Rise of Empires: Spain

Although the existing carbon filament light bulbs can also be used commercially, there will obviously not be much market for light bulbs before the power plant is built.

In order to solve this problem and to speed up the electrification process in Spain, Carlo decided to build a thermal power plant on the outskirts of Madrid to provide a certain amount of electricity for the Royal Palace of Madrid and parts of the city.

The good news is that the only electrical appliances in the world are light bulbs, and light bulbs do not consume much electricity. Although the power of the generators currently available for the construction of thermal power plants is not large, it can still meet the lighting needs of electric lights.

Gram himself is very knowledgeable about generators. The ring-shaped electric drive he developed can be used not only for hydropower generation, but also for thermal power generation.

According to Gram's calculations and estimates, the current set of ring-shaped electric drive engines is expected to reach a power generation of 5.5KW, which will become one of the largest power stations in Europe.

Gram manufactured two different sizes of light bulbs, the smaller one has a power of about 15 watts, and the larger one has a power of 35 watts.

This also means that even if this 5.5KW thermal power plant is in full working condition, it can only illuminate about 300 small bulbs or about 140 large bulbs at most.

This is without considering the loss of electricity transportation. Even if the power plant is close to the Royal Palace of Madrid, the loss of electricity is inevitable.

Fortunately, the biggest role of this thermal power plant is to provide lighting for the royal palace, and to show the convenience brought by electricity to the Spanish nobles and capitalists.

It is very difficult to rely on the royal family to promote the development of electrification in Spain. But if the nobles and capitalists work together, the process of electrification in Spain will be much faster.

At least the first step can make these nobles and capitalists interested in electric lights and electricity, and let them invest a certain amount of money in the power industry.

The lighting of electric lights is still very important. It can not only illuminate the castles and manors of the nobles, but also illuminate the factories of the capitalists.

The nobles want specific convenience and technology that reflects their status, while the capitalists want a way to make factories work in two shifts to make more money.

I believe that some people will be able to see the business opportunities of electricity and light bulbs. Anyway, Carlo can make money with the power laboratory. More people will participate in the power industry, which means that the speed of technological progress in the power industry will be faster.

In addition to letting the power laboratory build a thermal power station near the royal palace outside Madrid, Carlo also issued new tasks to the power laboratory.

First, continue to invest in the research of light bulbs and increase the life and brightness of light bulbs as much as possible. Small light bulbs are easy to say, but the life of large light bulbs of more than 100 hours is too short.

Considering that large light bulbs are generally used in factories or streets, which are relatively wide, the lighting time will also last for a long time.

Therefore, the life of large light bulbs must be increased to at least 300 hours, otherwise the cost and trouble caused by frequent replacement of large light bulbs may discourage some people who are originally interested.

The second is to continue to vigorously develop generators and related power generation ideas. The power generation power of 5.5KW is too small and can only illuminate a few hundred light bulbs. How can this promote the electrification of Spain?

We can't build dozens or hundreds of power stations to meet the power generation needs of a city. It will not only occupy a lot of land, but also cause greater pollution.

Carlo's requirement is to gradually increase the power of the generator to at least 30KW in the next five years. A power plant should build several more sets of generators and increase the power generation to hundreds of KW, which may barely meet the electricity needs of a street or a small city.

Only when the power generation is over 100 can we try to replace the steam engine in the factory with an electric motor. It is better to stick to the old steam engine than to rely on the current that can only illuminate the light bulb.

The third is to study more effective ways of power transmission. This is not like the later generations, with a fairly mature power transmission system.

Even the dispute between Tesla and Edison over direct current and alternating current has not yet begun. The power transmission method of this era is simply to pull wires, that's all.

Although pulling wires is very simple, a lot of power is lost during the transmission process. The power of the generator in the power plant is originally small, and a considerable part of it is lost during the power transportation process, which makes the power that a power plant can provide even less, even negligible in distant places.

If you want to promote electricity, there must be a more effective way to achieve long-distance transmission of electricity while minimizing power loss.

Only in this way can electricity be successfully popularized. However, considering the development of the power industry in history, Carlo did not have too high requirements for this.

At present, the research results of the power laboratory have exceeded Carlo's expectations. As for Carlo's subsequent requirements, whether they can be completed or not, Carlo will not reduce the research funds of the power laboratory.

In order to build a thermal power plant, Carlo also specially asked Butler Loren to establish the Royal Electricity Company of Spain.

Although the current Royal Electricity Company is just a shell subsidiary, Carlo is still very optimistic about the future development prospects of the power company.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Royal Electricity Company will be related to the smooth progress of Spain's electrification process, and may also become Spain's largest power giant in the future.

In addition to the task of building thermal power plants, the Royal Electricity Company also has a task of recruiting power-related talents across Europe.

The external excuse is that the construction of thermal power plants requires a large number of power talents. Although it is only a small-scale power plant, there is no upper limit on the recruitment of talents.

