Chapter 289 Million Tons of Food Production

The commercialization of automobiles and the introduction of wired telephones were definitely two good news, but they only caught Carlo’s attention for a while.

After the heat died down, Carlo turned his attention back to the situation in Europe.

The reason why Carlo was so concerned about the situation in Europe was mainly because of the changes in the European situation after the Russo-Turkish War.

Although Germany, Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia re-signed the Treaty of the Three Emperors, any discerning person could see that the relationship between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia had broken down.

The Triple Alliance Treaty signed by the three countries was more like a compromise that was unwilling to disrupt the situation in Europe. Under the surface of the Triple Alliance Treaty, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia were all looking for new solutions.

Sure enough, as time came to February 1882, Cardil, director of the Spanish Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, reported to Carlo an important news, that is, the governments of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy were negotiating in secret, and the three countries might conclude a military treaty after the secret negotiations.

For Spain, even if Germany, Austria and Italy signed a military alliance treaty, it would not have much impact on itself.

Even though Spain maintained an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy, this alliance formed by the three major powers did not pose any threat to Spain.

Then why did Carlo order the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, Kadir, to pay close attention to the situation in Europe, especially the situation between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy?

The main purpose is to verify whether the European situation in this world will develop as it did in history.

At present, although there are certain changes in small events, there are not many changes in the general direction.

The Treaty of the Three Emperors would eventually break down. Germany and Austria-Hungary had clearly made new plans. One of the two major military groups that launched the First World War, the German-Austrian-Italian Alliance, was about to emerge.

Although the German-Austrian-Italian military alliance does not seem as powerful as the German-Austrian-Russian Triple Alliance, the three countries are closer to France and may not be a greater crisis for France.

Originally, Russia in the Triple Alliance was nearly a thousand kilometers away from France. One was in Eastern Europe and the other was in Western Europe. It was impossible for the Russians to launch an expedition against France across thousands of miles.

But Italy is different. Italy and France are directly adjacent to each other, and there are new and old hatreds between the two countries.

Once a more intense conflict breaks out between France and Germany, France will face a joint attack from the three powers of Germany, Austria and Italy.

It is also for this reason that once the French learned of the formation of the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria and Italy, they would certainly increase their efforts to win over the Russians.

The Three Emperors’ League no longer had much effect after the formation of the Triple Alliance, and it was difficult for Russia to guarantee that it would not be pressured by the new Triple Alliance and forced to withdraw from the competition in the Balkans.

It is also because of this that after the formation of the Triple Alliance, the Franco-Russian Entente will soon be reached.

When the two major military groups are formed, the situation in Europe will become extremely intense. By then, the only European powers that are outside the two major military groups will be the British Empire and Spain, and these two countries will definitely become the targets of the two major military groups.

The British navy is the world’s most powerful, and the army is also at a very good level. It can be expected that after the two major military groups begin to compete fiercely in the future, Britain will become the most popular, and France and Germany will try every means to pull Britain into their camp.

Although Spain is not as powerful as Britain, due to its geographical location, France and Germany will also try to win over Spain.

Spain’s location not only serves as France’s rear base, but also opens up another battlefield for the war against France.

This also means that whether Spain joins the Central Powers or the Entente will play a huge role, and Germany and France will certainly not make small efforts to win over Spain.

Of course, there are dangers to consider as well.

Precisely because Spain’s geographical location is very important, the two major military groups are likely to take some extreme measures if they fail to win over the two major military groups.

After all, outside the two major military groups, there is also Britain. If Britain uses its joining the camp as a bargaining chip to let a certain military group besiege Spain, will this military group choose to sacrifice Spain? This is also a question worth thinking about.

The negotiations between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy lasted for a long time, and this anomaly also attracted the attention of other European powers.

However, the three countries kept the content of the negotiations highly confidential. Even the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, which Carlo worked hard to build, was unable to find out what the diplomatic representatives of the three countries negotiated about.

Apart from the governments of the three countries who know what they are negotiating about, perhaps only Carlo knows what the three countries are negotiating about.

As time came to March 1882, grain planting in Spain began in full swing.

Spain grows a variety of crops, including corn, potatoes, wheat, rice, and barley.

As for agricultural development in West African colonies, especially the Gambia colony, corn and rice were the main crops grown.

In the Gambia colony, rice can be harvested three times a year. Early rice is planted in March and can be harvested as early as June, and at the latest in early July, and then the mid-season rice can be planted.

The planting of mid-season rice is generally from June to July. If it is early, it can be harvested in September, but if it is late, it will be postponed to October.

Late rice is planted immediately after the mid-season rice is harvested and harvested before early winter.

In some places, it is not possible to achieve three harvests a year, but two harvests a year is still possible.

It is precisely because tropical regions can achieve more than two harvests a year that food production in tropical regions is generally higher than that in temperate regions.

Although Spain’s Gambia colony has an area of ​​only more than 30,000 square kilometers so far, if the existing colony is fully developed, the grain output may be able to compete with Portugal.

In late March, a telegram from the Gambia colony was reported to the Spanish government and then passed to Carlo by the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs.

This telegram reported in detail the land development situation in the Gambia colony, and also introduced the current total scale of arable land and crop planting situation in the Gambia colony.

In fact, it has been almost two years since the Spanish government proposed the West Africa development plan.

