"Your Majesty, if I may be frank, our people no longer have the funds to purchase our national debt." Hearing Carlo's proposal, Prim gave a wry smile and reminded Carlo.
"No, Mr. Prime Minister, our national debt is not aimed at ordinary civilians." Carlo shook his head and explained with a smile, "
We can issue bonds similar to education bonds, using interest rates higher than banks to attract capitalists and factory owners to purchase them.
We don't need to set the issuance scale too high; perhaps 10 million pesetas will be enough for our initial educational needs.
This batch of national debt will be 100% used for educational reform, which will not only reduce the number of illiterates in our country but also benefit factories that require a certain level of knowledge.
Once our first batch of national debt is repaid on time, it will be much easier to issue such bonds in the future. At least for us now, this is a more reliable method than borrowing and will allow the government to bear less interest."
Capitalists are profit-driven. National debt with higher interest than banks will certainly attract some capitalists to purchase it.
If the specific special-purpose national debt is issued specifically for reforms like education, it will also reassure the capitalists who purchase it.
After all, one thing capitalists worry about is what the government will do with these funds. Investing in industries like education is definitely better than the government and nobility squandering it; at least capitalists don't have to worry about the government not having enough funds to repay the national debt in the future.
"We can give it a try." After long deliberation, Prim finally nodded and decided to give it a try.
The first batch of national debt doesn't need to be issued in large quantities; it can be used to test whether this method can raise funds for the government.
It would be great if funds could be raised, but even if they cannot, the government won't suffer significant losses.
After discussion within the cabinet, it was unanimously decided to set the issuance amount of the first batch of education bonds at 8 million pesetas, which is 307,000 pounds.
Although this amount is not large, it can be used to establish several literacy classes specifically for eradicating illiteracy. Literacy classes don't even require complete school facilities; finding a house, setting up some tables and chairs, and getting some books to teach simple elementary knowledge to Spaniards will suffice.
As soon as the news that the government was going to issue education bonds spread, it immediately caused a sensation in Spain.
Many Spaniards were willing to see the government's efforts in education, which at least proved that the current Kingdom government placed more importance on common people than the Isabella era.
Even farmers were willing to see the country invest in education. Even if they couldn't enjoy the benefits of educational reform, it didn't mean their children couldn't.
However, despite the support, very few people were willing to purchase the education bonds.
Although the issuance amount of the first batch of national debt was only 8 million pesetas, only 200,000 were sold in two days, less than 10,000 pounds.
Realizing this was a good opportunity, Carlo naturally wouldn't let it pass. On the third day of the bond issuance, Carlo publicly announced that he would subscribe to 3 million pesetas of the education bonds.
3 million pesetas of national debt is not much, only a little over ten thousand pounds, less than half of the total issuance amount this time.
However, Carlo's action of actively subscribing to the national debt as the king had a different meaning for Spaniards.
Although it was impossible to gain support for Carlo just because of such a small matter, many Spaniards' perception of Carlo improved, and they were willing to give Carlo enough time to show his qualities as an excellent monarch.
At least Carlo had shown a side vastly different from Queen Isabella II, and Spaniards now had patience with Carlo.
Following Carlo's lead, the capitalists' actions finally became more frequent.
It took about another week for the 8 million pesetas of national debt to be mostly sold, and the government also had initial funds to promote educational reform.
In mid-September 1869, many literacy classes popped up like bamboo shoots after rain in Madrid, adopting voluntary enrollment and free learning.
As long as they were Spanish citizens, they could enroll in literacy classes to study. Books and tuition were free, but they had to attend at least one literacy class per week.
The literacy classes still considered the actual situation of a large number of ordinary people. In Spain in 1869, there were no specific working hours.
In other words, when encountering unscrupulous capitalists and factory owners, the working hours of Spaniards were never less than 12 hours, sometimes even thirteen or fourteen hours.
Let alone weekends off, it was difficult to even ask for a day off when sick, because capitalists were unwilling to reduce factory output due to employee leave, ultimately affecting the speed of their money-making.
As for work injuries, they had nothing to do with this era. Not to mention getting injured at work, even dying at work would not result in any compensation.
The welfare policies and benefits of later generations were fought for by workers and laborers around the world, who endured oppression and resisted it.
The literacy movement in educational reform was carried out vigorously and had a significant impact on Spain.
After all, it was a free literacy movement, and Spaniards had a strong desire to participate in literacy classes. Furthermore, Carlo had a bit of his own agenda in the literacy classes, which was that Spanish literacy classes would only use Spanish and not various regional languages such as Catalan.
The goal of this initiative was to minimize the sense of division among the different regions of Spain and promote unity within the country. A crucial step in assimilating a nation is to establish a common language; in Spain, this means that Spanish should be spoken, which is very important.
The good news is that Spain has been integrated for hundreds of years now, and most of the population is not opposed to a complete Spain.
Currently, separatist and nationalist groups in various regions are still a minority, which does not have a significant impact on the unity of Spain.
While the literacy movement was underway, Prim also initiated agricultural reforms.
Although the Spanish government's fiscal revenue was not high, this did not prevent Prim from lowering agricultural taxes.
On September 27, 1869, while the literacy movement was still widely discussed in Spain, the Spanish cabinet submitted a new "Agricultural Tax Reduction Bill" during a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies.
This bill caused a stronger sensation in Spain than the literacy movement, because the vast majority of Spain's population was agricultural, and tax reduction was a tangible benefit to them.
As anticipated, the Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously to approve this bill, achieving a majority of over 70%. Additionally, the cabinet announced that tax reductions would commence in 1870 to significantly increase the income of the agricultural population.
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