Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

19th October 1659

The journey of BNV Dhairya is of great importance to the global influence and reach of the Bharatiya Empire, but the greatest benefit of the ships voyage is for the logistics companies.

For a long time, the central and state governments of the Bharatiya Empire, instead of transporting supplies by themselves, have used the services of the logistics industry to do so. This is mainly due to Vijay's maximum governance and minimum government policy. When a state or the central government requires something from another state or a country, it does not mobilize its own ship because, for one, governments have long ceased to own merchant ships, and two, even though they have control over part of the military and the police, which have some ships, it is highly illegal for them to use.

Instead, what they do is they auction the job to any logistics company that is willing to transport the cargo for them.

In such an atmosphere, a lot of opportunities have been created in the private sector, making the private logistic companies of the Bharatiya Empire quite prosperous. The situation has only improved since then, as even the transportation of goods and cargo between the Bharatiya Empire and Southeast Asian countries has been completely taken over by private logistic companies, with the company of John Brown being the forerunner. At first, the government had to manually put orders for the logistic companies to trade from Bharat to the Philippines, Mindanao, or any other country, but once the merchants saw trading opportunities after completing the government orders, they seized the initiative to trade with these countries in any way possible.

Ever since, the economy of Southeast Asian countries became more and more connected with the Bharatiya Empire and vice versa.

All the government did was act as an introducer and a buffer for any major and risky endeavour, and once the private sector found out there was wealth to be generated and money to be made, they fully took over. It was the government's job to bring the horse near a pond, and it was the horse's job to decide whether to drink the water or not.

BNV Dhairya is one of the government's endeavours to develop trans-oceanic trade. Since no single company could bear the risk of delivering goods to Mexico, the government initially financed the venture to instil confidence in the market. Fully owned by the government, BNV Dhairya serves as a pioneer, demonstrating to logistic companies that oceanic travel and trade are viable.

If the voyage of BNV Dhairya is disrupted, the private sector is likely to avoid trans-oceanic trade for a long time. It can be said that BNV Dhairya is the Titanic of the Bharatiya Empire—any mishap would set back the hopes and dreams of Bharatiya's continental trade by years.

It is one of the reasons why Marc Anthony was tasked to captain the ship. Despite being an enemy general, Bharat simply couldn't afford to send someone who only had experience in the Indian Ocean or the Southeast Asia Seas. Vijay knew that theory was not enough to traverse the Pacific Ocean. Even if he found someone competent enough to command a battleship, he could not promise they had the nerve to endure multiple months on the ocean without seeing land and second-guessing themselves as to whether they were going in the right direction. In fact, he would not even trust the admiral for this task.

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Simhasana Bhavana

"Thank God there are no icebergs," Vijay let out a relieved sigh. He sat in his office, looking up the travel route of BNV Dhairya. Icebergs are one of the biggest obstacles to sailing ships in this era. They are simply undetectable; even though they look like small pebbles above the ocean, they might be huge mountains below. Until sonar is invented, this is going to be a big problem.

Vijay was just thankful that there weren't any icebergs floating around on the route BNV Dhairya was taking. He knew that the Bering Sea, which joins the northern Pacific Ocean, contains a lot of icebergs, but thankfully he also knew that BNV Dhairya would not be going anywhere close to that sea since the destination of BNV Dhairya was Mexico, not Canada.

Vijay took out a quill pen and circled a location in the Central Pacific Ocean. "I wonder when the Bharatiya Empire could produce excellent navigation talents," he thought to himself. Once Hawaii is taken under control, Pacific travel becomes much safer. With Hawaii as a transit station, it is not necessarily nearer than the current route, but it is definitely safer. However, the Bharatiya Empire, whose entire legacy of naval culture ended with the Chola Empire, does not have a rich sailing heritage. While, with the presence of Vijay, it did reach the world's advanced position in shipbuilding and technology, it is still lagging behind in specializations such as navigational talents.

"Sigh!" "One step at a time," he comforted himself.

"Knock, knock."

Vijay's attention was immediately attracted by the knocking of the door. "Come in," he ordered.

Stepping into the office, Ganesh greeted Vijay and reported, "Your Majesty, Minister Rajesh has requested to meet you."

Vijay's eyebrows raised in surprise as he recalled that everything seemed to be going well with the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industry. Curious, he thought, 'Did something go wrong, or is there a new plan Rajesh wants to discuss with me?' He looked at Ganesh and nodded. "Let him come in."

Soon, Ganesh left the room, and the Minister Rajesh entered. Rajesh immediately greeted Vijay respectfully and sat down in front of him after Vijay gestured for him to do so.

"So, what brings you here, Rajesh? Is there something wrong in the ministry?" Vijay asked, supporting his chin with his hand.

Rajesh shook his head. "Not the ministry, Your Majesty. It's about the private sector, or more precisely the shipbuilding sector."

