Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

196  Business Formalisation, Foreign Direct Investment, Ottoman Trouble

Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, Vijayanagara state, capital city-Hampi.

Vijay just received the folder of documents forwarded by Rajesh. He looked through it, and it contained two files. One looked like a letter from Rajesh himself, and the other one appeared to be sealed and unopened. The seal had a stamp that was not from the Bharatiya Empire as the language did not match, but by the looks of it, it was Venetian. Thinking about the Venetian representative to the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, Leonardo Bellini, he could speculate that this letter was forwarded by him. Vijay was curious about what was in the letter, but first, he decided to read the message Rajesh sent.

Reading the letter, its content surprised him. The reason for his surprise, well, there were multiple reasons actually. For one, someone actually wanted to build factories in the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire to reduce manufacturing costs in their home country. Another reason that surprised him even more was that someone came up with this foreign direct investment model, which did not emerge until the 20th century by Eli Heckscher and Bertil Ohlin, who developed the theory of foreign investments using neoclassical economics and macroeconomic theory.

Vijay even suspected whether this Doge was from the future like him. This thought caused him to panic because if his speculation turned out to be true, then the variables in the world would be unimaginable. Although he was confident enough that with his knowledge and the golden finger gift he possessed, he could still navigate India through the troubled times. It's better to not have such uncontrollable factors altogether.

But soon after thinking about it for a bit longer, he scratched off Giovanni Morosini being a transmigrator like him because if he was indeed a transmigrator, he would never take the Republic of Venice in the current direction it is going. Even if he were to conclude that this Giovanni guy only recently got transmigrated, he would never propose to directly invest in the Bhartiya Empire. Even a nutjob from the future would know that although using a third-world country to outsource manufacturing is cheaper, it also leads to the home country losing its capability of manufacturing, leaving it vulnerable in times of war, like many European countries by the time Vijay died. On top of that, Vijay thought if it was indeed a transmigrator, he would work very hard to centralize the power of the Republic of Venice and make it an autocratic monarchy or at least a constitutional one, not thinking about how to outsource the manufacturing in order to make a bargain.

After being relieved from his own scare, Vijay contemplated the proposal of setting up Venetian workshops. Foreign direct investment may indeed boost the economy of the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, where money is being spent like water on various infrastructure projects all over the Empire. Roads are being expanded continuously, schools, academies, government buildings, dams, post offices, ship manufacturing, defence manufacturing, the building of a new capital city, refurbishing old temples, rebuilding old temples, building new temples, and many other such infrastructure developments have been going on since the last four years since he took the throne. Fortunately, the benefits are also being realized just as quickly, As the economy is continuously growing way past the target of 10% per annum.

So finally, Vijay made a decision. He would not fully allow for foreign direct investment but decided to allow the Venetians to set up factories in the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire. However, they will not own one hundred per cent of the company. Instead, a condition will be put, especially in the case of defence equipment manufacturing, which Vijay suspects is the bulk of Venetian interests in the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire.

The Venetians should invest with their own technology and Experienced personnel (main) in order to get their proportion of shares, and the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire will provide land, human resources, monetary investment, and policy for the remaining shares. This was the main framework he came up with, not only to earn more gold but also to increase the technical reserve of the empire, gain more polished technology, and enhance the strength of the Venetians in their fight against the Ottomans. After making a few finishing touches to his plan, like deciding the amount of shares and determining who manages the company, etc., he wrote down his thoughts in detail.

Now that he has decided to do such a thing, Vijay also decided that he should finally formalize the business environment in Dakshin Bhartiya Empire.

Preparations have been going on for formalizations since the time he inherited the throne. For example, a unified legal system that applies throughout the Empire has been set up. Although the laws pertaining to business affairs have not yet been written, the framework for businesses has been set up. Currency has been standardized, as it has always been the Varaha in the empire, and even in the new territories, the currency of the Mughal Empire has been banned, making the Varaha of the Dakshina Bharatiya Empire the default currency. Roads, bridges, and ports are being developed at a breakthrough pace and have never stopped, also facilitating business reforms. Trade is quite prosperous with the European countries, so the merchants of the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire are also slowly gaining experience and widening their worldview. Also, as one of the very first things he implemented, weights and measures have been standardized.

Despite doing all this, there are still some areas lacking for the opening up of the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire. For example, education is still not sufficient enough to produce top-grade financial talents, the culture of technological innovation has not been built up, entrepreneurship has not yet been popularized, and generally, acceptance among society is not yet high. The job of being a merchant is still frowned upon by the higher-class Brahmins.

