Looking at the quotation sent by the representative of the Pacific Trading Company, Nakajima Saki's thick eyebrows did not spread for a long time, although he knew the daunting task of his trip before he set out for Hakodate and came to China.

With the few funds he had, he was going to procure a number of warships and use them to block the shogunate navy's fleet!

The predecessor of the Hokkaido Kingdom was actually the Matsumae Domain, and the Matsumae Domain was not a powerful feudal domain among many Japanese daimyos, and this Matsumae Domain could not be maintained for a time before trade with the Chinese Empire.

This situation was greatly improved after the merchants of the Chinese Empire entered the Ezo land in large numbers, and the merchants from China played a great role in promoting the production of animal skins and aquatic products produced by the Ezo land.

It is important to know that the demand for fur in China is very large, and most of the various types of fur produced by Russian American companies in Alaska are sold to China.

At the same time, a large number of cheap specialty aquatic products, namely squirt, salmon, kelp, etc., are also widely shipped to Japan and even exported to China.

In addition, due to the underdevelopment of agriculture in Ezo, the Matsumae clan had to rely heavily on commerce if it wanted to survive, and in the past, in addition to directly taxing merchants, the Matsumae clan tended to intervene directly in foreign trade.

And get a lot of money from it.

As a result of these changes, the financial situation of the Matsumae Domain was greatly improved, and there was even room to attract more immigrants to develop Ezo.

However, even the Matsumae Domain, which is now the Hokkai Kingdom, was in a greatly improved financial situation, and its fiscal revenue was quite limited.

Even among the many daimyo in Japan. The financial situation of the Matsumae Domain was only moderate, and it could not be compared with the Satsuma Domain, Nagasu Domain, and other powerful Japanese domains. If it's compared to other countries, then it's even more ugly.

Even the poor clanging kingdoms of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Ninh and the Kingdom of Korea are a few East Asian countries. No matter how poor they are, they are still a country, and they can come up with millions of dollars when they grit their teeth and squeeze them when necessary, and they can do it with hundreds of thousands in normal times.

But for the Beihai Kingdom, it is impossible to come up with a few million, even if it is hundreds of thousands, it is very reluctant.

Before Nakajima came to Shanghai, he had only received a meagre 150,000 yen in funds, which could not even afford to sell a small gunboat of several hundred tons.

Warships in recent years are getting more and more expensive, and the cost of those battleships of tens of thousands of tons starts at more than two million, even those cruisers of two or three thousand tons. The cost is often hundreds of thousands.

These moves are millions, hundreds of thousands of warships are meaningless to the North Sea State, because they can't even afford to sell a single main gun, let alone purchasing these warships.

Not to mention the North Sea country, looking at the world, there are only a few countries that can purchase first-class ironclad ships that cost more than 500,000 pounds.

Not to mention these warships of several thousand tons, even if they are small ironclad ships of several hundred tons, the price is not cheap.

In the quotation of the Pacific Trading Company, a ship with a displacement of 500 tons. Small ironclads armed with front-loading rifled guns and steam engines cost between £30,000 and £50,000, depending on the configuration.

This kind of small ironclad ship is a foreign trade ship developed from the Zhenguang-class ironclad ship. It can be equipped with different calibers and different quantities of front-loading rifled guns according to the different needs of customers. For steam engines of different specifications, even additional sail systems can be installed, and the thickness of the armor is also a choice.

In short, it is a platform with a unified platform. But other details can be matched independently of the foreign trade ship.

Thirty thousand to fifty thousand pounds a ship, if this price is for an ordinary ship of more than five hundred. It may seem too expensive, but for an ironclad ship. Then it's much cheaper.

You must know that the price of any ironclad ship in these years basically starts at 70,000 pounds or 80,000 pounds, and the reason why the cost of this kind of foreign trade ironclad launched by the empire can be reduced is mainly due to the fact that the number of Zhenguang-class gunboats built is very large, and the construction of this kind of ironclad ship is a product with mature technology and relatively low cost for the industrial technology of the empire.

Of course, this is mainly to control costs, those designers take the initiative to use some outdated technology, such as the steam engine is basically the second generation of steam engines developed by the empire, as for the third or even fourth generation of steam engines, sorry, although those steam engines have better performance, but the price is also more expensive.

The only shipborne steam engine R&D and manufacturer in China, Linde Machinery Co., Ltd. needs a large amount of R&D funds for each new steam engine developed, and the R&D funds in the initial stage are often apportioned to the selling price of the steam engine.

In other words, don't look at these steam engines as just a pile of steel, the real cost is not high, but in fact, the manufacturing cost and the total cost are not the same concept.

Also based on cost control, the empire did not equip these small-tonnage ironclad ships with breech-loading rifled guns, and the price of one breech-loading gun was enough to purchase several front-loading rifled guns.

Even though these 500-ton small ironclad ships launched by the empire are already very good in terms of cost control, the foreign trade price is lower than that of similar foreign products, and has obtained orders from some countries in East Asia, the Tokugawa shogunate has purchased two, the Kingdom of Vietnam has also purchased one, Thailand has also purchased one, and even the Meiji government has purchased one, but it has not yet been delivered.