During these two years, the development of the colonies in West Africa has achieved certain results. As the focus of agricultural development, the Gambia colony is far ahead of other colonies in West Africa. The Gambia colony currently has more than 5 immigrants, of which nearly 3 are immigrants from all over Spain, and 2 are immigrants who have lived here since the British colonial period.

In addition to these 5 immigrants recognized by the Spanish government, there are approximately 30 indigenous people in the area.

In fact, the number of indigenous people here is not that large. The main reason why the number reached 30 indigenous people was that after the end of the Ashanti War, Spain transported a large number of indigenous laborers from Ashanti.

With the joint efforts of these 35 people, the current Gambia colony has developed more than 100 million acres of land. This land is evenly distributed to each immigrant, and each person owns up to 20 acres of land, which is 121.4 mu, or almost 8 hectares.

Of course, the actual situation is certainly not so exaggerated. The West African development plan involves many nobles and capital, and these nobles and capital also develop a large part of the land.

The average land per capita of the 5 immigrants in West Africa is only 10 acres at most, and very few people have land of more than 10 acres.

However, compared with the situation in mainland Spain, the per capita land area in the Gambia colony is much larger.

After all, there are only 3 people on this land of more than 5 square kilometers. There is more than enough land to be divided, and we don’t even have to worry about the problem of small population.

According to the previous grain yield per mu in the Gambia colony, millions of acres of land could produce at least 40 tons of grain each harvest season.

Even if some areas can only achieve two crops a year, the entire Gambia colony can easily harvest more than one million tons of grain each year.

How exaggerated is a million tons of grain output? Based on the current per capita grain consumption in Europe, one million tons of grain is enough to feed at least 100 million people for a year.

Europe’s per capita food consumption is currently the highest among all continents in the world. If the per capita food consumption of other continents is used as a reference, 100 million tons of food can feed even more people.

You have to know that as of this year, Spain’s population is only over 2100 million.

This also means that if the grain in the Gambia colony can be harvested successfully this year, the grain obtained from the Gambia colony alone will be enough to feed more than a quarter of the Spanish population.

Thanks to the grain production of the Gambia colony, Spain did not have to worry about any food crisis even if the drought in inland Spain continued.

More importantly, the one million acres of land is actually only a little over 100 square kilometers, which is only about one-tenth of the total area of ​​the Gambia colony.

With the development of the Gambia colony, the total area of ​​arable land in the Gambia colony will increase, and the grain output will naturally increase.

Feeding the entire population of Spain may be a bit of an exaggeration, but providing Spain with more than 200 million tons of food production is still possible for the Gambia colony.

The expansion of cultivated land in the Gambia colony was certainly a good thing for Spain’s food production.

However, considering that Gambia’s excessive grain production will affect the income of local Spanish farmers, certain restrictions are still needed to increase grain production in the Gambia colony.

For Spain at this time, tens of millions of farmers are still the country’s foundation. If the grain output increases too much and causes these tens of millions of farmers to suffer heavy losses, it will not be worth the loss.

Blindly increasing food production without considering the attitudes of tens of millions of farmers will only trigger a greater crisis in Spain.

Therefore, for Spain at this time, the best outcome would be for the Gambia colony to maintain grain production at around 100 million tons.

The Gambia colony can not only provide sufficient food production to Spain to ensure that there will be no food crisis in the mainland, but also guarantee the income of local farmers by limiting Gambia’s food production, ensuring that there will be no problems with Spain’s basic foundation.

Anyway, the Gambia colony is in the hands of Spain, and any need to increase food production in the future can be achieved by quickly reclaiming the land.

After all, the Gambia colony is located in the tropics, and corn and rice can be harvested basically every three months.

After reading the report on grain cultivation in the Gambia colony, Carlo nodded with great satisfaction, and expressed his approval of William, the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, and Harrison, the Governor of the Gambia colony, without any reservation.

After receiving Carlo’s praise, William stood up excitedly. It was obvious that his goal had been achieved.

You know, it has been five years since the election of Spain’s third cabinet government.

This also indicates that the election for the fourth cabinet government will be held this year.

As one of the cabinet ministers, William certainly wants to stay in the cabinet government. More importantly, this year’s cabinet government election will usher in greater changes.

In order to stabilize the situation, when Count Canovas was elected as the new Prime Minister of the Spanish government, he did not replace a large number of cabinet members.

Many officials who served as cabinet ministers during Prime Minister Primo’s term survived the interim cabinet and the third cabinet government safely.

Prime Minister Canovas will definitely not give up the election of the new cabinet government. Once Prime Minister Canovas is elected as the new prime minister, he will definitely make a large-scale replacement of the existing cabinet.

After all, Prime Minister Canovas already had enough prestige at this time, and he could certainly replace cabinet officials at will within his power without worrying about opposition from other parties or cabinet ministers.

The main reason why William showed favor to Carlo instead of Prime Minister Canovas was that the Secretary of State for the Colonies was elected by the House of Lords.

As a cabinet minister, William had a relatively clear view of the political situation in Spain.

Although Prime Minister Canovas seemed to have enough prestige, the Spanish government was actually controlled by Carlo.

Especially the Spanish House of Lords, after the addition of many aristocratic members, it has almost become Carlo’s one-man show.

If Minister William wanted to continue to serve as Secretary of State for the Colonies, he would have to gain Carlo’s trust in order to have a chance of winning the election to the House of Lords.

Although Prime Minister Count Canovas had more power to appoint cabinet ministers, these important departments of the cabinet were all occupied by their own people, and it was impossible to make room specifically for William.

(End of this chapter)