Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Chapter 899: Extreme Demand
Simhasana Bhavana, Imperial capital Bengaluru, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

Getting the permission to enter, Baskaracharya stepped into the emperor’s office with a bright smile on his face, but, after seeing Vijay who was still busy in work, he quickly composed himself so as to not cause a disturbance and quietly sat down like His Majesty gestured him to, and patiently waited without making any noise. Sitting still, he was not unhappy; instead, thinking about the news he came to report, he had a slight arc at his lips that did not leave his face. When the emperor finally looked up, he acted at once, standing up, greeting him respectfully, and handing over a ledger with both hands while bowing slightly.

“Your Majesty, the 500 Kesari steam engines you had ordered to be manufactured have been produced and have already been sold. Please take a look, these are all the companies that have purchased the machine.”

Vijay’s eyes lit up. He curiously took a quick glance at the ledger and nodded in satisfaction.

“Pillai Optics, Bakshi Textiles, Bhopati Pharmaceutical Group, Akarsh Carriages, Gaur Agricultural Tools, and several research institutes.”

“The list is very extensive.”

Vijay was extremely satisfied.

In fact, all the above-mentioned civilian companies will be receiving only 100 machines out of the 500 that were produced. But he wasn’t complaining, because for the economy to adopt the steam engines in a healthy manner, they needed to be introduced gradually to avoid any drastic disruptions. Besides, the 100 machines weren’t a small number to begin with.

In the first production run, each military conglomerate received fewer than 20 steam engines, yet even that small number sped up the production cycle of various weapons by nearly a week.

So, what would happen if each conglomerate got 100 machines and the company that manufactured them also got 100?

That is exactly what happened. Vijay continued to tilt most of the resources into the military manufacturing sector, especially with the tsunami of orders coming in from the Middle East and Europe. With the Ottoman Empire almost going mad to keep the land in the Balkans, the Russians are trying every means to gain an advantage. Such an opportunity he would not get any other time, where he could push the manufacturing sector of the empire, especially the ordnance industry, to a whole new level that cannot be surpassed by any nation or empire in the world.

With this thought, Vijay looked towards Baskaracharya in determination, “Baskar, how is the cash flow of Sriranga Industrial like?” he asked as he had an idea in his mind.

“Hmm,” although Baskaracharya had no idea why His Majesty was asking such a question, he responded with a little thought, “535 something odd million Varaha is in the company’s bank account, Your Majesty. All the investment made in manufacturing the engines has been recovered, and a 30% profit has also been obtained.”

Vijay no longer hesitated, “Great, have the bank provide a loan of half a billion Varaha and have the Sriranga Industrial produce 1000 more steam engines.”

Baskaracharya was taken aback. Investing a billion in manufacturing a single machine, this has not happened for a long time, and the only thing he could remember that came even remotely close was the Devaraya Atmospheric Steam Engine that was sought after heavily by the mining companies, but even that was only produced in more than 5 batches to ship 1000+ units. Now the Kaseri steam engine has the possibility of achieving the goal and even surpassing it in only its 3rd batch, crossing 1500 units. Given Baskaracharya’s steady nature, he slightly got worried, but thinking of the kind of product the Kaseri steam engine is and the prospects 1000 steam engines being sold to society brings, Baskaracharya got excited.

“As you wish, Your Majesty.”

—

Financial capital- Mangalore, Vijayanagar State, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

A group of people were surrounding a large carriage that was pulled by an elephant.

“Bring it down slowly, don’t rush it”, an engineer bearing the uniform of Pillai Optics shouted in a hoarse voice,

The labourers were sweating profusely, but after hearing the shout, their movement suddenly became even slower, becoming more careful. Finally, with a soft thud, the heavy condenser unit was placed on the back of a tricycle.

The engineer let out a sigh of relief and motioned for a person who was standing next to him, ‘ Be careful, ‘ not having the energy to speak anymore.

Ram, a young man, a worker at Pillai Optics, immediately understood what had to be done. He got on the tricycle and slowly cycled towards a part of the factory which looked like it had been newly built, with a few chimneys sticking out on the roof.

Getting inside the factory, he saw the director of the company, Gana pathra Pillai, talking with the chief engineer and his group who have come from Sri Ranga Industrial Tools to assemble, set up, and debug the steam engine.

Ram personally does not know what the steam engine is, but he heard people all over the company talking about how it is the greatest machine ever invented, so he was excited and was looking forward to seeing it in action.

“Sir, where should I place this?” Ram asked respectfully as he got down from the tricycle and asked a lean middle-aged man who was looking at a book and scribbling something.

“Oh, the condenser is here, looks like we can get started.”

“Chief, everything is ready”, the man yelled, attracting the chief engineer and a few people who were talking with the director.

Turning around, the lean middle-aged man patted Ram’s back with appreciation. “That will be it, young man, thank you for your effort.” Ram immediately felt flattered and moved aside.

Unfortunately, everyone was told to evacuate the factory until the assembly was done. This made Ram, who wanted to watch the fun, a little disappointed, but there was nothing he could do. Apparently, the technology of the steam engine is a very closely guarded secret of Sri Ranga Industrial Tools, so no matter how reluctant he was, he didn’t want to get into trouble just because of his curiosity.

