25th February 1657
The entire Akhand Bharatiya Samrajya has sprung back to life after the gloom of the Indo-Mughal war had passed. In all the major cities, at the same time last year, the atmosphere was tense with strict military control. The streets were filled with workers in military uniforms hurrying to meet their quotas.
The policemen were armed with guns not only to ensure the safety of the citizens but also to protect themselves. This time last year was a delicate period, as the entire interior of the Bharatiya Empire was hollowed out, with all the nation’s firepower focused on the war against the Mughal Empire.
Due to this, the civilian industry, which had just begun to blossom before the war against the Mughal Empire, took a significant hit. Not only did the civilian industry stagnate, but it also regressed, as all production, except for essential products like food and agricultural tools, was halted. The empire’s entire production capacity was dedicated to producing weaponry for the war.
Now, one year later, the same streets are once again filled with shops selling various wares of the empire. New innovations have taken place, and new civilian products have been introduced to the market. With the rise of middle-class families, the top-tier cities of the empire now display the same vitality and urbanization one might expect in the middle or late 18th century.
If anyone were to come back in time and see the scene of the cities in the Bharatiya Empire, they would mistakenly conclude that they had come into some sort of fairy tale Vedic world, as even in the 21st century no Indian cities were as clean and prosperous as they were in the current Bharatiya Empire.
The economy of the Bharatiya Empire began to pick up gear as orders floated through from the Europeans for premium products of the empire as well as military products, all sold for a premium of 30% or above. As for the Non-technical and low-cost goods, they are sold to the Southeast Asian market.
Except for the colonies of Europe, the rest of the independent tribes, nations, and settlements in the southeast have been contacted one after another. With these tribes constantly buying their products, the transitioning of the economy of the Bharatiya Empire began to quicken in pace.
All over the Bharatiya Empire, some of the factories that had stopped due to no demand suddenly started to work again. Momentarily, the workers were reminded of their time during the war when work was to the brim and they did not even have a chance to breathe. But those were the days that were most satisfying as they earned a lot of money.
The water-weels began to spin, the gears began to turn, and the machine tools sprang back to life, producing prosperity for the empire. The bank was reopened to the public again, providing loans for hundreds of entrepreneurs who wanted to buy stakes in the government-owned factories.
The Ministry of Trade and Commerce got busy as the number of people registering new companies exceeded their estimations.
The Ministry of Finance was working overtime to deal with all the new work that had suddenly popped up, and the recruitment notices from the Ministry of Finance to various universities have been urgently sent.
The Reserve Bank of Bharat is constantly expanding as bank offices have been set up in various capitals of each region in the northern part of the empire. The bank owned by the royal family of the empire, the Raya Bank, started to expand on a large scale, and with the monetary support provided by Vijay, it opened its doors to business in almost all the first-tier cities in the empire.
The various major shipyards in the empire are back on duty as they received orders for nearly twenty ships, all in the 1000-tonne category, from the Europeans for the construction of numerous Pune-class battleships and Bhiema-class armed merchant ships, all with different customizations for different customers.
The customization was personally led by Danier Boswell of the Boswell Design Bureau, Leonardo from the Shivaji Shipyard, and Ghana Prabhu Berunda from the Berunda Design Bureau. The three top designers of the empire played to their strengths and designed the best customizations in the most balanced way possible.
Due to the largest shipyards being preoccupied and orders being filled until the next six months, the rising business owners did not have a place to purchase new merchant ships. For this reason, some medium-scale shipyards, with a keen sense of smell, took the chance to buy out smaller shipyards and rapidly expanded their scale.
They decisively acquired the rights to manufacture the 1000-ton Bhiema-class armed merchant ship, Berunda shipyards’ 1000-tonne merchant ship, 200-tonne Dhana-class armed merchant ship, and 450-tonne Samudra Bandhu-class merchant ship.
To build these sophisticated crafts, the shipyards went to great lengths, risking angering the government and His Majesty, and recruited engineers and workers from the five major shipyards. Yes, that’s right, it’s five major shipyards, not four, since the Berunda shipyard has now joined the ranks of the major shipyards in the empire.
Vijay was naturally aware of what was happening, but he chose not only to stop it but also to silently support these merchants. This was because he could not come out in the open and order these merchants to devour the small shipyards in the empire to become bigger and larger.