So Vijay has to solve these hurdles as soon as possible.

Vijay quickly called Uncle Ravi and ordered, "Uncle, please invite the Minister of Trade and Commerce, Rajesh, along with the Minister of Finance, Jagannath Mohan."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

18:06

Now that the matter is out of the way, he had to wait for the ministers' arrival. In the meantime, he quickly reached into the folder to open the letter sent by Leonardo.

Vijay took a knife from the drawer and peeled open the stamp. He could have directly cut the letter, but according to him, it feels satisfying not to tear the paper when opening the letter.

*Nice.*

He had a smug smile as the letter did not tear.

Unfortunately, the smile did not last as the smug grin on his face disappeared. The letter contained an intelligence report about the Ottoman Empire building 10 new 1000-ton battleships in three different ports located in the red sea: Suez, Aqaba, and Suakin. All this was done for the benefit of the Mughal Empire. No specifications of the battleships were mentioned, but Vijay could conclude that they were no different from what the Portuguese used.

This new development caught him off guard. He thought that after the victory against the Mughal Empire, he would at least get a few years to develop the economy and strengthen the military before the need for another strike. The sudden involvement of the Ottoman Empire surprised him. However, thinking about it carefully, it did not make sense. His assistance to the Venetians could have aggravated their battle situation, but it did not add up. Just to help the Venetians, the Ottoman Empire, one of the overlords in the European power circle, would not go to such lengths just to aid its cousin empire.

He thought some more, but it did not make any sense, so he left it as it is since counter-preparations were more important. Maybe if Vijay knew how much of a ruckus the Dharmic Islam caused in the Ottoman Empire, then he would understand, but he did not have the intel. The information provided by the Venetians did not include details about Dharmic Islam, and Vijay himself did not have any intelligence channels within the Ottoman Empire to know what the Ottomans wanted hidden.

Vijay quickly called Marshal Kiran Pujari and Admiral Gangadhar to discuss countermeasures. He also decided to double the strength of the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire Navy, so he ordered 100 more Hampi class sloops, making a total of 220, and 20 more Vinayaka class frigates, bringing the total to 40 frigates of 500 tons each. By the time he had written all these instructions and read the documents, both the Minister of Finance, Jagannath Mohan, and the Minister of Trade and Commerce had arrived at the palace.

"Long live Your Majesty! Long live!"

"Long live Your Majesty! Long live!"

They conveyed the greetings with utmost seriousness and nervousness, as they could see from Vijay's frowning face. However, they were unaware that the sombre mood was due to something else and not because of them.

Vijay, noticing the serious expressions of the two ministers, quickly managed to suppress the uneasy feelings in his heart and began explaining his thoughts, "Gentlemen, the business in the Empire has been improving day by day, with massive changes occurring each day. More and more affluent people are being generated in the empire. As trade with European countries increases, the number of merchants is also on the rise. However, there is one problem: all this is happening in a barbaric way.

We do not have proper regulations or systems to manage and influence the businesses in our Empire. I have recently come to know about the inhuman conditions in which the workers toil in those sweatshops. Similar practices happened during the time of war with the Mughals, but due to the emergency, we had to 'kill a few chickens' to warn the other businessmen. They behaved well for a while, but unfortunately, as new merchants were being generated, they ignored the warnings of the old merchants and started to become unbridled, imposing inhuman conditions on the workers.

Seeing as there were no repercussions, the old merchants also followed suit, and this was not the only reason to reform; the logistics of the Empire were also challenged by such unhindered and unregulated growth of workshops all over the Empire. It has become hard to tax these businesses when we do not even know what they produce and how much they produce. It was okay at the beginning as the contribution of tax from these businesses was less, but now it has been increasing constantly." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Upon hearing His Majesty's speech, Jagannath Mohan and Rajesh exchanged glances. The initial feeling was relief that His Majesty's bad mood was not directed at them. Without hesitation, they asked, "So, what can we do, Your Majesty?"

Vijay, while handing over the bundle of documents he had been updating since he took the throne, said, "I need you to design a framework for a system to regulate and direct these businesses in a productive way so that their output would be a net positive for the empire. New regulations, laws, policies, and frameworks must be written, and I have already outlined the framework and basic ideas."

He continued, "I need both of you to go through them, and design regulations, systems, policies, and mechanisms to make what is in the document possible. For legal aspects, take help from the Minister of Justice, Bhuvan."

"Yes, Your Majesty, we will get it done."

"I have basically prepared all the necessary ingredients for you to work. I need the result within this week. Utilize the resources of both departments if necessary, but I need no excuses."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

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