May 1538, Capital city, Dharanikota Kingdom.
Royal palace.
After taking a brief break, Rudra and the other Royal Advisors returned to the room. The disturbances in the last session had calmed down, and the people were talking again.
Rudra was standing near the window in the room and looked down at the courtyard below. As it was midday, no soldiers or Royal guards were training there. From his position, he couldn't look towards the city, as the fort wall was obstructing the vision.
After a few minutes, the room calmed down, and Rudra finally sat at the head of the table. He could have ordered the room to quiet down immediately after he arrived, but he wanted to encourage discussion between the council members.
"Now that everyone is properly settled down, let us start the first meeting of the Royal Advisory Council," Rudra said, and it was met with applause from the rooms's members.
"Let us start with the most important issue first. Agriculture. I know that, partly because of some bad actors, and partly because of me, the kingdom had suffered and the main impact was on agriculture. Krushaka, you have been looking into this personally, for the last few months. What have you gathered about it?" he asked the advisor of land and agriculture.
"Thank you, your majesty. As you pointed out when you were recruiting me last month, the issue is very serious. The majority of the disturbances that occurred in the last few months, had coincided with the harvest season of Rabi ( November- April). If we don't act on it soon, major harvest losses may take place." Krushaka answered back, detailing the severity of the situation.
"How much of the land is affected by this? This may also cause problems in tax collection this year." Kubhera asked Krushaka, sensing that this issue may not only be limited to food security.
"Most of the people who died are extremely large landowners. The families that died in the last few months, owned at least 20-30% of the arable land. The land directly under the king is 20% and his supporters own 10-20% of the land. Temples and Small farmers own the remaining land. We don't have any data to properly account for this. I also based my findings on the reported data from the last tax season." Krushaka answered while referring to the data he brought with him.
"Most of that land now comes under the government control. We had tried to manage the land, but most people are now either dead or fled the kingdom. Besides this will not only affect their land, but also those farms who are indirectly dependent on them." Rudra concluded, after listening to the advisors.
Because of the way the infrastructure was developed, most of it was localized to the villages and was maintained by these landlords. That means, several smaller farms are dependent on these larger farms and any disruption caused to them will affect others as well.
With Rudra culling all the large and influential families who opposed him, he indirectly affected the farmlands they owned among many other things. Without them maintaining that infrastructure, both their farms and the smaller farms surrounding them will also suffer.
"This will not only affect the food production, Your Majesty. Expect an increase in demand for local cotton, indigo, and other cash crops. With the supply dropping, local demand will increase, and any exports will be too uncompetitive in foreign markets." Trade advisor Montra chimed in, with her take on the subject.
"Indigo is bound to suffer. It has a very short harvest window, and anything harvested after that is unsuitable for the dyes. But cotton and rice can still be salvaged if we act hastily." Krushaka supplied, sparking hope in the participants of the meeting.
"Explain," Rudra questioned, eager to prevent the kingdom from possibly going into a famine. Crop failures were common, and the famines that followed always put immense pressure on the administration and the kingdom's finances.
"We already solved half the problem, Your Majesty. You had assigned some of the workers of these farms to maintain them. We just need to hire a lot more to do it for all the farms." the agriculture advisor answered.
Rudra had in the early periods of the purge, assigned the farmlands to the farm laborers and managers, who used to work under those families. But as the news spread that the king was coming for all of his opponents, those families either put up resistance or fled. In both cases, these talented people were left jobless.
"So you are saying, we should recall these people and have them manage these farms? Then who will be responsible for paying taxes on these lands? Land tax is a major source of our income, and giving it away will cause an economic collapse, Your Majesty!" Kubhera spoke out, voicing his issues on the matters related to the treasury.
Land taxes and other forms of agricultural taxes were the major sources of revenue, for all the agrarian economies of the 16th century. It was not until the industrial era did changes occurred. In the Dharanikota kingdom, land and agricultural taxes make up about 70% of the total revenue, while others come from trade and industries.
"The kingdom can hire them as employees. They will manage these lands, for a portion of the revenue. It will be similar to the land lease the large farmers do. Of course, It will only be done until a suitable lord is found for these lands." Selvannan supplied his side of the idea, and that proved to be a promising one.
It seems they were still under the assumption that Rudra would gift this land to people and raise them to a higher status. It was how it was done usually. A king would gift land to a trusted person, and they would rule that land and collect taxes from them. In return, they would send a portion of these taxes to the king and raise soldiers to assist the main army when required.
But Rudra had no intention of ever doing that. It was not yet the age of capitalism and giving such powers to even the most trusted individuals is asking too much from him. There was a reason such type of governance was antiquated in the modern age and he will not commit to that again.
