The Eagle of Eastern Europe

The task of receiving the messengers from the East was given to Peter. Mircea himself only needs to meet with the other party, and let Peter talk to him about the details.

During this time of rectification in Constantinople, Baptiste transferred another 150,000 lei from the treasury. If this continues, he will have to borrow money from businessmen, but with Peter here, he feels that such a thing cannot happen.

The East India Company's board of directors jointly submitted an agreement to Peter, requesting that the company's other governance functions be divested. Except for the Indian region, it was hoped that the rest could be handed over to other institutions for governance.

The reasons they gave are also very good. The company is currently acting as both father and mother. It not only needs to maintain trade, but also build a navy, manage land, expand inland, manage immigration, and spread religion.

It is obviously impossible for a company to manage so many things. Although it is good now, with the expansion of trade routes, the original personnel are not enough. All of them need to be transferred from the country, but there are several months between them and the east. The distance and the required personnel transfer are no longer something their company can handle.

Therefore, the company's senior management hopes that Peter can leave these affairs to others. Their company is happy to carry out governance in India, after all, that is their name. But apart from trade, other places can only be said to be powerless.

"Is the company's situation really that bad?"

"Really Your Highness, the Governor urgently requested to send people to establish merchant houses and trading points. We have sent 800 people to the east, but it is still not enough. Moreover, this is only the newly discovered place by the Governor. India and other places also need manpower to expand. Trade, the company can only maintain one direction at present, so we ask for your help."

Peter sneered and put the petition aside.

"Is this the only way? If I remember correctly, the company's revenue last year was more than 1.2 million lei. This is after expenses and taxes."

"Yes, Your Highness, isn't it our goal to obtain more gold?"

Kadajiu explained to Peter that the company did make a lot of money, but it also had to take care of the interests of shareholders. If he had known that after the royal family, almost all other shareholders of the company were chambers of commerce, and many businessmen raised money from each chamber of commerce. These funds have helped the company get through the most difficult beginning. If it cannot pay more dividends, who will inject funds into the company? You must know that public governance is very expensive. In India, the cost of direct governance is three times that of indirect governance. All kinds of talents needed locally need to be cultivated, which all costs money.

"Your Highness, we have spent more than 50,000 lei in Androniko and Aden, and 70,000 lei in Ceylon. Local governance, immigration, and missionary work all need to be supplemented by the company's funds, plus the shareholders' funds. It’s not easy to pay dividends and maintain daily cash flow.”

Kadajiu told about the company's difficulties, and Peter also reacted somewhat. When later generations checked the information, they said that the British East India Company was on the verge of bankruptcy and thought it was a misfortune. Now it seems that the situation is quite different.

“How would you feel if the company only operated in India?”

Peter started asking this question, and Kadajyu immediately took out the information and explained it to Peter. Due to strategic contraction, they could retract from the extended eastern colonies to the Indian Ocean, and the extra expenditure could be invested in the governance of India. The spices and cotton cloth produced in India are the bulk of the trade. If it continues to expand, local land tax, customs duties, head tax, salt tax, etc. can make up for the expenditure. Moreover, according to the news brought back by the explorers, religious places in India are full of gold and silver. You can "borrow" it when necessary.

"Your Highness, we have minted the first batch of Lei in India. It is of high quality and very popular in Aden and other places. We can gradually control India's trade and currency, and then gradually incorporate this rich place into the empire. rule."

"Well, I will think about it again and will give the company a reply when the Eastern envoy comes."

Peter gave a specific deadline for Kadajiu to go back and explain, and asked them to endure it before that.

In fact, Peter also had the idea of ​​spinning off some functions of the East India Company to form a separate organization, but he always felt that the process was too fast. If I had known, it took more than 200 years for the British East India Company to become history. It took decades for other colonial companies to be replaced by government agencies. Even the private territory of the Congo that was exploited by Belgian insects took more than 30 years to be taken over by the government.

The Roman East India Company was established less than ten years ago. Under such circumstances, I don’t know whether it would be feasible to separate some functions.

But the board of directors wanted this, so it was hard for him to say anything. Everything still needs to be discussed with Mason.

Mircea left the colonization to Peter, who in turn left it to the East India Company. Last year, seeing that they were working too hard, they established an academy in Smyrna to teach Eastern navigation, exploration, geography, economics and other knowledge. The first batch of people who were trained for three months have already left for the East, and are already in Hudaydah and other places. The government helped govern, sent back many reports, and continuously expanded the maps and geography books compiled by Rome.

Saharan trade and colonization in the west are temporarily abandoned, and all manpower is used to support colonization in the east. They contributed to the empire's control in the east, but not nearly enough to cover the vast lands and seas.

From the colonial history of Western Europe. Chartered companies were just new things that came about because the country's financial resources were insufficient to support large-scale colonization. Even an empire as powerful as Spain only encouraged private colonization, and later gold and silver mining brought America under royal control.

With Rome's current centralized power and financial resources, direct government colonization does not seem impossible. Where the cost of governance will come from, a financial circle must be established.

The company can have a monopoly on trade in India, while trade elsewhere must be free trade. This can promote economic growth. For example, the fleet that carried out the Abyssinian trade at Andronikos was not carried out by the East India Company.

In addition, the internal trade profits of the colony were also very large, and the gems produced from Ceylon were also the favorites of various Indian princes. And they seemed to have no shortage of money. They paid a lot of gold for fear that they would not be able to buy it.

Under the facilitation of Rome, trade among countries in the Indian Ocean began to improve. The flag of the purple double-headed eagle floats on the sea. From India to Southeast Asia and back to Aden, a complete triangle trade is completed. There are risks involved, and the profits are also huge. Some adventurers came to the East and made money through trade and then took root in the colonies. They also needed to pay taxes, but they temporarily went into the local government's treasury. Due to travel reasons, the colonial treasury only needs to be handed over every two months.