8th September 1656
Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, Vijayanagar State, Capital City, Hampi
"Babababab"
A baby is making gurgling noises with a smile on his face.
Vijay is currently playing with Agni in the Royal Palace. He is making up for all the time he has lost by not spending more time with his son due to the war. He hadn’t found it obvious before, but the more time he spends with Agni, the more he finds that his child is somewhat extraordinary.
Agni was born on the twenty-first of May, 1656, so he is currently three months and 18 days old, almost four months. However, he currently has the same brain capabilities and motor functions as a six-month-old baby.
For instance, Agni can already identify faces, smiling whenever he is around Vijay and crying whenever his mother is around. He smiles again when Ravi Chandra is around and cries when the nurse is around. Additionally, he can already grasp small objects in his hands, and Vijay has to admit Agni has quite a grip for a four-month-old.
Overall, Vijay is very happy with how Agni is growing, but he is worried if it will leave any adverse effects due to his fast development. For this reason, he carefully observed Agni’s heartbeat, blood pressure, and other things he could observe with the help of his super-enhanced senses.
Thankfully, everything was not only normal but better than normal, since it looked like Agni’s metabolism was actually slow, not fast like he had guessed.
This greatly relieved him, since if the metabolism of the body is too fast from an early age, it might lead to premature growth, which is not entirely too bad from the sound of it, but it might also lead to premature death as the metabolism of the body cannot run at a fast pace all the time.
"Don’t worry, Kavya. Nothing will happen to Agni. I have already had him checked by the professors at the Academy of Sciences and Medical Universities. It’s going to be just fine. You can put your fears aside and feed him whenever he requires."
"That’s good, thank God. Come on, darling, let’s go," she said as she picked up Agni from Vijay, intending to feed him.
Vijay fell into deep thought. ’How can this guy eat so much when his body metabolism is lower than normal? Could it be that his body can absorb nutrients more easily without having to work harder? Well, if that is the case, would he be stronger than a normal human?’ Multiple speculations came to Vijay’s mind, but he could not confirm any of them as detailed experiments would have to be conducted.
But he sure as hell was not going to let his son be an experimental subject, so he let it go.
---
"Your Majesty, the ministers have arrived," a thin and tall young man, not more than 24, dressed in white-on-white official attire with a black topi, informed Vijay.
"Oh, they’re here? Good! Ganesh, arrange a room for us."
"Right away, Your Majesty," Ganesh quickly responded as he left the room.
Looking at the retreating back of Ganesh, Vijay’s thoughts couldn’t help but shift and worry about Ravichandra Rao, who had been bedridden for a week. Vijay knew that the old man’s time would eventually end, but now that he could feel that the end was nearing, he still felt uncomfortable. Ravichandra was more of his family than his butler, hence he was very saddened.
The bright side though, is that Ravichandra Rao is very happy, not only because the war ended but also because of the birth of Agni.
A few weeks ago, "Your Majesty, you don’t have to feel sorry or be saddened by my death. I have lived a good life and currently, I am very happy with the birth of the heir. As the last task I do for the Devaraya family, I would like to recommend a young man as my replacement," Ravichandra said the last time Vijay went to visit.
The young man he recommended was naturally Ganesh, who had been raised from a young age by the Devaraya family. Hence, his loyalty was guaranteed. On top of that, in Vijay’s impression, Ravichandra had a very good grasp of people’s abilities and hearts since it was Ravichandra who recommended Vinod, who is now the Prime Minister of the empire.
Hence, having a vivid example, Vijay did not have any doubts about Ganesh’s capabilities; on the contrary, he was looking forward to it.
However, Ganesh’s position is currently that of Vijay’s personal assistant and not the butler of the Devaraya family as Ravichandra had hoped. This is because Kavya had taken control of household affairs since the butler became bedridden.
With the time she spent learning about how to manage a household from the butler, she seemed to be getting good at it, so Vijay did not intend to bring in a new butler but let Kavya take care of it.
The Empire has grown many times over, so Vijay would not be able to take care of all the affairs by himself.
Even though the government was bearing most of the load, His load had also increased by several magnitudes, for this reason, he formed the Emperor’s Office, an organization composed of professionals tasked with helping him out, whether it is to sort the documents, relay his orders, or assist him in anything he needs.
Its functions will be very similar to those of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in future generations.
"It’s ready, Your Majesty!"
Vijay was awakened from his thoughts by the call of Ganesh.
---
Vijay entered the meeting room that had been arranged, and there were three men waiting inside: the Minister of Finance, Jagannath Mohan; the Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry, Rajesh; and the new Director of the Reserve Bank of Bharat, Dharmendra.
"Long live Your Majesty, long live!" the ministers began to greet, but Vijay quickly gestured for them to sit down.
"I have invited you three to learn more about the economic conditions of the empire."
"So, Rajesh, you go first. Is there anything that is troubling you?"
Rajesh did not think for long as he began to detail the various troubles he had encountered. "Your Majesty, for one, we do not have buyers for the old muskets and flintlocks that are out of service. With the production of new guns, even the police find it dangerous to operate these weapons. Because of that, we already have a pile of such weapons sitting in the warehouse collecting dust.
With the end of the war, I suspect that there will be more of such weapons. It is not alarmist to say that we could have hundreds of thousands of firearms and thousands of old artillery just rotting away, putting a huge dent in the nation’s finances. Your Majesty, this is a huge loss for our empire."
