Chapter 279: Ship Purchase Orders

When the Italian ambassador expressed the Italian government’s request to Carlo to purchase Spain’s new ironclad warships, Carlo was first surprised for a moment, then decisively agreed. No matter what ideas the Italian government had for purchasing Spanish warships, Spain would not suffer a loss anyway.

Selling warships to foreign countries would increase the selling price, which is actually where shipyard warship orders truly make money.

After all, cooperation with the domestic government is all at friendship prices, so making a big profit is impossible; at most, it guarantees no loss.

Although Carlo agreed in principle to sell warships to Italy, the specific negotiations still had to be conducted by the Italian side with the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

The Matador-class ironclad theoretically belongs to the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard’s products; other Spanish shipyards could build this warship only thanks to the authorization from the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

After all, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard has the Spanish Royal Family behind it. In Spain, a monarchy country, no one can ignore the royal family’s status, not even the government.

When the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard learned that the Italian side wanted to purchase warships, they were also overjoyed.

After all, the shipyard’s income concerns the available funds for design experts, which greatly affects whether the shipyard can research and develop warships needed by the military.

However, considering the good relationship between Italy and Spain, the shipyard did not plan to overcharge; at least, it had to give the Italian side some discount to show that the friendship between Spain and Italy was real.

The Italian government’s action was also very swift. After confirming that Spain was willing to sell the latest warships, the Italian government immediately formed a purchasing delegation and came to Spain to negotiate warship purchases with the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

The main members of the purchasing delegation were Italian Navy generals. The Italian Navy was so eager because Italy’s current warship construction level was far inferior to that of the European powers.

All warships of the Italian Navy were outdated products. Even the latest warships built in recent years were defective items with various defects.

The most representative among them were the Dulio and the Enrico Dandolo.

As designs for the Italian Navy to get rid of sailing warships, these two warships adopted vertical compound steam engines as power, with a maximum speed of 8 knots, which was already excellent in terms of speed.

In terms of firepower, these two warships used 450 mm 20-caliber muzzle-loading naval guns, with gun calibers sufficient to top all European warships.

But the problem was that the muzzle-loaders and large calibers seriously limited the firepower they could exert.

The 450 mm main guns looked attractive, but when the Italian Navy actually used them, they found that the firing rate of the main guns on these two warships was only a pitiful one shot every 5 minutes, making them complete punching bags on the battlefield.

Even worse, because Italian shipyards overly pursued gun calibers and ignored the compatibility issues between large-caliber guns and warship designs.

The Dulio had three exhaust chimneys, with the two main gun turrets located between two chimneys—an unimaginable sight.

The naval officers operating the naval guns also had to be careful not to aim at their own chimneys, or they would become the creators of a big joke.

It was precisely because Italian shipyards had some defects in ironclad warship design that the Italian Navy was so eager for foreign warships.

Of course, the Italian government was definitely not just expecting Spanish warships.

They hoped more to learn from Spain’s excellent experience in ironclad warship design, imitate and improve to create Italy’s own ironclads.

To obtain data on Spain’s latest ironclad warships, the only way was to purchase Spanish warships.

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

The arrival of the Italian warship purchasing delegation received a grand reception from the Spanish government. Afterward, the group went directly to the Spanish Royal Gualnizo Shipyard to inspect the warship construction site at the Gualnizo Shipyard.

As a military industry enterprise fully built by the royal family, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard was absolutely top-ranked in Europe.

When the Italian purchasing delegation visited the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, they were shocked by the development of the Gualnizo Shipyard.

Many Italians still held the idea before coming to Spain that Italy was more developed than Spain. They believed that Italy’s current lag in warship construction was only due to technological backwardness caused by the short time since national unification, and that in industry and warship construction capabilities, it was not inferior to Spain at all.

But when they arrived at the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard and saw this enterprise that had become a super-large shipyard due to massive royal family investment, they began to face up to Spain’s development during this period and seriously examine the gap between Italian shipyards and Spanish shipyards.

The upright attitude of the Italian delegation also made the subsequent visit much smoother.

After the Spanish government announced the navy construction plan, it had already paid deposits for two warships to the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, and the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard had long been operating at full horsepower to build two ironclads.

Although less than half a month had passed, the keel laying of the first Matador-class ironclad, the Matador, had already been completed by half. What the Italian purchasing delegation was viewing was precisely the keel laying stage of the Matador ironclad.

Whether in the ironclad era or the sailing warship era, building a large ship was never easy.

As warship technology entered the ironclad era, due to more complex technology and the need for large amounts of steel, the cost and time required to build an ironclad warship were constantly increasing.

The keel laying stage of the Matador-class ironclad alone required at least one and a half months, which from the time perspective also showed how enormous the size of the Matador-class ironclad was.

When the Italian purchasing delegation personally saw the shipyard workers laying the keel of the Matador ironclad, even though they had prepared themselves for Spain’s powerful warship construction capabilities, they couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

“My God, how enormous must this warship be?” The leader of the Italian purchasing delegation, an Italian Navy lieutenant general, looked surprised at the keel already laid more than halfway in the dockyard, with excitement overflowing on his face.

“Sir, may I ask what the displacement of this warship your country is building is?” One of the generals in the Italian purchasing delegation turned curious eyes to the Spanish diplomatic department official responsible for reception and asked.

“Of course, Your Excellency General.” The Italian government had long expressed to Spain its intention to purchase warships, so the basic data of these warships definitely had to be shown to the Italians.

For this reason, after hearing the Italian Navy general’s inquiry, the Foreign Ministry official immediately answered according to the pre-learned information: “According to design estimates, the standard displacement of the Matador-class ironclad is approximately 9,552 tons, and the full load displacement is approximately 10,700 tons, a true ten-thousand-ton giant ship.”

