Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

12th October 1659

The port of Kochi, Shivaji Shipyard

Dozens of Europeans sat in the lounge of the Shivaji Shipyard with anticipation and eagerness as they waited patiently to place orders for the new generation of Bharatiya military vessels. Only a few months ago, the situation would have been impossible, as Thiruvananthapuram was the only city in the empire where European imports and exports were allowed, however, after the war, that ceased to be the case. The majority of European countries that agreed to remain neutral were given permits to travel to any trading port of the empire.

However, Despite the green light from the government, Thiruvananthapuram, even after such a momentous decision, remained the primary trading outpost for the Europeans and still is, and probably will continue to be for the foreseeable future. However, a few European merchants saw the advantage of other ports as well. Your next chapter awaits on empire

For example, the Port of Thiruvananthapuram still has an unmatched advantage when it comes to buying and selling industrial products. The infrastructure there is highly developed, and given that Europeans have established many connections, they cannot simply abandon all that and move to another port where the prices are not even better. However, the advantage lies in trading speciality goods unique to the area. By the time these speciality goods reach Thiruvananthapuram, they would have already changed hands several times among buyers, but if they were acquired directly from the company, the price was actually lower.

In this way, various ports of the Bharatiya Empire started receiving visitors from various European countries.

Marco Molin, the director of the Shivaji Shipyard, was troubled. The shipyard was already filled with orders to the brim. Most of the orders actually came from the government because, under the naval construction bill, only 50% of the shipbuilding is completed while the remaining 50% is pending. Currently, all the shipyards in the empire are working very hard to complete the remaining 50%.

In the meantime, orders from Europeans, who were very impressed by the battle capabilities of the new Bharatiya warships, poured in like water drops in a storm, like a never-ending torrential rain. What's more, the price they could charge the Europeans was a premium of a few times more than the ship's construction cost, while what they could charge the military was only some labour costs and a profit of 20% to 30%. Sadly, even if Marco wanted to put the orders of the military aside for a moment and complete the orders for the Europeans, he couldn't do it because, by Bharat First law, each and every large shipyard of the Bharatiya Empire has the obligation to complete the national orders first and look at international orders afterward.

Shivaji Shipyard has a total of 20 dry docks capable of manufacturing 18 1000-tonne warships at a time and 2 2000-tonne battleships. But, because of the law and regulation of the Bharatiya Empire, all these dry docks are occupied by military vessels whose construction isn't due to be completed for at least a few weeks. Even after the construction is completed, the next batch of military warships had to be constructed.

Marco did not think much of the Bharat First regulation placed on him when he took over the shipyard, since no matter who puts the orders, there is still money to be made. But right now, he felt like it was the most annoying regulation in the nation. He counted, instead of warships for the Bharatiya Empire, if he had constructed warships for European countries, the profits he would have made would have been enough to expand the scale of the shipyard by another 50%. Even thinking about it made him grit his teeth with unwillingness.

"Director, we have customers," Ferranzo Alvarez, Marco Molin's assistant, informed,

Marco immediately rubbed his forehead with annoyance. "Inform them of our condition and take their contact information. Tell them that we will contact them as soon as we are capable of taking the orders."

Ferranzo Alvarez nodded. "As you say, sir."

Marco clasped his hands as he placed them on the table. He looked bloodshot, like a man who had been deprived of sleep for a long time. "No, this can't go on. I have to do something." He got up, clenched his fist in determination, eyes becoming sharp, and left the office room.

A few days passed, and surprisingly, the directors and largest shareholders of Chola Shipyard, Ashoka Shipyard, Berunda Shipyard, and the three second-tier shipyards all received an invitation for a meeting from the Marco family of Venice.

Ravi Shetti, who received the letter from the Marco family, was taken aback, as he did not know what was happening in the naval industry. In recent months, he had put all his attention on the construction industry due to the construction boom brought by the two major infrastructure projects of railway track clearing and canal building. Not understanding why he received the letter from the Marco family, he inquired with Sudhakar, the director of Chola Shipyard.

"Your Excellency, it is my speculation that Mr. Marco wants to bring the shipyard owners together and convince the government to allow them to take shipbuilding orders coming in from Europe."

Ravi Shetty was taken aback. "Why is that so? Hasn't our shipyard been at full capacity for the last two years? What's the problem now?"

"Ah!" Sudhakar hesitated for a bit but still told the truth. "European orders are more profitable, sir."

"Oh?" Ravi Shetty was intrigued.

"Yes!" Sudhakar nodded. "The profit margin for the military ships constructed for the Bharatiya Empire could range anywhere from 10% to 30%. If it is the largest Delhi-class battleship or the Guwahati-class armed merchant ship, then the profit margin could reach another 5%, bringing it to 35%. But—"

He stopped briefly, looked at Ravi Shetty, who was watching him with curiosity and continued, "The profit margin we can obtain by selling naval ships to the Europeans could range anywhere from 40% to a few hundred percent. We can charge twice or even three times the amount of money it took to construct the same ship."

