Why does Gao Pragmatic take the initiative to provide goods for nobles even though it is a profitable business? The reason is actually very simple: controlling the upstream supply will control the interests of these nobles.
In other words, if you want to make money, you first need me to be willing to supply you. If you are disobedient, I will just cut off the supply of goods, and the fleet you have built may immediately turn into negative equity.
In this case, Gao Pragmatic actually became the bread and butter of the nobles.
Moreover, there are also internal comparisons among the nobles: Why does your British government earn 50,000 taels a month, while our Dingguo government only earns 30,000 taels?
Therefore, for the sake of both profit and face, each family can only compete to please Gao Gao with pragmatic compromises.
That's why.
However, in the field of sea trade, Gao Pragmatic will not give any shares - do I still want to help you fund the construction of a fleet?
dream! The construction of ships is also a profitable business. Does our Jinghua Shipyard not eat?
So next, everyone started talking about ship construction.
First of all, Gao Pragmatic asked Gao Qi to introduce the products of Jinghua Shipyard to the distinguished guests.
At present, there are three types of merchant ships produced by Jinghua. Gao Qi simply mentioned the lowest-grade model because the "tonnage" is too small, with only 600 materials, which is 300 tons. In Gao Qi's words, it is "very It’s not in line with your status.”
The nobles were very satisfied with this statement. This kind of ordinary civilian merchant ship is sold to those ordinary maritime merchants. How can they, who have lived with the country for many years, see it?
The next two are more worthy of discussion.
One is a medium and large sea-going ship with a load of 1,200 tons, which in later generations has a displacement of 600 tons, which can fully meet the daily ocean trade. If it is only in the "Beiyang" area, it will not be a problem.
But there is a problem with this kind of sea-going ship, that is, it does not carry guns, but is a pure merchant ship.
The other is a low-end version of the Jinghua armed transport ship, with 1,400 materials and a displacement of 700 tons. The reason for the low configuration is mainly to reduce the number of guns. The original standard version for Jinghua's own use was 28 guns. This "foreign trade version" was reduced to 16 guns. Therefore, the hull structure has undergone some changes and the displacement has also dropped a bit. .
In view of the fact that during the previous "class", Jinghua deliberately exaggerated the problem of piracy, so although everyone found that the price of the gun-carrying merchant ship was obviously much more expensive, most people still tended to buy the gun-carrying merchant ship.
A few uncles were originally more inclined towards gunless merchant ships, but they were aroused by others - "We, the noble military ministers, how can there be no guns on the ship? There must be one!"
Some people even made dirty jokes: "How can I wait for a man without a gun?"
However, when the price came out, everyone was a little worried.
This castrated version of the Jinghua armed transport ship costs as much as 40,000 taels of silver each!
This is still the case when Gao Pragmatic said that the personnel on the ship are handled by each honorable person himself. If it is necessary to entrust Jinghua to help recruit and train sailors, an additional 8,000 taels will be added.
Zhu Yingzhen had made a lot of money following Gao Pangshi over the years. He originally planned to have twenty ships from the beginning, which would directly form a large fleet. When he heard the price, he couldn't help but give up.
However, considering that the profit was huge and he had never suffered a loss as a pragmatic gangster, he gritted his teeth and invested nearly half a million taels of silver in it and built ten ships!
Zhang Yuangong's eyelids twitched, but he still pretended not to care, and said: "Since Brother Ying Zhen is so heroic, I don't want to be stingy anymore, so let's get ten ships too."
Xu Xigao, the young prince of Dingguo Palace, is not usually in power. Although his father died early, his grandfather Xu Wenbi is in very good health and is still alive and kicking. If he hadn't gone to pay homage to Mao Ling on behalf of the emperor this time, he would have been there today. He comes in person.
However, Mr. Xu made a calculation in his mind: If grandpa came in person, with his seniority, he would definitely not lose to Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong, and ten ships would definitely be indispensable.
So he pretended to be an old god and said, "Then Duke Dingguo's mansion will also bring ten ships."
The three major princes have unified the caliber, no, the number, all ten ships, then the marquis and uncles behind them will also have to think about it. It can't be too many, and it certainly won't be more than three government palaces, but it can't be too few, too few will appear to be insufficient.
During this period, Gao Pragmatic took the initiative to plead guilty and left for a while, saying he was taking a bath and changing clothes, but in fact he just let them discuss it on their own.
After he returned, each family had already discussed that the marquises would be unified into six ships, and the uncles would be unified into four ships.
In addition to the nobles of the Jingnan line who have been expelled and are not allowed to be hereditary, there are also several princes who are stationed in the northwest. Not in today's meeting, there are a total of eleven princes in Beijing, which is sixty-six ships.
There were even fewer uncles, with a total of eight people attending the meeting, that is, thirty-two ships.
Adding up all the distinguished officials present at the meeting, Jinghua Shipyard suddenly received a huge order of 128 "foreign trade version" armed transport ships!
Not counting the staffing, but only the cost of the ship, it was as high as 5.12 million taels of silver! Although the artillery is very expensive, Gao Shijian roughly estimates that the shipyard's profit is at least more than 1.5 million taels.
Damn it, selling boats is really fucking profitable!
In fact, Tougao Pragmatic played a little trick here: he said that the price of these ships was the internal purchase price of Jinghua. In fact, he had secretly changed the concept here.
Generally speaking, if other companies use "internal prices", they must be extremely low, or maybe they are completely cost prices, but Jinghua does not calculate them like this.
The shipyard and the private port are two independent parts. In order to ensure the profits of the shipyard and enable it to develop normally and sustainably, the private port goes to the shipyard to buy ships, which is actually the same as the external maritime merchants go to the shipyard to buy ships. The price There is no difference above, the real difference lies in the materials and specifications - the standards will be a little stricter.
Therefore, from a certain perspective, the nobles were deceived by Gao Pragmatism: they did not get any advantage in price.
But on the other hand, I have not been fooled, because even if it is the "foreign trade version", the construction standards of these ships are still in accordance with internal standards, which are still the most stringent ones, so the high quality is still guaranteed. of.
Gao pragmatic accepted the deed signed by the distinguished nobles on the spot, handed it to Gao Mo beside him with a smile, and asked him to put it away carefully, and then pointed his knife at the distinguished nobles who had boarded the pirate ship. .
"Everyone, there is something I forgot to mention just now: there will be a great review recently, and you all should know about it. I am ashamed to say that this matter is actually related to the Battle of Annan. Therefore, Gao has to I would like to ask you to do me a little favor..."