Ram dejectedly got back to his work, moving supplies and the necessary things from one part of the company to another whenever needed. He was feeling a little lost throughout the day because he was looking forward to watching the steam engine in action, but it looked like he was not destined to lay his eyes on it. ‘Oh well, I will look at it tomorrow.’

However, like the saying goes, “What you craved was yoghurt rice and what the doctor prescribed was also yoghurt rice,” he was summoned by the procurement director to buy the best quality coal from the market for the steam engine, because he was the fastest in the company.

He did as he was told and bought nearly two hundred kilograms of anthracite, which cost nearly thrice that of bauxite, and pedalled towards the factory with excitement.

Getting into the power room, he once again saw the chief engineer talking about something with the boss.

“Does the machine not work on normal coal?” Pillai was worried because the cost of running the machine would then become extremely high.

“Not really. It’s just recommended to use the best quality coal for the first run cycle of the production line. You can use any type of coal fuel, but make sure to service the boiler and cylinder regularly. The better the coal quality, the less frequently you’ll need to service it; the worse the quality, the sooner you’ll have to.”

Ganapatra Pillai understood; it looked like he was worried for no reason.

Taking his attention away from the big shots, Ram looked at the gigantic machine in front of him with curiosity. It had several parts connected to it in a way he could not understand. He did not know what they did. He did identify the condenser, though, since it was what he had brought, but apart from it, he understood nothing.

However, it did not matter; he was only here to see how this magical machine, praised by everyone, would work.

His wish was soon fulfilled because the engineers from Sri Ranga Industrial Tools started to go through the final checks on the machine and finally lit up the coal he had brought after some of it was dumped into the furnace.

At first, nothing happened, but as time went on, steam began to come out of the pipe that connected the large water tank-like container, and he did not know how the large wheel that was half visible on the surface began to slowly spin. But as time went on, it became faster and faster, with its spokes turning into a blur.

He felt the rumbling in the ground, and his heart started to beat rapidly. It was as if he was in front of a behemoth that could swallow him whole. He looked around worriedly to see if anyone else felt it, and he was relieved because a few people were more scared than him and had taken several steps back. But he was surprised that the Boss, instead of looking scared, was looking excited.

The boss went towards the manufacturing room like a newlywed young man entering the bedroom on his first night.

In curiosity, Ram followed behind, albeit while keeping a healthy distance from the rumbling monster.

The manufacturing room, apart from the fact that normally it wouldn’t be so deserted, had no big changes.

Pillai was taken aback. He thought he would see all the machines, whose power had been connected to the rotation of the steam engine through belts and chains, spin, but nothing was happening. Suddenly, he remembered and shouted at one of the engineers, “Send the power to the manufacturing room!”

The chief engineer smiled and nodded. He came forward and pulled what looked like a lever.

“Kaka!”

With a loud sound, something finally happened. All the machines in the manufacturing room started to run on their own. Not only that, the conveyor belt, which had to be run using animals, started to move on its own. Ram’s eyes widened. Now he understood why the director was so interested in the steam engine.

Looking at the lapidary machines and various other machine tools that were running on their own, he couldn’t help but feel a shock in his heart. A deep fear engulfed him, since machines would replace people who were previously responsible for running the machines manually, could machines also be responsible for replacing him?

He shook his head, discarding all the unnecessary thoughts, and looked at the boss, who had suddenly moved forward. He seemed to be testing out various levers and gears. Ram was amazed. With every modification the boss made, either the speed of the machines changed or the speed of the conveyor belt shifted. It looked like everything could be adjusted, and even the individual machines could be turned off.

“This is amazing!!” Ram exclaimed, but under the noise of the steam engine and the now-running machines, no one could hear him.

—

Such situations were happening in several major industrial companies in the empire, amazing all the important figures in the corporate world like Arjan Bakshi, who immediately made a commotion in Sriranga Industrial Tools’ branch office, wanting to order 20 more Kesari engines; Bhupathi, who similarly demanded that 10 more machines be given to him as he was willing to pay a 20% premium; Akarsh of Aakarsh Carrages; and Pranav Dixit of Gaur Agricultural Tools, who directly met with Minister of Trade and Commerce Rajesh and requested to purchase as many Kesari steam engines as possible. Coincidentally, the companies that had not gotten the chance to purchase the steam engine, hearing about the performance of the machine that can spin all the machine tools on its own, started to queue up in various Sriranga Industrial Tool offices throughout the empire.

They were more desperate than the companies that had gotten the steam engine because they had already connected the Kesari steam engine with the future. When the Devaraya Atmospheric Steam Engine was put into the market, the mining companies that quickly adopted it not only grew massively in size, but some of the medium-sized companies even became big players within the industry, like Jyothi Minerals. But the mining companies that were too stubborn had already become bankrupt or were left behind by the times, no longer having the profitability they used to have.

The smart industrialists in the empire could understand that the Kesari steam engine is one such similar opportunity. If they miss it, not only will they not move forward, but there is a chance that they will be left behind. In such a situation, even though the Kesari steam engine is priced absurdly high, they wanted to buy it even if they had to take out a loan from the bank, mortgaging some of their assets.

In such a way, the steam engine craze in the empire slowly became out of control.