There is essentially no difference between a commercial ship and a warship, both can be used as merchant ships or warships, especially since the early sailing ships themselves were semi-armed convoys that needed to be transported with armed artillery.

The difference is that the hull structure of warships is stronger, and civilian ships use ordinary wood and a small amount of steel structure, while the latter uses oak and teak as manufacturing, and the processing difficulty and process production of wood are very different.

Although commercial Wanshi ships can also be converted into gunboats, their strength and sinking resistance are not as good as military ships. In addition, the latest gunboat uses a sealed cabin structure, which greatly increases the ship's anti-sinking ability and is easy to tow back for repair.

In addition, the Wanshi ship is the only large ship that can sail smoothly in most inland rivers, which is more conducive to inland trade, and the construction period of the Wanshi civilian ship is shorter than that of the Wanshi warship, shorter than the 20,000 stone class warship, and can be mass-produced, so the diffusion of the Wanshi ship will promote the flow of trade, reduce the cost of transportation and improve the efficiency of transportation.

Ji Tong to obtain such ships will first be used for commercial use, if changed to military, it also takes a certain amount of time to explore and accumulate technology, in addition, it does not have the forging and casting technology for processing and production of high-strength steel structural parts, it is impossible to manufacture Wanshi warships with the same quality as the Xianguo warships, and spare parts still need to be imported from the Xianguo country.

In general, the proliferation of Wanshi ships was conducive to promoting trade between the east and west of the Central Plains, and the future fleet of the Liang State would sooner or later become the transportation brigade of the Xian State, transporting the goods of the Xian State to the west of the Central Plains in a steady stream.

If the national strength of the Xian country is alone, the government will not be able to equip a cargo fleet with a scale of 40 to 50 million square kilometers in 20 or 30 years, and it is very necessary to use external resources.

At the same time, the cost of a large number of development sail transport ships in 30 years is not cost-effective, the design of internal combustion engines and turbines has been put on the agenda, and trains, internal combustion engines and large marine steam locomotives have been popularized in 20 years.

It is precisely because of the predictability of technology and concept that Bailiyan calmly makes more predictable decisions. I'm afraid Ji Feng would never have dreamed that maybe in a few decades, there will be a giant cargo ship of 10,000 tons and 100,000 tons in the world, and the small 10,000-stone ship is just a drop in the ocean.

While everyone was talking, Jiao Muhua entered the hall and reported:

"The king, the middle doctor Tan Le, Qing Xijun Mi Yuan and others ask to see outside the palace."

"Qing Xijun? What did he come to do! King Xian asked.

"King Qiqi, most of it is for the silk fabric trade."

"Oh...... The widow understood, and let them in. ”

"Yes!"

After Jiao Muhua left, King Xian looked at the prince:

"What does the prince think about the silk trade?"

"Back to his father, the sons thought that if the bidding could not be avoided, they should collect silk from the silk merchants and the silk produced by the government-run manufacturing workshops to participate in the bidding, and only in this way could the losses of the silk merchants be stabilized."

"A piece of silk is less than three or two inches of gold, and more than five or six inches, and its capital is only two or three inches of silver, and the silk merchants only pay eight or nine thousand inches of silver to the widow every year, and the rest are taken by the silk merchants, and the prince thinks that the silk merchants still have losses?" King Xian's tone was flat and unangry, but his words were full of dissatisfaction.

"Father Wang Mingjian, the silk merchants made a lot of money, but the Black Turban Rebellion and the six-year southern expedition, the silk merchants contributed no less than the three marquis, and they were ......"

"And what?"

"Every year, tens of thousands of fine silks are paid to the imperial court, but these are not included in the profits of the silk merchants, if this part is included, the profits that the silk merchants can earn will not be much."

King Xian was silent, turned to Bailiyan and asked:

"Yongxing Hou, what do you think about this matter?"

"Back to the king, the tribute system does have drawbacks, the main contradiction is that the silk merchants and magnates in various places control the land and the silk industry, if the treasury does not ask them for tribute, they will not be willing to hand over the property.