"Now, although we are making a lot of money by taking the government orders, we are actually losing even more by not taking the European orders. I believe this is the reason why Mr. Marco invited us."

Ravi Shetty was surprised, his eyebrows raised. He knew that the shipyard was profitable, as it brought in considerable profits to the family every year, but now he realized these profits were only obtained by taking Bharatiya navy orders since the last year. He fell into deep thought. "Come to think about it, it makes a lot of sense now."

"When we sold the Pune-class battleships to the Europeans a few years ago, the dividends I received were comparable to those of last year. I always thought the naval industry was a steady and profitable industry, but thinking about it—now I realize that when the Pune-class ships were sold to the Europeans, the shipyard was not as big as it is now, and it barely had the capability to build four to five 1000-ton battleships. What would happen if all our current capacity is dedicated to constructing warships for European countries?" he muttered in a low voice, his eyes brightening by the end.

However, he soon came to his senses. He understood that greed had gotten the better of him for a short time. "Inform them that I will personally attend the meeting," he ordered.

"As you wish, sir," Sudhakar responded.

Ravi Shetty looked at the departing figure of Sudhakar with a thoughtful expression. Although he knew that completely stopping the military orders of the Bharatiya Empire for higher profits was not possible—since the emperor would not allow such a thing and it could even lead to unexpected consequences—he still wanted to see if it was partially possible for the shipyard to make a lot more profit while simultaneously constructing the warships for the Bharatiya Navy.

Pawan Kalyan, the major shareholder of the Ashoka Shipyard, after discussing with Bhupathi and Bakshi, two other major shareholders, came to a similar conclusion as Ravi Shetty. Ghana Prabhu Berunda, who was troubled by the orders of the Navy, also felt like it was a good opportunity to solve the issue by attending the meeting. Naveen Ambani, Indrasena Reddy, and Bajrang Dharani, the three owners of the second-tier shipyards, also felt the same way and readily agreed to attend the meeting.

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16th October 1659

Marco Molin did not beat around the bush and directly got to the main point after greeting everyone personally.

"Everyone here is busy, so I won't take long."

"We all know that there is a very high demand from European merchants and countries for warships produced in the Bharatiya Empire, but due to the restrictions placed on us by the Bharat First law, we are not able to take on these orders until the orders of the Bharatiya Navy are completed."

"But this is affecting the profitability of the shipyards. So, I invited everyone here to sign the petition to modify the Bharat First law pertaining to the naval industry."

Everyone nodded their heads in understanding. They were soon given a copy of the petition, and upon reading it, they were relieved. The petition outlined the troubles the naval industry was experiencing, and there wasn't a specific suggestion about what they wanted, which could have led to misunderstandings.

Everyone was about to sign after seeing that nothing was wrong, but Ravi Shetty asked, "Mr. Marco, you could have used the diplomatic route by taking the line of the Republic of Venice. Why did you choose such a method?"

The hands that were about to sign suddenly paused as everyone looked at Marco with curiosity.

"Ah!" Marco Molin was taken aback, but he still proceeded to answer, "Wouldn't that make things worse?"

"Even though I have recently obtained temporary citizenship of the Bharatiya Empire and could now be considered a Bharatiya, everyone knows that I am from the Republic of Venice, and there is no way of erasing that. If I take the route of diplomacy or directly complain to the government, I know things will not go well."

"I don't know if the news could reach His Majesty, but what I do know is that the ministers and the directors of various departments in the government will definitely think that I am eating inside and outside, supporting the Republic of Venice and other European countries while being a Bharatiya citizen. Although nothing of such matters is mentioned in the citizenship formalization rights, I still need to keep these things in mind, as I would not like my employees to work or speak for another shipyard after all."

Everyone felt that it made sense.

Finally, Ravi Shetty was also satisfied with the answers and signed his name.

"Mr. Marco, you have got everyone's signatures. How would you like to proceed from now on?" Ravi Shetty inquired.

Marco Molin shrugged, "My plan is straightforward, sir. I would simply send it to the Emperor's office."

Ravi Shetty nodded, "It's a good idea, but since the Emperor's office receives documents from all the departments and ministries of the empire, our petition will not be given priority."

"Let's do it like this: give the petition documents to me, and I will be responsible for handing it over to the Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry, Rajesh. He should be one of the ministers aware of our current problem."

"I would love to go through the Director of the Taxation Bureau, but unfortunately, I'm not familiar with him yet, or else that would be even more perfect."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Marco Molin's eyes lit up; this was even better. The Emperor's own uncle coming forward—how could he refuse such a thing?

Marco Molin readily obliged.