Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

4th February 1660

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Vijayanagara State, Financial Capital Mangaluru

In the blink of an eye, two weeks had passed, and it was time for the Mangaluru Stock Exchange to be officially opened.

Businessmen from all over the empire, after being continuously bombarded by the propaganda, had come to witness the rumoured legendary capital feast for themselves.

The police had blocked off the Central Square of the city, and a strict perimeter was set up to not allow any carriages within the vicinity of the stock exchange. On a rare occasion, parking spaces throughout the city had been filled up. This is especially surprising since the roads of the Bharatiya Empire are built in such a way that expansion is taken into consideration, thereby leaving out a lot of unused space, which is used as parking lots. In normal times, it would be quite amazing if a few hundred carriages were parked in the city square, but on this occasion, thousands of carriages had been lined up door to door without a block of space remaining.

Among the sea of merchants and interested citizens, an unusual carriage arrived near the vicinity of the city square. The carriage was much longer than a normal carriage, more precisely two times longer, and was pulled by six horses, two in parallel and three in series. The size of the carriage aside, which was very rare, what caught my attention was the emblem on the carriage. It was the official emblem of BIT universities all over the empire, and this one specifically was the logo of BIT Hoysala University, the finest educational institution in the state of Vijayanagar and one of the most elite in the empire.

"Alright, students," an authoritative voice was heard. "None of you are children, so I do not have to tell you what to do and what not to. I only have one request."

"All of you will come back here to the exact same spot in six hours. I expect no absentee and no latecomers."

"Your identities as university students bring you some privileges, so use them wisely. Ask the business owners questions, ask the brokers questions, and, if possible and if you're lucky, tour the Mangaluru Stock Exchange building."

"Now, with that being said, as students of business, learn as much as you can and make the most use of your time while you are here."

Soon, the students quickly dispersed in the crowd, acting on their own in groups of two to six. Meanwhile, the Director of Economics at BIT Hoysala headed towards the Mangaluru Stock Exchange.

The students, merchants, and normal citizens alike quickly passed through the perimeter set up by the police and finally entered the City Square.

"Hello, sir, can I ask you some questions?" A soft voice was heard, and a merchant was stunned to see that it was a short girl who called him. "Ah, yeah," he replied.

The students, following the suggestions of their professor, directly started their field study.

Some students went to ask questions of the merchants, while others directly approached various booths set up outside the stock exchange to ask the stockbrokers how the whole thing worked.

Surprisingly, the youngsters, all wearing the same uniform, quickly caught the attention of Arnav Sharma, the managing reporter of Bharatham Daily. Arnav had personally decided to cover the event simply because of how important the whole thing was.

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"All of you are students of the Bharatiya Institute of Technology?" Arnav asked with a smile.

"Yes, sir, we are final-year students of BIT Hoysala."

He nodded with a smile and brought out his notebook. "Can you tell me what all of you are doing here?" he asked, genuinely curious.

A group of four boys and three girls giggled happily. "Of course, we are here to learn through observation."

"All the engineering colleagues in the college frequently visit industrial factories and conduct internships to build up their resumes and practical abilities, but unfortunately, as business majors, we do not have too many options. It has only been a few years since the banks have opened, so we honestly do not have too many slots to learn, practice, or intern."

"However, now with the opening of this stock exchange, our major has one more direction to pursue and learn. So, how could we miss this opportunity to come here? Taking inspiration from the petition put forward by the Naval Industry to His Majesty, students of our major teamed together and put forward a petition to the director in order to allow us to witness the working of the stock market and the Listing of the first companies."

Arnav was impressed. "The future of the Bharatiya Empire is truly bright in the hands of youth like yourselves."

"Thank you, sir. We try our best."

Unknown to the students, Vijay was actually looking at them through the window from the stock exchange building.

"Ganesh, put in a good word to whoever the Director of Economics is in BIT Hoysala, in my name," Vijay stated, as he loved the proactive approach to learning taken by the academy.

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Ganesh replied and quickly noted down the order in his logbook so as not to forget.

Just then, Joseph Oppenheimer entered the room accompanied by Prime Minister Vinod, Minister of Finance Jagannath Mohan, Director of the Tax Bureau Radhakrishnan Iyengar, Director of the Reserve Bank of Bharat Dharmendra, Director of Shetty and Cooperative Industrial Bank Ravi Shetty, Director of Bharatiya Southern United Bank Pawan Kalyan, major shareholders of the Bank of Aryavarta, Veer Chauhan, Harsha Vardhan, and Paramara, the Director of Securities and Commerce Exchange Commission Bhadradri Ramachandran, and finally the owner of the Bank of Ahom and the King of Ahom, Raja Jayadwaj Singha.