But for the North Sea Country, the price between 30,000 and 50,000 pounds is still too expensive, and Nakajima Saki only has a total of 150,000 Royal Bank promissory notes in his hand, which can only buy one after all the money is spent, and the North Sea Country naturally cannot hope to rely on only one warship to form a combat force.

According to Nakajima Saki's concept, this time in China, it is best to be able to purchase three small ironclad ships, at least two, and then purchase a few small ships under 100 tons, so as to be able to form a minimum navy to resist the shogunate navy.

But judging by the high price of these ironclads now, he estimates that he can't even afford to sell a small ironclad!

In that long quotation, Nakajima Saki didn't even dare to look at the prices of those large warships of more than 1,000 tons. Needless to say, those are all big guys with more than 100,000 pounds, not to mention the weak Beihai Kingdom. Even if the Meiji government and the Tokugawa shogunate came over, they couldn't afford to sell it.

Of course, he didn't know that this quotation from the Pacific Trading Company was not specially prepared for the North Sea State. It's for customers around the world.

The Pacific Trading Company doesn't have any real property, its only physical assets are a few transport ships and a magnificent headquarters building.

This company is a typical arms trading company, the only enterprise in the empire that has obtained the license for the import and export trade of ordnance products, and monopolizes the import and export trade of all ordnance products in China.

Today's China is no longer the one that casually found a foreign firm back then. It was the time when it was possible to procure a large number of ordnance.

In recent years, the business of the Pacific Trading Company has been very prosperous, and its fist product is the world-famous 1858 rifle series, which has completely set off a wave of breech-loading rifles since the debut of the American Civil War, not only a few major countries have developed and equipped breech-loading rifles, but also driven those small and medium-sized countries to equip breech-loading rifles.

Those who can develop their own research and development will do their own research and development, these are relatively strong European countries, Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire, etc., and those who can't develop themselves simply buy technology patents directly. Then they produced it themselves, for example, Spain bought the technical patent for the 1858 rifle, and then improved it to a certain extent, and finally produced it.

A small number of countries do not want to pay for technology patents. There are also direct imitations.

However, many countries or forces can't even imitate it, so they can only buy it directly, especially some small countries. This is especially evident in East Asia, where countries such as North Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, the Kingdom of Ning, and Japan basically directly purchased 1858 rifles. And because they are all shy, they also like to directly purchase second-hand 1858 rifles retired from the Imperial Army.

In addition, the 1860 series of artillery of the empire is also quite famous. This iron-cast front-loading rifled field gun was used together with the 1858 rifle of the year. In addition to becoming the largest exporter of military ordnance to the United States and becoming famous, the most famous artillery in the American Civil War is not the Napoleonic gun, but the M1860 gun.

With its low cost, large range and accuracy, combined with the use of Imperial grenades, this gun is simply a battlefield killer, and it is perfect for infantry units equipped with rear-loading guns.

In addition to traditional rifles and artillery, warships have also become the company's main sales products in recent years, and the company even found Jiangnan Shipyard to engage in a batch of basic design models of foreign trade warships, such as the 500-ton careful ironclad ship called 'T500 type' by the Pacific Trading Company, this ship does not have detailed performance data, only one hull, as for what weapons to be equipped with, and even the power system can be matched according to the needs of customers.

In the words of Pacific Trading: tailor-made!

As for larger tonnage warships, then there are no specific criteria, the main thing is to look at the needs of the customer, and then the joint shipyard will give a basic design.

In recent years, the wave of ironclad ships set off around the world has also made the Pacific Trading Company see hope, with the help of the record of exporting the Washington that year, the Pacific Trading Company is in frequent contact with some countries that have a demand for ironclad ships, but are unable to build their own, and more importantly, there is a little money, such as several countries in South America.

As for the part of Europe, don't think too much, most of them can build their own, and even if they can't build it, they will directly choose to build large-tonnage warships in countries such as Britain, France and even Italy, and it will not be the turn of the empire.

It is rumored that in order to compete for the orders of the Brazilian Navy, the Taiping Trading Company has set up a special office in Brazil, you must know that even the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have a special diplomatic office in Brazil, but the Pacific Trading Company is the first to set up an office in Brazil, which shows how perverted these arms dealers are.

The North Sea country wants to purchase warships, to be honest, the Pacific Trading Company has not paid much attention to this, the North Sea country is well known to be poor, how much money can be paid for the purchase of ships this time? At most, there are only 100,000 or 200,000.

However, although the order was small, it was delivered to the door on its own initiative, so Pacific Trading Company still sent a sales manager to talk.

It's just that this sales manager of the Pacific Trading Company doesn't know what to talk about, these Japanese, oh no, it should be said that the Beihai people have empty pockets, but they have great ambitions.

They hoped to purchase more than three small ironclads and no less than five small gunboats for no more than 150,000 imperial yuan, and at the same time asked for a batch of ammunition.

The sales manager was speechless, you can only buy a small ironclad at the price of one ship, and you want to sell eight? Crazy about you! (To be continued.) )