January 21, 1913, around nine o'clock in the morning.
“Welcome all tourists to Corcovado Mountain, the first mountain in Rio de Janeiro, it is so beautiful.
Take a look at the large statue of the respected emperor not far away. It is really spectacular.
Dear tourists, you can have an unobstructed view of Rio de Janeiro from the observation deck here, and even the sea can be seen far away. "
Tour guide Tom led a group of tourists from Europe up Corcovado Mountain, chattering endlessly introducing the scenery to the tourists.
Suddenly, Tom saw a huge ship sailing on the sea in the distance, and subconsciously raised his telescope to look at it. Then he saw "Union" printed in three large fonts on the giant ship.
"Hey! Isn't that the luxury ship Union?
Dear Emperor, you have returned to loyal Rio de Janeiro so soon. Didn’t you promise to arrive in the afternoon? "
In the morning, at 9:36, the "Union" arrived at the port of Rio de Janeiro much earlier than scheduled.
The Union was originally scheduled to fly directly to Rio de Janeiro, but after stopping at the Cape Verde Islands, Tangning Pedro temperamentally added the two destinations of "Portuguese Guinea" and "Portuguese Angola" for inspection .
Portugal's current large colonies are mainly concentrated in Africa, and Portuguese Guinea, which expanded and annexed French Guinea, and the old colony of Angola, enjoy the most resources among all colonies.
Both colonies are on the Atlantic coast, with Brazil on the opposite coast. It is rich in gold, silver, coal, iron, aluminum and other mineral reserves, and it is also easy to develop large-scale economic agriculture. It is an important part of Portugal's triangular trade in the new era.
The Portuguese are not the mainstream among the current residents of the Portuguese colonies, because the total population of Portugal plus Brazil is only that large, and there is not much spare capacity to develop the colonies.
In the current Portuguese African colonies, in addition to the original hundreds of thousands of Portuguese, more than one million new people come from all over the world.
Italians, Armenians, Russians, Yugoslavs from the Balkans, Orientals, Japanese, Koreans, Indians...
The African colonies have become a melting pot, and distressed people from all over the world can come as long as they are not black or green. As long as they abide by Portuguese culture and accept Portuguese rule, the Portuguese government will accept them all.
Pedro III visited the six colonial cities of Conakry, Cabinda, Luanda, Porto Amboy, Huambo, and Benguela with great interest and looked very satisfied.
While boosting his sense of presence, His Majesty the Emperor did not forget to inject blood, promising to improve the status of the colonies, encouraging the colonial subjects to work hard and strive to double the development rate.
Returning to Rio de Janeiro and accepting the warm love of the Brazilian people, Downing Pedro quickly threw himself into work.
After leaving Brazil for a long time, Tangning Pedro is of course most concerned about the implementation of the five-year plan.
As of the end of 1912, the Portuguese Empire had fiscal revenue of 45.6 million pounds, fiscal expenditures of 50.12 million pounds, railway mileage of 32,000 kilometers, steel production of 3.65 million tons, pig iron production of 4.01 million tons, coal production of 102 million tons, and power generation of 1.01 million kilowatts. , cotton output was 602,100 tons, sugar output was 5.12 million tons...
The Five-Year Plan implemented in 1909 has now entered its fifth year. The development situation in the first four years has been quite good. Fiscal revenue has exceeded that of Italy. The economic growth rate has exceeded 10%. Although the output of steel and coal is lower than that of Russia and Austria, etc. , but it has surpassed Italy and Japan by a large margin, and when fighting for light industrial production capacity, cotton, sugar, coffee, it is not empty, the size can crush a lot of people, certain output, other countries have tied up Not as many as the Portuguese Empire.
Take sugar and coffee as an example. Brazil is now the world's largest producer and exporter. It has the right to speak internationally. No country can match it in the coffee industry. However, the original Java sugar market and the Cuban sugar market together are barely qualified.
"The five-year plan has been implemented well. However, I am very dissatisfied with some of the contents of the new five-year plan you formulated. You actually want to suspend or even abolish the construction of Brasilia."
Tangning pointed to one of them and said: "Prime Minister Constantine, Minister of Industry Edward, and Minister of Culture and Construction, what do you mean when you three jointly signed a petition calling for the abolition of the Second Capital Plan?"
Brasilia, the second capital construction plan, has become a national policy as early as the beginning of the restoration of the country, because the country did not have the capacity to build in the early stage and needed to wait for the five-year plan to accumulate strength.
Now that the first five-year plan has reached its final year, the second five-year plan is about to be launched, and now it is actually necessary to overturn the second capital plan. Isn't this a naked slap in the face of the emperor?
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Some of Tangning Pedro's decisions were overturned because he found that they were not appropriate from time to time, but from a macro-decision perspective, he has never been overturned.
"Why do you want to overturn the long-established second capital plan? Do you not want to develop the inland? I need you to give me a reason to convince me."
Although Pedro is very angry at the moment, he is not the kind of person who talks in full. He wants to know clearly what his subordinates think, so he will still give them a chance to explain.
“Your Majesty, the reason I oppose the construction of Brasilia is to avoid wasting industrial resources.
Brasilia is very close to the city of Goiás, and the city of Goiás is now developing well. If Brasilia is developed again, it will completely distract the energy and redundant waste of construction. "
Industry Minister Edouard does not agree with redundant construction, while Urban and Rural Infrastructure Minister Munji also holds the same view.
Wenzhi said: "Your Majesty, re-establishing a capital requires a large investment of resources, and this cost is huge.
Since there is already a ready-made big city of Goias, there is absolutely no point in building another big city. If you are not satisfied, you can completely expand the size of the existing city. "
“Your Majesty, I am opposed to the construction of a second capital, Brasilia, because I think it is a waste of redundant construction, and I think this location is not good as a capital.
The reason for developing the second capital is to promote inland development, but Your Majesty, you see, our country is now a country of two oceans, and Brasilia's location is too far away. "
Prime Minister Constantine was obviously well prepared. He took out a folded map of Brazil from his briefcase and unfolded it.
On the big map, the locations of Brasilia, Cuiabá, Colombo, and Ascension were marked.
“Dear Your Majesty, I am not against the development of the interior, on the contrary I am very supportive.
But today is different from the past. Under your wise leadership, the Portuguese Empire's territory in Brazil has greatly expanded, and the choice of capital requires a change of direction.
The Paraguay River is located in the middle of our country, with abundant water and rich resources along the way. It is also an excellent golden shipping waterway. Ships can reach Cuiabá in the upper reaches, and it is also a very important industrial and agricultural area in the country's planning.
Although the Paraguay River is a tributary of the Paraná River, the middle and upper reaches of the Paraná River's main trunk road are in mountainous areas, and its shipping value is limited. As the first tributary, the Paraguay River connects the Brazilian plateau and the Andean plateau like the veins of a leaf. The geographical location is Location is critical.
Today's Brasilia is no longer suitable to exist as a second capital. Compared with Brasilia, which is located in the Brazilian plateau, I think a city should be selected from the middle of the country as the second capital, and it is best to choose this city in the Paraguay River Basin.
Cuiaba, Colombo, and Ascension, these three cities are the best options as the second capital of the Portuguese Empire. No matter which one is used as the second capital, it is better than the original Brasilia. "
