Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 840

Chapter 840: Agni’s new plan
The war is still raging in the Middle East, but the pace of development and the lifestyle of the people back in the Bharatiya Empire have not changed even a little.

The economy is still growing at a steady pace, the urbanisation has continued to quicken, more villages are becoming towns and more towns are becoming cities, more young people are graduating from schools, colleges, universities, more jobs are being produced, immigration continues to be high at an average of 10 million people leaving the empire every year to find opportunities in the frontiers of the empire. Unaffected by the war, the frontiers continue to develop as well.

The Big 7 mining companies of the empire, like Kombay Minerals, Chittyar Mining, Patnaik and Bro, Bora Explorer Pvt Ltd, Bizenjo Mining, Shrestha Minerals, and Bhonsle Mining, have developed very well, and they have already spread their business to the overseas territory of the Bharatiya Empire. All seven mining companies together already account for over 54% of all the mines discovered in the Empire’s territory, creating millions of jobs for the people in the frontiers.

Even the rising mining companies like Ahom Mining, Ranavikrama Mining, Senapati Mining, Shetty Mining, and Agni Mining have developed extremely well, making up over 17% of all the mines discovered in the empire. With the liberalisation of the mining industry, where now labourers do not have to be permanently tied down to the mining company and can choose to work for other mining companies on a contract basis, private individuals who have coincidentally discovered mines in their property have started to employ these experienced labourers to mine resources for them instead of selling the mine. Such people, along with other small mining companies, occupy nearly 5% of all the mines in the empire. Additionally, with the further discovery of gold mines, the government itself has control over 14% of all the mines, mainly gold and rare element mines, while the remaining 10% is directly owned by the royal family.

With the development of mining, the industry naturally prospered like bamboo shoots after a rain. In the year of 1670 alone, the number of iron smelting and industrial companies whose main raw material is iron has shot up by 175% from last year, especially with the continuous consumption from railway track production and the explosion of Sheela bicycles purchased by higher middle class and high income class families in the empire. Not to mention, the newly revealed bicycle produced by Akharsh Carriages, named Dhanush Rickshaw, has become the new high-class travel vehicle in major cities in the empire. That is not all. Driven by the profits of the war, there has been an explosion in military design firms whose sole focus is the innovation of new weaponry.

Overall, the war seemed to have become the catalyst of growth for the Bharatiya Empire and its frontiers’ economy.

—

18th September 1670

Puducherry, Cholapuri State, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

A group of five finely dressed individuals walked towards the Headquarters of the Bhagat Shipyard, talking and laughing.

“I recently saw a drama adaptation of the epic *Bahubali*. It was about an ordinary soldier in the world of Bahubali and his life in the Kingdom of Maheshmathi. I have to say, the drama gave me another unique perspective of the world constructed by Her Majesty the Empress. This is hands down one of the best dramas I have seen in my life. I recommend all of you to watch it at least once,” Raghav Malhotra suggested with an expression of longing, as if he could still imagine the night of the drama in his mind, imagine it being etched in his soul.

“Oh! Mr. Raghav, are you talking about the unique drama adaptation by the Sri Kubera Drama Troupe?” Karan Devaraj raised his eyebrows. “I have been hearing good word about this drama company from quite a few people. Maybe I should really check it out.”

“Please do, I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.”

“Haha, in that case, I will take Mr. Raghav’s good word for it.”

Despite being owners of second-tier shipping companies, they never once talked about their industry. All their points of discussion were about their daily life, as if they were a normal group of white-collar employees talking about their life in the company.

“Gasp… God, isn’t that?”

Suddenly, Tanvi Rathore exclaimed, causing everyone’s attention to be placed on her.

“What happened, Miss Tanvi?”

Tanvi Rathore did not respond, but she simply pointed her finger towards the bicycle that was parked right in front of the main entrance of Bhagat Shipyard.

The men were all confused, but when their own eyes landed on the bicycle, their expressions froze.

“Krishna!!”

“Ohh! I never thought that I would get to see this beauty.”

“To think that I would be so lucky today.”

“Only five of these bicycles were ever produced, and all of them, without exception, are in the possession of the members of the royal family.”

The four men and one woman hurriedly came near to the bicycle and admired its beauty. “Raya Mobility bicycle codenamed Vidyut.”

“The unique engraving, the strong steel frame, the nameplate with the emblem of Shanku Chakra, the military-grade shock absorption tyres made out of the highest quality rubber, most importantly, the serial number of 003—this can’t be wrong, this is definitely the Vidyut produced by Raya Mobility.”

Although Sameer Qureshi is the owner of a medium-scale shipyard, his recent hobby is to collect all sorts of bicycles, disassemble them, assemble them, and also admire them. Now, seeing the Vidyut number three in front of him, his excitement is no less than a car enthusiast in the future coming across a very rare LaFerrari. Even the remaining four, though they were not bicycle enthusiasts, looking at the beautiful machine, had an excitement that matched that of a college student seeing a Lamborghini for the first time in the parking lot.

