Why do zoners have cap ships?

[Huhuh]

But without big, expensive ships for people to buy, people would have little reason to trade and mine. Commerce traffic would dry up. No trade means no pirates, no pirates means no police. Which pretty much just leaves you with the house militaries duking it out, and the aliens.

Bases, cloaks, jump drives, etc are today's money sinks. Factions are trading in billions for bases; that sort of never happened with caps.

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