I Became The Crown Prince Of The Mexican Empire - Chapter 80



Only Noblemtl

Central Bank and Navy (7)

August 1837.

The launching ceremony for the first Mexican Empire warship took place at the Veracruz shipyard.

The protagonists were a ship of the line and two frigates, built around the same time.

As it was a symbolic event, it was a large-scale event in which my father, I, several members of the National Assembly, and naval generals all participated.

“It took a little less than two years. It was much faster than I expected. You worked hard.”

My father personally congratulated John Ericksen, the president of the Mexican shipbuilding company.

“It is an honor, Your Majesty. It is all thanks to Your Majesty’s generous support. It is the result of good equipment, abundant materials and manpower, and passionate technicians.”

Eriksen thanked his father. His father nodded and looked around the battleship.

How long did it take to make this one?

The sight of the battleship was impressive even to me. The newly launched 104-gun class battleship itself looked like a gigantic sea fortress.

The massive ship towered over the waves, shining silver in the sunlight. Its length was longer than a football field, and its width and height were even more overwhelming.

‘It’s far more impressive than the 74-gun ship of the line brought from Spain. It’s even more impressive because it’s new.’

By British standards, the 104-gun class was class 1, and the 74-gun class was class 3.

I looked up at the three-tier gun deck of the new battleship and felt a sense of wonder. The gun ports lined up on each tier looked like countless eyes waiting for battle.

The ship’s masts and sails towered high into the sky, and the wind-filled sails showed off a free and powerful spirit.

After my father stared at that for a while, I said,

“Finish the ceremony quickly and try riding it yourself, Father.”

“···Ah, okay. That would be good.”

The ceremony proceeded quickly.

The event was as grand as the ships of the line, and it seemed as if almost the entire Mexican Navy was present.

During this period, customs such as breaking champagne bottles did not exist, and there were blessings by priests and naming ceremonies, as was traditional in Spain.

‘My father decided the name in advance and told me.’

The bride raised her hand and began her congratulatory remarks.

“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we have gathered to bless this noble vessel. May she glide gracefully over the waters, her sails filled with the breath of God, her hull strong enough to withstand the might of the sea.”

As the crowd held their breath, the priest continued speaking.

“Now, blessed by Heaven, I name this ship ‘Cortez’, and may your journey be as steadfast and honorable as its name suggests.”

“Wow!!”

The cheers of the citizens and navy personnel who came to watch the event rang out, and my father and I also applauded enthusiastically.

The prefix for our Mexican Imperial Navy ships is ‘BIM’, which is an abbreviation for Buque Imperial Mexicano.

This is a prefix that indicates the affiliation of a ship, such as the British HMS (Her Majesty’s Ship) and the American USS (United States Ship).

Starting with the battleships, the launching ceremony for the two frigates was also carried out quickly. The two ships were improved versions of the American 44-gun frigate, which boasted the most powerful frigates among the various countries.

“I guess I can try it now.”

“Yes, Father. I think I’m almost ready.”

As if he had been waiting for this moment, my father climbed onto the BIM Cortes.

Hundreds of sailors were busy on the deck of the ship, but their movements were precise and organized.

By using the money earned from issuing currency, the navy had already increased its personnel and trained them on existing battleships, so they could move without panicking even on new ships.

“With this, our Mexican Empire’s fleet consists of three ships of the line and five frigates.”

The figure excludes three gunships and 45 transport ships.

“Yes, Father. The graduates of the Naval Academy will start coming out soon, so it’s just the beginning.”

Ships are also being built at the second shipyard, which was completed six months ago, and construction is scheduled to begin immediately at the third and fourth shipyards, which will be completed six months later.

Ships will pour out in the future, but it will take a long time to catch up with the British, who have over 100 battleships.

My father seemed to have similar thoughts to me.

“I feel the power of Britain once again. It will take decades to catch up.”

“Yes, but isn’t it fortunate that the French Navy suffered near-annihilation at the Battle of Trafalgar?”

In fact, it may not be impossible to catch up with Britain. If we finish the monitor ships that are currently under construction and start improving them to make larger, more powerful ironclad ships that can be used in the ocean, the ships of the line will become useless. This is a fact proven in the original history. However, since it is a fact that only I know, I changed the subject to France, which can be called our enemy.

“France… It’s already been 32 years since the Battle of Trafalgar, so you must have rebuilt your navy to some extent, right?”

“They must have rebuilt to some extent. They must have rebuilt quite a bit, especially since they took a lot of money from us. But not all of that money would have been invested in the navy, and they’ve been in political turmoil for a long time, so they’re not an unbeatable enemy like Britain.”

“Well then, that’s fortunate.”

In the Battle of Veracruz, which can be said to be the core of the Pastry War, the force mobilized by France was five frigates with 40 to 60 guns each and nine corvettes with 24 guns each.

At the time, France also had 10 to 20 battleships, but was unable to dispatch them for fear of provoking Britain. Although France had the second-largest navy in the world, there was a huge gap between them and Britain, which was ranked first.

‘In the end, persuading Britain will be the key.’

The new ship of the line returned safely to the port of Veracruz after a successful demonstration voyage.

