Chapter 18: Debt
"How large is the debt of the Aragon Family?" Bolivar asked as they were now alone. He is a general that has been spending without much of a car in the world.
"Accumulative Debt is around 8 million pounds and increasing… Current Debt, 4.5 million pounds." As soon as Felipe said so, Bolivar was left astonished. (A/N: 8Million pounds in 1827 = 676 million Pounds in 2023).
"Total money spent in this continent's liberation, 14.3 million Pounds and Counting… The acquisition of goldmines has helped us pay for this war. Nevertheless, it has mostly been funded by The Matches Company. 35%, to be exact. 30% of the money was won on war bonds in the Napoleonic conquest of Europe. The rest has been plundered of the families that opposed us when we were making this Empire… obtaining small corporations has helped but nothing so impactful." Felipe explained as he smiled, looking at the shocked face of Bolivar.
"This is why when Paez betrayed my father and me, I couldn't care he was betraying the Empire, but I cared he was robbing me. They were robbing everything my father and I had worked so much to accomplish. I was born in the middle of a Massacre in Spain. I moved to England, and sure, our lives were no tragedy. I learnt early on how dark humans can be. I discovered that only the strong can be something in this world. And I would not accept an ant taking half of my Empire." The crown prince smiled at the still-flabbergasted King Bolivar.
Bolivar never in his wild dreams would have thought that the Aragon Family was taking so much risk, so much of everything.
"All the money taken by the expedition should go to repaying that debt," Bolivar said, quite concerned.
In other words, Bolivar realized that other people in a group project had been doing way more than him, and he started feeling ashamed.
Felipe smiled and chuckled.
"You are now a king, a royal of the Colombian Empire, this makes your house responsible for either the fall or rise… our house once upon a time was responsible for the fall of the Easter Roman Empire, but I tend to clear my family's name one day.
"You are not an investor. You are an owner. We sink, we sink alongside you, we rise, we rise alongside you. We provided the weapons, and you provided the morale. You provided the wins in the south." Even though Felipe is clearly younger than Bolivar, the situation resembles an adult lecturing a small kid about life.
The light that shines on the crown prince has never shined brighter; he is surprised by the amount of money being moved by the Aragon Family.
"Immigrants, Catholic Immigrants? Not only Spaniards? If they are not from Spain, they will not know our language."
"They don't need to learn our language. They just need to work hard planting, farming, buying, selling and paying taxes while sending their children to our schools. The children will pick Spanish. The next generation will have no affiliation to their previous countries of origin, only to the Empire." Felipe answered as he drafted the condition of the distribution rights for textiles in Great Britain.
"I don't have either the time or the money to create a transport company mainly for immigrants from Europe. They are not really that profitable during the early years." Felipe explained fourthly as he was busy finishing drafting the proposal.
"Where is it?" Felipe got up and looked around.
"Where is what?"
"Never mind." Felipe opened a drawer and then took out a small wooden box with a seal inside. "Found it."
He returned to his desk and heated the solid wax until it was liquid. Pouring it slowly to make sure he does not have an excess and not too little. Pressing the seal over the liquid wax created something similar to a fingerprint. Not the best, but it is what it is.
'Great Britain and it is Direct Colonies and Protectorates.' Felipe knows he is given quite a bit, but they will expand his Empire under the name of profit for them. It was literally a franchise deal.
——
The members of the East Indies Company looked at Maria swiftly and sewed a shirt with the union jack as a pattern. It was stupidly fast and well-made. It was a sift of accommodations for them to see. She had to die the textile just over 3 days before the crown prince arrived in Caracas.
"This is…" The man representing Great Britain was quite surprised as he saw the results.
"…" Felipe wants to secure a deal, so it was better to leave them already impressed.
"Well, gentlemen, I wish no longer to be a concern for my family's debt," Felipe explained as he wondered about the savviness of Maria, the housewife he has been living with the whole time in Venezuela.
