Re: GZG FH: Blue water navy.

You wrote: 

>to which john atkinsON, dammit! replied:

>why can't this be true offworld? if there are balkanised
> planets (which is not certain; it depends on your 
>universe), then sea trade may be as vital as it is here.
> on those planets, without the un looking over
> everyone's shoulders, there may well be planetary
> conflicts.

But will ships be the major economic asset?  Yeah, you might have 
fishing and other resource extraction taking place offshore, but you 
likely won't have trade between the colonies of two seperate powers 
(unless they are friendly--like if the NSL and NAC had colonies on the 
same planet).  Besides, the colonies would likely both be in the 
raw-materials stage of economic development, trading their products for 
the finished manufactured goods of the more developed worlds.  They'd 
have very little to offer eachother until some more serious economic 
development took place.  

Take a look at the US--even up until the mid-1800s, the South was 
almost entirely geared up to trade with England rather than the rest of 
the US.

John M. Atkinson