***

Over the past year and a half, while I have been taking care of my various companies, ongoing civil engineering projects, universities, the Navy, etc., there have been two things I have focused on: the circulation of banknotes and the investment company.

“Your Majesty, it seems that the use of paper money has become widespread even in the provinces. There are almost no people who exchange paper money for gold because they do not trust it as they used to.”

Diego said. It was not something he had investigated himself, but it was the result of a request I had made to the Central Bank through the Ministry of Finance to check whether the banknotes were circulating well in the Mexican Imperial society.

“If you’ve started to settle down to this extent, then you don’t have to worry about anything in particular.”

I also started paying the salaries of government officials and my company employees entirely in banknotes.

Merchants who were not familiar with banknotes and who did not own a store did not believe this, but when they saw that the banknotes could actually be exchanged for gold, they began to believe it and accept it. It was proof that the government’s finances were reliable.

“Yes, for low-value items like groceries, you still have to use silver coins, but for transactions over 5 pesos, there is no longer the practice of handing over a bag of silver coins and counting them one by one.”

“Then I guess we don’t have to worry about the circulation of banknotes anymore. We just have to worry about inflation.”

The government, which had experienced enormous seigniorage profits and the currency multiplier effect by purchasing gold with naval bonds and issuing 40 million pesos worth of banknotes, tried to issue currency by purchasing all of the 1837 budget gold, but I and the governor of the central bank barely managed to stop them.

“Yes, because I learned that having a lot of money and being able to spend a lot isn’t always a good thing.”

As Diego said, having a lot of money isn’t always a good thing.

It is a good thing that the government budget is large, but since development, industrialization, and land development were all happening simultaneously across the country, even if the government released the budget, there would be no manpower to actually work, and it would only encourage inflation and wage increases.

‘Even if I have money, I can’t spend it. This is really···.’

My father and the Minister of Finance were quite disappointed, but eventually they understood my and the central bank governor’s concerns.

With the 6 million pesos I received from selling gold, I founded a new company called Real Inversión.

It was originally intended to be a 100% owned company for me to invest and manage my assets, but for now I have instructed it to act as a sort of venture capital firm.

‘The economy can only become stronger if we nurture industries that I missed or whose pies are too small for me to handle directly.’

Just as the canned food and cola businesses came to mind after a while, I can’t take care of everything. But what if someone comes with a detailed proposal for a certain business?

It’s not hard for me to judge whether this business will be a huge success in the future, a so-so business, or a failure.

After extensive newspaper advertising throughout the Mexican Empire, hundreds of business proposals were pouring in a month, and he was subsequently executing between one and five investments per week.

“You filtered and filtered and only got 10? There are a lot this week.”

It took a week, not a month. I decided to make the final decision myself, but I checked if the person who wanted to do business was a fraud or a criminal, and I also filtered out businesses that were too unrealistic or too small in scale, and after interviewing the person in charge, I got 10 cases.

“Yes, Your Majesty, but all proposals have gone through a rigorous vetting process.”

A Real Inversion employee who brought documents to my office from the morning said.

“Okay, I understand. I’ll take my time verifying it.”

“Yes, thank you, Your Majesty.”

‘Hmm, let’s see. A travel agency? … Already at this time of year?’

The investment amount the businessman wanted was not that high, 500 pesos. There are fools who ask for tens of thousands of pesos from the beginning, so this amount was quite realistic.

The investment amount was mostly in the hundreds of pesos to thousands of pesos, but sometimes, there were times when an investment of tens of thousands of pesos was decided, and this was when the founder had the technology and experience in the field and the business required a large amount of capital but could bring in large profits. In such cases, instead of investing a large amount of money, they asked for half or more shares.

‘Well, there’s a railroad that runs all the way to the end of the country, and public safety has stabilized, so there’s no reason why a travel agency wouldn’t be able to do that.’

I stamped my permit.

In addition to the travel agent, there was another person with a really unique background, who was from Switzerland. He wanted to start a mechanical watch business, and upon investigation, it was found that he really had the skills.

‘If it’s the watch industry, it would be a Huguenot (Protestant) family that immigrated to Switzerland to escape religious persecution in France, and now they’re coming to the Catholic Mexican Empire to do business?’

Although British, American and South American immigration firms were instructed to advertise for skilled workers to come to the Mexican Empire to do business, most of the actual applicants were from Catholic countries similar to the original immigrants.

The Swiss have rarely immigrated, so it was questionable, but the documents clearly show that the skills have been verified.

‘Well, if you’re sure you have the skills, you can hear about life stories later.’

How do we know that he will create a watch industry in our Mexican Empire?

widely-

This time, I got the permit stamped again.

“Your Majesty, the British Ambassador, Sir Richard Pakenham, has arrived.”

As I was working, the time came.

Although the Mexican Empire did not collapse, the British ambassador was replaced, just as in Yuan history, and he was the same person who mediated the war between Mexico and France in Yuan history.

‘Like most British people of this period, he was a man who was serious about keeping France in check.’

The fact that Mexico was forced to pay an indemnity of 600,000 pesos, even though it was completely powerless to fight back and was being unilaterally bombed by France in Veracruz, was a testament to the influence of Britain.

I told him to let him in, and soon he came into my office.