NOVEL NEXT Chapter 609: Financial Reform 3
As far as the public is concerned, there wasn't any change in the financial industry after the royal family suddenly established two new companies. However, the professionals in the financial sector were pleasantly surprised, as they immediately realized something big was about to happen. They were excited, their hearts filled with anticipation.
Reserve Bank of Bharat, Imperial Capital Bengaluru,
The financial sector of the Bharatiya Empire is in the midst of an overhaul; with the involvement of the topmost leaders in the financial sectors of the government, groundbreaking changes were taking place. Dharmendra, after receiving the orders from His Majesty, immediately met up with the Minister of Finance, Jagannath Mohan, the director of the Bharatiya Tax Bureau, Radhakrishna Iyengar, and even with a shipping company owner called John Brown, who was a citizen of the British Empire but has currently become a citizen of the Bharatiya Empire, in order to get first-hand knowledge about the stock market in the Dutch Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire.
The stock market was a new thing for the Bharatiya Empire, but it was nothing new to the people of Europe, The Vienna stock exchange existed as far back as the 13th century, and the Antwerp Stock Exchange had been established in the 16th. More recently, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was established half a century ago. It is fair to say that, when it comes to finance, the Bharatiya Empire is lagging behind the West by a few centuries, even if it is currently the richest country in the world by GDP.
With the help of detailed notes and amazing ideas provided by Vijay, Financial guidance provided by Minister Jagannath Mohan, taxation guidance provided by Radhakrishna Iyengar, and finally, practical insights provided by John Brown, Dharmendra quickly drew the framework for the general workings of a Govt agency whose aim is to regulate the stock trading and protect the basic interests of the investor.
He let out a deep breath and finally put down the pen. "Chandan, please deliver the document personally to the Royal Palace," Dharmendra said as he handed over the sealed confidential document to his deputy while wiping the sweat from his forehead and massaging his stiff back.
Looking at the director, Chandan felt a little worried for his health, but he knew the importance of the matter, so he immediately took the document. "I will get the job done. You can trust me on this matter, Director. Please get some rest," he said as he left the Reserve Bank head office.
In the meantime, Simhasana Bhavana,
Vijay, accompanied by Bhaskaracharya, was interviewing people for the post of the director of the regulating body of the stock exchange throughout the empire. According to the decisions taken by Vijay, the stock exchange, or the securities market in general in the Bharatiya Empire, would be fully controlled by the private sector, and the government would have nothing to do with it. The only job for the government in this matter would be to act as a regulatory body, ensuring that the owners of the stock exchange run it according to law and order and also protect the interests of the investors.
For this reason, he also established a new independent department directly under the control of the Imperial Committee called the Securities and Commerce Exchange (SCE), tasked with regulating the securities market of the Bharatiya Empire.
The interviews went on for a whole day, and by the end of the day, Vijay had found a person he was satisfied with. He was called Badradri Ramachandraya, who was actually the director of economic affairs under the Ministry of Finance.
"Congratulations, Mr. Ramachandraya. I wish you all the best, and I hope you do a splendid job in the Securities and Commerce Exchange," Bhaskaracharya did a namaskar and greeted.
Badradri had a happy smile on his face. The reason why he left his job as a director within the Ministry of Finance was because he realized that he had almost reached the ceiling of what one could achieve by ability alone. He was born into a small landlord family, so he was adept in arithmetic since he was a child, which gave him some edge over his peers.
He was not complacent and worked very hard to get into the Ministry of Finance and ultimately into the top echelons, all within a decade. But now he was already 43 years old, and he could tell that if he hadn't achieved anything special by his ability alone, he would have to either wait for his superior to die or for some drastic changes to occur in the empire to have a chance at further promotion, both of which, in his opinion, were really unlikely in at least a decade.
When the royal family put forward the recruitment requirements in the financial departments of the government, he immediately caught on. He even decisively resigned from his job to attend the interview to show his seriousness. If he failed, it would have been very awkward, but fortunately, he succeeded.
Looking at Badradri's leaving back, Bhaskaracharya had a thoughtful expression on his face. "Your Majesty, this person quit his old job as soon as we put forward the idea of recruiting a director for the new department. Will such a restless person be suitable to run the SCE?" He was doubtful. Unsurprisingly, Badradri was not Bhaskaracharya's best pick.
Vijay immediately smiled. "Don't think that he is reckless. In fact, he is very smart. Even if we didn't put forward our recruitment campaign, he would still quit the job in the ministry."
"Ah?", Bhaskaracharya was confused. "Why is that, Your Majesty?"
