Why is it that it is obviously a profitable business for the nobles, but Gao Pragmatic takes the initiative to provide goods for them? The reason is actually very simple: controlling the upstream supply of goods controls the interests of these nobles.

In other words, if you want to make money, first of all, I will be willing to supply you. If you don't obey, I just cut off the supply of goods, and the fleet you have built may immediately become negative equity.

In this case, Gao Pragmatic has in fact become the food and clothing parents of the nobles.

Moreover, there is also a comparison among the nobles: Why do you earn 50,000 taels a month in the British Mansion, and I only have 30,000 taels in the Dingguo Mansion?

As a result, for the sake of both interests and face, each family can only compete with each other to make pragmatic compromises to curry favor.

Here's why.

However, in the area of sea trade, Gao Pragmatic will not give dry shares - does Lao Tzu still want to help you pay to form a fleet?

Dream! The construction of ships is also a profitable business, and I don't eat at the Jinghua Shipyard?

So let's start talking about ship building.

First of all, Gao Shi first asked Gao Qi to introduce the products of Jinghua Shipyard to the nobles.

At present, there are three types of merchant ships produced by Jinghua, and the lowest-grade one Gao Qi just said simply, because the "tonnage" is too small, only 600 materials, that is, 300 tons, in Gao Qi's words, "very inconsistent with your identity".

The nobles were very satisfied with this statement. This kind of ordinary civilian merchant ship is sold to those ordinary maritime merchants, where can they look at these nobles who have retired with the country?

The next two are more worth discussing.

One is a medium and large sea ship of 1,200 materials, which in the words of later generations is a displacement of 600 tons, which can fully meet the daily maritime trade, and if it is only the "Beiyang" area, it will not be a problem.

However, there is a problem with this kind of sea vessel, that is, it does not carry guns, but is a simple merchant ship.

The other is a low-profile version of the Jinghua armed transport ship, with 1400 materials and a displacement of 700 tons. The reason why it is low is mainly because the gun load has been reduced, the original standard version of Jinghua itself is 28 guns, and this "foreign trade version" has been reduced to 16, so the hull structure has changed a little, and the displacement has also decreased a little.

In view of the fact that during the previous "class", Jinghua deliberately exaggerated the problem of piracy, so at this time, although everyone found that the price of gun-carrying merchant ships was obviously much more expensive, most people still preferred to buy gun-carrying merchant ships.

A few uncles were originally more inclined to non-cannon merchant ships, but they were provoked by some other people - "We are military ministers and nobles, how can there be no cannons on the ship?" A must-have! ”

Some people even came up with a meat joke: "I'm waiting for a man, how can I have no cannons?" ”

However, when the price came out, everyone inevitably had some drums in their hearts.

This castrated version of the Jinghua armed transport ship costs as much as 40,000 taels of silver each!

This is still the case that Gao pragmatic said that the personnel on the ship were handled by the nobles themselves, and if it was necessary to entrust Jinghua to help recruit and train sailors, an additional eight thousand taels would be added.

Zhu Yingzhen has made a lot of money with Gao Pragmatic over the years, and originally planned to have twenty ships at the beginning, which directly formed a large fleet size, and when he heard this price, he couldn't help but retreat.

However, considering the huge profits, and the fact that he had never suffered a loss with Gao Pragmatic, he still gritted his teeth and invested nearly 500,000 taels of silver in it, and directly reorganized ten ships!

Zhang Yuangong's eyelids twitched, but he still pretended not to care, and said: "Since Brother Ying Zhen is so arrogant, and brother is not stingy, let's have ten ships." ”

The little grandfather of the Dingguo Mansion, Xu Xizhen, is usually not in power, although his father died early, but his grandfather Xu Wenbi is in good health, and he is still alive and kicking, if it weren't for this time to worship Maoling on behalf of the emperor, he must have come in person today.

However, Grandpa Xu calculated in his heart: if his grandfather came in person, with his old man's 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 there are ten ships from the Dingguo Mansion." ”

The three major princes have unified the caliber, no, the number has been unified, they are all ten, and the Hou Ye and the uncle will have to think about it. It can't be too much, it's definitely not okay to have more than three national mansions, but it can't be too little, too little seems not enough to be bold.

During this period, Gao Pragmatic took the initiative to confess and leave, saying that he was bathing and changing, but in fact, it was nothing more than letting them discuss on their own.

After he went back, the families had already discussed, and the marquis were unified into six, and the uncles were unified into four.

In addition to the nobles of the Jingnan line, in addition to those who have been removed from the list and are not allowed to be hereditary, there are also several marquis sitting in the northwest, not in today's meeting, there are a total of eleven marquis in Beijing, this is sixty-six.

Uncle was even less, with a total of eight attendees, that is, thirty-two ships.

With the addition of all the honorables and nobles at the meeting, Jinghua Shipyard suddenly received a huge order of up to 128 "foreign trade version" armed transport ships!

Not counting the staffing, just counting the cost of the ship, it is as high as 5.12 million taels of silver! Although artillery is very expensive, Gao Pragmatic roughly estimates that the profit of the shipyard is at least more than 1.5 million taels.

Damn, selling boats is really fucking profitable!

In fact, Gao pragmatic played a little trick here: he said that the price of these ships was the price of Jinghua's internal purchase, but in fact, he secretly changed the concept here.

Generally, if it is an "internal price", it must be very low, and it is a complete cost price, but Jinghua does not calculate it this way.

Shipyard and private port are two independent parts, in order to ensure the profit of the shipyard, so that it can develop normally and sustainably, the private port to find a shipyard to buy a ship is actually the same as the outside maritime businessmen to find a shipyard to buy a ship, there is no difference in the price, the real difference lies in the materials and specifications - the standard will be a little stricter.

So in a way, the nobles were deceived by Gao Shipra: they did not take advantage of the price.

But on the other hand, it has not been fooled, because even if it is a "foreign trade version", the construction standards of these ships are still in accordance with internal standards, which is still the most stringent one, so the quality is still guaranteed.

Gao Pragmatic accepted the deed that the nobles had drawn on the spot, handed it to Gao Mo beside him with a smile, asked him to put it away carefully, and then flashed his knife to the nobles who had already boarded the thief ship.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is something I forgot to mention just now: there was a big reading recently, and you should all know about it. It's also a shame to say that this matter has something to do with the battle of Annan below, so Gao has to take the liberty of asking you for a small favor......"