Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

8th July 1659

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Imperial Capital Bengaluru, Simhasana Bhavana

Vijay sat in his office cross-legged as he read the economic reports from the first quarter of the year submitted by the Ministry of Finance. He was quite astonished by the report. He had expected the statistics to look pretty good since he already knew 20,000 new companies had been registered in the present year alone, and it was still July, but he still did not expect the economic stimulus brought by infrastructure development, industrial upgrading, arms exporting to the war in Safavid, and low-priced goods dumping into Europe to be so effective.

"Very good," Vijay muttered as he saw the astonishing figures below, which specified how much each major sector had earned in quarter one of the year, January to March:

Out of the GDP earnings of nearly 2.2 billion Varaha, 20% was contributed by the manufacturing sector which includes exports with around 441,100,000 Varaha; 16% by the military exports sector, exported to the Safavid Empire, Europe, Southeast Asian countries, and the Bharatiya Navy (built by private shipyards, they are taxed); and finally, 10% was surprisingly contributed by the financial sector, amounting to 220,600,000 Varaha.

---

Unexpectedly a knock on the door was heard...

The Chief Secretary Ganesh entered Vijay's office with a respectful demeanour. "Your Majesty, I have just been informed that His Excellency, the Director of the Reserve Bank of Bharat, Mr. Dharmendra, will be arriving at the palace and is seeking your audience."

Vijay was taken aback because he did not remember anything new happening under the purview of the Reserve Bank of Bharat, Well. except for one thing. "Bring him to me as soon as he arrives," he said, lost with a thoughtful expression on his face as he thought of something that might make Dharmendra come to him all of a sudden.

Ganesh was curious looking at the expression of His Majesty, but like always, he did not delve into matters that did not concern him, so he quickly bowed his head and left the room.

A few hours passed, and Dharmendra arrived at the Royal Palace of Simhasana Bhavana as stated. When Ganesh mentioned that His Majesty would be waiting for him, Dharmendra did not want to rest; instead, he directly asked to meet His Majesty.

"Please, this way, Sir!" Ganesh said as he agreed to the request. Your next journey awaits at empire

Going into the office room of His Majesty, Dharmendra immediately greeted Vijay with a namaskar. Vijay gracefully nodded his head and had Dharmendra sit down.

Before Dharmendra could speak, Vijay asked with a serious expression on his face, "Dharmendra, did a problem occur due to currency devaluation?" He couldn't think of any other reason why Dharmendra would arrive to meet him, especially since he remembered asking the Reserve Bank to complete the currency devaluation by July, so the timing matched perfectly.

But Vijay still had a little confusion: 'If there is indeed some trouble due to currency devaluation, shouldn't I be informed about it through a report? Why was I not?' he clenched his fist: 'Is it because the problem is too big to be made into a report that Dharmendra had to personally come to me?' Vijay's face grew more solemn.

Dharmendra naturally did not have any idea what His Majesty was thinking about, but looking at the sombre expression on His Majesty's face, he inexplicably felt a little panicked. He even felt palpitations in his heart. However, thankfully, he remembered the question Vijay had asked.

"Ah, no, Your Majesty, that is not the case. Although there was a little problem with currency devaluation where a few rich people were annoyed by their money reducing in value, this problem was nothing we couldn't handle. These people were actually the minority among the minority, since almost all rich people in the empire and even the middle class have started to invest their money in assets like real estate, companies, or industry in order not only to maintain the value of their money but also to increase its value. But these people, being old-fashioned, did not do such a thing. Instead, they held onto the banknotes as they held onto gold bars, which ended up bringing them a huge loss," Dharmendra quickly explained as he understood that he might have been misunderstood by His Majesty.

Vijay's expression immediately softened. 'So it's the exact opposite of what I was thinking. It's good.' He felt relieved. Vijay had done everything he could to not make the rich people feel the devaluation of the currency by providing them more ways to earn wealth, but he was still worried since increasing the cost of gold or decreasing the value of Varaha at such a fast pace would still bring him some trouble. Especially since the value of 3.4 grams of gold went up from 100 Varaha to 150 Varaha—that's an increase of 50%, which was ludicrous. If it wasn't for the GDP of the empire growing by an average of 100% over the last few years, he wouldn't even dare to entertain the idea.

