Faced with Carlo's shocking words, even the calm-minded Alejandro showed a pale expression.
"Your Majesty, are you sure?"
It's not surprising that Alejard asked this, because although it is not uncommon in Europe to want to sell land and property, most of them encounter difficulties and are forced to sell.
Actively selling land is very rare among nobles. And there is no monarch like Carlo who wants to sell land on a large scale without financial difficulties.
It's no wonder that Alejard asked this question. Of course, there was another meaning in his words.
Of course Carlo understood what Chief Alejandr said. Selling land was a big deal. Although Carlo was the patriarch of the Savoy family, he could not decide such a big matter alone. Although Carlo was the king, he also needed to consider
Opinions from other members of the royal family.
"I haven't told anyone else about this idea yet, but the land returns are too low and leaving a lot of money on the land is not in the economic interest."
Carlo explained the reasons for his consideration, but of course he did not say a word. Italy's ongoing industrialization will lead to the growth of the bourgeoisie, and the ruling base of the kingdom will also change from civilians-nobles-king to civilians-capitalists.
king.
Although this time may vary (depending on the speed of industrialization), it cannot change this fact. And when the bourgeoisie grows, what should the Savoy family, as the Italian royal family, do?
You must know that the characteristics of the bourgeoisie determine that they are not interested in royal power. Therefore, Carlo needed to keep the bourgeoisie under his control or influence from the beginning, which required sufficient funds.
According to Carlo's estimate, at least 1 billion lire is needed to have an effect (note that it is only effective), and although the Savoy family is rich, if they want to get one billion lire, they will basically have to spend more than half of their family property. In this case
If you don’t sell land and property with the lowest return, what else can you sell?
It's just that Carlo underestimated the aristocracy's attachment to land in this era.
"No, this is absolutely not possible."
In the evening, when Carlo expressed his thoughts, his mother, Queen Mother Margarita, changed her previous attitude of unlimited support and immediately expressed her serious opposition.
Faced with a mother who said I don't want to hear your explanation, although Carlo had considered being rejected before, he didn't expect to be so determined. However, no matter how determined Carlo was, he still had to convince his mother, otherwise he would not be able to convince other members of the royal family in the future.
"Mother, I know you have different opinions on selling land, but you must also take into account the current family situation. Although we don't need to worry about funds at the moment, you have also seen that the output of the land accounts for a large proportion of the royal family's operations.
The proportion is getting lower and lower.”
Leng Buding's mother suddenly said, "But this is better than stability."
When faced with his mother's words, Carlo naturally couldn't say the opposite. "Yes, yes. The output of this land is better than stability, but although the land owned by our family is not bad, the output is too low."
"So what, at least it can add 6.5 million liras to us every year."
It seems that my mother also has a clear understanding of the profitability of the royal family's industry.
In this case, Carlo can only use other methods. "Yes, mother is right. As long as there are no natural or man-made disasters, the land output will always be profitable. But now the son needs a lot of money, and currently only land can be used in the family industry."
Meet my needs."
"What do you need, to sell the land?"
My mother immediately asked why Carlo needed such a huge amount of money, which attracted her interest.
Facing his mother's question, Carlo breathed a sigh of relief. Then he expressed his worries about the growing domestic bourgeoisie.
"No way. Those factory owners and businessmen dare to make such excessive demands. Aren't they afraid of military suppression?"
Well, facing his mother whose thoughts were still in the eighteenth century, Carlo continued to explain earnestly that if Italy wanted to be strong, it must rely on the bourgeoisie, and the government could not ignore their demands.
"Isn't this similar to the French Huguenots?"
Well, my mother finally found an unreliable prototype from history. Carlo also recognized it, so he followed what he said. "But these people are more difficult to deal with than the Huguenots, and they are also much more difficult to deal with.
But it’s not impossible to control them.”
"Then what is your job?"
"The weakness of these bourgeoisie is also very obvious. Their weakness is money. Although I don't agree with Marx's crooked ideas in Capital, there is one sentence he said that is right. As long as they want enough profits, the capitalists can sell and hang themselves.
of rope.”
Carlo's words silenced the mother. It seemed that she was convinced by her son's words.
"Then other nobles can join in, which can also share some of the financial pressure on the royal family."
Carlo was furious at his mother's words. After all, he still needed some land left.
"Mother, the fewer people who know about this kind of thing, the better, otherwise we will be very passive. You must know that we are still the loyal leaders of the nobles."
Her son's words made Queen Mother Margarita feel that she had made a bad idea.
As a remedy, Queen Mother Margarita couldn't help but said, "But it's not enough just for me to agree. You also need the approval of other members of the family."
All I need is your words.
When faced with his mother's words, Carlo took over without hesitation. "As long as you agree, mother, then the matter is half done. As long as you support me, I have confidence."
Faced with Carlo's assurance, Queen Mother Margarita was a little doubtful. But after all, blood is thicker than water. If she doesn't believe her own son, who else can she believe?
So under Carlo's explanation, Queen Mother Margarita reluctantly agreed.
For Carlo, convincing his mother is really half the battle. How many people can there be in the royal family now? Uncle Amedeo is easy to deal with. As long as this playboy increases his annuity, he will be the same.
.
As for the troublesome thing, the great uncle is the Duke of Genoa, and this relationship is far away. Although he is the eldest member of the family, as long as the uncle can agree, then the great uncle will be alone.
Then Carlo's next target was his uncle who was far away in Turin. After finding an excuse, Carlo rushed to Turin to meet his uncle in person.
The result was not what he expected. After Carlo promised to privately increase his annuity from 350,000 to 450,000 lire per month, the playboy stopped talking about what his ancestors had fought so hard to win.
As for his brother who is about to become an adult, and his two sisters, they will be represented by Carlo.
After gaining most of the support, Carlo convened a meeting of the House of Savoy.
At the meeting, Carlo proposed a plan to sell land in exchange for funds to invest in industry. As expected, his uncle objected, but after seeing that others supported Carlo's plan, the old uncle
My uncle is still very aware of current affairs and no longer objects to it.
So Carlo's idea can finally be realized.
Of course, Carlo is not in a hurry to sell the land. After all, there is still some gold in the temple, so there is no rush yet. Carlo gave Alejard 4 years to gradually sell at least 80% of the land in the hands of the royal family.
Carlo will gradually invest the proceeds from these sales into the industrialization of Italy. Of course, you have to believe that Carlo will never lose money on his investment, after all, he knows the general trend of history.
