The Chartered Caprinus Company

The Chartered Caprinus Company, C.C.C. or just Caprinus, is a Groisian automobile and industrial equipment manufacturer founded in 248 A.E. (4648 I.C.).

From 130 R.A. (4780 I.C.) to 48 T.N. (4838 I.C.) it was the parent company to the tobacco manufacturer Caprinus Tobacco.

From 4 T.N. (4796 I.C.) to 12 T.N. (4802 I.C.) Caprinus was in a merger with Arms manufacturer Ryoume & Co known as Caprinus-Ryoume. During the merger Caprinus-Ryoume spearheaded research and manufacturing of aerospace technology. Sadly while the merger was scientifically successful the company made heavy losses on the R&D program, leading to the eventual de-merger in 12 T.N. (4802 I.C.).

### Name

The company got it's name from the westerly star caprinus as a symbol for it's original trade with the west. The star is also the company's logo.

## History

The Chartered Caprinus Company started as a trading company chartered by the Groisian royalty. The company was given monopoly on all "westerly trade" effectively meaning it was the sole Groisian trader between the new continent and the old. During the first half of the Residence Age the company was considered a success, increasing its value by over 6000%. However, in 48 R.A. (4798 I.C.) Caprinus stocks crashed (primarily due to the monopoly being revoked but also because of rumors of artificial inflation).

### Automobile Manufacturing

From 48-138 R.A. (4698-4788 I.C.) Caprinus was a shadow of its former self with its primary source of revenue being shipping and tobacco sales. However, in the beginning of the New, the Groisian state, in an attempt to kickstart the country's industrialisation, granted Caprinus patents to the first Groisian combustion engine and invested up towards 4 billion Grose in the company (making the state a majority shareholder).

With the investment money and yet another essential monopoly Caprinus quickly expanded. Under the state-appointed leadership of the famous industrialist Henri De Troyeux the company quickly adopted the newly invented assembly line technique and begun producing automobiles for the general public and the Groisian army. In the beginning the company only profited of the army contracts but the state subsidized the production for the public. Henri De Troyeux focused most the engineering on a cheaper, yet more easily assembled model dubbed the Model-C. This model brought the automobile to the rising Groisian middle class and after serious tariffs were put on import of foreign automobiles the sales of the Model-C began to rise.

In 38 T.N. (4828 I.C.) the Groisian state sold its stake in the company.

### Industrial Equipment manufacturing

Caprinus also began producing a series of high-powered diggers and drills in 40 T.N. (4830 I.C.)

### Venture into Aerospace

In 4 T.N. (4796 I.C.) Caprinus briefly merged with the Arms manufacturer Ryoume & Co into Caprinus-Ryoume. Sponsored by the Groisian military the merger began developing new Aerospace technology. Using a modified version of the Caprinus combustion engine the merger made an experimental and one of a kind heli-craft called Caprinus-Ryoume Transporter used for transporting large pieces of equipment shorter distances. It was the first of its kind to use only rotor-engines to maintain lift without the use of lifting gas in balloons. The heli-craft also used a cutting-edge terminal previously developed by Ryoume & Co.

12 heli-crafts were bought by the Groisian military and 3 by the Germinal Harbor Union in north Groisian. However, no more were made due to most buyers seeing the heli-craft as "too experimental". The resulting effect was a massive loss by Caprinus-Ryoume, having spent more than their military grant on the development, and the de-merger of Ryoume-Caprinus in 12 T.N. (4802 I.C.).

The same year of the demerger Reifling bought the patent to the Helicraft and the rotor design. These would be instrumental to the later renaissance of Aerospace and the rise of the rotorships.

The Caprinus Transporter was later described as one of the most advanced pieces of technology ever produced.

## Noteworthy Products

* Automobiles
	+ Model-A
	+ Model-C
	+ de Grois
	+ Residence
* Aerospace
	+ Caprinus-Ryoume Transporter