Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 894

Chapter 894: Dawn of Steam (3/3)
Cheranadu State, Thiruvananthapuram

“What!”

“Your orders are ready, sir. Please specify the dock platform, we will ship the merchandise immediately.”

“No! Wait! How can the weapons I have ordered be manufactured so quickly? The deadline I was given was for a week later!”

“I don’t have any details about this, sir, but it is true that your shipments are ready. You can take it away anytime.”

“Fine. Just send the shipment here. I will handle it from there.”

“Surely, sir. Thank you for your business, and please come again.”

Watching the customer service representative hurriedly walk away, Anthony Mendoza was left feeling confused. In the end, he attributed the unusually early delivery of the weapons he had ordered to other customers cancelling their orders midway, despite having already paid the deposit.

“Whatever, it’s a good thing anyway. I can go back quicker — the people at the Federation will be very pleased,” he said to himself with a jolly expression as he went to rent a warehouse, since it would take a few days for the ships of the Federation, which were docked in Lakshadweep, to arrive at Thiruvananthapuram.

At the beginning, every European merchant who received their orders quicker thought the same thing, thinking that someone might have cancelled the order. But things got weirder as weeks progressed, as all the orders were completed exactly five to seven days quicker than the deadline, causing the Europeans to suspect something drastic might have happened in the Bharatiya Empire.

Some of the newer merchants who hadn’t traded with the Bharatiya Empire even suspected that there would be quality issues, but to their astonishment, the quality not only did not decrease, it increased; it looked like each and every part of the gun was more uniform than ever before. At least in the past, small imperfections and differences could be told between one gun and the other, but now that was no longer possible — a microscope had to be used for the difference to be identified.

A speculation appeared among the Europeans that the Bharatiyas had invented another mind-blowing tool that quickens manufacturing. This speculation was shortly confirmed when merchants went on to order a new batch of weapons for their country, and the deadline given by the Bharatiya empire had been reduced a lot compared to what it might have been a month or two ago.

“This is crazy. Absolutely crazy!”

The old diplomat of the Russian Empire screamed excitedly when he saw that the cost for the weapons he had asked for was not only reduced in price, even the deadline had been shortened.

“Just what monstrosity have you Bharatiyas created this time?” he growled, his old face red.

Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar and Minister of Trade and Commerce Rajesh simply looked at each other and smiled, not giving out any information.

—

3rd July 1672

With wars involving millions of troops raging in Europe as well as the Middle East, the military conglomerates of the Bharatiya Empire put the steam engines to use at a time which could not be more perfect.

The Tsarist Russian Empire originally wanted to purchase 150,000 sets of Shakti-Hima series Rifles (Brown Bess) and 20,000 units of Shikari C60 rifles, but after the price of weapons was dropped along with the deadline of delivery, the Russian diplomat Simeon Brezhnev immediately placed orders for 200,000 sets of Shakti-Hima Rifles and 35,000 sets of Shikari C60 rifles.

It was not only the Russians— even the Italians were placing orders for weapons as if there was no tomorrow. Leonardo Bellini placed orders worth 40 million varaha and paid the deposit of 5 million without any hesitation.

Orders were coming in from the Alliance Army as well, although due to the Bharatiya Empire’s relationship with the Alliance Army and the countries in the alliance, the profit margins were not too high, But even by selling weapons with only 5 to 6% profit margins, the trade made was worth over 90 million varaha, which is nearly half of Lalishsthan’s GDP and 20% of Persia’s.

All the military enterprises in the empire had begun to run in overdrive, expanding and purchasing nearby factories at a premium price. Every second, hundreds of guns rolled fresh off the assembly lines, fueling an unstoppable wave of production. Thousands of government jobs were being created, putting the Bharatiya Empire on the path to under 20% unemployment.

Although only 100 steam engines were put to work, the reaction they produced in the empire was unpredictable.

For example, the banking industry. Given that the Yezidis and Persians were unable to generate enough money or merits to purchase the latest weapons of the Bharatiya Empire, which were to be used in the upcoming battle, they had to mortgage nearly all of their mineral veins for a time ranging from 20 to 90 years.

