134 Portuguese Merchants Visit Part :1
The Portuguese merchants who were docked in the various shipyards had some free time to spend, as they had just placed their orders. Since the order they had placed was massive, they had to wait for a week at the least for the order to be fulfilled. When they were given a deadline of a week, they were skeptical, as the orders they had placed were huge in number and there was no way it could all be done in a week. so they took this opportunity to inspect the Vijayanagara workshops, craftsmanship, and the quality of the product, they also wanted to see how the Indians would produce the orders in such a short time.
All the Portuguese merchants formed a visiting group as it was suggested by Sir Thomas Costa.
"I hope you all enjoy your trip, gentlemen," Costa said as he led them into the capital of Vijayanagara, Hampi.
"Gentlemen, I would love to accompany you further, but please forgive me; I have important matters to tend to," Thomas said, his expression carrying a hint of disappointment. The merchants were taken aback, unable to comprehend why Thomas would want them to explore and inspect the workshops without his experienced guidance as a local. Did he expect them to navigate the area on their own, seeking assistance from the locals in a language unfamiliar to them? Such thoughts left many in the merchant group feeling perplexed.
But then something happened that broke their thoughts. A person who looked well-dressed, wearing a unique dress which they had never seen before – it was a kind of long white skirt which went till the feet and an ivory-coloured shirt, along with a piece of cloth that went all the way from the person's lower chest up to the shoulder and then again to his back.
They did not understand this unique clothing, but being experienced merchants, they could still discern that this was an excellent material. What fascinated them even more was that as the man got closer, they saw some exquisite patterns on the edges of the skirt and the shawl-like thing.
The man who arrived wore a smile on his light brown face, adorned with a moustache. He brought his hands together in a peculiar manner as if preparing to clap, yet the hands never separated. Some individuals familiar with Eastern cultures recognized the gesture, akin to practices found in Buddhism and other eastern traditions.
Thomas, upon seeing the arrival of the man, donned a smile and mirrored the unique gesture, accompanied by a slight bow. Observing Thomas, the remaining merchants grasped the significance of the action, and they too replicated the same gesture. While some harboured a white superiority complex, driven by their honest intent to make money, they set aside any reservations and joined in the customary exchange of greetings.
"Gentlemen, let me introduce you; this right here is the Minister of Trade and Commerce of the Vijayanagara Empire, and he would be responsible for handling the deal you made."
"This guy is a minister," a lot of them thought, surprised.
Rajesh, who was introduced to these people, smiled as he greeted them, "Welcome to Vijayanagara, merchant friends from afar."
Listening to his introduction, a merchant blurted out in surprise, "Your Highness knows Portuguese?"
In response to the surprised exclamation from the merchant, Rajesh smiled and replied, "Yes, I learned Portuguese when I was a child. When I grew up, most of the time was spent in Goa, as you already know that was one of your colonies." His explanation brought a hush over the group, signalling a collective decision not to delve further into this conversation.
Seeing the merchant silent, Rajesh continued, "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for trusting our craftsmanship and placing such huge orders with us. We can promise you that you can buy the cheapest and most reliable products in our Empire. I am sure that you will not find such good value for money anywhere else in the world."
Upon hearing this, many merchants perceived the brown-skinned man in front of them as boastful. Dissatisfied, a merchant who appeared to be the leader of the group directly questioned him, "That is a very bold claim, sir, but can your backward Empire, who can barely build a two-mast ship, compete with us Europeans?" His accompanying colleagues nodded in agreement, their faces adorned with pride.
But it was Thomas who was embarrassed, as he was the one who introduced both parties and did not want the relationship to sour.
On the other hand, Rajesh's smiling face receded after being asked such a rude question. His Highness had already warned him about the Westerners' arrogance. Now he got to see it firsthand.
Suppressing his anger, he replied, "While what Mr. said is not false in respect to the naval industry, it is not true with respect to other things. If I dare to say that we have the best craftsmen around the world, I bet no one except the Chinese would question that statement. Moreover, in the past, we had the most developed metallurgical industry. In the Middle Ages, You Europeans used to import our steel and weapons. Although I admit that our advantage is getting lower and lower in recent years, with the support of our highness, things are looking up, as we are already capable of manufacturing our own cannons with our own proprietary home-produced iron alloy. So, I would say that it would not take long for us to catch up with you Europeans."
After saying all this, Rajesh introduced the person next to him, "Now, gentlemen, this right here is Laksh. Like myself, he also grew up in Goa and is very proficient in Portuguese. He is very familiar with most of the workshops in the capital. Please feel free to ask him any questions, as I have some very important matters to attend to."
Rajesh said as he soon left. With his departure, Thomas also bid farewell to the visiting group and left.
The merchants were stunned by the quick change of events. They could tell they had offended this minister, but most of them did not care.
A merchant among the group, Alexio Fernandez, taking the position of leadership among the group, looked at the boy the minister introduced and said, "So shall we go now Lak... Ah, what is it, Laksh? Ah, what a hard name to pronounce. Okay, we will just call you Landon."
Alexio said, with a proud expression, liking the new name that he gave to the boy.
Laksh, seeing the expression on the white guy's face, felt like his fist got itchy as he wanted to give the fat man a good beating. "Bastard, I like the name my mother and father gave me," he thought to himself, depressed as he suddenly got a new name from nowhere and couldn't do what he wanted.
If Vijay saw the scene, he would have laughed and comforted, saying, "Don't worry, this is one of the trademarks of the Western nations. They have a habit of changing names whenever they are not able to pronounce them. They do it so much so that the original people who lived in that place will start to doubt their own names." But of course, Vijay was not here.
Putting away his dissatisfaction, Laksh asked with a smiling expression, which was obviously a little fake, "So gentlemen, which industry chain would you like to visit?"
This question caught everyone by surprise as they did not know what the word "industry chain" meant.
Noticing the confusion, Laksh explained, "An industry chain is a set of workshops working together from procuring the raw materials to getting the finished product. All the workshops that work on this product could be considered as in the same industry chain."
This was still confusing to the Portuguese, as Alexio asked, "But isn't it more profitable to do all the things in the same workshop? Why are there many workshops to produce a single product?"
Hearing this question, Laksh did not know how to answer. He looked at the Portuguese like he was looking at a bunch of idiots. Seeing his hesitation to answer and with a weird and strange expression on the boy's face, Alexio thought he had stumped the boy and proved that the Vijayanagara industries were backward.
"Okay, stop. Don't embarrass the boy, Alexio," his merchant friend Andre Sousa said. Alexio soon put away his pride and asked, "So, what different industry chains are there in Vijayanagara right now?"
Laksh soon answered, "Currently, there are textile industry chains, arms industry chains, paper industries, and pottery and handicraft industries."
"So, gentlemen, which industry would you first like to visit?"
Alexio, surprised by so many industries, still replied, "Okay, let's start with the arms industry First."
Alexio chose the arms industry because his family runs a large-scale military workshop back in Portugal, and he is very experienced in the industry. This way, he could assess the quality of Vijayanagara weapons to decide on further orders. On top of that, he knew for a fact that due to the Restoration war that was about to begin, the prices of weapons would skyrocket. If he could procure relatively good quality weapons at a lower cost, it would be a huge profit for the workshop. He was not the only one thinking like this; most of the merchants in the visiting group thought the same thing.
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