Chapter 286: Inspection Tour

Carlo did not let the newspapers extensively publicize the news of his order to open the sluices and release water, after all, sometimes excessive publicity is not a good thing. It only requires each government to mention it briefly when notifying, and naturally there will be a steady stream of people remembering Carlo’s kindness.

If publicized too much, it is inevitable that some people will become annoyed with such kindness propaganda or even develop resentment.

True gratitude needs to be inspired from the heart, rather than relying on the influence of one or two news articles. Carlo hopes to achieve Spaniards loving his rule from the heart, so in this aspect, it requires decades of subtle influence.

At present, Carlo’s plan is still very successful. Although some of Carlo’s actions are purposeful, for the Spanish people, they have indeed obtained various benefits from them.

After all, to put it bluntly, being able to disguise fake benevolence and righteousness for a lifetime can, to a certain extent, also be considered benevolence and righteousness.

It is nothing more than benevolence and righteousness with not-so-pure motives, but for the Spanish people, a monarch who can improve their income and make their lives better—isn’t that a wise ruler?

What Carlo did not expect was that the effect of not publicizing turned out to be the best. The drought put a large number of planters in desperate situations. When they had almost lost hope of survival, the news came that Carlo ordered to ensure farmers’ water use at all costs.

As the saying goes, adding flowers to brocade is not as good as sending charcoal in snow; Carlo’s action was no different from sending charcoal in snow.

What Carlo did not expect even more was that he originally had no intention of publicizing his efforts in disaster relief, but those rescued planters stood up one by one, constantly describing Carlo’s achievements.

Under their word-of-mouth transmission, Carlo’s attitude of sparing no effort to complete disaster relief won the adoration of the Spaniards, and they called Carlo a rare benevolent monarch in a century, the savior of chaotic Spain.

This situation was unexpected by Carlo, but Carlo would certainly not waste such a good opportunity.

The next day, some regions severely affected by the disaster had already strictly implemented the cabinet government’s order to open the sluices and release water.

In the end, the previously built water conservancy facilities played a role. Although it could not completely offset the negative impact of the drought, it could also save part of the planters’ income.

Those regions with less severe drought could still rely on surrounding water sources to hold on for a while, but if the regions with more severe drought did not open the sluices and release water, in a little more time, there would only be a large area of wasteland left.

Of course, in those regions with more severe drought, farmers’ income was certainly affected.

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

First, tax reduction for all regions affected by drought, with different degrees of tax exemption according to the severity of the drought, up to a full 2-year tax exemption.

Second, rescue of crops in drought-affected areas to minimize farmers’ losses in drought regions as much as possible.

Take Anthony as an example. He is a pure grape cultivator, and the grape harvest is basically during this period.

As long as the water supply for the grapevines can be ensured within a month, Anthony can fully obtain this year’s income.

After that, the water supply to Anthony’s grapevines can be reduced, and water resources transferred to other crops that need water more.

Of course, this is only the water resource allocation for regions with particularly severe drought. Regions with less severe drought can still meet water needs with local water sources and some water conservancy facilities.

For regions with particularly severe drought, after discussion at the cabinet meeting, it was decided to allocate 50 million pesetas as drought relief funds for disaster relief work for the more severely affected public.

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

As one of the countries with the least rainfall in Europe, drought in Spain is very common. Drought affects farmers’ grain yield and actual income. Defending against drought is not only to avoid its occurrence but also to add a defense line to Spain’s grain yield and agricultural products production volume.

Of course, this also triggered more discussions in the cabinet government about the environment of the Spanish mainland, as well as the urgency of vigorously developing the West African Colony.

Compared to the Spanish inland, the colonies controlled by Spain in West Africa are much better in geographical environment.

Especially the Gambia Colony, which is not only close to the sea for convenient transportation but also located in the tropics, where grain can achieve two or even three crops a year.

More importantly, it is a vast plain with abundant rainfall, without worrying about drought.

If Spain plants a large amount of grain here, there is no need to worry about natural or man-made disasters affecting grain harvest.

Of course, earthquakes and tsunamis are also inevitable. But the West African Colony is not located on any major seismic belt, so the only concern is the very low probability tsunamis.

Compared to the sparse rainfall on the Spanish mainland, the Gambia Colony can be fully called a fertile land.

In addition to discussing plans to relieve drought-affected regions, the cabinet is also exploring the development of colonies such as Gambia.

If the arable land of the Gambia Colony can be reclaimed and planted as soon as possible, Spain can reduce the proportion of mainland arable land and not rely on the relatively fragile agricultural environment of the mainland.

Carlo naturally would not reject the government’s proposal to accelerate the development of the West African Colony. The Gambia Colony controlled by Spain is larger than Gambia’s in posterity, and naturally has more land available for reclamation.

After annexing Guinea and the Ziguinchor Colony of Portugal in the future, the total area of the colonies will exceed 70,000 square kilometers, almost catching up with the total area of Portugal.

Portugal has a large amount of plains, and the Gambia Colony is no worse. The Gambia River in the colony flows through most of the land, which not only makes this land suitable for agricultural development but also suitable for river navigation.

Grain planted in various places in the colony can be transported to the colonial capital Banjul by railway or navigation, and then transported to the Spanish mainland by large transport ships.

The straight-line distance here to the Spanish mainland is only a little over 2,700 kilometers, and with the Canary Islands and South Morocco Colony of Spain along the way, the safety of grain transportation can be guaranteed.

Developing the West African Colony is certainly a good thing, but it also requires a large amount of funds investment.

