Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 571 Promoting the Performance Evaluation System
Beginning in 1916, Spain underwent a massive downsizing of its bureaucracy.

Although the significant reduction in the number of officials and government departments drew opposition from some, these voices eventually faded away thanks to Carlo's strong support.

To make the reduction of officials and departments appear more reasonable, the government also presented data from the Spanish performance evaluation agency on the performance of officials over the years.

Although Carlos and successive Spanish prime ministers have never relaxed their oversight of official corruption, such things cannot be completely eradicated.

What's more serious than corruption is being both corrupt and incompetent. Spain can only focus on cracking down on those incompetent and greedy officials, while temporarily letting capable but corrupt officials go unpunished.

These officials have now become the perfect excuse for Spain to streamline its bureaucracy. Especially in the four Portuguese states previously outside the Spanish performance evaluation system, rampant corruption and inaction have become the final straw that broke the back of the old Portuguese bureaucracy.

Unfortunately, the Spanish nobles and bureaucrats were powerless to stop it. Faced with the overwhelming evidence presented by the United Kingdom government, no one dared to claim the officials' innocence, and they could only watch helplessly as these officials were brought to justice.

There is also good news for these people: Carlo will not completely destroy Portugal's bureaucracy in this streamlining of the bureaucracy.

Even though most Portuguese officials were incompetent, a large number of them had a history of corruption and bribery.

However, dealing with these people is not Spain's top priority at present. It is enough to deal with a few typical cases first, and then take the opportunity to streamline Portugal's bureaucracy and cut some redundant government departments. This will basically complete Carlo's task.

Of course, there is another point, which is to fully implement a performance evaluation system for officials throughout Portugal.

Regardless of how Portuguese officials view it, a performance evaluation agency will definitely be established in Portugal to evaluate all Portuguese officials and determine their promotion and dismissal based on their performance.

Spain has developed its own unique bureaucratic promotion system. While it is still largely based on elections, there are relatively strict requirements for candidates.

To run for governor of a state, one must have experience as a mayor of a city. Furthermore, during that mayoral term, one must have received a rating of B or higher at least once.

The Spanish performance evaluation agency divides the performance evaluation of all officials into four levels: excellent (S), good (B), satisfactory (SU), and unsatisfactory (ISU).

The lowest level of disqualification, according to ISU, goes without saying. While it might not lead to dismissal after just one instance, there is no hope of promotion in the short term.

The "Qualified SU" rating is a relatively common evaluation. Generally, officials who receive a "Qualified" rating can only fill a quota when there are not enough officials with "Excellent" or "Good" ratings. When competing with officials with better ratings, they can only play a supporting role.

Only those who receive a "Good B" rating are truly qualified for promotion. A mayor can run for governor or mayor of a special city; governors and mayors of special cities can run for or serve as cabinet ministers—all with very bright futures.

Finally, there's the highest rating, Excellent (S). Strictly speaking, receiving an Excellent rating and a Good rating comes with the same treatment and doesn't offer much advantage in the competition for official positions.

However, there is one advantage that qualified officials do not have: officials who receive excellent ratings are valued by the Prime Minister and the King and have more opportunities to rise to higher positions.

Of course, being favored by the King and Prime Minister also carries risks. At least one thing needs to be ensured: the excellent evaluation must be genuine, otherwise, there will be a backlash.

Because of Carlo's emphasis on evaluating officials' performance, since the establishment of the Spanish Bureau for Evaluating Officials' Performance, the cumulative evaluation of so many officials across the country over so many years has only resulted in a small number of officials receiving an excellent rating—at most a dozen or so.

Today, more than half of these dozen or so people are serving as governors or mayors of various states and special cities, or as members of the House of Representatives, and are strong candidates for the next governor, mayor of a special city, and prime minister.

With a merit-based system that prioritizes performance evaluation of officials, Spain's domestic bureaucratic system, excluding Portugal, has been reformed and is now quite well-established.

Spanish officials today are able to ensure that those in high positions have a certain level of competence, or at least are not just all talk and no action.

To become the governor or mayor of a state or city, one must have experience serving as mayor of that city. Similarly, to become the prime minister or cabinet minister of Spain, one must have experience serving as a governor or mayor of a city.

Under such circumstances, those who can rise to the top levels of the Spanish government are all those who have been trained in various states or special municipalities, and at least in terms of ability, they are reliable.

After the Moroccan colony was localized, the performance evaluation system for officials in Spain was quickly adopted and implemented in the Moroccan colony.

The changes in Morocco today demonstrate that such a performance evaluation system for officials is very reasonable, which is why Carlos plans to promote the performance evaluation system for officials throughout Portugal.

