Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 777: Raya Petroleum (2/2)

Narathihapate let out a sigh of relief. Negotiating with the people of the Bharatiya Empire was always a pain in the ass. If it was any other diplomat who had come to negotiate the deal with him, he would have used the negotiators whom he normally used to deal with merchants and diplomats from the Bharatiya Empire. But he couldn't do that for the royal family's asset manager, so he had to talk to him himself. However, with all things considered, it was a good deal.

The Sultan of Sabah Sultanate, the new sultanate and one of only two in Southeast Asia, immediately agreed to sell the oil extraction rights of the crude oil in two different oil seeps found in his nation. Always fearing that the Bharatiya Empire would one day find him an eyesore and completely wipe him out, he had been trying every means to build a diplomatic or trade relationship with the Bharatiya Empire so that he could use it to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Whether agreeing or not, it was a no-brainer for him. The crude oil was something his nation never used for themselves, and now, when he found out that in exchange for the useless crude oil, he could not only get 20% of the proceeds from its sales but also a chance to join ASEAN, he immediately agreed.

Moving on, the oil seep in Sumatra was immediately occupied, as was the oil seep in Okha. Finally, after talking to the Imam of Yemen as well as the king, the mining rights for the four oil seeps were easily obtained without much trouble. And as Vijay had guessed, several kilometres around the seeps were directly sold to the royal family in exchange for the highest percentage of twenty-five percent for all four oil seeps.

---

The economy and trade of the empire is currently booming.

Due to the integration of major economies in Southern Asia, such as the Bharatiya Empire, along with the economies of the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, Southeast Asia, and the frontiers, trade has become more and more prosperous as time passes.

The military-industrial sector saw a rise in profits in the financial year 1662 because, with the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, it was frowned upon and not appreciated when member countries started wars. However, they still had to figure out the hierarchy in the association since, at the end of the day, human society is a hierarchical-based society, and there is no point in denying it.

The way hierarchy is decided is, number one, through the economy and through military prowess. Maybe in the future, the economy will take precedence over the military, but in this current era, both go hand in hand and are inseparable. This is not an era where diplomacy is driven by the economy that earns recognition but diplomacy is driven by military prowess, which is the exact reason why no Southeast Asian country dared to stand up and oppose when the Bharatiya Empire mediated all their disputes.

In such a situation, all the ASEAN nations are competing against each other over who has the bigger economy and who has the bigger military deterrence. Normally, to gain a bigger deterrence, more advanced weaponry is needed, and where else could they buy weaponry in the world apart from the Bharatiya Empire, the one and only destination for arms when it comes to cheap, high-quality weapons available on a large scale? For this reason, all three military conglomerates of the Bharatiya Empire, be it Mahabali Enterprises, Himalayan Group, or Dynasty Corporation, all increased in share prices by an average of 16%.

Another big chunk of profits for the Bharatiya Empire came from the naval industry. The top shipbuilders of the empire made huge profits due to the buying frenzy of the ASEAN nations. Since most of the Southeast Asian countries are coastal nations, their need for naval warships was higher than their need for munitions for army purposes.

Driven by the consumption of industrial products from Southeast Asia, several companies in every sector saw growth in profits, be it Aarogyam, a furniture company, Dasomuni Pvt. Ltd., a chemical company, or Jyoti Minerals. Along with other publicly listed companies, their stocks had gone up by at least several dozen percent.

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The biggest dark horse, though, was a company focused on Foreign Consultancy, a company focused on helping foreign businesses run businesses in Bharatiya Empire and helping local businesses expand into foreign lands, especially in Southeast Asia.

Due to the integration, the demand for such services blew up through the roof. The owner of the company, who was an intern in the Ministry of External Affairs, was a person who funded the start of the company with a loan from the King of Ayutthaya, King Narai. He had limited staff and limited manpower, so he could not handle all the demand he was getting. So he decisively made the company public by giving away 30% of his shares in 400,000 shares priced at 2 Varaha per share. This number, in the coming weeks after the IPO, immediately jumped, finally sitting at a whopping price of 8 Varaha per share, which is an increase of 300%.

And the price is only increasing.

In such a lively atmosphere, the move made by the royal family surprised many people.

"Hey, look at this," a man reading the newspaper in his office was taken aback and called his colleague to share the news.

"Huh? What is it?" The colleague came over curiously, but when he read the article pointed by his colleague in the newspaper, he was also taken aback.

