章 16: Venezuelan Crisis

"This is amazing." Bolivar could not believe his eyes as he saw the complex machine working in front of his eyes.

Felipe has removed the cover part of the machine to show how complex the whole thing is. Making a rotatory motion turn into an up-and-down motion.

One of the soldiers on Bolivar's side just had to bless himself in front of such heresy and witchcraft. Nevertheless, he dares not to say. After all, he could see his General impressed by such an engineering masterpiece.

Bolivar was like a curious child who wanted to learn exactly how it worked. Nothing could take him from such a task.

He put his head down on the desk it was set up on.

Maria blushed but didn't say much as she kept creating a line of stitches for the General to see the machine working.

"How does this work?" Bolivar asked as someone gave up after going back up. He could understand the transfer of energy through different types of gears on the arm of the sewing machine, but he could not understand how the stitch was made. After all, the crucial part of that was more sheltered than the other mechanisms.

Felipe smiled as he gave him a leaf of paper with the motion of the lower part sketched. It showed how the most critical part of the machine in front of him was the one underneath. That is the one that makes the knot.

"This… is amazing."

"It better be. I spent a few years designing them and making them." He needed to be more knowledgeable in sewing machines, he knew how the part below worked just by chance, but he had to test and fail to get the part on the top right. Moreover, with an industrialized industry, it was easier to make all the different components of the machine.

"…" Bolivar looked at Felipe with impressionable eyes as if he was a child who had just seen a magic trick that could not be explained.

The General has always been curious. He saw that all the way when he met him in 1814 for the first time. He felt reassured when he saw the impressed sight of the General; he was just like him, a romantic fool.

Both have a wish that trumps any ambition: The unification of the previous Spanish colonies. As long as Bolivar has that as a thought, he can feel reassured that he will not backstab him and plunge the empire into civil war.

And he outperforms his most unrealistic expectations. In that case, Felipe is sure to change the mind of the General, making him think he and only he is the only one that deserves the position of the emperor in the future.

Felipe only worries for his future descendants; will they be able to maintain an empire so huge together? Will they be just puppets like the Windsors, or will they become tyrants like the Kims from North Korea? He doesn't know it, but the fact is, an empire is a volatile state, he has to move with political intelligence, or everything will be undone pretty quickly.

He only hopes he can create a stable political system where royalty doesn't have all the power, and the government doesn't have all the power.

"The money taken from the rebels has been gathered and administrated to care for the widows from the war. It is only meant to last 3 months. From there on, almost 25k wives with children will be left to starve." Felipe explained to the General. He wanted to change the topic while at the same time making sure he will be able to bring the General into his way of thinking.

Such a statistic even surprised the current housewife Maria who has been with the crown prince for the last month and some days. The crown prince is very private in his matters. She has only been instructed to master the sewing machine fully. She didn't know how bad things are for other mothers like herself that have lost their husbands and are now on their own.

Thinking about that, Maria's anxiety begins to rise. What will she do after the crown prince stops living in the house she has been living in, which was not hers anymore, after her husband rebelled against the empire, making the house property of the empire.

The job of teaching how to sew has been rejected, and now she wonders if there is still time to apply for it. After all, there will be no more groceries just appearing every morning.

"The slaves have become imperial slaves; they will be working on imperial projects such as roads and key infrastructure hard jobs." Being an imperial slave is just being a slave owned by the empire, meant to work for the empire and not for an individual.

"Food is mainly served through schools, just like I had done in Peru. It incentivized people to send their children to school, which has worked very. But this Gran Duchy is on the verge of collapse. If the normal people don't get a normal income, there will be chaos and famine." Felipe explained, looking at the needle going up and down.

"…" Bolivar didn't say anything, he didn't like to express defeat, but the programs that the crown prince has imposed in the Colombian Empire, Peru and Bolivia have indeed worked pretty great, at least with the amendments created for each occasion.

"That is why I intend to create a partially owned imperial-based textile company, they will absorb all the widows from this war. They will provide for them and it will create an industry for the western part of the empire. This also goes for the inside of Antioquia, though I intend to develop it differently." Felipe explained.

"This company, how much financing will it need?"

"The state will not bear any liabilities, but we will. With the state owning 40% of the company, the state will match 40 Pesos on the Real. The Imperial house will own 10% and will match 1 real on the real with 60% controlling shares, the rest is up for grabs according to the ownership on company stakes." Felipe explained.

"I see. Then you can take all my money."

Felipe smiled, and everyone else was utterly shocked.

Everyone there knows that both people speaking right there are the wealthiest people in the whole country. After all, Bolivar, after becoming king, got the ability to obtain loot, just like how Roman generals would get stupidly rich after conquering a region of Europe.

"Forget it, add my royal family are eternal stakeholders, 5% matching 1 real to one real, 30% of controlling shares." Bolivar said, "This will increase cooperation in the future, would it not?" even though asking for 30% of control shares means nothing, it serves as a symbol that the Bolivars is a royal house of the empire.

'You will die in 4 years, childless. Maybe you can change that fate. But I don't see like a likely possibility.' Felipe shook his head lightly and extended his hand. Bolivar shook it. The witness didn't know it, but they had seen the creation of one of the most powerful companies in the world, one that would bring hundreds of billions of wealth to the empire.

"We are now setting up an iron ore processing plant with mines in the region's south. It requires a lot of iron to make each one of them. This will create a mining industry in the region and manufacturing jobs. Taking factory layouts from the USA." Felipe explained while looking at the gears stop.

Maria took the scissors and cut the fabric she had been sewing before giving it to the crown prince.

Felipe flips it inside out; better put, he flips it back to what it should be to show a red t-shirt. "The red comes from Cochinilla insects from Peru. It grows in the leaves of the cactus. It is mostly taken care of and harvested by native people. But, such industry is going big as my organization is being followed in Peru."

"… this is a whole industry." Bolivar looked as if he felt astonished by the strength of the stitches.

"Peru will be the place of natural colours. There it will go up to Antioquia and Venezuela to be processed. Thus, a chain of manufacturing doing jobs along its way is only wishful thinking. Plus, one industry will make little of a dent. Still, I intend to flood the world with the Colombian-made textile industry, putting quality over anything."

"…"

"From that, creating industry to make weapons and be part of the big powers that decide the world's fate every so often. A path to Hegemony, one where we need money and economic prosperity before even trying to walk it." The soldiers on the Bolivar side quickly forgot their resentments and thoughts about the independence of Venezuela. They were officially hooked on the Imperial Dream.