However, internally he supported this move because, although he knew that a monopoly could bring all the resources of the empire to use, as time passed, the advantage would no longer be of much use because it could stagnate and make the waters stale.
Initially, when he took the throne, there wasn’t a naval industry to speak of. For that reason, Vijay supported the centralization of the naval prowess of the nation in the four largest shipyards in the empire.
But now that it is not ridiculous to say that Bharat is one of the top naval powers in the world, such concentrated naval shipbuilding capabilities in the hands of only a few groups of people are naturally not conducive to both national security and innovation capabilities of the empire.
For this reason, he wanted there to be some competition for the five shipyards in the Bharatiya Empire, and obviously, the civilian shipyards, which are small and scattered, could not do such a thing.
For this reason, he supported the blatant devouring of small shipyards in the empire by the three shipyards known as the Reddy Shipyard, Dharani Shipyard, and the Reliance shipping and shipbuilding company.
Originally when there were only four major shipyards in the empire, these three shipyards, along with hundreds of other similar shipyards, were brought into the military economy system for the purpose of constructing small ships to improve logistics channels for war.
The reason why only three shipyards stood out is because of their directors, who were excellent in what they did and constantly improved the shipyards, eventually leading them to become middle-scale shipyards capable of manufacturing Hampi-class sloops for the military.
After the centre loosened the restrictions on expanding, the owners of these three shipyards—namely Indrasena Reddy, Bajrang Dharani, and Naveen Ambani—immediately took the opportunity and rapidly expanded the scale of the shipyards they controlled.
The three top-ranking characters and talents of the empire were very excited by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Although they knew that the shipyards were still under the ownership of the state, they were also informed that their shipyards would be denationalized and put up for auction for the public to bid.
Being the main reason why these shipyards reached such a scale, Vijay personally granted a stake of 10% to each of the directors and the opportunity to buy more shares by the time the company was put up for auction.
With these decisions taken, the naval landscape of the empire became more interesting, and the competition between shipyards became more intense.
Under the leadership of these three, the civilian shipping industry of the Bharatiya Empire reached its peak, as momentarily the volume of ships produced by even one of these three shipyards exceeded the sum of all five major shipyards in the empire.
Truth to be told, this is only because the type of ships being built in the major shipyards are all 1000-tonne behemoths, while the ships being built in the civilian shipyards are mostly small ships of 100 to 400-tonne and occasionally large 1000-tonne merchant ships. But this does not take away from the fact that these three shipyards began immensely contributing to the economy of the nation.
As such things continued to happen in each industry, the possibility of a financial collapse in the Bharatiya Empire started to become less and less likely.
Gold and silver from Europe began to flow into the national economy, and Finance Minister Jagannath Mohan and Industrial and Trade Minister Rajesh, constantly receiving statistics and updates on the economy, couldn’t help but laugh from ear to ear.
Additionally, by this time, the depreciation of the Varaha had also reached the intended range of 100 Varahas equal to one Gold Varahaa or 3.4 grams of gold. For context, only six months ago, the rate was 50 Varahas = 3.4 grams of gold, and the price set at the Time of the paper currency issuance was 10 Varahas = 3.4 grams of gold.
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If it had been normal times, when inflation reached such extreme levels, the Empire’s economy would have been in shambles. Fortunately, the Bharatiya Empire was in a military economic system, and all the lifeblood of the empire was controlled by the military, with the wastage of resources minimized. This control forcefully expanded the market and increased the wealth of the people.
Adjusting for inflation and comparing it with the United States of the future, one Varaha Bharatiya currency is equivalent to around 3 US dollars. Although the value of the currency is still a bit too high, in the current situation where the Bharatiya economy is still not too large, this ratio is perfect.
Overall, there are currently 1,764,705,882 Varahas in circulation in the empire, which is a staggering 900% increase in the amount of money circulating in the market, compared to the 176,470,130 Varahas circulating during the time of issuance for the same 60 tonnes of gold as backing.
An increase of 900% in three years is a remarkable statistic, which, in terms of the economy, is an expansion of 10 times, which would be unbelievable at any time in human history, but we have the Mughal Empire to thank.
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