GBP Chapter 221: Mediation Plan
Chapter 221: Mediation Plan
The Cuban Colony was extremely important to Spain, which was why the cabinet ministers all showed shocked and surprised expressions when the Minister of Colonial Affairs Frank said that the Cuban Colony might not be that important.
How important was the Cuban Colony?
In 1876, the total fiscal revenue of the Spanish Government was 3 million pesetas, which was also the highest fiscal revenue for Spain in the past decade.
The revenue brought to Spain by the Cuban Colony alone reached 27 million pesetas, accounting for 3% of Spain’s total fiscal revenue.
The reason the proportion did not seem high was, first, that the Spanish Mainland had achieved relatively good development in recent years, with fiscal revenue steadily rising along with the development of the Spanish Mainland.
Second, during Grand Duke Serrano’s last quelling of the Cuban Rebellion, he signed a tax agreement with the local people in Cuba, allowing the Cuban Colony to retain more tax revenue locally, which brought temporary stability to the Cuban Colony.
27 million pesetas was absolutely not a small amount, and the Cuban Colony was the only colony among all those controlled by Spain with net income exceeding 20 million pesos. （Pesetas were the currency of Spanish Colonies, with value equivalent to the pesetas of the mainland）
Compared to Cuba, the Philippine Colony, which had a larger area and more population, provided only 12 million pesetas to Spain last year, which also highlighted the importance of the Cuban Colony.
For the Spanish Government, abandoning the Cuban Colony meant giving up nearly 60 million pesetas in revenue. How could such a proposal not shock the cabinet ministers?
Since the proposal had already been made, Minister Frank naturally would not back down midway. He first nodded to Grand Duke Serrano, who had kindly reminded him, and then continued to express his views: “ Gentlemen, of course I know that the Cuban Colony brings us nearly 60 million pesetas in revenue each year. But at the same time, we should also consider the harm brought by continuing to hold the Cuban Colony.
Although Cuba has only a million people, both the whites and black people in Cuba are opposing our rule. The last time I went to Cuba, even the plantation slaves were shouting for autonomy and independence.
Faced with such a Cuba, do we really want to keep suppressing it? The reason the last suppression only cost 50 million pesetas was mainly because the tax legislation made some plantation owners side with us.
But these plantation owners’ appetites will eventually grow larger. Either we continue to yield, or we have to keep sending troops to suppress the rebellion in Cuba.
If every suppression of the rebellion requires spending tens of millions or even over a hundred million pesetas, is the revenue from the Cuban Colony really still that important?
Moreover, don’t forget that the Cuban Colony is right at the Americans’ doorstep. Cuba is so chaotic, and it absolutely cannot be unrelated to the Americans.
Unless we are prepared to wage a war with the United States, we should still hand this trouble over to other countries. If we can exchange it for a colony of equally high value, it won’t be a heavy loss for us.
Cuba’s sugar industry and tobacco can indeed earn a lot of revenue, but Cuba is not irreplaceable in these two industries either.”
After Carlo assigned this difficult task to Minister Frank, Minister Frank had carefully prepared his speech to persuade these cabinet ministers, or at least provide sufficient reasons to prove his views were correct.
For Spain, Cuba was the only remaining colony in America and the last witness to the former Spanish colonial empire.
Not only was the Spanish Government unwilling to lose the Cuban Colony, but the Spaniards were equally unwilling to lose this colony that had been held for centuries.
Even if Minister Frank could prove his views correct, it would be very difficult to get the cabinet ministers to agree to abandon the Cuban Colony.
After all, if they abandoned the Cuban Colony at this time and something went wrong, they themselves would be the ones to take the blame. If they did not abandon the Cuban Colony now, even if Cuba sought independence in the future, it would have nothing to do with the current cabinet government.
For the cabinet ministers, when considering issues, they first thought about the impact on themselves, and only secondarily about the impact on Spain.
Getting them to agree to abandon the Cuban Colony was absolutely very difficult.
Carlo looked around, and among the cabinet ministers, some were carefully considering the views proposed by Minister Frank, while others seemed lost in thought, apparently not caring about what Minister Frank said.
Seeing no one standing up to support his views, Minister Frank paused for a moment, then continued: “The biggest drawback of the Cuban Colony for us is that it is too far from the Spanish Mainland.
Once a rebellion breaks out in the Cuban Colony, we need to cross the ocean to quell it. If we could obtain colonies closer to the mainland and implement long-term localization strategies, perhaps we could directly turn them into our mainland.
Africa still has vast lands unexplored, and we could also exchange for African colonies from the hands of other great powers. For us, African colonies are closer and more convenient for our management.”
Although the warship technology of various countries was constantly upgrading, the speed of ironclad ships was currently only about 13 knots, or roughly 24 kilometers per hour.