The good news is that the public is aware of the benefits of the performance evaluation system for officials. Therefore, throughout Portugal, both Portuguese and Spanish people are very supportive of the government's full implementation of the performance evaluation system for officials.

Carlo also ordered several newspapers controlled by the royal family and the government to report on the relevant news one after another, promoting the benefits of the performance evaluation system for officials, leaving the old bureaucrats in Portugal completely powerless to resist.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, the Bureau of Performance Evaluation of Officials, and the Spanish government, the streamlining of the bureaucracy throughout Spain was quickly completed.

The main area for streamlining the bureaucracy was Portugal. In Spain, the number of officials that needed to be reduced was not large; it was only necessary to cut a few redundant departments.

According to the Spanish government's estimates, after thoroughly streamlining the national bureaucracy, Spain's annual fiscal expenditure could be reduced by about one-twentieth.

Don't underestimate this one-twentieth. According to the current total annual fiscal expenditure of the Spanish government, even one-twentieth of the fiscal expenditure is actually a huge amount of expenditure.

Excluding the additional military spending during the World War, Spain's total fiscal expenditure for the entire year of 1915 was around 22.764 billion pesetas.

This level of fiscal expenditure has increased significantly compared to before the outbreak of the war, and is approaching £1 million.

In terms of total fiscal revenue, Spain's total fiscal revenue reached 25.764 billion pesetas in 1915, with a fiscal surplus of approximately 2 million pesetas for the year.

This was achieved without taking into account war reparations, which also shows how much Spain actually benefited during the war.

Including the war reparations Spain will receive, Spain not only recouped its wartime military spending with interest, but actually earned much more than it invested.

The massive expansion of Spain's industrial scale today is largely due to Spain's role as a processing plant for the Allied Powers during the war.

During the war, a large number of Spanish industrial products flooded the markets of the Allied countries. Before the industries of France and Russia recovered, Spain was still able to obtain substantial profits by virtue of the markets it had already occupied.

Based on the historical recovery speed of French industry, it is now certain that Spanish industrial products will account for half of the French market within the next decade.

Russia, of course, needs no further explanation. Although Russia currently has a slightly larger industrial base than France, it is now divided into two countries.

The scale of industry in Tsarist Russia has decreased rather than increased, and coupled with the impact of the civil war, it is absolutely impossible for Russian industry to recover in the next ten years.

As long as the Russian Civil War continues, Spanish industrial products will continue to flood the Russian market. Furthermore, with Russia boasting a population of hundreds of millions, Spain is unlikely to relinquish such a vast market easily.

The markets of France and Russia alone would be enough for Spain to earn substantial revenue through the large-scale export of industrial goods over the next decade or even decades.

This could also trigger a chain reaction, at least confirming that Germany in this world will not recover so easily after the World War.

The reason why Germany recovered so quickly after World War I was partly because Britain wanted to counterbalance France and therefore continuously supported Germany.

On the other hand, it was also because the industries of various European countries had suffered heavy losses. Led by France, European countries were unable to restore industrial production in a short period, so they resorted to plundering cheap industrial products from Germany. While the large-scale export of cheap German industrial products to France and other European countries did alleviate their immediate concerns about shortages of industrial goods and daily necessities, it also created a potentially huge problem: French industry was even less able to recover.

With France's population declining sharply, French domestic industries are simply unable to compete with cheap German industrial products.

French domestic companies were unable to compete, and the French government did not provide much support to them. This led to an increasingly severe predicament for French domestic companies, ultimately resulting in French industry still not having recovered to pre-World War I levels more than a decade after the end of World War I.

While it may seem like France and other European countries were taking advantage of Germany by plundering its cheap industrial products, the German government at the time also earned substantial revenue through the export of these products, enabling rapid industrial expansion and a swift recovery after the World War II.

Regardless of whether it was profitable or not, Germany's industry recovered rapidly to pre-war levels after the World War.

This led to a widening gap in overall strength between Germany and France, indirectly causing France to surrender without the fall of Paris during World War II.

"You could never have captured Paris before France surrendered." This best describes the French government during World War II and is also the greatest humiliation for France.

Before the Franco-Prussian War, France was the most powerful country on the European continent. But after the Franco-Prussian War, France was constantly overshadowed by Germany.

Although France won World War I, the French government did not learn its lessons, and France's industry and economy did not recover quickly after the war.

Spain naturally wants to learn from and draw lessons from France's history. More importantly, exporting large quantities of inexpensive industrial products is beneficial to Spain's economy and industry.

One of the most significant benefits is that it can alleviate the economic crisis.

