Chapter 375: Company Function Separation

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

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

The board of directors of the East India Company jointly submitted an agreement to Peter, requesting the separation of other governance functions of the company. Except for the Indian region, the others hope to be handed over to other institutions for governance.

The reasons they gave were also very sufficient. The company is currently acting as both a father and a mother. It not only has to maintain trade, but also has to build a navy, govern land, expand inland, manage immigrants, and spread religion.

It is obviously impossible for a company to manage so many things. Although it is good at present, with the expansion of trade routes, the original personnel will not be enough, and this needs to be transferred from the country, but it is separated from the East by several months, and the required personnel transfer is no longer something that their company can solve.

So the company's top management hopes that Peter can hand these matters over to others. Their company is happy to govern in India, after all, that's their name. But other places, except for trade, can only be said to be powerless.

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

"Really, Your Highness, the Governor-General urgently requested to send people to build trading houses and trading points. We have sent 800 people to the East, but it is still not enough, and this is just the new place discovered by the Governor-General. India and other places also need manpower to expand trade. The company can only maintain one direction at present, so please help Your Highness."

Peter sneered and put the petition aside.

"Can it be like this? If I remember correctly, the company's income last year exceeded 1.2 million lei, and this is the income after deducting expenses and taxes."

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

Kadaju 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 it had been known that there was a royal family, the other shareholders of the company were almost all chambers of commerce, and each chamber of commerce was also obtained by many businessmen raising funds. These funds helped the company get through the most difficult beginning. If they could not get more dividends, who would inject funds into the company? You know, public governance is very expensive. In the Indian region, the cost of direct governance is three times that of indirect governance. All kinds of talents needed locally need to be cultivated, which all require money.

"Your Highness, our expenses in Andronikos and Aden have exceeded 50,000 lei, and the province of Ceylon has reached 70,000. Local governance, immigration, and missionary work all require the company's funds to supplement. In addition to the dividends of shareholders, it is not easy to maintain daily cash flow."

Kadaju told the company's difficulties, and Peter also reacted a little. When looking up information in later generations, they said that the British East India Company was on the verge of bankruptcy and thought it was selling misery. Now it seems that the situation is not much different.

"If the company only operates in India, how do you feel?"

Peter began to ask this question, and Kadaju immediately took out the information to explain to Peter. Due to strategic contraction, they can shrink from the extended Eastern colonies to the Indian Ocean, and the extra expenses can be invested in the governance of India. Spices and cotton cloth produced in India are the bulk of the trade. If it continues to expand, local land taxes, tariffs, head taxes, salt taxes, etc. can make up for the expenses. According to the news brought back by the explorers, religious sites in India are full of gold and silver, which can be "borrowed" when necessary.

"Your Highness, we have already cast the first batch of lei in India. The quality is very good and it is very popular in Aden and other places. We can gradually control India in terms of trade and currency, and then gradually bring this rich place under the rule of the empire."

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

Peter gave a specific deadline for Kadaju to go back and explain, and asked them to be patient before that.

In fact, Peter also had the idea of ​​separating some functions of the East India Company and setting up a separate organization, but he always felt that the process was too fast. It took more than 200 years for the British East India Company to become history, and other colonial companies were replaced by government agencies after decades. Even the private territory of Congo, the Belgian insect, was squeezed for more than 30 years before it was taken over by the government.

The Roman East India Company was established less than ten years ago. It is not known whether it is possible to separate some functions under such circumstances.

But the board of directors all hope so, and he can't say anything. Everything needs to be discussed with Mason.

Mircea handed the colonization affairs to Peter, and Peter handed it to the East India Company. Last year, seeing that they were too hard, a college was established in Smyrna to teach knowledge such as Eastern navigation, exploration, geography, and economy. The first batch of people who were trained for three months have gone to the East and have helped the governments in Hodeidah and other places to govern. They have also submitted many reports and continuously expanded the maps and geography books compiled by Rome.

Sahara trade and colonization in the West are temporarily abandoned, and all manpower is used to support Eastern colonization. They contributed to the empire's control in the East, but it is far from enough for the vast land and ocean.

From the perspective of Western European colonial history. Chartered companies are just new things that emerged when the country's financial resources were insufficient to support large-scale colonization. As powerful as the Spanish Empire was, it only encouraged private colonization, and later gold and silver mining brought America under the kingship.

With Rome's current centralization and financial resources, it seems that it is not impossible to directly carry out government colonization. The only problem is where the cost of governance comes from. A financial circle must be established.

The company can monopolize trade with India, and free trade should be adopted for trade in other places. This can promote economic growth. For example, the fleet that traded with Abyssinia in Andronikos was not carried out by the East India Company.

Moreover, the profits from internal trade in the colony are also very large, and the gems produced in Ceylon are also the favorites of various Indian princes. And they don't seem to be short of money, and they take out a lot of gold, fearing that they can't buy it.

With the promotion of Rome, national trade in the Indian Ocean began to increase. The flag of the purple double-headed eagle fluttered on the sea, from India to Southeast Asia and then back to Aden, a complete triangular trade was completed. There are risks, and the profits are also very lucrative. Some adventurers came to the East and made money by trade and took root in the colony. They also need to pay taxes, but temporarily into the local government's treasury. Due to the road, the colonial treasury only needs to pay once every two months.