials of the regional government had been looking forward to it.

However, Carlo did not talk much with these officials. After arriving in Valladolid, he headed towards Palencia further north.

Carlo also brought several specially modified cars on this trip. In addition to making travel more convenient, the purpose was also to test the stability of the cars in mountain driving.

Palencia is a small town on the Meseta Plateau in Spain and one of the driest towns in Spain.

According to the Valladolid city government, there has been no rain for nearly six months, and nearby rivers and water sources are almost dry.

If it weren’t for a large water conservancy facility in the north of Valladolid, the people of this town might have already considered relocating.

Not to mention whether crops can survive without water, the people in this small town certainly cannot survive without water.

Although this large-scale water conservancy facility plays a key role, the water conservancy facility belongs to Valladolid and must also maintain normal water use for the citizens of Valladolid.

Under such circumstances, the originally large-scale water conservancy facilities were no longer sufficient. Carlo’s purpose of coming here to inspect, in addition to seeing the drought situation with his own eyes, was to solve the problem of severe water shortage in Palencia.

(End of this chapter)