The distance from the Spanish Mainland to the Cuban Colony was about 7,400 kilometers, and this was just the straight-line distance between them. Crossing the Atlantic certainly could not be done in a straight line, as there were no supplies along the straight path.
A straight-line distance of 7,400 kilometers also meant that traveling from the Spanish Mainland to the Cuban Colony would take at least nearly 10,000 kilometers.
For Spain, rushing tens of thousands of miles to the Cuban Rebellion was an extremely difficult process, and the military budget for quelling the rebellion would multiply several times.
Spain was no longer the former Spanish Empire, and continuing to hold the Cuban Colony was not entirely beneficial for Spain.
Minister Frank had seized on the problems of the Cuban Colony to propose his views, which were indeed the current risks of Spain colonizing Cuba.
Spain was not very afraid of a single American, because at this time, the impression Americans gave to Europeans was one of prosperity in the east and chaos in the west.
The eastern United States was the earliest colonized region, and it was also the most developed and densely populated area in the United States.
Although the United States did not ban guns, the order in the eastern United States was still relatively safe and prosperous compared to the west.
But the western United States was quite chaotic. The Wild West was not called that for nothing; gangs, criminals, smugglers, and gold prospectors together formed the Wild West, where gunfights occurred frequently and gang firefights were countless.
Besides this impression, the impression Americans gave to Europeans had to trace back over a hundred years to the colonial period.
America was full of gold mines, which made large numbers of gold prospectors go to great lengths to head to the United States for gold mining.
The United States attracted a large population with its gold mines, and every year tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of European immigrants crossed the ocean to seek opportunities in the United States with more prospects, including smugglers and laborers from all over the world.
As a country independent from a colony, the United States was quite fortunate. They did not even need to focus much on population growth, as large numbers of immigrants and smugglers came to the United States every year.
But they were also unfortunate. These immigrants came from countries and regions all over the world, and the United States was one of the few countries in the world that had whites, black people, and yellow people.
The whites in the United States were basically descendants of European immigrants, many of whom were recent immigrants to the United States.
The black people were mostly slaves brought from Africa to the United States during the slave trade period; after the Civil War, they gained the status of freedmen and were bona fide American citizens.
The yellow people were even more complex, mostly smugglers from Asia or gold prospectors attracted by the gold mines.
In California in the western United States, there was a city called San Francisco. This was originally land discovered by Spaniards, attracting large numbers of smugglers and gold prospectors.
Yellow gold prospectors called San Francisco the Gold Mountain, implying that gold was piled up like mountains here, to describe the vast gold mines of San Francisco.
Later, Melbourne in Australia was also called Gold Mountain because of its large gold mines. To distinguish between these two Gold Mountain cities, the original Gold Mountain, San Francisco, was called Old Gold Mountain, and the later Gold Mountain Melbourne was called New Gold Mountain.
The United States at this time was still in a period of low-key development; they did not seek too high international influence, which made European countries generally look down on the United States.
Of course, the strength of the United States at this time was indeed not very powerful, which was one of the reasons European countries looked down on it.
After the Minister of Colonial Affairs Frank finished expressing his views, the cabinet meeting fell into a silence.
Not a single cabinet minister stood up to express their views, whether in agreement or opposition.
Deputy Prime Minister Cánovas pretended to casually glance at Carlo’s expression several times before standing up, looking at everyone in the cabinet, and then speaking: “Minister Frank, what you said does make some sense. But the Cuban Colony is too important to us. No matter how it is handled later, it cannot be completed in a short time.
I suggest we leak some news to observe public opinion. If the public supports exchanging the Cuban Colony, we can naturally go along with popular support, which won’t lead to public dissatisfaction.
If the public opposes abandoning the Cuban Colony, we can treat the leaked news as a rumor and promptly clarify it to the public.
What do you all think?”
The reason the cabinet ministers were slow to express their views was actually because they were worried that news of abandoning the Cuban Colony leaking out would backfire on them and subject them to attacks from the public.
Never underestimate the patriotic enthusiasm of Spaniards; they could cheer with raised arms when the country gained new colonies, and similarly denounce angrily when the country lost colonies.
Without sufficient assurance, they would not put themselves in danger, after all, this was a major matter concerning their future political careers.
Hearing Cánovas’s proposal, Grand Duke Serrano nodded and also stood up to say: “Minister Cánovas’s proposal is good; I think this is the most appropriate choice at present.
Regarding the Cuban Colony, we must fully consider public opinion. If the public is willing to abandon the Cuban Colony, then we should naturally abandon it.
But if the public is unwilling to abandon the Cuban Colony, then we can only fight for public opinion, for Spain.
Gentlemen, before we gauge public opinion, I hope everyone can strictly keep it confidential. This concerns the entire cabinet government, and I do not want any news leaks outside the plan.”
With that, Grand Duke Serrano turned his gaze to several cabinet ministers from the Liberal Party and Progressive Party, the implication in his words already quite clear.
