Carlo, who had successfully won over Menotti, was in a great mood. Under Garibaldi's hospitality, he enjoyed an Italian lunch that, although not lavish, was very authentic.
Although Caprera Island was not a large island, it was still an island and did not lack seafood.
In fact, Garibaldi's life on Caprera Island was mainly focused on hunting and fishing, supplemented by reading.
Because of his special status, Garibaldi rarely received guests, which made him seem very lonely.
The good news was that after Garibaldi published articles in the Sun Newspaper and earned royalties, at least his daily living expenses were not a worry.
Normally, he would farm, fish, and hunt. Food and meat were completely sufficient, allowing him to live a carefree life.
Carlo also felt relieved. After all, he had successively taken two of Garibaldi's sons to serve him. If Garibaldi's life had not been good, Carlo would have truly felt some guilt.
Fortunately, Garibaldi had his wife's company, and his daughter and son-in-law would visit him from time to time, so he wasn't completely alone or lonely.
Time spent together is always short, and Carlo couldn't stay on Caprera Island for long.
That afternoon, Carlo boarded the departing ship, taking Garibaldi's eldest son, Menotti, with him.
As for Menotti, Carlo actually had other arrangements.
The matter of the Africa expedition team had been mentioned before. Carlo wanted to form a formal Africa expedition team, which must have an armed force, at least capable of protecting the team as it traveled through dangerous Africa.
At this time, the explored areas of Africa were only some coasts and outer regions. There were still large areas of land untouched by the Great Powers.
On these unknown lands, there were certainly many African native tribes. It was inevitable that some would be rather exclusive and might even actively attack the expedition team.
However, the African expedition team was still quite dangerous. Although the African natives were not the main danger, the unknown geographical environment and some bacteria and viruses that Europeans had never encountered were the real dangers of Africa.
Therefore, Carlo would not force him. If Menotti were willing, he would become the captain of the Africa expedition team. If he was not willing, there were also positions in the Royal Guard available for him to choose from.
Returning to Rome from Caprera Island was already evening on the same day.
Carlo had planned to go to bed early, but unexpectedly, Government officials soon found him and reported on the negotiation situation with the Spanish government.
The negotiations between the two sides were quite fast, which somewhat exceeded Carlo's expectations.
He had originally thought the negotiation might take several days, perhaps ten, but unexpectedly, after two days of talks, preliminary results had already been achieved. They just needed to finalize some details to basically sign the agreement.
What the Spanish Government currently needed most was funding and some industry-related technology.
On this point, the Italian Government was still willing to cooperate with the Spanish Government. After all, Spain was not a Great Power and temporarily posed no threat to Italy.
Cooperation between Spain and Italy could also help Italy alleviate the threat from France. After all, Italy's unification involved successively taking Venice and Rome from Austria-Hungary and France.
In fact, it couldn't really be called seizing; it was more like picking up scraps.
But these two regions were indeed within the spheres of influence of Austria-Hungary and France. Italy's unification was bound to affect these two countries.
As Carlo had expected, the Italian Government agreed not to attach harsh conditions to the loan but would not provide interest-free loans, only low-interest loans.
Currently, the loan amount has not been finalized, but it was likely not going to be too much, as Italy's economic situation was not very good either.
Carlo estimated that the loan Italy could provide to Spain would be between 50 million and 100 million lira, which was around 2 million to 4 million pounds.
This amount of money was quite easy for Italian capitalists to raise. It would neither affect Italy's development nor truly help Spain, making it a win-win situation.
As for Italy's Industry technology, it could also be provided to Spain, but it would need to be purchased with real money.
Carlo had no objection regarding this either. After all, no country's industrial technology was obtained for free; it was either developed domestically or had to be purchased at a high price from other countries.
Things like the latest steelmaking technology, steam turbine technology, and production materials in the chemical sector were what Spain lacked relatively.
Compared to countries like Britain, France, and Germany, Italy was not considered a strong industrial nation, but for Spain, Italy had enough experience in Industry for Spain to learn from.
There was also Italy's technology in the military Industry, such as the rifle Italy had just introduced, and the technology for producing ironclads.
Italy's technology in naval construction was not weak at all; it could definitely be called first-class in Europe.
Italy already possessed the technical capability to build ten-thousand-ton ironclads in the 1880s, which was definitely a top level in that historical era.
However, because Italy's national strength had always been at the lower end among the Great Powers, coupled with the fact that the country was located in the Mediterranean, naval development was very limited, resulting in the Italian Navy's scale never being very large.
This was also Italy's biggest geographical drawback. All its coastlines were located in the Mediterranean. Even if a large navy was built, after the British blocked the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal respectively, the Italian Navy could only roam in the Mediterranean and could not get out at all.
The good news was that ironclads had only been around for just over a decade so far, and Italy's technology in ironclads was not that mature either.
Regarding Spain's demand for introducing these Industry technologies, the Italian Government did not have much objection, but it would not simply give these technologies to the Spanish Government for free.
Carlo did not entirely rely on Italy's technology either. Carlo's hope for Spain was to be able to introduce advanced technology from the European powers, then fully understand these technologies, and research even more advanced technology based on them.
Currently, it was just the stage of introducing technology, and Carlo certainly welcomed anyone. After all, Italy's technology was also different from other countries. Learning more about technology would be more helpful for developing new technology based on it in the future.
After a brief look at the cooperation agreement with Italy, Carlo felt there were no issues and instructed the reporting officials to continue promoting cooperation with Italy.
The purpose of this diplomatic visit had basically been achieved. This diplomatic visit was quite successful. If they could also attract some talent from Italy back to Spain, it would be even more perfect.