Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 26: Chapter 25: Major Expansion of Royal Family Enterprises

During the fervent period of reform and construction in Spain, Carlo was also setting up his media empire.

Back in Italy, Carlo had Loren acquire a Spanish newspaper, but it remained at a very small scale.

Now that he had become the King of Spain, it was time to expand the newspaper in Spain and establish a media institution with high influence, similar to the Italian Sun.

The naming intent of the Italian Sun was quite good, and because it had previously fervently promoted the monarchy, the Sun Newspaper had gained some popularity in Spain. Carlo naturally adopted the name directly.

In October 1869, the Spanish Sun was officially established in Madrid and became Carlo’s first main industry in Spain.

The development potential near Madrid was not much worse than northern Italy, and Carlo’s expectation for the new Spanish Sun was to become a major newspaper with a daily circulation of twenty thousand copies within two years.

Apart from the Spanish Sun that was meant to boost fame, Carlo also had Loren quietly acquire over a dozen small newspapers to expand the number of newspapers in his media empire.

These newspapers were scattered around different parts of Spain, capable of influencing more Spanish families.

Besides laying out the media, Carlo also officially began a major expansion of the royal assets.

Sufficient funds were essential to achieving his plans in Spain amidst internal and external troubles.

Although newspapers could also earn some small profits, it was just a drop in the bucket for the enormous expenses of the Royal Palace.

The lands and most properties of the Bourbon Dynasty were confiscated by the government. Besides taking over the Madrid Royal Palace and some other castles and manors, Carlo did not acquire much of the lucrative industries and lands.

The revenues from Carlo’s current assets were just barely maintaining the expenses of the Royal Palace, and that was without even forming a Guard Army.

Whether it was for forming the Guard Army or for greater reforms and expansions in the future, investing in more industries was very necessary.

The first step in expanding the royal assets was for Carlo to target the food and wine industries.

There’s no need to mention food; it is a necessary resource for maintaining normal human life, an expendable item, and there’s no worry about market demand.

The status of wine in the West needs no mention either. As a type of alcoholic beverage pursued by the upper class and indispensable to the lower class, wine in Europe has no problem with market demand. The banquets among the nobility alone could consume a lot of wine.

Later on, Spain became the world’s third-largest wine-producing region, very suitable for the development of the wine industry. The wine produced by Carlo’s winery had no trouble being in demand, as the private winery of a king was naturally more prestigious than ordinary wineries.

In mid-October 1869, United Food was officially founded in Madrid. Carlo acquired a flour factory in Madrid and planned to expand it into a food processing plant.

What should be produced?

Carlo actually already had a plan in his heart, which was something similar to fast food in later generations.

However, it wouldn’t be very complicated, roughly two pieces of bread, with a bit of meat paste and jam in between, focusing on being affordable and good quality.

In this regard, food industry practitioners in later generations have already opened up many paths, giving Carlo many ways to reduce food costs, while making the food appear substantial and taste good.

As for the food safety problem that everyone talked about in later generations, there was no concern in this era.

Of course, as a king, Carlo could not disregard the life safety of Spaniards. All products under United Food could at least ensure there was no fatal poisoning, at most just a bit of diarrhea due to food quality.

A kind of food that was cheap and contained both meat and vegetables was believed to be welcomed in Spain, where the income was not high.

Carlo could also take the opportunity of establishing the food factory to set a benchmark for Spanish enterprises. When Spanish workers all envied the welfare system of royal enterprise employees, it would be time for the Spanish labor laws to be enacted.

Although labor laws would gain the workers’ favor, they would be countered by those big capitalists and factory owners.

Without sufficient assurance or a large amount of workers’ support, Carlo did not plan to promote the enactment of labor laws in the early stages.

After all, those big capitalists were also supporters of the monarchy. Opposing those big capitalists without mastering his own strength would be tantamount to digging his own grave.

Thus, United Food Factory was quietly established. There was still some time before it officially started production, and Carlo did not plan to heavily publicize his food factory before it received positive reactions.

Compared to the food factory, Carlo’s promotion of his winery was more aggressive.

Fortunately, several wineries from Queen Isabella were well maintained and not distributed as lands to farmers.

After all, the true value of a winery lies in the grapevines planted there, and the value of the land is not as significant as imagined.

Because Carlo voluntarily gave up those lands, Prim ultimately decided to hand over a few of Queen Isabella’s wineries to Carlo, at least to guarantee some income for the Royal Family.

This greatly facilitated Carlo. After all, to start a wine processing plant from scratch would require not only a lot of time but also substantial capital investment.

Just cultivating his own grapevines would take a long time, or purchasing mature grapevine seedlings would require a lot of capital investment.

With several existing wineries and vineyards at hand, Carlo only needed to rebrand these wineries to establish his private wine brand.

For his wine enterprise, Carlo planned to split it into two parts.

The first wine enterprise was named the Royal Winery, and the wine sold in the future would bear the name of royal supply and collection, targeting medium to high-end wines, with the target audience being wealthy big capitalists and nobility.

The second wine enterprise did not bear the word “royal,” named Iberian Manor, offering wine targeting value for money, aimed at ordinary Spaniards with not much money.

Through the strategy of simultaneous pursuit of high and low-end markets, Carlo could ensure that his wine industry rapidly captured the market share in Spain.

Relying on the Spanish market, Carlo could advance and retreat strategically, seizing the opportunity to capture more of the European wine market, thereby quickly realizing profitable plans for the wine industry.

The earning potential of the wine industry was stronger than that of newspapers. If a significant portion of the Spanish market could be captured, it would ensure that when Carlo formed the Guard Army in the future, he would not be so strapped for cash that he couldn’t even buy equipment.