Absolutist Economies

Let's say that different enterprises, individually or conjointly, found educational institutions, allowing for free or at least affordable education for 1,000 children (perhaps subject to admissions testing) on the condition (enforced by the sovereign) that those children be willing to work a certain number of their post-graduate years with that enterprise? The genuinely singular students would be held to that agreement, while being rewarded handsomely and given the freedom necessary for innovation, while many or even most of the rest are set free to find employment where they like (the enterprise would reserve the right to hold onto as many as it might need). Maybe some of those set free will be more useful in other enterprises or industries, insofar as the education received will be at least partly transferable. And some let free by other enterprises might move to the enterprise or conglomerate in question. We would get the same result: massive investment in education for the sake of a few exceptionally innovative individuals. But now the capital invested in education returns to the investor, while still serving general purposes. We get competition between different education systems and specialized education, while a common, basic form of literacy and numeracy (or relatively standardized tiers of literacy and numeracy) result. And it would still serve--maybe even better--the purpose of reinforcing the centrality of the sovereign and the maintenance of a loyal elite. And the arbitrary numbers I'm working with here (1,000 to 1) would undergo regular modification--that would be the calculation.