The Mad Tycoon of Rome

The title of Samrat, meaning emperor of the Indian cultural sphere, was not something that anyone could claim.

Even if one was the king of a single country, unless they had a tremendous prestige, they could not even use the title of Raja, meaning great king, let alone Maharaja.

In that regard, the ruler of Satavahana was one of the few monarchs who had enough power to be called Samrat.

Satavahana, which had a strong point in iron and cotton production in the Deccan Plateau, was enjoying prosperity with its capital Pratishthana as the center.

There were hardly any countries left in the Indian subcontinent that could compete with Satavahana.

The Kamba Kingdom, which had tried to dominate northern India after following the footsteps of Shunga, was also pushed back by Satavahana and became as insignificant as a candle in the wind.

It was the first time since the Mauryan Empire collapsed that such a powerful country emerged in India.

Of course, Satavahana was not yet at its peak of national power, as it was still in its expansion phase.

Nevertheless, it was regarded as the strongest kingdom in the Indian subcontinent, which meant that it was a country with an enormous potential.

Of course, Satavahana was not just a country with strong military power.

They also made use of their advantage in iron and cotton production to accumulate a lot of profit from trade.

They bought silk from Han at a high price, but they compensated for it with their export of excellent cotton products.

Their cotton products were so competitive that even Rome used to pay gold for them in the past.

The ruling class of such a kingdom naturally thought that the world revolved around them.

It was not easy to criticize them as arrogant or ignorant people.

The current ruling class of Satavahana had only seen their kingdom grow since they were young.

They mostly won wars, and there was no competition around them. How could they not be complacent?

The Huns, who they thought might be dangerous, also disappeared after a brief flash.

The only countries that they were aware of were Rome and Han.

But they did not share borders with either of them, so many rulers did not care about them.

In the perception of most Kshatriyas, Rome was nothing more than a great country that produced wine and sugar.

Thanks to the strict caste system that divided people by their status, they did not have to worry about their privileges being shaken.

Most of the ruling class were immersed in the thought that this wealth and glory would last forever.

The system of Satavahana was similar to feudalism, where the princes who were sons of the emperor served as governors of various regions, and below them there were lords who inherited their positions and managed villages named after themselves.

There were not many people who paid attention to Rome as a foreign substance in this system that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

Tadius was clever enough to bring along Kashapa, who was also a local nobleman.

Depending on the situation, it could even look like Kashapa brought Roman merchants with him.

Tadius entered Satavahana with an enormous amount of sugar and wine, as well as Roman silk, as befitting the greatest merchant of the East.

As expected, his popularity was explosive.

On the first day of trading, he saw the contracted amount and immediately sent someone to bring more supplies from his homeland.

He was confident that he could rake in gold with his claws.

And that soon became reality.

“Hahaha! I love it. I never knew making money could be this easy.”

Kashapa’s mouth split open so wide that it almost reached his ears.

He received a portion of the profit as agreed upon.

“I’m glad you’re satisfied. Thanks to you, I also got more profit than I expected.”

“With that money, you can buy other goods here and sell them in Rome for more profit. Your wealth will grow even more, Tadius.”

“Of course. I already decided what to buy.”

“Is that so? Let me help you prepare so you can buy them at local prices. Cotton? Jewelry? Anything you want.”

Kashapa’s profit from this trade was not only money.

It was also satisfying to see other nobles who used to look down on him trying to buy more goods while pretending not to care.

Some even begged him to sell them more while ignoring their pride.

Without any exaggeration, Kashapa was ready to get anything that Tadius wanted.

“I’m tempted by cotton fabrics, but that’s not what I want right now. What I want is resources. To be precise, I want to buy land that can mine them.”

“You want to buy land?”

Kashapa’s face showed a perplexed look at the unexpected request.

“Do you intend to produce cotton fabrics yourself and keep supplying them to Rome? That would surely give you a steady profit, but I think that might be a bit difficult.”

“I have no such intention. In fact, we can grow cotton in our homeland as well. But it requires too much labor, so we have to use slaves. And even if we use slaves, it’s not free.”

He made a plausible excuse, but the real reason was not that.

Marcus was already working on a plan to create an advanced gin that could dramatically increase the efficiency of cotton production.

To make thread from cotton, it was essential to remove the seeds from the cotton balls, which was naturally done by hand in ancient times.

But this process of separating the seeds was not easy and required too much labor.

So people developed various tools, but even the most primitive tools were developed after AD.

Marcus planned to make a gin that was as advanced as possible and could be implemented, and dramatically increase the production efficiency.

In other words, the Indian products did not have much time to maintain their competitiveness.

Tadius, who knew this fact, was not interested in Satavahana’s goods at all.

All he cared about was carrying out the orders he received from Marcus.