"So, everything is prepared?" Vijay asked.

Joseph, who was the Director of the Mangaluru Stock Exchange, stepped forward. "Everything is prepared, Your Majesty. We have done the Final Launch Readiness Review, and everything was as intended," he carefully put forward the assessment report in front of Vijay.

Vijay didn't immediately pick up the report but looked at the group of people.

"We have all verified the assessment, Your Majesty. Everything is as intended," Jayadwaj Singha came forward and reassured.

Vijay nodded. In fact, Jayadwaj Singha and the people representing the Aryavarta Bank did not have to be in the core meeting of the Mangaluru Stock Exchange since both the Ahom Bank and the Bank of Aryavarta were not the governing bodies of Mangaluru's stock exchange. However, as Vijay wanted them to gain insights into the operations of the stock exchange, he personally invited them. In the future, a separate stock exchange would have to be set up in the north as well after all. So he might as well show these two banks some favours so as to not attract dissatisfaction when he asks for a seat in the governing body along with his investment.

Remembering something, he asked,

"Is the public educated about how to buy and sell stocks? Knowledge through the newspaper is simply not enough."

Pawan Kalyan immediately came forward.

"We have held public demonstrations and campaigns in the city for the last three weeks, Your Majesty and all the brokers are trained to inform clients about the dangers of stock trading before accepting them."

Vijay nodded in satisfaction.

He stroked his chin. "Are all the brokers independent?" he asked, because after the bill restricting commercial and investment banks under the same owner and shareholding, all the major banks, including the Raya Bank, had sold off their investment banking business. So he was curious about how many of the brokers were independent and how many represented the investment firms.

Pawan Kalyan thought for a while and replied, "Most brokers are independent brokers, Your Majesty since the training session held by Mr. Joseph Oppenheimer did not restrict non-institutional brokers, so there were quite a few of them."

"But, Your Majesty, in total, the investment banking institutes still employ 130 brokers."

"Bhonsle Investment Bank has 30 brokers, Bakshi Investments has 25 brokers, Hima Investment Banking has 15 brokers, Berunda Investment Banking has 20 brokers, and finally, Marco Investment Banking has 40 brokers."

Vijay's eyebrows were raised. He could understand Bhonsle Investment Banking doing so well since the investment bank was split apart from the Raya Royal Bank, so it was not too surprising. What was surprising was that some of the other investment banks were doing quite well for themselves, especially the Marco Investment Bank.

Vijay stared at Dharmendra. "They have sold all the stocks they held in commercial banks, haven't they?"

Dharmendra immediately nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty, I have personally made sure that they did. It was only after they liquidated their stake in the commercial banks that I allowed them to establish the investment bank or acquire it from the commercial bank after the split."

"Good"

Vijay thought about if there was something he was missing. After making sure that there was nothing, he stared at Joseph. "Is the bill prepared?"

Joseph immediately understood what His Majesty was talking about and soon took out a document carefully and handed it over to Vijay with both hands. "I have already obtained the signatures from the top financial leaders who have been selected into the governing body this year, Your Majesty."

Vijay quickly glanced over the signatures and said, "Good, let us finish the formalities."

Soon, as the heads of the governing bodies—Pawan Kalyan representing the Bharatiya Southern United Bank, Ravi Shetty representing the Shetty and Co. Industrial Bank, Joseph Oppenheimer representing the Mangaluru Stock Exchange, and Bhadradri Ramachandran representing the Securities and Commerce Exchange—all signed off on the document, finally, Vijay, as the largest stakeholder of the stock exchange holding 31% of the shares, representing the Raya Royal Bank, signed off on the document.

In the end, the document was finally passed into the hands of Dharmendra, the Director of the Reserve Bank of Bharat. Dharmendra ignored the intense gazes cast on him and meticulously went through the document before finally approving it, while the Minister of Finance Jagannath Mohan and Prime Minister Vinod signed at the very end as the witnesses and neutral third-party observers.

"Very good. Let's not keep the people waiting," Vijay said as he got up and walked out of the room.

The group of people quickly followed.

To be Continued...