She understood that the British were there to do business with the crown prince, so she created a textile that appealed to the guests without no one telling her to do so.
"This will make tailors go out of business." A representative of the East Indies Company said with immense concern.
"No sir, they will have to evolve or go broke, either one of those," Felipe explained. "With this Machine, they will be able to create more clothing than anyone not using it."
Another representative of the East Indies Company saw the business opportunity. "What would be the possibilities for the East Indies Company to invest in the Imperial Textile Company?"
"Same as the matches company, exchange of shares with the east Company. We are not doing that right now as we are still creating the industry." Felipe explained.
"…" The Matches Company has become a huge success overnight, and the reputation of Felipe de Aragon has spread across the business circles as a person that does not negotiate. It is his final price at the beginning. In the end, the representatives knew that, so they experienced the coldness of negotiating with the crown prince; they had to try at least.
After seeing a shirt being made so quickly, they were tempted to make more offers, but they did not do so to fear of him getting offended.
Doing business with nobility and royalty is rare. If they ever do so, they make deals about very saturated market products like food, minerals, etc. Some empires in Europe are still under serfdoms, and most royal and nobility families see any noble or royal that engages in businesses with contempt as they hate how easily they make more money than them. Meaning in most cases there is a battle between nobility vs capitalists.
But in the Colombian Empire, capitalism is very new, and the small companies that usually exist do national trade and very little international trade. In other words, the only industrialized companies were owned by the Imperial Aragon Family. Even then, they were less prominent in the Colombian Empire than their leading factories in the States and the UK. In other words, the Aragon family is a wealthy family mainly based on the states playing to be emperors in South America.
"Indeed, that kind of deal would have to involve the higher-up of the east indies company…." The representatives could not give out % of the Company just like that. So they quickly excused themselves.
After they left for the place they were receding, it was just the crown prince and Maria.
"An Union Jack."
"What do you mean, your majesty?" Maria asked, needing clarification.
"That is the name of the flag of The United Kingdom. That was savvy of you. I am quite impressed." Felipe praised her openly.
"…" She didn't know how to answer and stayed quiet.
"Do you resent me?" The crown prince asked as he looked at a fancy-looking plant with a clay pot.
"I do not." She quickly said as if she was about to lose something.
"…" Felipe didn't say much, just directed his sight to her and smiled slightly. He felt stupid asking such questions. But he realized he had grown attached to Mother and Daughter duo without fully realizing it; he wasn't them to like him for some reason.
"I am thankful for your majesty. You have given us this place to live, food every day… If you were any other person, we would have been in another different position."
'Stockholm Syndrome?' Felipe could not care about the severity of it. He just liked that fact.
"I will be leaving tomorrow for a few months or so... I will come back… but next time, my time here in Caracas will be short." Felipe explained, "I want you to have an administrative position in the Imperial Textile Company."
"Eh? Really?"
Felipe only nodded. "King Simon will be staying here for the tie being. He will be overseeing everything for me. There should be no change to what has been happening here."
Maria looked a bit bleak.
Felipe felt weird for the first time. His mind felt foggy as the words came out of his mouth: "I don't mean to offend you, but the door of my bedroom will be open tonight... We will never be together; it would only be a one-time thing. If you choose not to do so, nothing will happen. It will be as if the words that have come out of my mouth never came out."
"…"
An awkwardness appeared between the two of them. On the one hand, Maria understood what the Crown prince asked her to do, and she also understood what the crown prince says is true. He would have done it way earlier if he wanted to do something.
The crown prince just left without saying a word. Meanwhile, the mother was red like a tomato wondering why the crown prince would have such preferences. Wasn't she too old? Wouldn't her daughter be a better choice to spend a night?
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Well_In_a_Frog
Well_In_a_Frog Hue hue, the next chapter is a lemon. Anyways, thanks for the support. I will do my best to make a good lemon. A long one as well. Officially over 30k words novel.
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