Carlo had no time to admire the bustle of Paris.
For Carlo, the most important industry in his plans for the future had yet to be established. It had to be put on the agenda.
What industry?
Naturally, it was a bank related to finance.
Since the Industrial Revolution, industry and finance had replaced agriculture as the two most profitable sectors.
Carlo already had more than a dozen factories. It was now time to establish his own financial institution and broaden his channels for making money.
Carlo had been preparing for quite some time to establish his own bank.
The most important thing for a bank was credibility. Only with credibility would the public voluntarily deposit their money there. Only once a bank had money could it make money, creating a virtuous cycle where money begot money and income flowed without end.
Carlo had earned some goodwill among the people of Madrid through several tax-cutting policies, but goodwill alone was not enough.
To put the public at ease about the newly established bank, Carlo planned to win over Spain's noble lords and have them join his bank.
As one of Spain's three most powerful classes—alongside landowners and the Church—the Spanish nobility lived in considerable luxury.
Previously, as an outsider, Carlo had not received the full support of the entire noble class. Some nobles had even chosen to support the Carlists, remaining utterly devoted to the House of Bourbon that had entrenched itself in Spain for centuries.
After defeating the Carlists, Carlo faced no further obstacles in exerting his influence over the noble class.
He wanted the nobility to establish the bank with him, firstly because they possessed more capital. This would give Carlo's bank a greater advantage in its early stages and allow it to expand more quickly.
Secondly, he wanted to lead the noble class to prosperity together, making it clear who the king above their heads truly was.
Most nobles were surely sensible enough. After all, Carlo was the king recognized by both the Spanish constitution and its people, an unchangeable fact.
Only by gaining sufficient influence and a strong enough voice within Spain's noble class could Carlo ensure that his position and authority as king would not be shaken.
Spain's monarchy had a long history, and the strength of the royalists could not be ignored. With the royalists' full support, the Republicans, who posed a grave threat to royal authority, would no longer be so deadly.
Naturally, the nobles also needed a capable monarch to lead them forward. Their status came from the king, and that was why Carlo was confident he could win the noble class's support.
After all, if the king, the greatest noble of them all, was gone, how could the remaining Dukes and Marquises continue to exist?
Carlo chose Toledo, south of Madrid, as his first target for recruitment. There was a noble there who wielded tremendous influence among Spain's noble class: Duke Jacob of Alba.
The House of Alba was one of the oldest noble families in all of Spain, holding among the greatest number of titles and lands. Naturally, its wealth was also among the greatest within the nobility.
To be honest, Carlo was somewhat envious of the House of Alba's wealth.
As an outsider king, Carlo's current assets were pitifully few. Aside from several castles left behind by the House of Bourbon, he possessed none of the vast lands that symbolized the great nobility.
They said that a king was the greatest landowner in a country, but in Spain, the scale of Carlo's lands did not even compare to that of certain Dukes.
The current Duke of Alba, Jacob Luis Fitz-James Stuart-Ventimiglia, had been born in 1835. Worth mentioning was that his wife and Napoleon III's wife were sisters, making him Napoleon III's brother-in-law.
To Carlo's relief, Duke Jacob of Alba treated him with great respect, and his words carried an unmistakable intention to curry favor with Carlo.
When Carlo proposed that they establish a bank jointly with the nobility, Duke Jacob of Alba immediately swore solemnly that he would buy shares in Carlo's bank and become its first depositor.
Though Carlo's conversation with Duke Jacopo lasted only a little over an hour, he and Duke Jacopo quickly reached a mutual understanding on establishing the bank, and their relationship grew closer.
Duke Jacopo also invited Carlo to his private banquet. His intention to throw in his lot with Carlo could not have been clearer.
Naturally, Carlo nodded again and again. Through Duke Jacob of Alba's introduction, Carlo could easily gather the nobles acquainted with the Duke of Alba and exert his own influence over the noble class.
Only when the majority of nobles pledged loyalty to him could the Spanish Royal Family be considered completely transformed, and only then could Spain truly enter the age of Savoy.
Interestingly, both Queen Isabella and Carlos VII of the Carlists had chosen to flee north to France after their defeats.
But France had now entered its republican era. Those nobles who had fled there for refuge might well be caught up in the turmoil.
At the very least, life in refuge in France would no longer be so comfortable. Napoleon III, the French Emperor, had once shielded them, but now even France's nobles could barely protect themselves. The refugees of Spain's House of Bourbon would find their position in France even more awkward.
The facts proved that most of Spain's nobles were not fools.
After Primo put down the Carlist Wars, these nobles had long intended to contact Carlo and pledge their loyalty.
Every noble Carlo met agreed to his proposal of jointly establishing a bank, and all of them stated that they would become depositors and save part of their funds there.
Even Primo, after Carlo's repeated invitations, finally nodded and agreed to join the Royal United Bank. This filled Carlo with confidence in the bank's future development.
Of course, Duke Serrano, who was far away suppressing the rebellion in Cuba, was also among Carlo's planned invitees. However, Serrano would have to wait until he returned to Madrid to join the bank, so there was no hurry for now.
With the nobles' support, the bank's preparations proceeded very smoothly.
On April 9, 1870, Madrid's first Royal United Bank officially opened, drawing widespread attention.
On its very first day of operation, a large number of nobles came to deposit money at the Royal United Bank. Such a grand scene sparked heated discussion among the public, and the Royal United Bank quickly became Madrid's most talked-about bank.
On the bank's first day, it welcomed several hundred depositors, most of them nobles who wished to show their support for Carlo.
The Dukes in particular calculated their deposits in units of 100,000 Pesetas, while some deposited more than 1 Million Pesetas outright.
Although 1 Million Pesetas was worth less than 40,000 pounds, such a sum was unquestionably a large deposit for any bank in Spain.
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