Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 212: Arms Trade

The war between Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire broke out, which was also good news for Spain.

As soon as the war broke out, the armies deployed to the battlefield by both sides approached one million, and it would only become more exaggerated in the future.

The daily consumption of ammunition and supplies for this million-strong army was a huge figure, and it was also the business opportunity that Spain had been eagerly awaiting.

More importantly, neither Russia nor the Ottoman Empire had the ability to be self-sufficient during the war.

Before the war, the Ottoman Empire had experienced famine, and Russia also had problems with reduced grain yield. In this war, Spain could not only sell its own weapons and equipment and ammunition and supplies, but also sell some medical resources and grain. In short, it would make a huge profit.

Because Spain had no relationship with either side in the conflict, Spain could engage in trade cooperation with both warring parties without any burden.

In May 1877, Carlo summoned the Russian ambassador to Spain and proposed selling weapons and equipment and other important materials to Russia.

For Russia, there was no serious shortage of materials at this time. But the consumption on the frontline was enormous, and Russia’s current material reserves would not last long.

More importantly, the Ottoman Empire had help from the United Kingdom and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while Russia had no help from any great power.

At this time, Spain took the initiative to propose resource trade, which could help Russia avoid facing material shortages in the future. With this in mind, the Russian ambassador did not immediately reject Carlo’s proposal, but only said that he needed to contact Russia domestically, and then have detailed talks about trade between the two countries.

Carlo naturally had no objection. After all, it was the Russians participating in this war, and it would be the Russians who would be anxious about lacking resources in the future.

A few days later, the Russian ambassador brought back a reply from Russia domestically, willing to trade with Spain, purchasing Spain’s weapons and equipment, bullets and cannonballs, and other strategic resources.

After detailed negotiations between the royal arsenal and the Russian side, a purchase plan for a batch of weapons and equipment was finally confirmed.

Russia ordered 100,000 rifles, 350 cannons, 25 million bullets, and 100,000 cannonballs, and indicated that this was only the first batch of orders, with the scale of the second batch to be determined based on war consumption in the future.

The Russian side also specifically requested that before June 15, the royal arsenal should transport one-third of the weapons and equipment in the order to Russia, and complete the delivery of the entire order before August

Because the royal arsenal had produced a large batch of weapons and equipment before this war broke out, it naturally nodded in agreement to the Russians’ request.

But the royal arsenal also had its own conditions. This batch of weapons and equipment could be rushed for the Russian side, but the condition was that Russia could only pay for this order with gold reserves, mineral resources, or population.

Currently, the countries trading closely with Spain were France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy, so there was naturally no need for Russian rubles.

Although the value of currencies in various countries was linked to gold and silver, currencies from different places naturally had different prices in different places.

For example, the peseta, the official currency issued by the Spanish Currency Issuance Committee, had relatively stable value domestically in Spain, but abroad it certainly would not be as valuable.

Because the Russian side was unwilling to pay for this order only with gold, the royal arsenal also added other requirements, such as mineral resources and population.

The value of mineral resources naturally went without saying; Russia domestically possessed extremely rich mineral resources, and a tiny expenditure was like a drop in the bucket for Russia.

As for the requirement regarding population, it was considering the difficulties Spain faced in developing colonies.

Whether the Spanish Mainland or the colonies, both could be described as vast and sparsely populated.

Especially the Congo Territory, which had only recently been established; although it had vast land, the vast majority within the Congo Territory were local indigenous people, with only a pitiful few hundred Spaniards.

To carry out preliminary development of this land, at least tens of thousands of immigrants were needed. If all were immigrated from the Spanish Mainland, it would have a relatively serious impact on the development of the Spanish Mainland.

After all, Spain’s population was only less than 20 million, and compared to the five traditional great powers, the population disadvantage was too great.

The Russian population in this era had one advantage: due to long-term serfdom oppression, Russian farmers had developed a submissive character.

Moreover, compared to the World War I period, there were fewer radical and extreme rebels at this time, making them very suitable for Carlo’s rule.

The downside was that Orthodox Christianity was deeply rooted in the hearts of Russian farmers, and turning these Russians into Spaniards would absolutely be extremely difficult.

For Spain, it could absorb some Russian population, but not too much.

Anyway, Carlo’s purpose was only to have these Russians develop African colonies, while incidentally diluting the proportion of locals in the Catalan region and Basque Country.

This transaction was mutually beneficial for both Spain and Russia, so after signing the cooperation agreement, both sides were smiling.

The Russian side obtained its scarce weapons and equipment, while Spain obtained certain gold reserves and some relatively obedient Russian farmer population.

Although this population was provided by Russia, Spain would also screen them. Those engaged in anti-government movements, or with some relatively dangerous ideas, would be strictly excluded from the immigrant Russian population.

