The Silver Age: A Spain AAR, Part 2
First Railroad Construction
II. 1845
The economic recovery continued at a fast pace, clearing the national debt allowing the Queen and Cortes to finally abolish the War-Time Taxes and even abandon a long time Monopoly tradition: high tariffs. All this helped prevent Spaniards from migrating to the new world that was for about 35 years now in the hands of Mulattos, Indios, and Spanish Aristocrats. Many great artists made themselves famous around this time, only making literature even richer; artists such as Espronceda, Rivas, and Bécquer. Indeed the Post-Romanticism and Realism eras arrived, but rich in culture was not equivalent to rich in capital.
It was necessary to invest in industrialization for any nation to be shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of Europe, thus it was decided to set a fund specifically for railroads and factories. To be more specific: cement, liquor, furniture, wine, lumber, machine parts, and clothing factories. This would hamper migration to the colonies of Spain, but in the long run increasing funds allowing the government to spend more on healthcare other social programs, thus increasing the standard of living. Most importantly though, it would give the funds necessary to maintain a large military. The Industrial revolution began, for the most part, in the northern lands with Joaquín del Oviedo, one of the railroad contractors.
Joaquín visits Madrid as part of a Senate hearing on his progress and, well, complaints.
Ezpleta, still Second Vice-President, felt uneasy working with his new superiors. Protocol has changed, he barely said anything now. The President of the Senate, Manuel Pando y Fernández-Pinedo, Marqués de Miraflores, was a micromanager and what some would call a control freak. Nonetheless, Ezpleta could at the most begin senate sessions: “Senators! Joaquín del Oviedo, rail contractor by the order of the Cortes and her Queen, Isabella II; he speaks!”
“You may speak” said President Pando, in an annoyed type of voice, as if Ezpleta’s opening statement was not good enough.
“Machine parts! English Machine parts!”, Jaoquín quickly blurted out in a quick excited voice. “They are so few but sorely needed. I beg of you to set your prejudices of the Anglos aside, for we may end up as dead as the east! Railroads are now widely popular in Galicia, Barcelona, and Madrid. Every senator here has experienced the advantages of one, but with out the machinery it will be but a dream for most!”
“It is not that we share hatred toward the United Kingdom, but that they simply will not export any.”, replied the new First Vice President, Mauricio Álvarez Bohorques.
“What?! What do you mean?! Please explain!” demanded the engineer.
Ezpleta, about to elaborate on Bohorques’s statement, was interrupted by Pando, again. He put his cigar deep in his mouth and began angrily chewing on the end of it with smoke coming out of his red ears as well.
Engineer Joaquín de Oviedo
“Well, that is not exactly correct”, he began. “It is not that the United Kingdom will not export Spain any but that, because of their own Industrial Revolution, they can barely sell anyone any materials such as machinery, steel, and coal. For the time being, Spain will have to rely on its own research and education, which the entire Cortes has agreed to keep maximum funding on. Though a much slower progress, it is all we can possibly do.
“But we need them! We…we need them, now!”
“Silence already!”
“What? Or you will replace me? Oh yes, there are just lines of engineers in Spain waiting to be hired!”
A few senators laughed, the fact that Spain did not contribute many engineers to the world was quite obvious.
“The money of all classes of society pours into our coffers, but more accurately, into your wallets! What good is wealth if you do not spend it?” The engineer continued ranting. The senators actually found it enjoyable; humour barely ever got passed the gates and the guards. Ezpleta smiled at Pando’s humiliation even though what Joaquín said insulted the nation as a whole.
“Hmph, I think this brief hearing is over, but I can assure that under different circumstances, challenging the Senate in this way would not go unpunished!”
“Yes, I do apologize. I shall take my leave, as everything that needs to be said has been”, he made his exit to the large Senate doors despite not being formally dismissed by Pando, mumbling his true feelings about these cheap thieves that are government officials."
The huge chamber was silent, but then noise slowly erupted with senators snickering.
Pando’s face turned as red as the face of Ezpleta just moments before, “I dare you, I dare you to laugh!” The senators looked down and tried holding their laughter. “I thought so.”