Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 795: Mbongo, Kamegere & New stock market?

12th August 1663

In a blink of an eye, a week has passed. The Warriors Day is only a couple of days away. Guests from all over the world have travelled to the Bharatiya Empire to watch the parade of the Bharatiya soldiers, which in recent years have become a popular spectacle throughout the empire and even throughout the world. Attending the Warriors Day celebration at least once every few years has become a status symbol in some noble circles in Europe.

This year, Archduke Peter Alexandrovic Romanov, who had recently travelled through the newly discovered route from Central Siberia to far eastern Siberia himself, attended the parade after a few years of absence. Apart from Peter, some noble gentlemen from Poland, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Brandenburg-Prussia and even Sweden had arrived.

The government is very busy preparing for the grand event that marked the end of the parasite called the Mughal Empire, especially the events department under the Prime Minister's Office, which doesn't even have an hour's rest, as they are preparing with all their might for the Warriors Day.

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Arabian Sea, Socotra

A medium-sized merchant ship waving the flag of the Ethiopian Empire slowly docked in the port of Socotra. The port anchors were dropped, the wooden plank was installed, and the workers on board immediately got to their duties of stocking up supplies.

The dock workers on the dock got busy as well, by arranging the ladder platform to the ship, as well as helping out in moving the cargo.

More unusual was that all the workers in the ship were black. This picture would have raised a few eyebrows in the Bharatiya Empire, but in the port of Socotra, it has become relatively common. Since the Bharatiya Empire put pressure on kingdoms, chiefdoms, and empires in Central Africa to stop the slave trade, a lot of slaves have become free people. The workers in the boat were part of them. They were previously owned by Fasilides I and trained to be excellent naval staff in case the emperor wanted to travel. But after their freedom, they, along with hundreds of similar slaves who were proficient in water trades like sailing, navigation, fishing, and lookout, became relatively common throughout the Gulf of Aden.

A pair of young adult men came to the deck of the ship as they leaned forward with their hands on the railing.

The two men looked completely different from all the other black men around them. They looked more noble and refined. Even their clothes looked very exquisite.

The man standing on the right wore a brown fabric with various patterns which looked a little similar to bark cloth around his waist and his shoulders. He also wore a snake leather belt as well as various ornaments like a few bead necklaces hanging down his neck, an animal tooth necklace, and even a few ornamental bangles.

The man standing on the left, on the other hand, only wore a waist wrap very similar to the lungi or Pancha worn in the southern part of the Bharatiya Empire, but his was indigo in colour. Additionally, he wore a small cape. It looked like a banion(Tank top), but its middle part could be opened. It was buttoned. What was the most unusual feature of his appearance was the bronze neck rings that were worn on his neck. The neck-ring covered his whole neck, but instead of looking weird, it looked uniquely aesthetic. Because whichever African tribe practices the culture of wearing neck rings, their necks become disproportionately long, throwing off the symmetry with the body. But the neck ring worn by the one on the left did not make his neck longer; instead, it acted as a jewellery piece, making his look more complete.

The two men were naturally the princes of two countries in Central Africa, Mwanga Sekate Kamegere, Prince of Buganda, and Ekema Lobuko a Mbongo, Prince of Duala.

Ekema looked at Mwanga and did a namaskara. "I'm very thankful for you to allow me to travel with you, Your Highness." Unconsciously, some of the cultural norms of the Bharatiya Empire have begun to spread into the societies of Central Africa, and the cultural norms of Central Africa, like a sponge, are rapidly absorbing everything they find relatable from the Bharatiya Empire.

Mwanga Kamegere smiled and shook his head. "Both our countries have good relationships with the Bharatiya Empire. It's only natural that we help each other out in times of need."

After negotiations with the Bharatiya Empire to sell the oil from their oil seeps, their fathers immediately started to force them to study the Bharatiya language as well as their customs in order to send them to a university in the Bharatiya Empire. Chief Mbedia Mbongo of Duala was unlucky since he did not have any channels to admit his son to a university, but he got to know that King Kumbugwe Kamegere had found a way to make his son join the university. So without hesitation, he sent his own son to the Kingdom of Buganda.

The talk between the two princes continued for a long time, but finally, Ekema Mbongo had a doubt. "Why are we docked in here for so long? Didn't we already stock up all the supplies in Djibouti?"

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Mwanga Kamegere had a similar doubt, so he took the question to his butler—a new role and job that had been invented in his kingdom after the culture of the Bharatiya Empire started to gain some prominence.

