The achievements of the Spanish Government in 1874 cannot be summed up in a few words. Even in the colonies, Spain made significant advancements.

The railway construction in the East Indies is proceeding smoothly, and annexing several indigenous sultanates has been done openly, allowing the subsequent colonial rule and railway construction to proceed in a straightforward manner.

The railway in the Congo River Basin required secrecy during its initial construction, which was the greatest challenge of the railway project. After all, laying the railway requires a large amount of steel rails, and transporting these rails is not so easy.

Currently, the fastest construction is the railway being laid from the Guinea Colony towards the upstream of the Congo River Basin, with a total length approaching 100 kilometers.

However, such railways are somewhat simpler compared to the railways built in mainland Spain, as they are single-line railways, making the construction much easier.

With the help of this constructed railway, the Guinea Colony has already transported a large batch of materials to the Congo River Basin territory.

Once the colonial bases in this land expand sufficiently, Spain can announce the establishment of its own territory here and proceed with its own governance.

By then, even if Portugal and England and France realize, they would not be able to compete with Spain over colonization on this land. Unless they are willing to face a homeland war with Spain over this territory, no one can threaten Spain’s control here.

Although the development of mainland Spain and its colonies is smooth, this was achieved under the premise that the government invested a large amount of capital.

In fiscal terms, the Spanish Government’s total revenue in 1874 reached 731.7 million pesetas (approximately 28.12 million Pounds), a significant increase compared to 1873.

The main reasons were the substantial results brought by the first Five-Year Plan and the economic boost by massive government funding.

The first Five-Year Plan supported a large number of private enterprises, although most are small and medium-sized enterprises, there are also several that gradually became medium and large flagship enterprises.

These enterprises contributed not a small amount of taxes to the Spanish Government. Coupled with the taxes paid by Royal Family enterprises, Spain’s fiscal income in 1874 reached a new high.

Although the total revenue of 1874 is already approaching the fiscal expenditure of 1873, Carlo is obviously not pleased looking at such revenue numbers.

The reason is precisely the following line detailing the Spanish Government’s fiscal expenditure situation. Revenue has seen a significant increase, and so has fiscal expenditure.

In 1874, the fiscal expenditure for foreign actions by the Spanish Government reached 270 million pesetas, more than double last year’s expenditure on foreign actions.

At the beginning of 1874, Prime Minister Prim discussed the annual fiscal budget and quite presciently raised the budget to 897.2 million pesetas.

But obviously, Prime Minister Prim underestimated the economic burden brought by the comprehensive development of the Spanish Government. The annual fiscal expenditure level for 1874 greatly exceeded this figure, even surpassing the ten-digit mark.

1.0552 billion pesetas, when Carlo saw such a level of expenditure, he couldn’t help but be startled.

This amount of capital is equivalent to 40.55 million Pounds, considering an Ironclad costs about 500,000 Pounds, the total fiscal expenditure for this year could build more than 80 Ironclads.

Though the actual situation can’t be calculated this way, it proves just how astonishing this fiscal expenditure is.

No wonder each department has achieved good results, this was completely achieved by the Spanish Government throwing money at the problem, simply put, it’s the result of spending extravagantly.

Obviously, the Spanish Government is not wealthy. Therefore, in future developments, achieving good outcomes through spending extravagantly is basically impossible.

The reason Spain could bear such high fiscal expenditure exceeding 1 billion pesetas is mainly due to large loans received from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and France before the economic crisis.

The loans provided by Italy and Austria-Hungary are not much, respectively 75 million Lira and 120 million Crown, (3 million Pounds and 5 million Pounds).

Plus, from the 500 million franc low-interest loan provided by the French, 200 million cash is already more than 400 million pesetas of maneuverable funds.

Adding the extra currency issued by the Currency Issuing Committee through the Gold of the Indian Temple, it gave the Spanish Government such great confidence to spend over 1 billion pesetas during the economic crisis to promote national development.

The fiscal deficit of the Spanish Government for the year 1874 reached 323.5 million pesetas. While the fiscal deficit for 1873 was similarly around 200 million pesetas.

Although these funds have facilitated the rapid development of various industries in Spain, it is clear that Spain is no longer able to sustain such capital expenditures.

Since the Gold of the Indian Temple was transported to Spain, the Currency Issuing Committee has already issued more than 250 million pesetas of additional currency.

Adding the loans from the three countries, it provided Spain with enough funds to maintain the vigorous development over these years.

However, the current available funds in the Spanish treasury have already fallen below 100 million pesetas. The development for 1875 must still consider the balance between fiscal expenditure and income.

Although the Currency Issuing Committee can still create sufficient available funds for the Spanish Government through issuing currency, if the market is not considered, frequently releasing paper money into the market is likely to affect the actual value of the peseta.