Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 213: Development Of Bullfighting Competitions

In fact, starting from March 1877, the bullfighting events held by the royal family and conducted simultaneously across various places in Spain had already begun.

These were called events, but they were actually a nationwide competition among Spanish bullfighters. This competition would select the most excellent Spanish bullfighter, whom Carlo would personally award the title of Spanish Royal Matador.

Because the selections were conducted across various places in Spain, the first four months of the bullfighting competition took place in the regions, with the purpose of conducting the first round of screening in each region to select those relatively excellent bullfighters to go to Madrid for the second round of the final competition.

It was currently April, which was the hottest season for bullfighting in Spain.

In Carlo’s plan, bullfighting was a national activity concerning the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army, which could provide the Spanish people with an entertainment activity to vent their emotions while cultivating the combative and fearless spirit among the Spanish ethnic group.

This year was the first year of holding the national bullfighting competition, and Carlo was still quite attentive to it.

In mid-April 1877, Carlo grandly watched the bullfighting competition in the Madrid region with a group of Spanish officials and praised the bullfighters who performed relatively excellently in the bullfighting competition.

According to the rules of the bullfighting competition, from March to July each year, a four-month period, the regions conducted preliminary screenings and decided on the final ten to go to Madrid for the second round of the competition.

The main reason for this regulation was to make the bullfighting competition national in scope. If the competition were held only around Madrid, it would be difficult to extend the influence of the bullfighting competition to the entire Spain.

Although Madrid was the largest city in Spain, its geographical location had only the advantage of being in the center of Spain, and other aspects were not as excellent as Barcelona’s geographical location. Barcelona was Spain’s port city, surrounded mostly by plains and hills, which hardly affected the city’s development.

Madrid, on the other hand, was surrounded by mountains on all sides, which not only affected the city’s development but also meant there were no large cities within dozens of kilometers around Madrid.

To the west of Madrid was the vast Central System, to the east the Serranía de Cuenca, to the north the boundless Meseta Central, and to the south the Toledo Mountains providing obstruction.

It was precisely this area between these mountain ranges that gave birth to Madrid, Spain’s largest city. But precisely because Madrid was located between many mountain ranges, its development was restricted.

The numerous mountains and plateaus were also reasons why Spain lagged behind other European Powers in national development.

Although Spain had extremely vast territory, the massive Meseta Central sat in the northern central region of Spain, turning large areas of Spanish land into mountains and deserts unsuitable for development.

Spain was also the only country in Europe with a desert; the Tabernas Desert was located between the Sierra Morena and the Penivetico Mountains, where the northern and southern mountain ranges blocked moist maritime climates, and combined with the dry and rain-scarce conditions, it formed a desert zone.

The Tabernas Desert was a relatively unique natural landscape in Spain or even all of Europe, because it was geographically similar to the southwestern United States, and in posterity it also attracted many Hollywood crews for filming.

The famous films《Once Upon a Time in the West》and《The Good, the Bad and the Ugly》were all filmed and shot on location in Spain, and even more than four-tenths of the films depicting the American West were shot in the Tabernas Desert.

This also showed that having this desert was not a bad thing for Spain. The Tabernas Desert covered only 280 square kilometers, the size of just a few towns, and instead it could make Spain’s geographical environment more diverse, conveniently attracting tourists from Europe.

Carlo had clearly underestimated the attractiveness of bullfighting in Spain. This national bullfighting competition hosted by Carlo could be said to have attracted the attention of most Spaniards.

The Madrid region naturally also needed to select the top ten most excellent bullfighters before the second round of the competition to participate, whether it was the bullfighting competition held at Laertta Square or at other bullfighting arenas; both could attract the attention and attendance of large numbers of Spaniards.

This also made almost every bullfighting competition sold out, and it drove commercial development near the bullfighting arenas.

Taking Spain’s largest bullfighting arena, Laertta Square, as an example. Laertta Square could accommodate more than 3500 spectators at most, and in recent times, bullfighting competitions were held almost every day.

