Alfonso said loudly: "This first amount, I plan to allocate to the Spanish railway company. ”

Everyone present nodded their heads, which is the proper meaning of the question.

The Minister of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Calvo stood up and said that he "will definitely live up to the king's trust", but it can be seen that he does not feel any special joy.

At present, transportation in Spain is mainly based on roads in all directions and railways connecting the four corners.

The construction of the highway has almost stopped, and there have been people shouting about the construction of the railway, but the government is really short of money, so the progress is slow.

With the money, it's normal to use it to build roads first.

"In the second case, I am ready to devote myself to the cause of education, and to make compulsory education as Prussia did."

Now I have to talk about it.

Everyone looked at each other, and the Minister of Education Godoy forcibly suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, and said with a smile: "Compulsory education in Prussia is 8 years for 6-14 years old, and we are the same as them?" ”

Alfonso nodded: "My suggestion is to copy, of course you can also put forward any ideas." ”

Godoy naturally didn't have any ideas, and the basics of this era were more than enough to learn in 8 years.

Others can't sit still, and the issue of education is supposed to have nothing to do with them, but the ripple effect of compulsory education will affect the whole society.

Campos immediately said: "Your Majesty, the construction of a large railway will take up quite a lot of labor, and I estimate this number to be between 5 and 100,000.

If we want to hand over the relevant orders to the domestic market, the supporting sand and gravel yards, cement plants, steel plants, explosives factories...... It is also necessary to operate at full strength, and there are not a few relevant practitioners.

At present, there are more than 100,000 child laborers over the age of 10 and under the age of 14 in China, and if they are thrown into school, there will be a shortage of labor.

This is not even taking into account the fact that many school-age children have to take care of their younger siblings, and if they do go to school, some parents will definitely choose to give up their jobs to take care of their children.

I would suggest that instead of rolling it out nationally at once, it should be piloted in wealthy regions such as Catalonia and Madrid.

Or raise the tuition fees a little more, so that the education class can be artificially divided.

To tell the truth, China is currently dominated by the textile industry and processing industry, and there are not too many educated workers......"

Campos said this eagerly, and he was echoed by many of his colleagues, who nodded frequently as he spoke.

Spain now has a very low unemployment rate, since there is no unemployment benefit, so the exact figure is not known, but most likely it will not exceed 5%.

That is, there is not much idle labor.

Spain's population of 20 million is not enough to support multiple grand projects at the same time, and even if you have money.

Alfonso sighed, and no one reacted to the issue of child labour, taking it for granted......

He waved his hand and said: "Labor is not as scarce as you think, and the rural population has been moving to the cities recently, and I estimate that this phenomenon will continue for some time."

In addition, we have a treaty with Italy before, and Genoa, the Papal States, and Naples are all our reserve manpower pools, and we can go there to recruit people.

If you really can't do it, you can go to South America to recruit workers, Peru and Bolivia should not refuse, just take a look. ”

"Your Majesty, the Italian countries themselves are also engaged in construction, except for Naples, the other two countries are developing well, the salary is too low to recruit many people, and the salary is too high to cause dissatisfaction among the domestic workers......"

Campos was about to say more, but Alfonso interrupted him directly: "Okay, it's a big deal to pay more wages, and the workers' wages are just a small head."

In addition, child labor is gone, and it is in my mind, so there is no need to mention this matter. ”

Alfonso's tone was a bit heavy when he said this, because he thought that these people were somewhat short-sighted, and they only considered short-term costs.

Yes, the level of education required by Spanish industry is not high at the moment, but is it possible that it will always be a low-end industry, and that enough educated people can give birth to enough innovations and inventions.

Of course, he could understand Campos's thoughts, because even Prussia's compulsory education was mostly motivated by military considerations, hoping that soldiers would be able to understand orders.

The Spanish Army is not in great demand, so it is normal for officials to resist slightly.

The king was a little angry, and Campos and the others immediately did not dare to speak again.

Alfonso has always been more tolerant of the Progressive Party's top brassiers, but the events of this period have shown that the king is not relentless when it comes to killing, and no one wants to be the first party member to be defeated.

Seeing that the scene was quiet, Alfonso continued:

"In the third step, I will promote the reform of social welfare, and I will inform you of the results later.

Okay, let's adjourn, Godoy stays. ”

After everyone left, Alfonso took a serious look at the black-haired beard in front of him.

Speaking of which, among the many ministers, he had the least communication with Godoy, and the Ministry of Education has always been one of the most marginal departments, which is simply unthinkable in the later Celestial Empire.

The reason for this is that there are too few students in Spain.

"Godoy, keep you ready to discuss with you about building a school." Alfonso didn't ink either, and got straight to the point:

"To implement compulsory education, the number of schools we currently have is definitely not enough, how much is there left?"

Godoy, as Minister of Education, apparently thought about this question more than once, and immediately replied: "If the Prussian system were to be copied exactly, then there would be two kinds of schools, secondary and primary."

And the current schools in Spain are either aristocratic or ecclesiastical schools, regardless of primary and secondary schools..."

Speaking of this, Godoy paused: "Your Majesty, will the confiscated church school be changed to a normal school?" ”

"Of course." Alfonso nodded: "Religion is a compulsory subject, but the proportion of this part of the church school is too large.

I am only going to keep 1/4 of the church schools and convert the rest to ordinary schools. ”

Godoy's smile was a little brighter: "Then the gap is much smaller, I'll do the math...... If we calculate the capacity of 100 students in one grade, a total of 1,800 primary and secondary schools are needed. ”

Alfonso bowed slightly, a figure that was within his acceptable range.

Still, he felt a toothache, and a school with a capacity of hundreds of people, built from scratch, with desks, canteens, teaching materials, ......, would cost at least £8,000 for a school.

The old schools should also be properly renovated.

I will ask the teacher to ......

Alfonso did not intend to collect tuition fees at the compulsory education stage like Prussia, and he could not collect much anyway, so that the funds would be all invested by the government.

If it weren't for the windfall, he would definitely not dare to mention compulsory education.