October 1675
Vijay set foot in the Manila Port for the first ti in his life. The crows of the seagulls could be heard above his head, and the breeze from the South China Sea could be felt on his skin. Letting out a deep breath and looking around at the capital of the Philippines, he was left amazed. The size of the Manila Port was not smaller than any major port in the empire at all; it was as big as Mumbai, and its cargo throughput from the number of ships alone was catching up with Kolkata.
"Welco to the United States of the Philippines, Your Majesty. Your arrival has brought us great joy," President Tamblót ca forward with a namaskar as he greeted Vijay with a cordial smile.
Vijay did a Namaskara, "It’s great to be here, President, this is a beautiful country with welcoming people. Especially your capital Manila, I dare say that it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen."
Tamblót imdiately felt flattered. "Your words really an a lot to us, Your Majesty." He touched his chest and did a small bow. "Representing the 20 million Philippines, please accept my deepest gratitude."
Vijay graciously accepted the greeting. In fact, when Vijay said this was one of the most beautiful cities he had ever seen, he was not lying, because a city as unique as Manila could not be found even in the Bharatiya mainland.
Building a big city is one thing, because anyone with money could do it, just like Bengaluru in its previous life, which was simply a poorly designed city brought into national and global fa due to money alone. But building cities like the ancient Hampi, Indraprastha, and other cities was hard, and to make them aesthetically pleasing was even more so.
He could see that Manila City has borrowed a lot of design inspirations from the major cities of the Bharatiya Empire, like the wide paved cent roads, wide drainage channels hidden under the cent slabs, a central divider which also has trees planted in it, Arkha Dristhi communication towers, Traffic signals and many other similar things. But what Vijay was most impressed by was the architecture style, which showed a mix of local Philippine architecture, Chinese style Architecture, and the Bharatiya Style Architecture.
It made the city of Manila look like a city of the future with a blend of three civilizational elents.
"How is your health, Mr President? I heard that you were feeling sick."
"Haha, thank you for your care, Your Majesty. And fortunately, I have recovered very well, thanks to the blessing from the gods."
Vijay felt relieved. Tamblót was doing an excellent job of being the President of the Philippines for so long; it would be a pity for the old man to pass away so quickly. But he knew that ti was rciless and the old man would eventually pass away, so he did not speak on the topic anymore.
Travelling through the carriage, Vijay couldn’t help but once again realise how similar the urban area of Manila was to the cities in the Bharatiya Empire.
There were police stations, post offices, bookstores, newspaper stalls, clothing and jewellery shops, and even bathrooms every few streets. The police wore different coloured uniforms, but the style of the uniform was a carbon copy of the police uniform worn by the Bharatiya police. The bookstores had posters of local Philippine works as well as the Bharatiya works. The shops had mannequins at the entrance just like in the empire, and the bathrooms, their construction design was completely different from that of the Bharatiya Empire, as it took on a more Chinese design, but the layout was similar to the Bharatiya bathrooms.
Vijay even ca across a few temples, and these were not traditional Hindu temples either; these were native Philippine temples, but the rituals that are held in these temples were done according to Vedic practices.
From all these things, Vijay could see how deeply the culture of the Bharatiya Empire had seeped into the Philippines. Even the people he saw on the streets were wearing clothes that tried to emulate Sari, Dhoti, Sherwani, and other clothing styles of the Bharatiya Empire with a Philippine twist.
’Should I go on a tour throughout the South East?’ This idea suddenly appeared in Vijay’s mind as he had never done a tour of the Southeast, but he quickly shot down his own idea because he still felt the unprecedented panic and the threat coming from the Balkan battlefield.
After all these years since the war started, he figured out the pattern for the threat he felt. The threat would intensify whenever the battle was at its bloodiest and would drastically reduce and nearly disappear during the winters. But he still did not know why that threat was appearing, and at these tis, he did not want to be far away from the empire and be caught off guard.
Tamblót took him to the National Assembly and his personal palace. Vijay was very impressed with both; their grandeur was not lower than the palace in the old capital, Hampi, and after the tour, he was led to his mansion, where he rested.
Vijay had co to the Philippines not to tour, not for a business deal either, but to finalise the exchange of interests between him and Peter.