"This issue is not only with firearms and artillery but also with other military supplies, which are currently being overproduced."
"Secondly, with the further implementation of industrialization, I have noticed that our rivers are getting polluted at a very fast rate. At this rate, I fear that something irreversible might happen."
"So these are my two primary concerns, Your Majesty."
Vijay nodded in understanding and began to come up with plans to solve the issues one by one. "For the first problem, the solution is actually the easiest to say, which is to find a market suitable for these weapons and military supplies. Rajesh, you don’t have to worry too much about it; I am already working on procuring a market for these weapons."
"As for the second problem, this is a problem that is harder to solve in the short term, but what I can tell you is that with the change in power systems, these factories should move from various water sources to where the raw material is nearest, Hence permanently solving this problem."
Rajesh, who received the answer, put on a humble expression and thanked Vijay.
Next, Vijay turned his attention to Jagannath Mohan, the Minister of Finance, and inquired, "I read in the report that the economy of the empire is in grave danger. What do you mean by this?"
Jagannath Mohan resolutely nodded his head and replied with seriousness on his face, "Your Majesty, I did not exaggerate. In the current situation, we can already conclude that the industrialization of the empire is mainly driven by war, and now that the war is over, work for our developed military industry will reduce drastically."
"We currently have a shortage of both technologies and products in civilian industries, so I fear that with the end of the war and the military-economic system, our economy will not be able to transition due to highly one-sided development and could enter an economic crisis. There would be neither clients for our already developed military industry nor any civilian industries to fill the gap."
Vijay leaned back in his chair, deep in thought.
"What you said is indeed very probable, Jagannath. Let’s do this: we could assign the Bharatiya Academy of Military Sciences and the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences to work together and find civilian uses for military technologies."
"With this, we could not only shift from a military economy to a capitalist economy but also transition from being dominated by the military industry to achieving balanced development of both civilian and military sectors."
"As for how it could be done, let me give you an example, we could produce a civilian-grade telescope for the civilian market, use military technologies to produce civilian carriages, employ military-grade ciphertext to encrypt important civilian messages with some added value, and also make military alloys available to civilian users."
"There are many more things we can do."
"So, Jagannath." He said, eyeing the Minister of Finance with some scrutiny.
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Jagannath Mohan sat up straight. "Yes, Your Majesty."
"You are responsible for this transition program. I will issue an order to both the Academies of Sciences to cooperate with you. There are still a few months until the war ends, and I hope that within this time, you can develop multiple civilian uses for military products."
"I’ll get it done. Leave it to me, Your Majesty."
Vijay lastly looked at Dharmendra, the Director of the Reserve Bank of Bharat.
"Dharmendra, ever since the Bank was established, its gold reserve has not been replenished, but the currency issued has been constantly increasing in quantity. I know there is inflation because of this, but I did not get a chance to see the actual numbers. So, tell me, how is it looking?"
Dharmendra nodded, took out a small booklet from his pocket, and started to explain. "Your Majesty, when the Bank was newly established, we had 60 tons of gold that was used to issue the currency. That year, we issued a total of 176,470,130 Varaha.
Out of this, 52 million was in 1 Varaha coin, 35 million was in 5 Varaha coin, 35 million was in 10 Varaha notes, 26 million was in 50 Varaha notes, 17 million was in 100 Varaha notes, 4.4 million was in 500 Varaha notes, and 4.4 million was in 1,000 Varaha notes. 10 Varaha was worth 3.4 grams of gold."
"Since then, although the amount of gold stored has not increased, the amount of money we have issued has become five times greater. We have currently issued 882,350,650 Varaha, which is a 400% increase since the Bank was established. Now, 3.4 grams of gold is worth about 50 Varaha."
"To give an example of the changes, a commander last year would have been paid around 2,560 Varaha, but now he would be paid 10,240 Varaha, which is worth 696.32 grams of gold per year and 58.02 grams of gold per month. For an ordinary soldier, the pay has increased from 20 Varaha a year ago to 80 Varaha currently, which is worth about 5.4 grams of gold per year and 0.45 grams per month."
"So, in my honest opinion, Your Majesty, the inflation is still at a controllable level. Although the price of precious metals like gold and silver has gone up in value, this value is still affordable to the wealthy in society."
"And as a consequence of the inflation, various industrial products have reached a very low price even when compared to what the citizens earn. This, in turn, not only increases the disposable wealth of the civilians but also raises the number of middle-class individuals in society, which increases the tax revenue we receive. So, in my opinion, this exchange is worth the risk."
"Also, Your Majesty, since the industrialists of the Empire whose industries were nationalized because of the war are bound to receive returns many times the value they initially invested, and their net worth skyrocketing, in my estimation, these people would not complain even if we increased the money printed by another five times, reducing the value of money in their hands by the same proportion."
"The only possible problem I see in the short term is people losing trust in the Varaha, but since we are in the military-economic system, if we can expand the amount of money in the market by the time the system has to end, according to my calculations, we should be in the green."
Vijay nodded his head in satisfaction. "Do it then," he ordered.
P.S. Thank you, its_a_joke, For the Ice Cola
P.S. Had to write 6 activity tests since yesterday, sorry for the slow updates.