Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 799: Navy Upgrades, New Clipper & Siberian Iron, Coal

As soon as Duke Olivera and Duke Monty de Guzman left, Vijay summoned Rajesh, Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry.

"Rajesh, the restrictions on our private logistic companies in buying the 2000-tonne ships should be loosened."

"How many ships are currently involved in trade between Asia and America?"

Rajesh was taken aback since the order came so suddenly, but he still answered without any delay, "A total of 13 Guwahati-class merchant ships, Your Majesty."

"It's mainly from four companies: Brown Logistics, which owns 4 Guwahati-class ships; Great Eastern Shipping Pvt Ltd, which owns 4; the logistics branch of Reliance Shipping and Shipbuilding which owns 2; and finally, VRL which has recently procured 3."

"Great!" Vijay took out a piece of paper and quickly wrote an executive order. "From now on, raise the limit on the number of two-thousand-tonne ships the private companies could purchase and operate. Make it 10. Wasn't it 5 before? This boost should be enough."

"Give some favourable policies for small and medium-scale logistic companies as well. They are the main backbone for the development of the frontiers."

Rajesh respectfully took over the executive order. "I will soon get it done, Your Majesty. Please rest assured."

Doing a respectful namaskar, Rajesh left the room.

Vijay was left alone. He stroked his chin and contemplated, 'Should I expand the navy?' He was not too sure because if the 4500-tonne merchant ship is as reliable as it was in his past life, he could definitely make it into the deadliest battleship the world has ever seen before, thereby finally establishing the Bharatiya Navy as the only navy in the world which could project power in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, as well as the Atlantic Ocean. 'If I rashly expand the navy, the return on investment will not be worth it. Not to mention, if it is a state of emergency and the number of ships that are currently in the empire are not enough, I can always nationalise the ships and convert them into military-use artillery ships or logistics ships. If I think in this direction, the Bharatiya Navy is already massive.'

'Alright, in that case, there is no need to build more Delhi-class battleships. Instead, let's build 2000-tonne clippers. They should be more economical and useful when focused on speed and endurance. Using the new technical advancements, their speeds should not be lower than Kathmandu-class.' As he was following this line of thought, he got another idea.

He did not waste any time and immediately summoned Kiran Poojari, Minister of Defence.

"Kiran, approve the trade of 10 Delhi-class battleships from the Portuguese and the Spanish. You'll get my official order in a few days after it has been notarized, but there are some more things I want you to do."

"1. Start looking for buyers for our Delhi-class battleships that have been manufactured before 1661 and sell them off for as much profit as possible."

"2. Have the design firms design an updated version of the Guwahati-class armed merchant ship and the Delhi-class battleship with the same specifications but using the new technology that the Kathmandu-class is being built with." "Use the funds from the sale to make the purchase, the government will not be funding the purchases."

"3. Have them design a new clipper of 2000 tonnes. The goal is to be a smaller version of the Kathmandu-class merchant ship with the same goals of speed and endurance. The only difference being, instead of having a lot of cargo space, it will have a lot of artillery and weaponry installed."

"4. Before the end of the year, occupy the central island in the Pacific Ocean. Conflicts between the Iberian nations and the West European nations are becoming more acute. If we are to take advantage of this conflict, we need to have a stable military base and a point of power projection."

Kiran fell into deep thought. The sale of the Delhi-class battleship is not a problem since it is already a very popular battleship in the world, and a lot of buyers from different kingdoms are already waiting in queues to purchase at least one of the battleships from the last few years. Even if it has been used by the Bharatiya Empire for the last four to five years, they are still in their best condition, and they are bound to be in service for at least a decade.

Having the design firms modify the existing design is also not a problem since the technology used in Kathmandu-class has already been preliminarily tested, and by the time the updated ships are being built, the technology would have been mature, given that the Kathmandu-class battleship would have already been put into service and all the problems in the device would have been solved.

He was very happy about the new clipper since he also had a similar thought after learning about the Kathmandu class, but taking over the island in the centre of the Pacific, he felt a little troubled.