If a tribute is claimed, the treasury can avoid losses. However, the cost of silk is ten times or even twenty or thirty times the profit compared with the selling price, even if tens of thousands of high-quality silk are paid to the imperial court every year, but the capital is only more than 100,000 inches of silver at best, plus thousands of silver silkworm tax, silk merchants still get the most profits. ”

Silk merchants pay tribute to the imperial court every year, silk is a custom of various countries, exists for hundreds of years, and the imperial courts of various countries give the nobles of Fengchan the privilege of producing silk in exchange for the loyalty of the nobles, this system has no problem in the early days, because the early days of the establishment of the regime are determined, the military power is concentrated in the imperial court, and the local power is not obvious.

However, with the accumulation of capital over time, the turmoil of the political situation, and the interference of external political factors, after the local magnates accumulated capital, their ambitions and desire for power became more and more inflated, and finally formed chaebols, and then some chaebols evolved into local separatists and even warlords.

However, it is easy to delegate power and it is difficult to collect power, and in the agricultural period when the productive forces are backward and the technology is low, it is not an overnight thing to recover the rights. The reclaim of a privilege can cost a lifetime of a king, or it can lead to a rebellion.

The four major industries of salt, sugar, silk, and tea in Xianguo were all in private hands, and it was neither realistic nor feasible to collect them from the imperial court, so they could only increase tribute.

The silk paid was partly sold for gold and silver to replenish the treasury for daily expenses and partly for rewards. After King Xian acquiesced in the abolition of the land reward system, rewards in kind were used as an important means, but whenever the New Year's festivals and wars were won, the reward of as little as one or two thousand horses of silk and as many as several thousand horses of silk was commonplace.

In particular, in the last 12 years, the military pressure has been reduced, the economy has been fully expanded, the scale of mulberry cultivation and silkworm breeding has increased day by day, and after the revision of the commercial tax, large transactions have been evidenced by bills, and a large number of concealed production and smuggling transactions have been seized.

In addition, the expenses of the royal palace, the expenditure on diplomatic matters, and the silk tribute to the Jin state all came from the gratuitous tribute of local silk merchants. It was only through the gratuitous tribute of silk that the local silk merchants weakened. The more tribute was paid, the stronger the will of the silk merchants to resist, and gradually forced the situation into a dead end.

In addition, the local aristocracy in the four counties of Beihai, Mobilization, Suidang, and Jiangdong was strong and had not been purged by the black scarves, and the implementation of the new land policy seriously harmed the interests of local powers, and it was not too realistic to ask them to hand over their golden jobs.

As a result, it is impossible to get them to hand over the silk industry, nor to offend them, let alone force them to rebel by imposing taxes, and the current situation is a dead end. You can't offend, you have to be spoiled.

If salt barons can get involved in the chemical supply chain, sugar merchants can open banks, and silk merchants can switch to the textile industry, it should be logical to accept government control. But in the final analysis, the current world is ruled by man, and King Xian, Luhou, Xuanting and Yongxing are blood relatives of each other, and there is no absolute contradiction in the face of common interests.

The silk merchants had no blood relationship with the imperial court, and there was a conflict of interest, and at the same time, it was impossible for Bailiyan to cede the textile industry on a large scale to the local chaebol with soldiers in their hands, and the capital and land were not controlled.

Taking a step back, Ruitian's textiles are the most profitable commodity after ironware, munitions, and civilian goods, and they are an important source of tax revenue for the state treasury, and the result of privatization can only be to bleed the state treasury.

The prince complained about the silk merchants, which is not only the silk merchants attached to the prince to reach out to the right, but also a true portrayal of the real situation, when the capital is facing risks, it is inevitable to find a place for funds to avoid risks, and the safest capital haven at the moment is to press money on a gamble that will never be lost.

Obviously, the crown prince is the winner of this gamble, as long as there are no accidents, the prince will smoothly take over the throne and ascend the throne, and the silk merchants will win.