While the French capital was under siege, Spain was peaceful and stable.

The existence of the Progressive Guard does deprive some freedom, but it also restricts the play of careerists.

Although it was in a state of war, the society was much more stable than in the past in peacetime - probably because only active troops were deployed in this war, and the fighting was far from home.

Whether it is the consumption of the army or the bonuses sent back by the soldiers, they have objectively boosted domestic consumption, which is beneficial and harmless.

Now, exactly one year after the end of the civil war in 1869, most of the factories have resumed production, and their overall strength has recovered even beyond the pre-war level.

The most intuitive data is that Spain's steel production in 1868 was 20,000 tons, and in 1869 there was no statistics, but it fell by at least 30%.

At the height of the war and when steel was scarce, steel production declined rather than increased, mainly because workers in mines and factories went to the front.

Logically speaking, peasant manpower should be used, and the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of peasants will not have much impact on agricultural production, but the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of workers will hurt the muscles and bones.

However, the peasant strata scattered in the small mountain villages and manors were difficult to mobilize, and it was difficult to train and command, so it was easy and quick to mobilize the workers.

Including in present-day Spain, the main source of troops is the citizens and the working class.

So most countries in this era are getting weaker and weaker the more they fight.

But this year, although 1870 will not end in a month, it is tentatively estimated that the annual steel output will not be less than 26,000 tons.

This number is quite staggering, nearly doubling in a year, and even if there is a foundation in the past, the actual increase will not be less than 50%.

This is related to the creation of the Spanish steel company, where the growth of the industry is quite rapid, as long as the scale and standards are formed.

For example, the annual steel production of the United States this year is only 72,000 tons, and this figure will become 1.26 million tons ten years later, an increase of 18 times.

Alfonso's focus on supporting the steel industry is to pave the way for next year's railway plans.

With the topography of Spain, this is bound to be a big deal, and if he can, he still wants to hand over the project to the country, and try not to repeat the mistake of using his own money to cultivate the industry of other countries.

The construction of the railways was carried out in parallel with the roads, and thanks to the hard work of prisoners and prisoners of war and a large number of migrant workers, Spain has built a total of 6,000 kilometers of roads in the past year.

The vast majority of them are secondary roads that can accommodate two horse-drawn carriages side by side, and in mining areas and large cities, there are also primary roads that can accommodate four vehicles.

For Spain, these roads are temporarily sufficient.

Without a car, there is not much demand for road surface, and some inconsequential country roads can be put aside for a while.

The reason why there is such a rapid construction speed is also due to the rapid increase in the labor force.

Spain's population today is around 16.4 million, which doesn't look like much growth compared to a year ago.

But in reality, the fact that a single female worker has increased the labor force by more than 10 percent is the result of no legislation – except for Madrid and the eastern seaboard, which are still skeptical of the large acceptance of female workers.

By the end of the war, women's emancipation would be on the agenda, and in Alfonso and Campos' plans, women would have to make up at least 30 per cent of the total.

In addition to female workers, the impact of the war cannot be ignored.

War, even a civil war, is not all bad.

Many peasants who lost their homes because of the war, or who saw the wider world through the war, flocked to the big cities.

The lords of the manor, intimidated by the government's military might, did not dare to do anything, and at most verbally protested.

If the Isabella government dared to use their "property" in this way, the owners of the manor would most likely kill the tenants who dared to resign and easily escape punishment.

……

While industry is developing rapidly, agriculture is also making steady progress.

The government is slowly increasing domestic food production by reducing taxes on food crops.

However, compared to industry, Spain's agricultural potential is quite limited.

This is because a lot of land is used to finance the development of animal husbandry, including forage cultivation and livestock enclosures, which accounts for about 15% of the country's land area.

The vast majority of the remaining land is mountainous and uncultivateable, and the actual arable area may be only 27% or less.

There is very little land in itself, and olives, grapes and other fruits have to be squeezed out of it.

After all, Spain's climate and geography are more suitable for growing these things, and although he wants to increase wheat and rice production for food security, Alfonso does not want to give up these cash crops altogether.

It is no wonder that Spain's population growth rate is particularly slow, in addition to the poor governance and the fact that Spaniards do not like to have children, the harsh geographical environment is also an important reason.

Judging from the current arable land area and production technology, Spain has reached the limit of carrying 20 million people, and if it continues to grow, it will have to spend a lot of money to import food.

Not to mention slowing down development, there is also the risk of being swayed by foreign policies.

Except for France, which is blessed with farmland, and Britain, which is a maritime country that is rotten and dependent on colonies for food, this is the inevitable problem that every industrial country will face in its development journey: how to balance the development of industry and agriculture.

It's just that Spain has a lot of arable land, so this problem came especially early.

The only way the Ministry of Agriculture could think of was to develop fisheries and farm implements, and they had made a lot of preparations for this, and Fidel would report at the year-end meeting of the Progressive Party at the end of the year.

However, this treats the symptoms but not the root cause, and no matter how good the development is, this is it.

Grabbing land is the real cure for diseases.

The upcoming islands of Sardinia and Sicily, with their farmlands and pasturelands, have a very good climate and geography, much better than in mainland Spain.

Apart from these two islands, the only place that is most likely to be acquired in the short term is Morocco, which is across the strait.

The rest of the African territory is either too far away or difficult to develop, and the priority is certainly not comparable to it.

The geography of Morocco is actually worse than that of Spain, either mountains or plateaus, but the plains of the northwest are still very fragrant.

In later generations, Morocco's population was only 13 million less than Spain's, but today's Moroccan population in Alawi is probably between 6 million and 7 million, less than half that of Spain.

It shows that the power of the northwestern plains has not been brought into play at all.

It might as well be used by Spain.

Alfonso was already preparing war plans for the war at the end of the Franco-Prussian and Spanish-Italian Wars, and the Spanish colonization of Morocco would begin.