It was better to let these people stay in Russia to harm the Tsarist Government; Spain did not need these anarchists and radicals to cause harm.

Compared to Russia, Spain still had some attractiveness to these Russian farmers. Although Russia’s reforms had abolished slavery, these serfs had only changed to a different way of continuing to be exploited by Russia’s nobles and landlords.

Although Alexander II had given these serfs the identity of free civilians, these serfs had no land or property.

Farmers without land—how could these serfs who had just become free civilians survive?

They could only rely on loans from nobles and other banking institutions to purchase obviously overpriced land, or be forced to rent arable land from noble lords with rent as high as a mountain, continuing their serf life in another way.

Precisely because these Russian farmers were subjected to extremely cruel oppression and exploitation domestically, Carlo had confidence that by introducing some Russian farmers, he could increase Spain’s population.

Of course, no matter how submissive these Russian people were, Spain’s capacity to accommodate Russian population was always limited.

Considering Spain’s current population scale, the plan to introduce Russian population had an upper limit. The current upper limit was 500,000 people, which would change with the growth of Spain’s total population.

But it could be certain that unless Spain’s population exceeded 30 million, the Russian population introduced by Spain would not exceed 1 million.

Moreover, these introduced Russian populations would also be dispersed across various places in Spain, not giving them a chance to unite.

With more than ten regions and several colonies in Spain divided this way, the Russian population would not cause any impact.

After all, such a population introduction plan was implemented step by step, with at most only tens of thousands of Russian people obtained each year.

Tens of thousands were still very manageable, neither burdening the Spanish Government nor failing to effectively promote Spain’s population growth.

Currently, Spain’s population was showing very significant improvement in a relatively peaceful and stable environment.

During Queen Isabella’s rule, Spain’s population was almost stagnant, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing, with the population scale never having stable growth.

After Queen Isabella stepped down, Spain’s population growth began to enter a relatively fast level.

In the whole year of 1869, Spain’s net population growth exceeded 140,000, which was also the fastest year of population growth in Spain over the past decade of the 1860s.

Entering the 1870s, Spain’s population growth was like getting on a train, escaping the slow speed of walking.

As of now, Spain’s population had officially exceeded 66 million, while eight years ago it was only 61 million.

In eight years, net population growth exceeded 2 million, and the population growth rate could already rival some great power countries with larger populations.

Although great power countries had the influence of immigration, after all, the population scale was there. That Spain’s population growth could rival these great powers also proved the positive impact that Spain’s stability during this period brought to Spain.

At this population growth rate, Spain had hope of raising its total population above 20 million within five years, and above 25 million before the new century arrived.

This was still under conservative estimates. If immigration, population lifespan improvement, and medical technology development were factored in, perhaps before the new century arrived, or in the early years of the new century, Spain’s total population had hope of reaching around 30 million.

Considering Spain’s population introduction plans in the Philippines, Morocco, and Lanfang, 30 million population was achievable.

If it could reach a population scale of 30 million in the early years of the new century, for Spain, it would also have more confidence in the future World War I.

In June 1877, the firearms and bullets and cannonballs produced by the royal arsenal were transported to Russian ports via sea transport.

Because the United Kingdom had already blockaded the Straits of Constantinople, Spain had only two ways to transport these weapons and equipment to Russia: one was through the English Channel and North Sea, transporting the weapons and equipment to Russian ports on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea.

The other was transporting to the Russian Far East, then transferring to the frontline battlefield via land transport.

For Russia, the only acceptable transport method was to the Baltic Sea coast.

If transported to the Far East, the time for sea plus land transport could not be determined at all, and it would take at least several months for the frontline army to receive this batch of equipment.

If unloaded on the Baltic Sea coast, Russia’s railway facilities in Eastern Europe were still relatively good. Although not as crisscrossed and convenient as Germany’s and France’s railways, it at least had a complete railway transport system.

The first transport method could ensure that the Russian frontline army obtained this batch of weapons and equipment within a month, which was acceptable to Russia.

Actually, from this point, it could also be seen why Russia wanted to continuously expand on the Balkan Peninsula.

With Constantinople in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, it directly cut off Russia’s connection between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Any country wanting to aid Russia could only transport materials through the more northern Baltic Sea.

And the Baltic Sea was far from the main Balkan battlefield; compared to directly transporting supplies through the Straits of Constantinople, the wasted time could even change the battlefield situation.

Fortunately, Russia had made careful preparations before launching the war, so at least in the short term, weapons and equipment were not lacking.

This also had to praise the changes brought to Russia by Alexander II’s reforms. In the last Russo-Turkish War, that is, the Crimean War period, Russia’s industrial base was extremely poor, and the war ultimately ended only in defeat.

But in this war, Russia had already established a certain industrial base through reforms, which was an extremely major change for Russia.

Although Alexander II’s reforms were not thorough, they were at least a reform across the entire Russia, having a very important positive role for Russia.

