**Chapter 80**
Central Bank and Navy (7)
August 1837.
The launching ceremony of the first Mexican imperial warship took place at the Veracruz shipyard.
The protagonists were a ship of the line and two frigates, all built at approximately the same time.
It was an important event, attended by my father, myself, several congressmen and naval admirals, as it was a symbolic event.
"It took us less than two years. Much faster than expected. Well done!"
My father personally praised John Ericsson, president of the Mexican Naval Company.
"It is an honor, Your Majesty. All thanks to your generous support. The result is achieved by combining a good team, abundant materials and labor, and passionate engineers."
Ericsson expressed his gratitude to my father. My father nodded and inspected the liner thoroughly.
How long did it take to build just this one ship?
Even I was impressed by the ship of the line. The newly launched ship of the line, with 104 guns, was in itself a huge maritime fortress.
The massive hull towered over the waves, shining silvery under the sun's rays. The hull was longer than a football field, and its width and height were even more overwhelming.
"It's much more impressive than the 74-gun ship of the line we brought from Spain. It's also cooler because it's new."
By British standards, a 104-gun ship was a first-rate ship, and a 74-gun ship was a third-rate ship.
I looked out at the three-gun deck of the new ship of the line and was amazed. The gun ports lined each deck looked like countless eyes waiting for battle.
The ship's masts and sails rose toward the sky, and the sails, filled with wind, displayed a free and powerful spirit.
While my father was immersed in the view for a while, I said:
"Let's quickly finish the launching ceremony and go for a walk, father."
"Ah, yes. That's a good idea."
The launching ceremony moved quickly.
The event was as grand as the ship of the line itself, with almost the entire Imperial Mexican Navy present.
At this time there were no customs such as breaking a bottle of champagne and, according to Spanish tradition, there was a blessing and naming ceremony by a priest.
“My father already decided on the name and passed it on.”
The priest raised his hands and began the blessing.
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we have gathered to bless this noble ship. May she glide gracefully over the waters, her sails filled with the breath of God and her hull strong enough to withstand the power of the sea."
As the crowd held their breath, the priest continued.
"Now, receiving the blessings of heaven, this ship will be called 'Cortés,' and may your voyage be as firm and honorable as your name."
"¡Guau!"
The citizens and naval officers who had come to witness the event burst into cheers, and my father, I, and others applauded enthusiastically.
The prefix of our Imperial Mexican Navy ships is "BIM", which stands for Imperial Mexican Ship.
This is a prefix indicating the ship's affiliation, such as HMS (Her Majesty's Ship) in England and USS (United States Ship) in America.
Following the launching of the capital ship, the launching ceremonies of the two frigates, two improved versions of the American 44-gun frigate, known for its power among the frigates of several countries, were quickly held.
"Now I can get on board."
-Yes, Father. It seems that everything is ready.
My father, as if he had been waiting for this moment, climbed onto the BIM Cortés.
Hundreds of sailors moved hurriedly on the deck of the ship, but their movements were precise and organized.
We had increased the number of naval personnel in advance with the money we earned from the issue of banknotes and had trained them on the existing ships of the line, so that they could transfer without hesitation to the new ship.
"This means that our Mexican Imperial Fleet now has three ships of the line and five frigates."
This excluded three warships (gunboats) and 45 transports.
—Yes, Father. Soon the graduates of the Naval Academy will begin to appear, so this is just the beginning.
We are building ships at the second shipyard, which was completed six months ago, and we are planning to begin construction immediately at the third and fourth shipyards, which will be completed in six months.
Ships will continue to appear in the future, but it will take a long time to catch up with England, which has more than 100 ships of the line.
My father seemed to think the same.
"It reminds me once again of the power of England. It will take decades to achieve it."
"Yes, but fortunately the French navy was almost annihilated by the British at the Battle of Trafalgar."
Actually, overtaking England is not impossible. If we complete the observation ships that are currently being built and start building larger and more powerful battleships that can be used in the open sea, the ships of the line will become useless. This has been demonstrated in the original story. But since this is something only I know, I changed the subject and referred to France, which could be considered our enemy.
"France... The Battle of Trafalgar was 32 years ago, so they must have rebuilt their navy to some extent."
"They must have rebuilt it to some extent. Especially since they extorted a lot of money from us, they must have rebuilt it quite a bit. But that money wouldn't have all been invested in the navy, and they've been politically chaotic in several ways, so they're not an insurmountable enemy like England."
"That's good to hear."
At the Battle of Veracruz, the heart of the Pastry War, France deployed five frigates with between 40 and 60 guns and nine patrol boats with 24 guns.
At that time, France also had 10 to 20 ships of the line, but could not send them for fear of provoking England. Although it had the second largest navy in the world, it was far behind England, which occupied the first place.
"Ultimately, the key is to persuade England."
The new liner successfully completed its test voyage and returned safely to the port of Veracruz.