Just the ticket income from the bullfighting competitions held every day had already brought huge profits to Laertta Square.

A portion of this would be converted into tax revenue, allowing the Madrid municipal government to obtain more income.

Not to mention that these tourists purchasing food and drinks around the square and making other consumption could drive economic development.

Although most tourists did not spend much money, the role of currency circulation in the economy was more than just the superficial monetary value.

More importantly, such economic circulation happened every day. Just because of this bullfighting event, Spain’s economic growth rate far exceeded the same period last year.

This was still under the premise that Spain had no large bullfighting arenas. Once Spain’s large bullfighting arenas were completed, a single bullfighting event would have nearly ten thousand spectators watching.

The economic boost from these nearly ten thousand spectators would be several times greater than now, and with the holding of bullfighting competitions every year, Madrid’s economic development would also board a fast track, achieving rapid takeoff in a short time.

After watching two bullfighting competitions, Carlo no longer went to Laertta Square to watch.

It was not that Carlo was not interested in bullfighting competitions, but every time Carlo came, it would affect the ordinary spectators’ schedule for watching the bullfighting competition.

To ensure Carlo’s safety, when Carlo watched the bullfighting competition, the guards would impose martial law on Laertta Square, allowing only a small number of spectators who had undergone body searches and checks to enter.

Once or twice, the public might not have any dissatisfaction, but if he came too many times, the public would definitely have other ideas.

This was also because Laertta Square had not considered the reason that royal members would come to watch in person when it was designed.

Theoretically, such large bullfighting arenas, when constructed, would specially build several box seat-like venues separated from ordinary spectator seats.

This not only ensured privacy and safety in the box seats but also did not affect ordinary spectators watching the bullfighting competition.

The existence of these box seat-like areas was prepared for relatively noble guests. Ordinary spectators could of course purchase box seat ticket prices, but they were generally quite expensive and required certain qualifications, not something everyone could purchase.

Carlo had already considered this point.

The large bullfighting arena built by the royal family on the Madrid Outskirts would accommodate nearly ten thousand spectators, including ten box seats of various sizes.

The largest of these box seats could accommodate more than 20 spectators, the smallest more than 5 spectators, and they had their own exclusive passages, without needing to use ordinary spectator passages.

This was also specifically designed by Carlo for himself, his family, and the nobles to watch bullfighting competitions. Capitalists could of course buy tickets to enter the box seats to watch, but the ticket prices would be quite expensive; this was also a place where the bullfighting arena earned income.

Because this large bullfighting arena was funded and constructed by the royal family, the ownership would of course belong to the royal family.

Carlo certainly could not earn too much profit from the public, so the places to make money could only be in directions like box seats, as well as some services attached to the bullfighting arena.

After all, it was a large bullfighting arena that could accommodate nearly ten thousand people; there were also places inside the bullfighting arena selling food and drinks, as well as large toilets distributed in different locations of the bullfighting arena.

Although Carlo did not expect the bullfighting arena to recoup costs quickly after construction, if he could make money from capitalists and nobles, Carlo would of course not mind.

After watching two bullfighting competitions, Carlo no longer appeared, but this did not hinder the enthusiasm of Spaniards for watching bullfighting competitions.

After the national bullfighting competition had been held for several months, bullfighting had formed an unstoppable heat in Spain, and bullfighters who performed excellently in the regions also became hot stars in their respective regions, arousing cheers and pursuit from the public.

It was worth mentioning that with Carlo holding the national bullfighting competition, bullfighting had also formed a wave of enthusiasm among the aristocracy.

Most nobles were only keen on watching bullfighting competitions, but a small number of nobles chose to directly join and become courageous and fearless bullfighters.

Although bullfighting events were fraught with danger, and one misstep could mean death under the horns of a wild and ferocious bull.

This not only failed to stop the Spanish people’s inner love for bullfighting events but instead made more people curious and attentive to this national competition.