"Well, looks like there isn't anything too major to worry about," he said.

Dharmendra, noticing the change in His Majesty's expression, immediately wiped the imaginary sweat from his forehead and laughed awkwardly to calm himself down.

Vijay knew that he had frightened the director unintentionally, so he quickly diverted the topic. "Alright, Dharmendra, then what brought you here?"

Dharmendra quickly explained, "Your Majesty, I have received deposits from two different entities for the establishment of two new banks in the empire."

Vijay was immediately surprised. "Oh!" Maybe in the future, the establishment of a bank would not be a big deal, and Prime Minister Modi would not have to be informed about it—or maybe he would, but who knows. Besides, the matter currently in the 21st century, when the Bharatiya Empire has only three banks in total, makes the establishment of a bank a big deal—and not to mention, it is two banks at the same time.

Especially since, for a bank to be established, 20 tonnes of gold would have to be paid to the Reserve Bank of Bharat as a deposit. This used to be 10 tonnes when Vijay established the first bank, but after he realised that it was not enough, he increased it to twenty tonnes. The 10 tonnes he had provided as a loan to the government in order to print the currency were then utilised to make his deposit of 20 tonnes.

"Who are they?" Vijay asked, intrigued.

Dharmendra immediately passed over two different documents. "It's actually the King of Ahom and, surprisingly, 300 different rich families from the northern part of the empire."

Vijay looked at the first document, which contained the application to open a bank from the King of Ahom, Jayadwaj Singha himself. Vijay was not too surprised by this since, unlike every other territory, the northeastern part of the empire—and more specifically Ahom—had not been conquered by force but by negotiation. So the royal family of Ahom, the Tungkhungia Dynasty, retained all of its wealth.

More importantly, even as far back as before Ahom had become part of Bharat, the kingdom had made a lot of money from trade with Bharat. And this only increased after the integration and the tariff barriers were removed.

What really surprised him was the 300 rich families from the northern part of the empire who realised the importance of a bank and its role in the growth of the economy. "Very impressive!"

Vijay commented as he felt very happy with this development. If the northern businessmen couldn't see how banks could be utilised as financial weapons against them, he would be very disappointed. But it looked like he did not have to be. Some smart merchants seemed to have figured out the danger of letting southern capital get too big and had taken action by unifying all the forces that could be unified.

Even though they held less capital than their southern rivals and had no access to industrial enterprises like the Southerners, they had an advantage in human resources, large amounts of land, and, more importantly, cheap raw materials. *If these guys are able to maintain their unity and snowball their wealth, it should be no problem to kick-start the industrial development in the north as well, taking advantage of the industrial capabilities of the south,* Vijay thought with hope. In fact, although Vijay was from the southern part of the subcontinent both in this life and his last life, he never had a prejudice against anyone within the subcontinent. It was especially so in this life, where he was the emperor of the whole sub continent.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The only reason he advocated for the industrial revolution in the south in the first place was because an industrial revolution couldn't just be started willy-nilly. It needed a lot of supporting infrastructure and a lot of cheap labour and raw materials. Cheap materials and cheap labour could be found within the north easily, but what could not be found was infrastructure to support the industry. More importantly, the north was very vast. If Vijay wanted to set up an industrial revolution in the north, then he would have to expend a lot more resources there than in the south, since, honestly speaking, the southern part of the empire was only around 600,000 square kilometres.

---

"Dharmendra, I have a few tasks for you," Vijay suddenly said, which caught Dharmendra off guard.

Vijay reached into his drawer and took out a document. "This contains my ideas and details about three new financial tools that will be established in the empire. I need you to polish out the details and come up with regulations on these three institutions. You can take input from the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Bureau."

Dharmendra curiously took over the document. "Stock market? Investment banks? Insurance firms?" Dharmendra repeated three unfamiliar words back to back. His face was filled with confusion as he looked at Vijay with a doubtful gaze.