"Haha, it's because he had already received an offer from King Jayadwaj Singha to be the new director of the Bank of Ahom."
"He was already tempted to take this offer since the potential for growth is much larger than in the ministry."
"At most, our recruitment acted as an excuse for him to quit his old job and not the reason."
"Huh, it's like this!" Bhaskaracharya nodded his head in understanding. "No wonder Your Majesty took a liking to him." Bhaskaracharya knew that His Majesty did not hate people who looked out for their own interests. Instead, he actually liked them because people with flaws are easier to figure out than people without any.
12th July 1659,
The SCE was officially established within the Imperial Committee. Not only that, but the location for the establishment of the first-ever stock exchange in the history of the subcontinent was chosen.
Vijay could choose the location of the stock exchange from many economic capitals in the empire. His choices included Mumbai, Mangaluru, Kochi, Colombo, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, and Kolkata. If the Bharatiya Empire were formed in the 19th century, where industry was developed throughout the empire, Vijay would choose Mumbai without hesitation as it is the central location on the West Coast of the empire and is also facing the most trade coming from Europe.
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However, currently, Mumbai is not the right choice since the industrial economy around Satavahana has not developed to the level of Vijayanagar, Cholapuri, Cheranadu, and even Kakathiya Puri. More importantly, Cheranadu possesses the special economic zone of Thiruvananthapuram, which is a never-exhausting goldmine of the Bharatiya Empire, making it even harder for the current Mumbai city to compete, not to mention that not all the island chains in Mumbai had been developed. So, after deliberation, Vijay decided to establish the stock exchange somewhere in the 5 southern states.
By narrowing down the area, the confusion in choosing the location immediately disappeared, as Vijay was finally left with only two choices: either Mangaluru or Chennai, both of which are almost perpendicular to each other on the North and South Coasts, its line directly cutting through the imperial capital Bengaluru. What's more, its triangular position forms an equilateral triangle with Coimbatore, a future trade hub due to the Great Southern Canal that is under construction. Both choices were excellent.
In the end, as a way of deciding what to choose, Vijay finally decided to stick with the city with the most medium- and large-scale businesses. In the end, it was Mangaluru who won his trial by outperforming Chennai by nearly 965 businesses.
After His Majesty took the decision, Bhaskaracharya immediately contacted Bhonsale Construction Company in order to build a 6-story tower, the tallest in Mangaluru, for the establishment of the new Mangaluru Stock Exchange (MSE).
A few days passed, and Vijay received the framework developed by Dharmendra.
After reading the framework, he was quite happy with it.
"Ganesh, send an invite for Uncle Ravi Shetty and Mr Pawan Kalyan," Vijay said as he put down the papers.
Somewhere in Coimbatore
Ravi Shetty and Pawan Kalyan were surprised to receive a summons from the Simhasana Bhavana.
After hurriedly going to the Royal Palace, the three parties had a lengthy discussion, and finally, a deal was reached.
Raya Royal Bank, Shetty and Co Industrial Bank, and Bharatiya Southern United Bank would found the governing body of the Mangaluru Stock Exchange (MSE) together. According to the framework submitted by Dharmendra, the stock exchange needed to be governed and established by publicly reputable companies and have at least three separate members of the governing body for the stock exchange to be considered legal.
It was for this reason that he invited his uncle and Pawan Kalyan, who were both currently the directors of Shetty and Co Industrial Bank and Bharatiya Southern United Bank, respectively. In fact, he also wanted to invite Bank of Aryavarta and Bank of Ahom, the two new banks established by the King of Ahom and 300 northern merchants, but unfortunately, these banks had only just been established and had not accumulated enough reputation to stand within the governing body of the stock exchange.
Thinking about adding them in the future, Vijay proceeded to go with the current two reputable banks in the empire. In fact, if in the future Mangaluru Stock Exchange could no longer manage the capital pouring in from all over the empire, he thought of establishing another one in Mumbai to make it more convenient.
In the end, as the largest investor, Vijay took a share of 31% in the Mangaluru Stock Exchange, while Shetty and Co Industrial Bank, along with Bharatiya Southern United Bank, took 10% respectively. 40% was dedicated to being listed on the market, and the remaining 9% was dedicated to respected financial leaders in the empire, be they successful merchants who had entered the board, or economic scientists and professors from the Bharatiya Institute of Sciences.
With all the things completed, there was only a single item left on the list: deciding who would be the chairman of the stock exchange. Vijay, who got to decide this matter, immediately had a person in mind.