This was an island discovered by one of the merchant ships of Great Eastern Shipping Pvt Ltd, a traditional shipping company started by an Anuradhapuri fisherman called Salvarajan, which has recently gone public in the Mangaluru Stock Exchange for a whopping company worth of 80 million Varha, especially because it was one of the only two major shipping logistic companies in the Bharatiya Empire, right alongside Oppenheimer Goldstein and Co Trading Company.

The problem with the island, or more accurately the archipelago, was that there were inhabitants on it—tribal inhabitants to be more specific.

"Your Majesty, how should we handle the tribals on the archipelago?"

Vijay paused. Currently, the island chain of Hawaii is not a unified power, but it is a collection of four different Chiefdom, namely the Hawaiian Chiefdom, which is currently ruled by a powerful chiefess, Keakealaniwahine; the Maui Chiefdom; the Oʻahu Chiefdom; and the Kauaʻi Chiefdom.

It wasn't until King Kamehameha I in 1810 in his past life that the island chain was unified.

From a perspective of morale, Vijay really did not want to invade Hawaii like the Americans did, but at the same time, he could not let go of it due to its absolute strategic importance. The decision was uncomfortable for him to make, but nonetheless, ruling the empire for more than a decade, he did not have less sin in his hands. His steps have already been drenched in blood, so adding a little more or a little less is of little matter.

"Use the same tactics that were used to occupy Samudra Nagari (Andaman and Nicobar). Befriend a weaker tribe for intelligence and directly overthrow the rulers."

"Establish a frontier government, appoint a governing general, and station the Pacific Fleet in its rightful place as soon as the island is captured."

"As for its people, if a lot of blood had to be shed in order to remove the ruling family, then simply displace the people and spread them widely among the different frontiers. And if a lot of blood did not have to be shed, simply appease them and slowly mould them into accepting themselves as the Bharatiya people."

"They are allowed to speak their own language, but they are required to learn the Bharatiya language. They can have religious freedom, but they have to respect our culture."

If everything goes according to plan, Vijay doesn't mind adding Hawaii as one of the frontiers for the Bharatiya Empire, and hopefully, if the royal family does not fight to the bitter end and instead just surrenders, he could even consider letting them keep part of their power.

However, he is just hoping. After all, how reality will lay out, he couldn't tell.

Kiran Poojari was silent for a few moments, after which he resolutely stood up, saluted, and left.

---

Afternoon, Vijay met with Peter, who gave him a great surprise.

"Are you sure, Your Highness?" Vijay was in disbelief.

Who could have imagined that on the way to discover a path from Central Siberia to Far East Siberia, several open-pit iron and coal mines would be discovered?

Peter smiled, "Yes, I have inspected them personally myself. So what do you think, Your Majesty? Are you interested in cooperating with me to develop these resources?"

"Of course, why not? But how do we cooperate?"

"I will provide the mine as well as human resources, while you will provide the mining equipment, mining technology, as well as the smelting furnaces when it comes to iron."

Vijay frowned, "Can't it be shipped to the empire as iron ore?"

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Peter shook his head, "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, the condition is a little hard to accept since I am determined to develop the Far East into a prosperous city of Russia, and for that to happen, I need a lot of job opportunities."

Vijay stroked his chin, "In that case, how about this? It is very likely that the speed at which iron ore is mined will be higher than the speed at which it is refined."

"So I will provide you blast furnaces enough to refine 20,000 tonnes worth of iron per annum, which is the same quantity per annum some small European countries refine with all their might."

"A lot of supporting industries could be built and prosper as well."

"With this, it should not be a problem if you want to develop Vladivostok into an industrious city in the Far East with such a scale."

"In exchange, you will ship all the excess iron ore as well as coal to the Bharatiya Empire according to market value."

"What do you say?"

Peter thought about it for a while and finally agreed, "Happy cooperation, Your Majesty."

Vijay smiled, "Happy cooperation."

To Be Continued...