"Huh!" The hand immediately dropped down, and Vijay's eyes widened as he could have never expected the reason. "The shipbuilding industry?" He looked at Rajesh with an unbelievable look on his face. Everyone knew how important the shipbuilding industry was to the Bharatiya Empire. Putting aside the profits it brought into the Bharatiya Empire as the crown jewel of the industry, the strategic significance alone was immeasurable.

Rajesh nodded his head in acknowledgement.

A frown immediately appeared on Vijay's face, and his body language became serious. He was trying to remember if he had missed anything about the shipbuilding industry from the intelligence reports in recent days, but no matter how much he thought, he couldn't find anything wrong with the industry. All the Shipyards were performing at their best capabilities and they were filled to the brim with orders. What could have gone wrong?

Vijay looked at Rajesh confused, "What happened to the shipbuilding industry?" He asked.

Rajesh did not answer but simply took out the petitions put forward by the shipbuilders and handed them over to Vijay.

Vijay was curious as to what it was, but once he took over the document, he finally understood. 'Oh! These guys are complaining that they are not making enough profits, haha, that's a relief.' He immediately felt relieved, as the problem of profitability was not as severe as other scenarios he had imagined in his mind.

Vijay looked at Rajesh with some scrutiny. "What do you think, Rajesh? Should we remove the Bharat First policy?" He had a smile on the corner of his lips.

Rajesh was not a young politician anymore; he knew how to avoid some language traps. "No, Your Majesty, I do not recommend removing the Bharat First policy, as it is the whole reason why our navy has been built up so quickly. Without this policy, it would take longer," he said calmly without being pressured. Then he added, "However, Your Majesty, the shipbuilders also make sense. They cannot just keep building the empire's own ships and lose a chance to make a lot of money from foreign clients."

"In my opinion, the empire is also losing a lot of money by this policy, as the taxes we can gain by allowing them to take European orders would be quite large."

"What's more, we have just won the war. No country should want to have trouble with us in the short term, so I think it is a good time to slow down the speed of naval expansion. I am not too aware of diplomacy, but I think this could also send a message to Europeans that we are willing to live peacefully."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I bet our constant expansion of the navy has made them wary."

Vijay thought about it and nodded. 'It is true Bharat will not go to war with any European countries in the near future unless necessary, so it is a good chance to show goodwill by not only slowing down naval expansion but also by selling them the new generation of Bharatiya ships.'

"Alright, it makes sense."

Vijay took out a blank sheet of paper and wrote down his orders:

"The Bharat First policy could not be changed as it is the only policy that guarantees the Bharatiya Empire gets priority in purchases in Bharat, but it is true that by this policy a lot of local industries lose foreign customers. "

He suddenly stopped writing as he thought of something,

"If I'm not wrong, this is true not just for the shipbuilding industry but also for the military industry isn't it?."

Rajesh nodded his head. "It is true, Your Majesty. European merchants are willing to buy our armaments, but since our military industry is completely focused on modernizing our own military, supplying arms to Southeast Asian countries, the Persian Kingdom, Lalasthan, Tsarist Russia, and the Republic of Venice, the capacity has been full for the last few years. Even after the expansion, the orders from allies, whom we are obligated to sell to at a lower cost, are pouring in." Your adventure continues at empire

"Although we do not make a loss in this trade between all these countries, the profit margin is not too good either. It is only around 40% at the maximum and 10% at the minimum. If these industries had not entered military control, I bet they would raise the same issue."

Vijay nodded. He had put off privatizing military enterprises for the longest time possible because he had no idea if he wanted military enterprises to be under private hands. His biggest fear was that these private individuals would go after profits at every turn and push the Bharatiya Empire into war. But then again, he had no confidence in government bureaucracy running an arms industry. He knew what had happened in Bharat in his last life.

'I guess I will have to solve this issue sooner rather than later,' he thought to himself.

Vijay thought about the issue of the Bharat First policy and soon came to a decision. "Let's do it like this."

"From now on, in case the Bharatiya Empire is not at war, the Bharat First policy could be relaxed in such a way that private companies wouldn't have to dedicate 100 percent of their production capabilities to the Bharatiya Empire. Instead, allocating 40% is enough."

"They are allowed to do whatever they require with the remaining 60% production capability, and the empire government or the state government has no right to question these enterprises about whom they sell it to and at what price."

Rajesh immediately smiled. He knew that this policy would not only benefit the shipbuilding industry but also other industries that receive a lot of orders from the government.

Vijay handed over the written document to Ganesh to have it made into a bill.

Vijay signed the bill in front of Rajesh and had it sent to the Cabinet for them to pass it in the parliament.

'It is done.'

Rajesh didn't stay any longer. He did not have any doubt whether the bill would pass because no bill of His Majesty had been rejected by the cabinet ministers or the ministers of parliament ever since the parliament was formed.

P.S. Thank you Lucifer_6671 for the Inspiration capsule