According to the royal family’s statistics on bullfighting competitions in the regions, in the two months before the official bullfighting event, the regions together sold more than 5 million bullfighting competition tickets.

Although this was only the number of tickets sold and did not mean that 5 million people actually watched the bullfighting competitions, it proved one thing: the Spanish people’s attention to bullfighting competitions had reached an extremely high level.

Considering the sizes of bullfighting arenas in the regions, except for Andalusia and the Madrid region which had relatively large bullfighting arenas, the other regions only had medium-sized bullfighting arenas with one or two thousand spectator seats.

Plus, bullfighting competitions were not necessarily held every day; being able to sell more than 5 million tickets in less than two months was already quite exaggerated data.

Depending on the seats, the selling prices of bullfighting competition tickets were also different.

Taking the ticket sales at Madrid’s Laertta Square as an example, the tickets at the farthest end were the cheapest, with an average ticket price not exceeding 10 cents, that is, 1 peseta.

While tickets in the best viewing areas had selling prices several times higher than those farthest end seats, with the most expensive reaching as high as 25 pesetas.

Although Spain’s per capita income had currently risen to more than 131 pesetas, a 25 peseta ticket was still the income from three days of work for ordinary people, and the vast majority of commoners would not waste so much money on a single bullfighting competition.

Those who truly purchased these better viewing position tickets were mostly middle class or even capitalists, and nobles.

Actually, the 25 peseta selling price itself was not expensive; even ordinary middle class did not need to feel heartbroken, let alone capitalists and nobles with even larger assets.

The prices of bullfighting competition tickets were constantly changing. There were many factors affecting ticket prices, the most important being the fame of the bullfighter participating in the bullfighting competition and the ferocity of the bull prepared by the bullfighting arena.

The more ferocious the bull, the more exciting the bullfighting competition would be. Famous bullfighters could also attract more spectators to watch the competition; after all, the only way these bullfighters attracted attention was by arousing the pursuit and attention of the audience with even more exciting bullfighting competitions.

These two points were factors determining the excitement of the bullfighting competition, which was why they could affect bullfighting competition ticket prices.

Although this competition was hosted by Carlo, it was actually in cooperation with bullfighting arenas in the Spanish Autonomous Communities. The bullfighting arenas owned by Carlo were not yet built, and once built, they would only host the second round of finals in the large bullfighting arena.

Cooperating with these existing bullfighting arenas in the regions was also to quickly hold bullfighting competitions and help bullfighting events develop better in the Spanish Autonomous Communities.

If relying solely on the royal family to promote it, first, it would require more time and greater funds investment; second, without participation from other capital, rapid development would not be so easy.

Although this would cede a portion of profits to the regions’ bullfighting arenas, for Carlo, it was actually not much of a loss.

A portion of the money earned by these bullfighting arenas would also turn into tax revenue, handed over to the government, increasing government income.

The money they earned themselves would also be used for propaganda of bullfighting competitions and expansion of bullfighting arenas, etc., helping bullfighting competitions carry out a new round of propaganda in Spain.

Plus the public opinion power of the newspaper office owned by Carlo, this was also why the bullfighting event quickly received welcome from most Spaniards and achieved great success.

Since the bullfighting competition had already achieved preliminary success, the next thing to do was very simple: more vigorously publicize the ongoing bullfighting competition while expanding bullfighting arenas in the regions as much as possible to ensure they could accommodate more spectators.

The more spectators watching bullfighting competitions, the more income it would bring to the bullfighting arenas and the royal family.

Currently, the scales of bullfighting arenas in the regions were around 1000 to 2000 people; such scales were really too small to cope with the public’s enthusiasm for watching bullfighting competitions.

Even Madrid, with a bullfighting arena scale of 3500 people, still had situations where the public could not buy tickets.

This was not only because bullfighting competition ticket prices were relatively low but also because bullfighting arenas in the regions really could not accommodate more spectators, leading most Spaniards to only watch corresponding bullfighting competition information in the news, unable to witness it with their own eyes.

4000 words first update, seeking support!

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