Before the outbreak of World War II, there was a severe economic crisis in Europe and even the world.

The main reason for this economic crisis is still the rapid expansion of industrial scale.

Spain was not severely affected by World War I, which was good news for Spain.

However, Spain also needs to guard against an economic crisis. While aggressively expanding industrial production, it also needs to continuously find more markets to dump its industrial products.

Otherwise, the economic crisis historically triggered by the United States could very well be triggered by Spain, which would be a disaster for Spain.

It goes without saying how badly the United States has suffered during historical economic crises, and Carlo certainly doesn't want such an economic crisis to be triggered by Spain.

Even before the economic crisis arrives, Spain should proactively prepare for its arrival and minimize its impact, thereby further narrowing the industrial gap with Britain and the United States.

Of course, the economic crisis is also a great opportunity to hopefully completely cripple the United States.

The economic crisis before World War II was triggered in the United States, which became the country most severely affected by the crisis.

If Roosevelt hadn't successfully saved the United States, it might have truly split apart during the economic crisis or faced decline.

The world has changed significantly since then, and Carlo naturally doesn't want the United States to be pulled back from the abyss of economic crisis as it has in the past.

As early as after the end of World War II, Carlo had already given orders to the head of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, Kadir, to infiltrate Russia and the United States extensively in preparation for future plans.

If the economic crisis in the United States doesn't break out, things will be fine. But once the economic crisis breaks out in the United States, the primary task of the Royal Security Intelligence Service's agents infiltrated into the United States will be to assassinate Roosevelt and to make the economic crisis in the United States as severe as possible.

Whether the economic crisis in the United States will lead to more unemployment and a large number of deaths and injuries is not something Carlo should be concerned with.

Although it is somewhat cruel to do this, from the perspective of national interests, it is definitely more worthwhile to sacrifice Americans than to sacrifice Spaniards.

As for the Royal Security Intelligence Service agents who infiltrated Russia, their main mission was also assassination.

However, compared to the United States, Russia's situation is still manageable, so there is no need to take such a risky move.

In the power struggles between nations, assassination is ultimately a low-level tactic. While it might achieve its goals, too frequent assassinations of foreign dignitaries will inevitably arouse suspicion and hatred from other countries.

If Spain can assassinate political figures from other countries, then other countries can certainly assassinate Spanish political figures as well.

This is also why Carlo was in no hurry to carry out the assassination, but waited for the outbreak of the American economic crisis.

Moreover, world history has changed, and whether Roosevelt will be elected President of the United States as in history is still unknown.

The United States is not as powerful as it was at the same time in its history. In addition to the economic crisis causing trouble for the United States, there are various other ways that can give it a headache.

For Spain today, unless the situation of World War II slips out of Carlo's control, the United States is no longer a major problem.

After all, the dominant ethnic group in the United States dictates that domestic stability will never be truly guaranteed. Even if the overwhelming strength of the United States suppresses some domestic voices, these voices will still resonate during periods of American decline.

Look at the dominant ethnic group in the United States. Although whites make up the majority, there is no unity among white people.

The white population in the United States comes from various European countries, and the relationships between these European countries are, needless to say, quite chaotic.

There is also a great deal of conflict between whites and blacks. Although the United States temporarily alleviated the conflict between different races through racial segregation policies, this was only a temporary relief.

As the Black population grows, the conflict between Black and white people will intensify, leading to greater internal conflicts in the United States.

If the pace of American development cannot be curbed, Carlos will consider igniting internal conflicts within the United States, causing a bloody conflict between whites and blacks, and even completely splitting the country apart.

Ultimately, the United States has a relatively short history. Furthermore, its population growth relies heavily on immigration, further reducing domestic stability.

With proper planning, it is indeed possible to divide the United States. After all, there is competition between the states, with significant conflicts between the northern and southern states, and between the western and eastern states. If these conflicts were ignited, the United States could very well be divided.

Let's return to the situation in Spain.

After streamlining the bureaucratic system, the next task is to fully promote the performance evaluation system for officials.

Meanwhile, Spain launched a massive infrastructure construction campaign across the country. The reason for streamlining the bureaucracy before this large-scale infrastructure development was precisely to minimize the presence of corrupt officials.

Although Spain's finances had been greatly improved after the end of the World War, and after receiving reparations from the Central Powers led by Germany, Spain's financial situation could only be described as wealthy.

But there is certainly no surplus of this money. Carlo does not want this money to be wasted in the hands of corrupt officials. He hopes that the funds invested by the government in infrastructure can be used well to improve infrastructure throughout Spain.

(End of this chapter)