Upon hearing that the full load displacement of Spain’s developed Matador-class ironclad could reach over 10,000 tons, the navy generals in the purchasing delegation exchanged glances, seeing excitement in each other’s eyes.

As for the other officials belonging to the Italian government, especially those from the Finance Department, their expressions instantly became not so good.

The larger the displacement of an ironclad warship, the more expensive the cost. After all, besides the thickness and laying area of steel plates, the factors affecting the weight of an ironclad warship also included the caliber of naval guns and the size of turrets.

Spain’s previous generation ironclad, the Revival-class, had an external selling price as high as 600,000 pounds sterling. The more powerful Matador-class ironclad than the Revival-class ironclad would have an external selling price of at least 700,000 pounds sterling or more, right?

Italy wanted to order two ironclads, which also meant Italy needed to spend over 4 million pounds sterling, or 35 million lira in funds.

Since unification, Italy’s financial situation had been relatively good. But Umberto I’s military expansion ambitions were clearly more than that, which left some officials in the Italian government unsure whether to be happy or worried. After all, with the increase in military expenses, reductions in fiscal budgets for other departments were inevitable.

After viewing the keel laying of the Matador ironclad with full anticipation, the navy generals in the Italian purchasing delegation couldn’t wait to start negotiations with the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

They wanted to quickly negotiate the details of purchasing the warships with the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard and let the Italian Navy possess such powerful ironclads as soon as possible.

Compared to these navy generals, the officials of the Italian government were not so eager. When they learned that the selling price of one Matador-class ironclad was as high as 800,000 pounds sterling, they even had the idea of returning to Italy right now.

The selling price of 800,000 pounds sterling was too expensive; this money was enough for Italy’s own shipyards to build an ironclad warship with some left over.

Even if Spain’s warships had stronger designs than Italy’s warships, there was no reason for such an expensive selling price.

After some haggling, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard finally gave Italy a friendship price: a 95% discount on the 800,000 pounds sterling selling price, selling the ironclad warships to Italy at an internal price of 760,000 pounds sterling each.

If Italy ordered two ironclad warships at once, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard would also give some cannonballs and torpedoes as gifts, further reducing part of the expenditure for the Italian side.

Although the selling price of 760,000 pounds sterling was still more expensive than the Spanish government’s internal price, for the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, it had indeed shown its sincerity.

After all, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard also needed to make money. Being able to resist making a big profit on Italy’s order was already quite giving face to the Italian government.

The purchasing delegation had the authority to decide on warship purchases, which meant the purchasing delegation only needed to discuss internally and did not need to seek approval from the Italian government.

After the Italian purchasing delegation held several days of internal meetings, under the strong arguments of the Italian Navy generals, the purchasing delegation finally agreed to the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard’s selling price of 760,000 pounds sterling and purchased two ironclad warships at once.

The total warship purchase fee of 52 million pounds sterling would be paid in three installments. The first payment would be executed immediately after the order was signed; the Italian side needed to pay a deposit of 300,000 pounds sterling to the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, and Spain also needed to start construction of the two Italian warships within three months after the order payment.

The second and third payments would be made at the launching and delivery stages of the two warships respectively. After the three payments were completed, it would also mean the official completion of this warship purchase, and the warships would officially belong to the Italian Navy, having no further relation to Spain.

After the representatives of the Italian purchasing delegation and the Spanish Royal Gualnizo Shipyard successively signed on the order documents and took commemorative photos, this business was officially concluded.

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

When learning that Spain’s ironclad warships were true ten-thousand-ton giant ships, the British did not arbitrarily modify their own warship construction plans but ordered their shipyards to accelerate the warship construction speed.

After all, the British themselves had ten-thousand-ton giant ships. As long as Spain’s ironclad warships’ overall performance did not far exceed British ironclad warships, or Spain’s capital ships did not have the capability to threaten the British Fleet in numbers, Britain’s reaction would not be so intense.

Although Britain did not have a too intense reaction, the French reaction was relatively intense.

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

With Spain and Italy successively announcing navy expansion, the French could not hold back and announced their own construction plan for the next five years.

Spain and Italy together planned to build six ironclad warships in the next five years. The French government immediately decided to build six ironclad warships in the next five years in response.

This was not only to save face but also to weaken Spain and Italy’s influence in the western Mediterranean.

France’s naval strength was very powerful, stronger than both Italy and Spain. But the problem was that France faced the same issue as the United States: two coasts facing the sea, with a considerable distance between the two coasts.

Of course, France’s situation was much better than America’s. The connection between America’s east and west coasts required going around the entire South America, with a detour distance of nearly 20,000 kilometers.

While France’s west coast and south coast only needed to go around the Iberian Peninsula, about 3,000 kilometers.

Precisely because of having two non-adjacent coasts, this led France to only 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 France’s two coasts, it also dispersed France’s naval strength.

France’s navy overall far surpassed Spain and Italy, but if compared only in the Mediterranean, whether Spain or Italy’s forces did not have too big a strength gap with France.

Especially in the case of the two countries joining hands, even France’s Mediterranean Fleet would be unable to withstand the combined fleet of the two countries.

This was also the reason France decided to build six ironclad warships: to strengthen the strength of the Mediterranean Fleet and protect the security of France’s North African colonies.

Of course, there was another important reason: to save face for not fully occupying Tunisia in the Tunis War.

Building six ironclad warships at once in the next five years, Prime Minister Jules Ferry’s intention was also very clear. He wanted to tell all French people that France was still that powerful France, still a European hegemon-level power, no country could provoke it, and France had the capability to respond to any country’s provocation.

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