Of course, Rudra had not said these out loud yet, as doing so would be demeaning one of his subordinates in front of others. Besides most of what Selvappan said was reasonable, from the context of the time period.
As the council members discussed various possible solutions to the problem, Rudra sat there and listened to them. From all the bits and pieces of their plans, he was forming one of his own. He did not know how the memory library was helping him now, but it made his thinking a lot smoother.
"Whatever we do, we have to decide quickly. We are already halfway to this month's full moon and if we waste a lot of time, we may also miss the next season." Krushaka concluded, expressing his urgency.
Because of the geography of the kingdom, crops could have two major harvests each year or one major harvest and two minor harvests. Major harvests were crops such as Rice, Wheat, Cotton, and sugar cane, while minor crops were vegetables, millets, and pulses.
This was not considering the crops that grow at any time or the crops that require multi-year plantations. These types of crops were not that affected by the last few months of disturbances.
Major issues occurred in harvesting wheat and indigo. Cotton was mostly harvested by March, so most of them skipped the troubles. But wheat which was to be harvested in April was a big problem. Indigo was a lot more sporadic, and harvest depended on the particular farm.
Another issue was the calendar system. For all their great achievements, early Indian astrologists did not develop a good calendar system. Sure, the Indian calendar system was accurate in its own right but even that was a partially modern invention based on the numerous local calendars, people developed to keep track of time.
As the discussion died down, all the council members turned towards Rudra, waiting to hear his thoughts on the subject. After all, without Rudra's orders, anything they discussed would be useless.
"Many good points were raised by the council members. We need to act fast to salvage all we can from the last season. Krushaka, you take the help of Kubhera, whose tax department has a lot of manpower, to recruit promising farm workers and managers to complete this season's harvest." Rudra ordered. The court writers at the back were writing it down for future reference.
"As you command, Your Majesty." both the Advisors replied.
"We only have less than a month before the karif(June-November) planting season starts, so we need to act fast. As for the next season, let the people whom you recruited manage it as well." Rudra commanded as the relevant advisors wrote it down.
"There will be some shortages caused by the loss of crops which were harvested too late. I don't want any famine to wreak havoc on my people. Montra, I want you to use your connections. I need food available for distribution before the famine's effects start to show." He instructed the trade advisor, who nodded as she wrote it down.
"Your Majesty, the treasury will be strained by the food imports. You also asked to set aside some money for your military projects." Kubhera asked, alarmed that the treasury may suffer.
"Well, it will not cause as many problems as a famine Kubhera. Well, I will give you a concession. Montra, There were a lot of valuables that my soldiers have collected during the last few months. You are authorized to sell them. But remember that those are the possessions of the Kingdom and every coin must be accounted for." Rudra instructed the two advisors.
"As you wish Your Majesty." the both of them replied.
"What should be done to those who illegally harvested the crops which now belong to the kingdom?" Nyayapala asked with his gruff voice. The man was silent for most of the meeting and rarely chimed in. But his eyes scanned everyone, keenly observing them.
In all the confusion in the last few months, some people took advantage of the owner's death and stole the harvest from their lands. The scale of it varied from a farmhand stealing some cattle to entire plots of land harvested by others.
"We cannot be harsh to these people as we were to the original land owners. If there were any major occurrences of it, punish them. If the incident was not that big, leave it. Your department does not have that much manpower to pursue every case." He instructed his Advisor for Justice.
"As you say." The gruff man replied.
"That mostly concludes this. We have until the end of the year, until Kharif harvest concludes to come up with agricultural reforms. This will include land reforms to infrastructure development plans. But it can wait until this is completed," Rudra concluded the discussion on the topic.
He waited a couple of moments for the message to sink in before moving on. "Are there any other issues we need to discuss today?"
"Your Majesty, The Portuguese envoys are pestering me daily, asking for a meeting with the King. The collapse of the previous court removed a platform to directly contact you." The Diplomatic Advisor Vasudhana Prabakar asked.
"I will probably be involved in this for the next few days, Prabakar. But I am delaying this for way too long. Arrange a meeting after the month's end. We need to settle the internal issues first." He answered back, satisfying the advisor.
"Your m.. majesty! I need to discuss the Germ theory you p..proposed. I think it may be f… feasible!" Hemadri, the health advisor, who did not get to say much in this meeting chimed in.
"I will arrange a meeting with you at the hospital Hemadri. This is not the place to discuss it." He answered to the enthusiastic doctor, who only calmed down after his reassurances.
"I think that is it, everyone. The first meeting of the Royal Advisory Council concludes with this. Only the people relevant to the topic being discussed will be called from the next meeting, to save both of our precious time. Thank you." Rudra finally said as he got up to leave the room.