Unfortunately, their time admiring the beautiful piece of art was short-lived, as the time for the briefing was closing down very fast, so although all five of them were reluctant, especially Sameer Qureshi, they had no choice but to move into the building while constantly turning back to get one last glance at the marvellous piece of engineering.

“Oh, hello Mr. Arvind Deshmukh, how are you?”

“Oh, it’s Mr. Karan! What a surprise. Miss Tanvi is here as well—please come, welcome.”

As soon as the five people entered the conference room, as they were led by the person from Bhagat Shipyard, they met with some of their colleagues who had arrived before them. Even though all the people in the conference room could be considered as competitors, they still discussed with each other with smiles and giggles, speculatively.

Tanvi Rathore, being one of the two women in the room, garnered a lot of attention. But not for long, as a young man wearing casual clothes entered the conference room, and despite not looking particularly well-dressed, he attracted the attention of everyone in the room, especially with his burning amber eyes like that of a rising sun. Everyone’s gaze was diverted to Agni Devaraya, the Prince of the Empire.

“Thank you, all of you, my dear clients, and most importantly, friends, for putting aside your busy schedules and coming to attend the briefing.”

“I am very grateful to all of you for giving me the responsibility of maintaining and repairing the ships in your fleet,” Agni did a namaskar, and his tone was very sincere.

“Haha, there is no need for you to thank us, Your Highness. It is we, on the other hand, who are very grateful towards you. Before, we had to find those big shipyards to repair and maintain the ships in our fleet. We were not getting proper time slots for the repair, and sometimes the ship had to be left in the shipyards for months on end in order to get the slot.”

Hearing the words, Ranveer Rathore and the colleagues sitting in the room nodded in affirmation. They, too, had experienced such situations and were not too pleased with it.

“But thanks to Your Highness’s Bhagat Shipyard, which is entirely focused on repair and maintenance, the ships are serviced within a week, maintained within two weeks, and repaired within a month.”

“So, Your Highness, formally, on behalf of my colleagues, I give you my deepest gratitude,” Tanvi Rathore did a namaskara and bent a little. The others in the room also followed with a series of namaskaras of their own.

“Thank you for your love, it means a lot,” Agni responded with his right hand patting his chest.

“It is still very early in the morning. I bet none of you had your breakfast, so I will not keep you all for long and will come directly to the point. What do you think if I say that there is a way to reduce the cost of repair and maintenance even more?”

This sentence stunned everyone in the room; their ears were all perked up, and they leaned forward with their eyes brightened.

“Could you please explain further, Your Highness?” Arvind Deshmukh, the oldest among the business owners, enquired.

Everyone took out their pens and papers and carefully listened to the words that were about to come out of Agni.

Agni nodded and explained, “My idea is simple. If you sign an exclusive contract with my shipyard stating that all the ships in your shipping fleet will be serviced by Bhagat Shipyard, then I can provide a discount of 15% on all the services bought.”

“Not only that, there is a new service that I have come up with called the packaged service plan. In this plan, all the service and maintenance tasks of the ship come under a package which will cost, on average, at a discounted 20%, depending on the type of ship.”

“Taking an average 500-tonne sailing ship as an example, the rigging for replacing ropes, re-tarring, and splicing will cost you around 2000 varaha. The sails—patching, resewing, and replacing torn sails—will cost anywhere from 2500 to 3000 varaha. The hull—carrying, scraping barnacles, pitch tar application, and plugging leaks will cost around 4500 varaha. Deck planking—recaulking seams, replacing planks—will cost up to 1600 varaha. Masts and spars—inspecting, reinforcing, and replacing damaged spars—could cost up to 2500 varaha. And even ordinance, cleaning cannons, oiling, repairing—could cost up to 3000 varaha.”

“Before, the money you used to pay was around 18,000 to 19,000 varaha. If the same service is done outside Bhagat Shipyard, then it could range anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000 or even 30,000 varaha if it is given to large shipyards. But now, everything could be covered under 17,000 varaha.”

Agni’s words were like a devil’s whisper, bewitching all the people present.

“All you need to do is pay the package fee every year, and we will take care of the ship without any additional complications.”

“Finally, Bhagat Shipyard is also starting a modification service where we can provide modification plans to the existing ships according to your needs. I am unable to provide the exact cost of the modification since it depends on the degree of modification, but what I can promise is that the cost of modification will definitely be less than what is available in other shipbuilding companies.”

The sales pitch was very good. Almost all the shipping company owners, apart from a few who still had some reservations, agreed to use the package services as well as sign the exclusive contract with Bhagat Shipyard. Sindhu Sethu Shipping Co., a company of Karan Devaraj, even put forward a few orders to modify his 1500-tonne sailing ship into a mineral ore transportation ship.

At the end of the day, when Agni sat alone in his residential suite, he clenched his fist in excitement.

“Yes!!!”