As long as they are power-related talents and experts, they can easily join the Royal Electricity Company after passing a certain background investigation.

If they are scientific researchers with relatively good abilities, they can also be recommended to enter the power laboratory and the Royal Academy of Sciences to enjoy more comprehensive welfare benefits and preferential treatment of status.

At present, there are no useful results in European power research, and Carlo does not have to worry that such a blatant talent grab will cause opposition from other countries.

Before other countries paid attention to the power industry, it happened to be a good time for Spain to absorb a large number of foreign talents. Although it is also possible to rely on its own training of talents to fill the vacancies, the training time in universities alone takes four years. For Spain now, four years is enough to change a lot, at least Spain now can't wait.

Although the news of the Spanish Royal Electricity Company recruiting employees is vigorous, it is ultimately just one of Spain's poaching.

It is not just the Royal Electricity Company, including the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, the Valencia United Shipyard, the Royal Steel Plant and various other factories and enterprises, which are recruiting employees in Spain and abroad.

Before the Spanish reform, Spain's attractiveness was not high for other European countries. After all, it is a monarchical dictatorship, with various systems that are too backward and too harsh on the people.

But after the Spanish reform, Spain's attractiveness has been further enhanced. Many media at home and abroad have established post-revolutionary Spain as one of the representatives of constitutional monarchy, and have widely publicized that only constitutional monarchy is the most advanced system that can bring progress and strength to the country.

This has also attracted a certain amount of attention to Spain, and the number of European immigrants received each year is also increasing, especially from Italy and Portugal.

In fact, relatively speaking, Italy's environment is not bad. But Italy's industry and economy are mainly concentrated in the north, and the large tracts of land south of Rome are still backward areas dominated by agriculture.

There are two main reasons for this. One is that southern Italy has fewer minerals and is not suitable for industrial construction.

The second is that southern Italy once belonged to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, not to the Kingdom of Sardinia, the core area of ​​the Kingdom of Italy.

Although the population on the Apennine Peninsula has been merged into Italians, the huge gap in industry and economy between northern and southern Italy has led to a low recognition of the entire country by southern Italians.

This feature can also be seen in the immigration data of European countries. Before the unification of the two great powers of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, the UK had the largest number of emigrants.

But since this point in time, immigrants from southern and eastern Europe have gradually replaced immigrants from northern Europe and become the mainstream of European emigration.

Italy has indeed shown such a trend at present. Spain, a country with a population of only 18 million, has an annual population growth of more than 200,000 people.

Italy's population has long exceeded 28 million, but Italy's net population growth is only about 150,000 people per year.

Is it because Italy has a low birth rate? No.

It's because a large number of Italian farmers choose to emigrate every year, and the small Apennine Peninsula can't really bear so many people.

This is not the future of highly mechanized and automated agriculture, but the 1875s when agriculture was entirely manual. Coupled with the fact that fertilizer technology is not mature, it is indeed difficult for the Apennine Peninsula to feed a population of nearly 30 million.

Although Italy's population is still growing steadily at a rate of more than 150,000 people per year, the income of millions of farmers in southern Italy is not high, and they even live a life of hunger.

At present, Spain has received more than 10,000 Italian immigrants each year, and is about to exceed the level of 20,000.

For Spain, a large number of Italian immigrants is a good thing, but also a bad thing.

Most of these Italian immigrants come from southern Italy, and southern Italy is generally farmers.

These Italian immigrants have a low level of culture and can only speak the local Italian dialect, making it difficult to communicate with Spaniards.

It is precisely because of their low level of culture that they are willing to accept jobs with lower salaries than the average salary in Spain in exchange for more stable working hours.

For these Italian immigrants, a more stable working environment is more important than income. For this reason, they can sacrifice a certain salary in exchange for a stable job that will not be fired.

This is a good thing for Italian immigrants, who can get a more stable job by giving up their income.

But for native Spaniards, this is not a good thing. The influx of Italian immigrants has led to many jobs that could have been taken by Spaniards being taken away. After all, capitalists prefer employees who require lower wages and are less demanding.

In other words, the continuous development of Spanish industry and its continuous development plans have led to factories and companies everywhere expanding and recruiting people.

Otherwise, the arrival of these Italian immigrants will definitely break the calm of the Spanish lake and arouse conflicts between Italian immigrants and local Spaniards.

Judging from the scale of talent introduction by Spanish enterprises and factories, Spain is still very attractive to the outside world.

Last year alone, the royal family's enterprises and factories introduced more than a thousand foreign talents, including nearly 50 scientists who joined the Royal Academy of Sciences and other research laboratories.

According to this progress, before Spanish universities are able to train enough talents for Spain, they can obtain tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of talents by introducing foreign talents alone.

Of course, introducing foreign talents is only one way to solve the talent shortage. Self-cultivation is the root and fundamental solution.