It could even be said that Russia could maintain its status as one of Europe’s five traditional great powers after the Crimean War: first, its vast territory and population leading the European powers; second, the industrial improvement brought to Russia by Alexander II’s reforms.

Russia’s industry ranked near the bottom among Europe’s five traditional great powers, but compared to other non-great powers and countries that were not great powers, Russia’s industry was of course still very strong.

Having finalized the arms trade with Russia, the Spanish Government turned around and contacted the Ottoman Empire.

Although the Ottoman Empire had experienced famine and financial collapse, who made them have British support?

As is well known, the United Kingdom was absolutely one of Europe’s wealthiest countries. British support was extremely important blood transfusion for the Ottoman Empire, also allowing this decaying empire to always hold on to one last breath.

But no matter what, at this time on the battlefield, the Ottoman Empire was still lacking advanced weapons and equipment and ammunition supplies.

Spain happened to have these two things, which was also why Spain approached the Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, besides the scarce weapons and equipment, the Ottoman Empire also lacked grain, which Spain currently did not lack.

Compared to negotiations with the Russians, negotiations with the Ottoman Empire were obviously much smoother. The main reason was that the Ottoman Empire’s industrial base was even weaker, and the weapons and equipment and ammunition consumed in the war almost all came from aid by the United Kingdom and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Since it was aid, it was definitely limited. The guns and ammunition supplies reserved domestically in the Ottoman Empire were becoming fewer and fewer, which also made the empire’s top echelons fall into panic.

The current active contact from the Spanish Government was like seeing hope to persist for the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire could be said to lack everything, but currently the two most lacking things were weapons and equipment, and grain.

Before this war broke out, the Ottoman Empire had experienced a relatively severe famine. This famine not only caused chaos in the Ottoman Empire, but also led to a large number of refugees starving to death.

To organize nearly 400,000 troops in the war, British aid was absolutely meritorious. Most of these soldiers’ weapons and equipment came from British aid, with a small portion secretly transported from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

From this, it could also be seen that the British aid to the Ottoman Empire was already sparing no effort to help the Ottoman Empire.

Besides weapons and equipment, British aid to the Ottoman Empire also included grain and some financial support.

The Ottoman Empire had already fallen into fiscal crisis during the famine; without financial support, the empire would go bankrupt before the war even ended.

What Carlo had his eye on was precisely this portion of funds. British pounds were still very valuable and could be used as currency for consumption in other European countries.

Selling large quantities of weapons and equipment to the Ottoman Empire in exchange for pounds, then using pounds to purchase industrial equipment and other technical data from other European countries to develop Spain’s own industry—this was simply a perfect plan.

The arms trade with the Russian side mainly consisted of orders for rifles and bullets. After all, Russia had an advantage in cannons, and domestic cannon production was sufficient for consumption in this war.

But the Ottoman Empire was different. The Ottoman Empire was in huge disadvantage in cannons; what they wanted most was a large number of cannons to make up the gap.

The Ottoman Empire was not short of rifles; after all, British support was not small, and with Ottoman soldiers holding British-made rifles in hand, they naturally would not have much interest in Spanish-made rifles.

After several days of negotiations, the armory signed another order with the Ottoman side.

This order only included 20,000 rifles and 10 million bullets, but cannons exceeded 580, along with matching 150,000 cannonballs.

The Ottoman Empire also specifically requested that the rifle and bullet order could be delivered later, but the cannon order should be fully delivered within three months.

For the royal arsenal, which had long been prepared, delivering over 580 cannons within three months was no problem at all.

Just like that, the royal arsenal and the Ottoman Empire happily signed the order, agreeing to complete the order delivery within three months, with the Ottoman Empire paying for this order with gold, pounds, and mineral resources.

Besides this arms order, the Ottoman Empire also signed a grain trade agreement with Spain.

In these years of stability, Spain’s grain yield had also been steadily advancing. Currently, Spain exported large quantities of grain every year, so signing a grain trade order with the Ottoman Empire was no big deal for Spain.

The signing of these two consecutive orders put the royal arsenal into a brief busy period. Currently, the royal arsenal’s inventory was almost enough to complete most of the delivery for both orders, and the remaining small amount of weapons and equipment, through rushed production, could also ensure completion of the entire order delivery within the stipulated time.

As for the profits generated from these two arms trades, the royal arsenal used them for upgrading and improving weapons and equipment.

Although Spain’s currently equipped rifles and cannons were relatively excellent products, with the development of military technology, these rifles and cannons would eventually become outdated one day.

Only by continuously improving them and developing generation after generation of new products could Spain ensure that its military technology always remained at the forefront of Europe.

Although this required spending large amounts of funds, compared to the improvements brought to Spain by the continuous updating and iteration of military technology, this tiny expenditure was absolutely worth it.

5200-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!