Taking Over the Factory

Although Carlo had no experience dealing with the Carlists, that did not mean others within the Spanish government lacked it.

Notably, the current Prime Minister Primo was not only born in Catalonia but had also participated in the First Carlist War—his credentials were practically maxed out.

Carlo did everything he could at the moment, which was to hand over full command of the army to Primo and let him handle all the troubles.

This was the enormous difference having Primo made. Amadeo had almost no way to deal with the Carlist rebellion, because within Spain, aside from Serrano, there were no other officials or high-ranking military figures with real influence who supported him.

But Carlo was different. With Primo and Serrano—two top military leaders—backing him, Carlo never considered the possibility of losing this war.

To ensure absolute safety, on Carlo's advice, the Spanish Army imposed martial law over Madrid and placed key institutions like the government and parliament under heavy protection.

In addition to the palace guard, a force of five hundred men, Carlo's palace was now surrounded by an additional hundred-man unit patrolling the perimeter.

Given that all of Madrid was under martial law, unless the Carlists and other opponents could directly breach the city, it was virtually impossible for them to pose any threat to Carlo or other high-ranking officials.

Before Carlos VII's army could even march out of Catalonia, the Spanish government received another piece of bad news.

A large-scale protest erupted in Vitoria, in the Basque Country. The crowd stormed the Vitoria city government and clashed violently with local police.

Clearly, the Basques, who dreamed of independence just like the Catalans, had also developed certain ideas.

Compared to Catalonia, which supported the Carlists and stirred up workers, the Basque protest had a more radical demand: full independence or autonomy for the entire Basque region.

Here, the Basque region refers to the Spanish Basque Country, Navarre, and the Northern Basque Country in France.

The Basques entrenched in these areas were one of the fiercest ethnic groups on the Iberian Peninsula, and the last to be conquered.

Fortunately, the total Basque population was only around six hundred thousand, scattered across the Basque Country and Navarre, so the threat was not as great as Catalonia's.

Regarding the protests in the Basque region, Primo's advice was to prioritize appeasement and use suppression only as a supplement.

After all, this ethnic group was quite formidable in combat. If they could be absorbed into the larger Spanish population, the fighting strength of the Spanish Army would be guaranteed.

Controlling the Basque Country and Navarre was also very simple: just relocate a certain number of Spaniards into these two regions to reduce the proportion of Basques.

Since the big capitalists, the Carlists, and the separatists in Catalonia and the Basque Country had all eagerly jumped out, there would naturally be no one left to oppose the Spanish government's reforms.

While organizing the army to prepare for war against the Carlists, Primo took the opportunity to vigorously push reforms around Madrid and strictly enforce labor laws.

The factory owners who had instigated protests and rebellions became the targets of Primo and Carlo's crackdown.

In just a few days, Madrid's police arrested dozens of factory owners and took over hundreds of factories and businesses of various sizes.

To maintain production around Madrid and secure the jobs of workers in those factories and enterprises, the government and the royal family took over most of these industries.

Although the government took the lion's share, Carlo's gains were also considerable.

Because Carlo had firmly supported Primo during the reforms, as a reward, Carlo acquired over a dozen factories around Madrid at a minimal cost.

These factories were all high-quality assets, each worth tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pesetas. Among them was the Madrid Steelworks, a large factory employing nearly a thousand workers.

With these factories, Carlo rapidly expanded his industrial holdings. His total assets were now worth over ten million pesetas, not to mention the more than ten million pesetas in cash he still held.

Excluding the palaces, summer residences, and estates he had taken over from Queen Isabella, Carlo could already rank among Spain's top ten richest men.

If all his assets were counted, Carlo could easily become the wealthiest person in Spain.

But Carlo did not care about such empty titles. In fact, he even discreetly handled some of the royal family's enterprises to make them appear unrelated to the crown.

Currently, aside from the winery, which bore the word "Royal" because it targeted the high-end market, none of his other industries carried that label. From their names alone, it was impossible to tell whether they belonged to the royal family.

As the King of Spain, Carlo naturally had to strictly enforce all provisions of the labor law.

The moment he took over those dozen factories, Carlo had someone tally up all the wages owed to his workers, and within the next day, he had basically paid off all the back pay.

Unsurprisingly, the current state of these dozen enterprises made it onto Madrid's newspapers and became a hot topic among the residents around the city.

Carlo's purpose in doing this was simple: to set a good example for Spain's capitalists.

If Carlo, as king, could firmly abide by Spain's labor laws and even pay off the wages the previous factory owners had owed, what reason did those capitalists have to continue withholding wages? Did they really think the working class was easy to bully?

As public opinion fermented, Carlo successfully gained a certain amount of prestige.

Paying back wages was normal, but paying the back wages owed by a previous factory owner was not.

For the workers of Madrid, this highlighted the biggest difference between Carlo and those capitalists.

From the beginning of February, residents of Madrid would occasionally bring up their king, Carlo, in conversation, adding a sincere word of praise.

Although Carlo's payment of back wages only covered fewer than a thousand workers, it affected nearly a thousand families.

Since all of this happened around Madrid, word spread from person to person, and at least tens of thousands of people now had a better impression of Carlo.

And that was precisely Carlo's goal: to gradually increase the Spanish people's goodwill toward him, so that they would support and cherish him from the bottom of their hearts.

Once workers saw that their friends had received the wages they were owed, they would naturally no longer accept being shortchanged by their own factory owners.

And the capitalists of this era were always greedy; they could never prioritize workers' opinions the way Carlo did.

This would make it difficult for capital and labor to unite again against royal authority, and the influence of the big capitalist class over Spain would always remain within a limited scope.

As for the future, when Spain's economy boomed due to reforms, Carlo's industries would also keep expanding, eventually becoming the largest conglomerate in Spain. Naturally, he would have no need to fear a resurgence of the capitalist class.

As long as Carlo became Spain's biggest capitalist, what other capitalist could possibly defeat him in Spain?

No matter how powerful capital was, it could never defeat the government, because holding the gun was the ultimate truth.

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