So things had already been discussed before the marriage, but there were more things to be discussed. For instance, before the marriage, Vijay outright refused to accept the dowry from Peter, which threw him off guard and pushed the discussion to now, several months after the marriage.
Many people in the empire, almost the majority, still practised the dowry system, where the bride’s family gave gifts and valuables to the bridegroom’s family. But technically, they were doing it illegally, since Vijay had already enacted the Anti-Dowry Act back in 1668.
Unfortunately, this act functioned more as a suggestion than a strict law, much like traffic rules in his previous life. It wasn’t because Vijay lacked the will to abolish the dowry system, but because almost everyone still followed it. In fact, he felt that tackling the dowry system was harder than reducing caste discrimination.
Vijay, who initiated the act, didn’t want to set a negative example. So when Peter raised the topic of dowry, Vijay firmly refused and instead proposed that both sides exchange interests, sothing fair and mutually beneficial. He wanted his personal choices to set an example for his people.
Vijay hadn’t actually been aware of dowry practices in Europe until Peter ntioned them. Only then did he realise that even in traditional European noble marriages, dowry was a custom. Until that point, Vijay had assud Peter raised the matter only because he believed Bharatiyas still practised dowry.
In any case, Vijay preferred arrangents where both sides stood to gain, rather than one side taking all the advantage.
"Your Majesty, His Excellency Grand Duke Peter has requested to et you."
The ti had finally co for the eting, and Vijay was extrely prepared.
"Invite him in."
Peter wore a luxurious woollen coat which looked to be made of the hide of a brown bear.
Vijay couldn’t help but glance at it a few more tis before he joined his hands in greeting.
Both Vijay and Peter had not seen each other for a long ti, so instead of getting right to the discussions, both of them initiated small talk, putting so jokes in between.
Finally, after a whole hour since they started to talk, Peter was the first to initiate the discussions, and his words were enough to take Vijay’s breath away.
"Your Majesty, we just discovered a land right across my territory. I have nad it Alaska."
"It’s a vast land of ice and snow, but we did find traces of mineral deposits. If you are willing, I can transfer its ownership into your hands."
Vijay’s face did not show any expression, but in his heart, he was almost screaming. Alaska is a desolate place, yes, but it has one of the richest mineral resources in the world.
From what he knew from his last life, it had reserves of zinc around 35 million tonnes, reserves of copper around 43 million tonnes, and lead of 12 million tonnes. It had trace amounts of silver, gold, graphite, cobalt, and rare earths as well. And the most important resource, it had over 12 billion tonnes of crude oil spread across only 4 oil fields, and more was yet to be discovered.
Bought for only $7.2 million in October of 1867, it was the most profitable business the United States had ever done.
And now he was doing the sa business. He cald down his palpitating heart and started to think.
In his last life, at this ti, Alaska had not been controlled by anyone, but in this life, due to Peter’s developnt of the Far East Siberia, it might have been colonised or conquered very early on.
But still, the control wouldn’t be too much, at most, a few military camps would be established in places where the cold is bearable.
Theoretically speaking, the Bharatiya Empire can take Alaska whenever it needs, and Peter wouldn’t say anything about it either. But now that he had a chance to obtain it legally and without burning the bridges between the Bharatiya Empire and Siberia, he thought it was a good idea to do the deal.
But he did not show anything on his face. "It can be done, Your Excellency, but as you said, Alaska is a desolate place and has no practical use, so I cannot be too generous in my offering."
"How about this, we will allow you to purchase the second generation of Devaraya atmospheric steam engine, the sa one that is being used in the Empire’s own overseas territories, and also allow you to purchase the 4th generation machine tools?"
Hearing the offer, Peter was overjoyed. He had gained far more than he could have ever imagined. He simply sold his claim to Alaska to Vijay, a claim that had cost him nothing, yet he received so much in return.
What Peter did not know was that future historians would scold him countless tis for the offer he had just given, for selling off Alaska, the gold printing machine, in exchange for so tools that beca outdated within just a few years.
Peter was a qualified ruler as well, so throughout the process, he maintained an emotionless face, but still, he did not try to ask for more and nodded in agreent.
Vijay let out a huge sigh of relief in his heart and finally did a namaskara to seal the deal.
He never expected that the negotiation would end so easily.
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