***
Over the past year and a half, I have been paying attention to my various businesses, ongoing civil engineering projects, the university, the navy, etc., but there have been two main focuses: banknote circulation and investment ventures.
"Your Highness, it seems that banknotes are more commonly used now, even in the provinces. Few people exchange banknotes for gold, as before, because they do not trust the banknotes they receive as wages."
Diego did not investigate, but he did transmit the results of my request to the Ministry of Finance so that the Central Bank could verify whether the banknotes were circulating well in Mexican society.
"If it's just starting to take root like that, there's nothing to worry about."
We started paying government officials and employees of my companies entirely in cash.
Merchants who did not own my shops and did not know much about banknotes did not trust them, but when they confirmed that they could exchange them for gold, they began to accept them. It was proof that the government's financial credibility was high.
"Yes, Your Highness. While goods with low transaction units, such as groceries, still need to be paid for with silver coins, the practice of handing out bags of silver coins and counting them one by one for transactions of 5 pesos or more has disappeared."
"So we will no longer worry about the circulation of banknotes. Now we will only worry about inflation."
The government, having experienced enormous seigniorage and money multiplier effects by purchasing gold with naval bonds and issuing 40 million pesos in notes, planned to buy up all the gold and issue currency with the 1837 budget, but I and the governor of the Central Bank barely managed to stop them.
"Yes, Your Highness, we have learned that having a lot of money is not always a good thing."
As Diego said, having a lot of money is not always good.
A big government budget is a good thing, but with development, industrialization and territorial development happening simultaneously across the country, even if the government releases more funds, there are not enough people to actually work, and that only fuels inflation and wage increases.
"We have money, but we can't spend it. This is..."
My father and the Minister of Finance were quite disappointed, but they eventually understood my concerns and those of the Governor of the Central Bank.
I used the 6 million pesos I earned from the sale of gold to set up a new company: Real Inversión.
It is a company in which I own 100% of the shares, intended to invest and manage my assets, but for now I have entrusted it with acting as a kind of venture capital.
"I need to support industries that I have overlooked or that are too small for me to handle directly, so that the economy can grow stronger."
Just as I belatedly thought about canned goods and soft drinks, I can't take care of everything. But what if someone brings a detailed proposal and wants to start a business?
It would not be difficult for me to judge whether the business will be a great success in the future, just average or a failure.
After a major press campaign throughout the Mexican Empire, hundreds of business proposals arrived each month and we made between 1 and 5 investments per week.
"We've narrowed it down to ten. That's a lot this week."
Not just for a month, but for a week. I made the final decisions myself, but after weeding out the scammers and criminals, eliminating unrealistic or small-scale companies, and filtering through the candidates' interviews, ten proposals remained.
—Yes, Your Highness. But all of them are proposals that have gone through a thorough verification process.
An employee of Real Inversión, who had brought the documents to my office since the morning, said.
"I see. I'll take my time checking them out."
"Yes, thank you, Your Highness."
—Hmm, let's see. A travel agency? So early?
The entrepreneur wanted 500 pesos of investment, which wasn't much. There were also idiots who wanted tens of thousands of pesos from the start, so it was a pretty realistic amount.
Most investments were in the hundreds to thousands of pesos range, but sometimes I decided to invest tens of thousands of pesos. This happened when the founder had skills and experience in the field and the business required a large amount of capital but could generate large profits. In these cases, I demanded half or more of the shares in exchange for investing a large sum.
"Well, railway lines have been laid across the country and security is stable, so there is no reason why a travel agency would not work."
I passed it.
In addition to the travel agency, there was someone with a very particular background: a Swiss man. He wanted to start a mechanical watch business, and after some research, it turned out that he really did have the necessary skills.
"If it's in the watch industry, it must be from a Huguenot (Protestant) family that emigrated to Switzerland to escape religious persecution in France. Why would he come to the Mexican Catholic Empire to start a business now?"
He had instructed immigration firms in England, the United States, and South America to advertise for qualified personnel to come to the Mexican Empire to start businesses, but most of the actual applicants were from Catholic countries, similar to the original immigrants.
The Swiss had hardly ever immigrated before, so he was skeptical, but the documents said they had thoroughly checked his skills.
"Hmm, if he really has the skills, I can worry about his life story later."
How do I know if the watch industry will be created in our Mexican Empire?
Tap-
I passed it again this time.
"His Highness, the British Ambassador, Richard Pakenham, has arrived."
Time flew by while I was working.
Although the Mexican Empire had not collapsed, the British ambassador was replaced, as in the original story. It was he who mediated the war between Mexico and France in the original story.
"He really takes the containment of France seriously, like all Britons of this era."
England's influence was significant in the fact that the conflict with France ended with an indemnity of 600 thousand pesos, even though Mexico was completely bombed by France in Veracruz and had no power to retaliate.
I told them to let him in and he soon entered my office.
Don't drop this novel, and thanks for the spanish translation
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