"Huh? What is His Majesty up to? Buying so much land in the Empire and overseas? And what is this new company, Raya Petroleum? It seems to be a subsidiary of Raya Chemicals. Can this petroleum be some sort of chemical? By the way, why is this company the owner of all the land being bought?"

So many questions, so many doubts. And he was not the only one asking these questions. Every major and minor newspaper in the Empire had written an article about it Bharatham Daily, The Times of Bharat, Ahom Daily, Nepal Times, The Observer, My Hampi, Lanka Observer, The Balochi, Kannada Nudi, Tamil Urai, Marathi Samachar, Gujarati Varta, Bangla Bhatta, Odia Prabha, along with other newspaper companies.

Even the economist Abhijit Kumar Sen decided to get involved and wrote an article about what the royal family's intentions could be.

However, the common conclusion everyone in the Empire had reached was that, no matter what, His Majesty was doing something big. Because whenever the royal family took action, it was a big deal.

---

Simhasana Bhavana, Imperial Capital, Bengaluru

"You have done well, Bhaskar. It's quite surprising that you managed to secure the mining rights to almost all the oil seeps I had mentioned."

"Now that all the oil seeps have been purchased, it's time for extraction. Appoint a managing director at Raya Petroleum. Purchase the steam engines," he thought about it and added, "One steam engine should be able to extract around 10 barrels of crude oil per day, meaning around 2,000 litres per day. Allocate the steam engines to the mining sites according to their oil production capabilities."

Raya Petroleum was the new company Vijay had established after he decided to get involved in the crude oil business. Unlike his other businesses, where he allowed other private individuals to participate in dividing the cake, Raya Petroleum completely monopolized the crude oil resources in the Empire. Not because Vijay wanted to be the Rockefeller, the undisputed oil king in the world but because he knew how important oil was to the Bharatiya Empire, and he did not want to leave it in private hands.

Just as coal is the lifeblood of industry for the First Industrial Revolution, oil is the lifeblood of industry for the Second Industrial Revolution, and it would continue to be for many centuries to come.

The problem with coal was that all coal resources could not be controlled by a single person since coal was available in abundance. However, that was not the case for crude oil, as it was limited in quantity and a non-renewable resource.

So in the future, when he is sure that the Bharatiya Empire has fuel security, then he would readily give up some part of the benefits in order to achieve greater growth for the whole industry.

Getting back to the point, Vijay quickly gave out a series of orders.

"Toungoo Dynasty has the largest capacity of crude oil, so directly set up a large-scale extraction facility there with infrastructure for storage, bottling, and transportation."

"Oh, and good security is also required since we will be needing 30 steam engines to work every day for many years to come in Toungoo."

Bhaskaracharya kept noting down all the orders given by Vijay as he continued to speak, but suddenly, he had a doubt.

"Your Majesty, steam engine operators are easy to find in the Bharatiya Empire, but it is not easy to find skilled labourers who are capable of building a well around the oil seep since our people do not have experience in this area." Thinking about his visit, he added, "When I was in Toungoo, I did come across the oil seep you mentioned, and from what I saw, the construction of the well was completely different from normal water wells. I do not think those types of wells could be constructed using the water well-building techniques that are normally used in our empire."

"Hmm," Vijay's brows furrowed. "This is indeed a problem," he nodded. He was stopped in his tracks. He thought for a while and suddenly got an idea.

"In that case, let's just ask the people who built the well in the Toungoo Dynasty to build it in other places as well."

"The difference between water wells and oil wells will not be too big, but it is this small difference that has taken these people generations to perfect many mistakes."

"Let them start building oil wells in the Bharatiya Empire, and when they are doing their work, simply employ a lot of Bharatiya people to work with them so that the techniques and experience can be replicated in other places as well."

Bhaskaracharya nodded with a little thought. He knew this would work.

"Is there anything else, Your Majesty?"

Vijay thought about it and shook his head. "The refinery is pending, but I need a working oil well for experimentation."

"Quickly complete the construction of the oil well in Ahom so that by the time oil wells are built in all the purchased locations, I will have had the refining technology ready, allowing me to build a big refinery to make use of the crude oil resources."

Bhaskaracharya agreed, "Please rest assured, Your Majesty. I'll personally go back to the Toungoo Dynasty and bring the architects along with me. Within a few weeks, the construction should be started."

"Good!"