With the high-quality loans provided to several nations, the five banks of the Bharatiya Empire began to prosper. They no longer had to worry about small losses, because for the next several decades, they would be earning interest on the loans they had given out, and they did not have to worry about the clients’ repayment ability, since they did not lend the money to a person but to a country. Where can a country run away? And even if the country collapses and a new regime takes over, all the bankers of the Empire are confident that their nation has enough might to make even the new regime pick up the burden of paying back the loans.

Another industry that was positively affected by the application of the steam engine was the mining industry. The mining giants, which had hit a plateau in growth, finally saw hope for increased profits.

The invention of the Devaraya Atmospheric Steam Engine in 1660 led to a revolution in the mining industry that lasted for nearly eight years.

The revolution was led by the top mining companies in the empire, like Kombay Minerals, Chittyar Mining, Bora Explorers, Bizenjo Mining, Ahom Mining, Jyoti Minerals, and others. The industry grew on average by 34% year-on-year, bringing the mining sector from one of the important sectors that most people generally ignored to one of the pillar industries in the empire.

Unfortunately, the extraction of minerals had to be slowed down, not because they had reached a technical bottleneck where mining could not be increased anymore, but because the manufacturing industry could not keep up with the extraction of raw materials. Iron ore could be mined at several thousand tons every month, and it could be smelted and made into rebar and usable ingots, but there were too many of them for the manufacturing industry to consume.

It got to a point where a litre of milk was more expensive than a kilogram of iron, and the money earned by selling the raw materials was just enough to cover the costs of the employees and to keep the company running—and this was for the large companies. The smaller ones directly went bankrupt, which led to the Great Mining Depression in 1667, leading to nearly 72 companies going bankrupt and several dozen people committing suicide. After the economic collapse, all top mining companies came together and reached a consensus to slow down the rate at which they extracted minerals. Although by doing this, they were able to maintain functionality while experiencing minute growth, the industry had gotten pretty stagnant.

But now, with the development of the steam engine—even though it is only the military conglomerates and Sri Ranga Industrial Tools that are currently using the steam engines—it is still a beacon for the mining industry, a beacon of hope to once again relive the days of 34% growth every year.

The changes in the economy were sharply reflected in the stock market as both the Mangaluru Stock Exchange and the Kolkata Stock Exchange had gone crazy. The retail investors and investment bankers were out on the street, screaming their hearts out with the profits they had made.

Mahabali Enterprises, whose stock was worth 1,480 varaha only a couple of months ago, is now worth 3,542 — a jump of 139.32% in a single month, bringing the company’s current market cap to a whopping 3.54 billion varaha. That’s like doubling the investment and a little more in the span of a month.

The Himalayan Group was even more impressive—its stock price soared over 225%, rising from 502 varaha to 1,625 varaha. This surge pushed its valuation to approximately 4.079 billion, making it the most valuable organisation in the Empire and possibly the entire world, as no other business entity matched its extraordinary cash flow.

The Dynasty Corporation, although the smallest in terms of valuation among the three military conglomerates, due to its being an enterprise of the royal family, had slightly more steam engines under its arsenal than the other two. This advantage led them to snatch some of the orders that Mahabali or Himalaya should have gotten. This was clearly reflected in the stock market, as the value of Dynasty Corporation currently sits at a whopping 3.595 billion, becoming the second most valuable company in the empire, completely overtaking Mahabali Enterprises.

Although the mining industries were not as spectacular as the military conglomerates driving the economic boom, they still experienced an average stock valuation growth of 39%. Meanwhile, iron and steel companies saw their valuations rise anywhere between 30% and 50%.

The Empire’s economy had secured a front-row seat on a rocket bound for the moon, with stock prices across exchanges soaring by an average of 58%, both surpassing the 3 billion mark. Remarkably, this surge was driven solely by the introduction of steam engines in a single manufacturing sector. People throughout the Empire began to imagine how profoundly their lives would change as steam power expanded into more industries.

P.S. I’ll try to include an image, look in the comments it might be there