Why does Gao Pragmatic take the initiative to provide goods to nobles even though it is clearly a profitable business? The reason is actually very simple: controlling the upstream source of goods controls the interests of these nobles.
In other words, if you want to make money, you must first be willing to supply goods to you. If you are disobedient, I will simply 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 my Dingguo government only earns 30,000 taels?
Therefore, for the sake of both profit and face, each family can only compete to please Gao with pragmatic compromises.
This is why.
However, in the field of sea trade, Gao Pragmatic will not give any shares - do I still want to help you fund the establishment of a fleet?
Dreaming! The construction of ships is also a profitable business. I, Jinghua Shipyard, don’t have to 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 all 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, "very
It’s not in line with your status.”
The nobles are very satisfied with this statement. This kind of ordinary civilian merchant ship is sold to ordinary maritime merchants. How can they, those nobles 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-profile version of the Jinghua armed transport ship, with 1,400 materials and a displacement of 700 tons. The reason why it is low-profile is mainly to reduce the number of guns. Originally, the standard version of Jinghua’s own use was 28 guns. This kind of "foreign trade"
"Version" was reduced to 16 doors, so the hull structure underwent some changes and the displacement 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.
Some 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 came up with dirty jokes: "How can I have no guns when I'm waiting for a man?"
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 per unit!
This is still the case when Gao Pragmatic said that the personnel on the ship are handled by each nobleman 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 Pragmatic over the years. He originally planned to have twenty ships to form a large fleet. When he heard the price, he couldn't help but give up.
However, considering the huge profits and the fact that he had never suffered a loss as a pragmatic gangster, he gritted his teeth and invested nearly 500,000 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 Duke Dingguo, 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 came in person.
However, Mr. Xu made a calculation in his mind: If grandpa came in person, with his seniority, he would definitely not be able to 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, not the number, and they are all ten, so the marquis and uncles behind them have to think about it. It can't be too many, and it certainly won't exceed the three princes' mansions, but it can't be too many either. Too few and too little will appear to be a lack of vigor.
During this period, Gao Pragmatic took the initiative to plead guilty and left for a while, saying he was taking a shower 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.
On the contrary, there were fewer uncles (more than half of them were expelled, exterminated, and not allowed to attack). There were eight people present at the meeting, that is, thirty-two ships.
All the honorable men and women present at the meeting were added up, and Jinghua Shipyard suddenly received a huge order of 128 "foreign trade version" armed transport ships!
Not counting the personnel, the cost of the ship (including the artillery) is as high as 5.12 million taels of silver! Although the artillery is very expensive, Gao Pragmatic rough estimate is 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, but 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.
So to a certain extent, 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 was 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..."