“What I’m interested in is natural fertilizer. There is a research result that says that the fertilizers we can get here can dramatically increase the yield of our crops. I’ll mark the location on the map, so take a look.”

Tadius took out the map he received from Marcus and showed it to Kashapa.

Kashapa was first surprised by the precision of the map, and then relieved that it looked like a land that was not very valuable.

“That should be enough for me to buy. But are you really going to buy land that produces something that can be used as fertilizer with this huge amount of money?”

“Yes. I plan to buy as much as possible. If you cooperate, I will reward you generously.”

“I’m fine with that, but…”

He gave him money and there was no loss for him, so Kashapa had no reason to refuse.

In fact, Tadius could not even lie about what he was going to use the saltpeter for, because he did not know exactly what it was for.

Even after seeing the saltpeter ore for himself, he still had doubts.

‘I wonder what Shahanshah is going to use this useless-looking thing for. He surely won’t use all that amount for farming.’

No one who was not a fool would believe that he would use all of it as fertilizer.

In fact, Kashapa seemed to notice something strange as Tadius bought more and more land.

But he did not show any signs of stopping him, since it seemed like a useless thing anyway.

He just wanted to get his share of the profit and get out of it.

Tadius started mining saltpeter as instructed after buying enough land.

The amount of saltpeter buried in India was incomparable to the rest of the world.

To exaggerate a bit, it was like digging up ore just by digging up the ground, and the quality of saltpeter itself was excellent.

“Good, good. Then today I’ll buy some saltpeter land on the southwest coast. If I leave my ship here and take it directly to my homeland, it’ll be perfect.”

Tadius kept buying land without stopping as if he was playing a game of land grabbing, and diligently mined saltpeter.

But if the tail is long, it will eventually be stepped on.

The rumor that a Roman merchant was sweeping up gold by selling goods in Satavahana and buying land with that money reached the ears of the local rulers.

“What? He’s buying our land with the money he made from selling goods in Satavahana?”

“That’s like we’re giving our land to Rome for free.”

“He must be trying to sneak in some rats under the guise of trade.”

Tadius bought so much land that the reactions of the local lords varied, but there was not a single positive one.

And although they did not say it out loud, there was another common point in their minds.

If they could accuse the Roman merchant of fraud, they might be able to confiscate all his goods.

The nobles who had such a thought immediately took action.

They couldn’t afford to hesitate, lest someone else beat them to it.

It didn’t matter much that the merchant had a local noble backing him up.

To the generals in high positions, Kashapa was nothing more than a fake Kshatriya without any roots.

Among the experts who moved almost simultaneously, the unlucky one who faced Tadius was Prince Swati.

He was considered a strong contender for the throne of Shalat Migaspati, and he didn’t care about the rights of a mere Roman merchant.

He stormed in with his soldiers, ignoring Tadius’ angry and bewildered shout.

“How dare you be so rude!”

The Indian soldiers didn’t blink an eye at Tadius’ roar.

They forcibly captured the Roman merchants and dragged Tadius to Prince Swati’s presence after making him kneel.

Tadius raised his voice indignantly and demanded an interpreter.

“We traded according to a legitimate contract. But you suddenly attacked us and committed this atrocity. Tell me what we did wrong. And by what right do you treat us, Roman citizens, so arbitrarily!”

The interpreter who heard Tadius’ words sneered and translated them.

The soldiers who understood his words burst into laughter.

“Hey, did you hear what this stupid Roman said?”

“Does he not realize who he is talking to in front of? He’s just a Vaishya at best, a commoner who has no clue.”

Prince Swati also chuckled and got up from his seat without saying a word.

“Confiscate all the goods of that Roman and deport him. And return the land he bought to the original owner.”

It was an outrageous injustice, but the prince didn’t think his judgment was wrong.

He didn’t have any reason to care about the rights of a commoner, even if he was a foreigner.

He thought he was merciful for not cutting off his head for being greedy.

The only one who looked uneasy was the prince’s adjutant.

“Are you sure this is okay? Rome might protest.”

“Protest? Do you think Rome will protest over a few merchants?”

“They’re not just merchants. They’re probably influential merchants in Rome. They might have connections with powerful people there.”

“Then we’ll just make up an excuse. We don’t sell land to foreigners, but those merchants used cunning tricks to bypass that law. If they protest, we’ll tell them we acted according to legal procedures.”

“Yes.”

The adjutant who had expressed his concern also thought that Rome wouldn’t make a big fuss over it.

If they kept protesting, they could just bribe them with some gold and they would shut up.

That’s how the powerful people are.

But neither Swati nor his adjutant knew.

That there was an unmistakable smile on Tadius’ lips as he was dragged away, screaming in injustice.

The End