In the cabinet departments, both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister were from the Conservative Party, so currently they only needed to worry about whether the Liberal Party and Progressive Party would leak the news.
As for the Conservative Party, only a fool would actively leak the news. After all, with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister both from the Conservative Party, creating trouble for the cabinet government would be equivalent to creating trouble for the Conservative Party.
Noticing Grand Duke Serrano’s gaze, the several cabinet ministers from the Liberal Party and Progressive Party quickly nodded, indicating they would strictly keep it confidential.
Although Grand Duke Serrano’s role as Prime Minister was more symbolic, and Deputy Prime Minister Cánovas was truly in charge of cabinet work.
But no one dared ignore Grand Duke Serrano’s opinion. Besides being highly valued by Carlo, another reason was that as Minister of Defense, Grand Duke Serrano held military power in his hands.
Although Grand Duke Serrano’s influence in the political arena was not as great as that of former Prime Minister Primó, Grand Duke Serrano’s resume was equally illustrious.
Prime Minister Primó had served as Colonial Governor, and Grand Duke Serrano had also served as Colonial Governor. Both came from the military, with equally brilliant military records.
Moreover, speaking of it, Grand Duke Serrano and Prime Minister Primó were the creators of the current Spanish Government; it was they who led troops to overthrow Queen Isabella’s rule.
As long as Grand Duke Serrano still held military power, the other cabinet members did not dare ignore his opinion.
At that moment, Carlo suddenly coughed twice, then unusually expressed his opinion in the meeting: “I also think Minister Cánovas’s proposal is good. Let’s do it that way.”
Since Carlo had expressed his opinion, the other cabinet ministers naturally had no further suggestions. Everyone knew who called the shots in the current Spanish Government.
Carlo would not easily make decisions, but once he did, even Grand Duke Serrano and Minister Cánovas could not stop it.
A king who controlled the Senate already held enormous power. Not to mention that Carlo had also gained military power by forming the Spanish Military Committee. With military power in hand, Carlo had thoroughly seized power; it would not be an overstatement to say he wielded absolute authority.
The cabinet meeting’s discussion ended just like that, but Carlo was quite satisfied with the direction of development.
Carlo had not intended to abandon the Cuban Colony immediately. This time, having Minister Frank voice the idea of abandoning the Cuban Colony was actually to give the cabinet ministers a heads-up.
The Cuban Colony would have to be abandoned sooner or later; Cuba, separated by an Atlantic Ocean, was not in Carlo’s plans.
Future Spain would expand more toward Africa, especially the Northwest Africa region and around the Congo Territory; these two areas were the lands Spain truly intended to expand into.
If the remaining lands could be exchanged for equivalent interests, Carlo did not mind doing so.
Lands like Morocco could be localized in the future, in other words, lands Spain could permanently control.
Whereas lands like Cuba would eventually become independent. Even if Carlo replaced batches of residents in Cuba, as long as there were people born in Cuba, the concept of Cubans would never disappear.
It would be better to squeeze out the last bit of benefit from Cuba and then sell it to other great powers, creating some trouble for the Americans.
Hawaii at this time had not yet been annexed by the United States, so they could also trip up the Americans there.
If the Americans could create conflicts for Spain in Cuba, Spain could similarly create problems for the Americans in Hawaii.
Anyway, Spain at this time did not need to worry about threats from the United States; the United States lacked the strength to cross the ocean to attack Spain.
The American Civil War had ended less than 20 years ago, and the conflicts from the north-south split had not been eliminated domestically in the United States.
Although the Civil War freed large numbers of plantation slaves in the United States, after these black slaves gained freedmen status, their positions did not change dramatically.
Racial discrimination still existed in posterity, let alone in 1877 over a hundred years prior.
The United States at this time was still practicing the racial segregation system; black people could not set foot in white people’s cities.
Black people could never find the easy jobs that whites could; they could only do bottom-level work, which was not only tiring but also paid much less than whites.
Black people could only serve as police in black people’s cities and could not get promotions. White police could arbitrarily deal with black people, needing only a seemingly reasonable excuse.
When black police faced white criminals, even if the white crimes were heinous, black police had no authority to arrest them.
Black police could not even enter white residential areas. Such disparate treatment was also a hidden danger existing in the United States.
In plain terms, the United States had merely masked its domestic problems with rapid development. The problems existing domestically in the United States were numerous, even more severe than in Spain.
Spain’s population was all white, and Catalans and Basque people who truly had low recognition of Spain only accounted for a small proportion.
The United States was a country with whites, black people, and yellow people; it had large numbers of black people, who were similarly destabilizing factors for the United States.
Unless the United States could completely resolve the problems between black people and whites, or eliminate one of them, the problems in the United States would exist forever.
Such problems were of course no big deal in times of peace and prosperity, and could not even cause national chaos. But in unstable times, such problems would be fatal for the United States, even potentially causing its split and civil war.
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