50 million pesetas have already been allocated for drought relief, and for the Spanish Government, how much funds to use for developing the West African Colony is a question worth considering.

The good news is that this drought has made many nobles see the shortcomings of the Spanish mainland land. When the cabinet government discusses developing the West African Colony, the nobles are also planning to jointly carry out agricultural development of Spain’s colonies and establish new grain companies in Spain’s colonies.

Carlo certainly welcomes the Spanish nobles’ behavior of loving to farm land. For Spain to become a great power, it must guarantee domestic grain self-sufficiency rate.

Grain cannot rely on exports from other countries, after all, import and export relationships can be destroyed by war.

Only by having sufficient grain yield domestically can it ensure that on the day war comes, the country will not suffer economic chaos due to lack of grain, leading to more intense conflicts.

Lack of grain is no joke. As the saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people; for ordinary public, they can lack anything except grain.

Since the Gambia Colony is so suitable as Spain’s large agricultural area, Carlo naturally will not miss this good opportunity.

At the end of August, the Spanish Government first announced the 50 million pesetas drought relief plan, and then announced that it would increase imports of grain and agricultural products to cope with this drought crisis.

Drought will definitely reduce Spain’s grain and agricultural products production volume. To prevent grain prices from rising too much, timely importing more grain is very necessary.

Fortunately, currently only the Iberian Peninsula has relatively severe drought, mainly concentrated in the inland regions occupied by Spain.

Although Portugal also has some regions with drought, overall it is not serious.

After all, Portugal’s annual precipitation is quite abundant, and with its territory in a long strip shape, most of which is coastal, it naturally does not need to worry about drought.

Only Spain suffered drought, which can be considered a blessing in misfortune.

Spain can purchase sufficient grain from other countries in Europe to alleviate the grain crisis caused by drought domestically.

Of course, the current drought has not evolved to the extent of a grain crisis. There are still many grain-producing great powers in Europe, and buying grain is very easy.

After the government announced detailed relief plans, the public in the disaster areas completely felt relieved.

To soothe the emotions of the disaster area public, on the day the cabinet government announced the corresponding relief plans, orders were issued to the regional governments of the affected regions.

Prime Minister Canovas personally issued the order, requiring each regional government to promptly convey the cabinet government’s disaster relief decisions, try to soothe public emotions, and avoid emotional outbursts due to heavy losses.

Although the government will rescue the disaster area public as much as possible, there will still be some unlucky ones who suffer heavy losses before relief arrives.

The government is helpless about this; it can’t make exceptions to compensate them more, right?

Such exceptions would only make future relief work more difficult. In the future, when people suffer family ruin due to natural or man-made disasters, they will also make more demands on the government.

To prevent these unlucky ones from hating society or even retaliating by creating chaos, strengthening security forces in the affected regions during the drought is still very necessary.

Each regional government attaches great importance to the cabinet government’s instructions and has issued specific documents to each municipal government at the first time after receiving the order.

Because of Spain’s official performance appraisal system, no matter which level of government officials, they attach great importance to orders from the higher-level government.

The cabinet government only needs to supervise each regional government, and then each regional government supervises the subordinate municipal governments.

Each municipal government supervising the town governments and villages within its territory can complete top-down political supervision from the cabinet government.

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

For example, if a certain municipal government has relatively serious problems, the Spanish Cabinet Government will not directly hold that municipal government accountable, but will hold the superior regional government accountable.

If each regional government does not want to take responsibility for its subordinate municipal government, it must conduct stricter supervision over its subordinate municipal government.

In this way, the cabinet government does not need too much energy to infiltrate its influence into the most grassroots town and rural departments.

In addition, the parliaments of each region and city also play a role in supervision and oversight.

The parliaments also have direct subordinate relationships. Spain’s Lower House leads the regional parliaments, and the regional parliaments lead the city parliaments.

This ensures that no level of government has problems, with corresponding supervisory institutions at each level, ensuring that the power center cabinet government and Lower House can quickly exercise their power.

To express his attitude of caring for the public, after the government promulgated the corresponding relief measures, Carlo also took some guards and officials by train to the mountainous areas north of Madrid to personally see the disaster situation of the farmers.

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

Although located in the central inland of the Iberian Peninsula, as Spain’s capital, the Madrid municipal government has the most supporting water conservancy facilities among all regions in Spain.

This also results in Madrid, as inland Spain, not suffering too severe drought troubles.

Instead, the mountainous area north of Madrid, after passing through the mountainous area, has relatively severe drought due to insufficient water conservancy facilities.

The destination of Carlo’s inspection is the Castile-Leon region in the north of the Madrid region, with the regional capital city Valladolid, a small city with a population of less than 100,

Why did Carlo choose this small city as the inspection site? The reason is also simple: it is located in the center of the drought, Valladolid and the southern mountainous area are almost the driest places, and it has not rained for several months.

Carlo’s personal arrival aroused high importance from the Valladolid municipal government, and even the regional government officials had been looking forward to it.

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

This trip, Carlo also brought several specially modified cars, besides making travel more convenient, there was also the purpose of testing the stability of cars driving in mountainous areas.

Palencia is a small town on Spain’s Meseta Central, and one of the towns with the most severe drought in Spain.

According to the report from the Valladolid municipal government, it has not rained here for nearly six months, and the nearby rivers and water sources have almost dried up.

If not for a large water conservancy facility in the north of Valladolid playing a role, the people of this town could already consider relocating.

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

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

In this case, the originally fairly large water conservancy facility instantly became insufficient. The purpose of Carlo’s inspection here, besides seeing the drought with his own eyes, is also to deal with the serious water shortage trouble in Palencia.