Butler Matia, who heard the question, immediately smiled. "Oh, this!! It's because Socotra is an island of the Bharatiya Empire, so the supplies you can get here are err..." She looked around to make sure that no Arabian businessmen were around and whispered, "Higher in quality and wider in variety. And a lot of things that can only be bought in the Bharatiya Empire could be bought in Socotra. So usually, ships like us going on long voyages buy the basic necessities in Djibouti but buy the critical cargo in Socotra."

Mwanga and Ekema, who heard the butler, were suddenly enlightened. They nodded their heads in understanding.

Soon the ship set off, destination: the port of Lakshadweep.

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In the meantime

Indraprastha

A group of rich businessmen had gathered in a conference room, having a heated discussion with each other.

"Sir, the stock exchange can only be opened on the western coast. This is where the most development has happened, and most of the companies are also present on the western coast. Isn't it a no-brainer that we have to open the stock exchange in Mumbai?"

"No, no, sir, you have been mistaken. There is already a stock exchange on the western coast—that is the Mangaluru Stock Exchange. Even if what you said is true, and in the early stages of development the Mumbai Stock Exchange will have a better development trend, its growth prospects will not be too large due to its close proximity to the Mangaluru Stock Exchange. Mangaluru Stock Exchange will continue to be the dominant player and attract all the major companies and businesses throughout the empire to the western coast, so how can we compete against it? So I propose that we establish the stock exchange in Kolkata. Not only will we get an advantageous position for trade on the eastern coast, but also we will have superior access to all the states on the eastern coast. We can attract businesses from the eastern part of the empire, just like how Mangaluru Stock Exchange attracts from the most developed part of the country."

"Also, with the development of trade relationships with South Asia as well as the frontiers, the eastern coast and its economy is bound to get more prosperous. So with the future in mind, we have only one option, and that is to settle somewhere on the eastern coast and represent the Bank of Ahom. I prefer for it to be in Kolkata."

The argument went back and forth for a long time, but unfortunately, the advantages and disadvantages of both locations were almost evenly matched. It wasn't until King Jayadwaj Singha made a decision himself that everyone calmed down.

Singha resolutely chose Kolkata to establish the empire's second stock exchange, and he had several reasons for doing so. Number one: He could understand the advantages of establishing the stock exchange in Mumbai given that it would develop very quickly in the beginning, but he preferred to look at goals long term. Number two: others might not know, but he knew that His Majesty wanted to turn the whole state of Bengal into an industrial state focused on the textile industry. With such information in mind, it was a no-brainer.

As for why he left the decision to the executives from both banks in the first place without making his opinion clear, it was because he had almost let go of the Ahom Bank and put his complete focus on emigrating the people of his state.

Beginning of the year, he was overjoyed that he was finally getting the opportunity that His Majesty promised when he integrated his kingdom into the empire. Even now, he could tell that the new kingdom would only be his after a few decades, but still, he was very happy that he could see that the goal was not too far away and it was visible. But because of it, he had let go of a lot of his industries since, according to the regulations of the Bharatiya Empire, once he emigrated to the frontiers to be its king, he would have to give up the majority rights in a lot of his industries—and he had a lot of it. His interests spread in business, media, real estate, manufacturing, and whatnot.

He was a little heartbroken and saddened that he would have to give up so many hard-earned interests, but he was still resilient and definitely chose to emigrate to the frontier. So he had not paid much attention to his business, especially considering that if he had to have strong control over the frontier, he would have to build the layout early on, which was another contributing factor, distracting his attention by constantly absorbing the resources he could muster instead of continuing to grow his already large industries in the Bharatiya Empire.

However, a few months ago when he met His Majesty, he gave him an idea what would be best for his situation:

"Singha, in fact, you don't need to completely give up the control of your companies. You can actually still control them.

"Simply establish the businesses you have in the Bharatiya Empire also in the frontier, but that will be the headquarters, while the businesses you have in the empire will be its regional branches.

"The Empire doesn't allow foreign ownership of businesses, but it does allow for foreigners to own up to 49% of the stake.

"This may change in other fields in the future, but it will definitely not change in the banking sector. So you do not have to worry about your manufacturing companies since they will be yours even after you leave. But for the banking industry, simply rename it Ahom Bank Bharatiya Branch "

"The rule only stipulates that foreigners should only own 49% and local Bharatiya should hold 51%, but it does not specify if all the 51% should be owned by a single person.

"You can simply put the regional branch of the bank on the stock exchange for public offering. Although most of the control over the company has been lost and you will have to be responsible to the shareholders, being the largest shareholder, you will still have a very large say in the company as long as you make sure that no single minority shareholder possesses over 12% stakeholding."

After hearing the suggestions of His Majesty, his attitude completely took a drastic turn, and he once again became interested in his businesses. This time, he is looking forward to using the profits from the businesses to build up and fasten the development of Papua New Guinea the frontier which he had chosen for himself.