Even if a large number of talents can be attracted every year, Spain will never give up the means of building universities to train talents by itself.

It is worth mentioning that according to the cooperation agreement reached between Spain and the Republic of Lanfang, the Republic of Lanfang will send at least 50 international students to study in various universities in Spain in September this year.

Their tuition fees are provided by the Republic of Lanfang itself, and their food, clothing, housing and transportation are also provided by the Republic of Lanfang. Spain only sent transport ships to help them arrive in Spain, and assigned them universities according to their majors of interest.

Even these university students are just the first step, and there will be more students trained from childhood in the future.

The first is to help the Republic of Lanfang better master some industrial knowledge and technology, and the second is to brainwash a group of intellectuals who have a good impression of Spain and even blindly worship Spain as an advanced country by training students.

Through these intellectuals, influence the decision-making of the Republic of Lanfang, and even rely on them to control the Republic of Lanfang.

In the next ten or even dozens of years, these students may climb to high positions in the Republic of Lanfang and become senior officials of the country or senior military officials.

Their influence on the government of the Republic of Lanfang will also be strengthened. As long as they ensure that their admiration and good impression of Spain still exist, they can naturally make the entire Republic of Lanfang stand on the side of Spain.

Thanks to the continuous influx of immigrants and population, Madrid, the capital of Spain, is expected to become the first city in Spain with a population of more than 500,000 this year.

Barcelona, ​​the second largest city in Spain, had a population of more than 400,000 at the beginning of this year, becoming the second city in Spain with a population of more than 400,000.

The rapid population growth of Madrid and Barcelona also reflects the rapid development of Spain in recent years. The combined population of these two cities has exceeded 900,000, accounting for more than one twentieth of the total population of Spain.

This is not an immigrant country like the United States. The characteristic of an immigrant country is that the population of large cities is far greater than that of small cities, and even the population of some large cities combined exceeds the sum of all other small cities.

As a traditional European country with a long history, Spain's population is naturally impossible to be concentrated in large cities such as Madrid and Barcelona.

Only two cities can account for one twentieth of the country's total population, which also proves the prosperity of Barcelona and Madrid, and the problem that other cities in Spain are indeed small in scale.

In addition to the two cities of Madrid and Barcelona, ​​which can be shown off, other cities such as Seville, Valencia, and Zaragoza have a population of only 100,000 or even less than 100,000.

Carlo, who returned from the power laboratory, was in a very good mood. After all, the development of all walks of life in Spain has been very smooth so far.

With the strong investment of the royal family and the government, Spain's heavy industry will also usher in vigorous development. The power industry has made significant progress, and perhaps the process of electrification in Spain will make great progress one day in the future.

With a relaxed mood, Carlo also has the energy to pay attention to the development of other industries, such as culture and entertainment.

Since Carlo was crowned King of Spain, the Spanish flag has continued the national flag since the establishment of the kingdom, that is, a two-color striped flag with red on the top and bottom and a yellow widened horizontal bar in the middle.

On the left side of the widened horizontal bar in the middle is a vertical oval badge with a crown on his head. The badge is divided into two parts, the castle on the left represents the Kingdom of Castile, and the lion on the right represents the Kingdom of Leon.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with such a national flag, after all, Castile and Leon are important parts of the Kingdom of Spain.

But for Carlo, using the same national flag as the Bourbon Dynasty is inevitably confusing.

The reason why the Spanish flag was not changed during the reign of Amadeo in history was firstly the chaotic political situation in Spain, and secondly that Amadeo only ruled for three years.

But for Carlo now, it is necessary to design a new national flag. A new national flag must reflect the ruling status of the House of Savoy over Spain, strengthen the connection between the various regions of Spain, and try not to make too many changes to the original national flag, so as not to make the Spanish people too uncomfortable.

Under various considerations, the Spanish national flag of later generations actually meets the requirements. It is still the familiar two-color horizontal stripe flag, and the color scheme has not changed.

The only difference is that the yellow horizontal stripe in the middle represents the Spanish royal emblem, which has changed from a vertical oval to a shield shape and is divided into six parts.

The middle area can be used to place the family crest of the Savoy family, reflecting the ruling position of the Savoy family over Spain. Taking the center point as the dividing line, the entire shield is divided into four parts, which can be used to place the emblems of the four ancient Spanish kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarre, which are also the four most important parts of Spain.

The sharp corners under the shield can be used to place the flag of Granada, which is the last Muslim region annexed by Spain and is also the most populous region in Spain.

Even the two Hercules columns on both sides of the shield are also of reference value, after all, they represent the two sides divided by the Strait of Gibraltar.

Currently, Spain has territories on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, and such a national flag design is also completely in line with the current Spain.

Considering this, Carlo decided to gather people to make some modifications to the Spanish flag, modifying a flag that can reflect the characteristics of modern Spain and distinguish it from the original Kingdom of Spain.

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