In Liu Jin's study, Liu Jin is reading a large amount of climate information and data from around the world.
"It's March now, and I didn't expect that the temperature has shown no sign of warming up. If this cold weather continues for another month, this year's farming season will be completely delayed."
"And in the second half of the year, if winter comes earlier than usual, there will indeed be a large-scale and substantial production reduction this year."
After checking the weather information reported from various places, Liu Jin also frowned.
The reason why the Little Ice Age had such a big impact was due to various abnormal weather conditions, such as a sudden cold wave in the summer, ice and snow, and frost.
This may sound unbelievable and a fantasy, but this is what often happened during the Little Ice Age. There are clearly many recorded events in history, and they are not made up randomly.
During the most critical growth period of rice, a cold wave is enough to freeze the rice to death and cause frostbite, resulting in a substantial reduction in yield or even no harvest.
In addition, one of the biggest characteristics of the Little Ice Age climate is that the cold weather lasted for a long time and was strong.
The duration is easy to understand, that is, it comes early and leaves late. It may have started snowing and frosting in August and September, while leaving late is like the current situation, which has already reached the third day of spring.
It's been over a month, but the weather still shows no sign of warming up, and may continue to do so.
The cold weather lasts too long, which is very colonial for agricultural production, because it means that the warm period left for agricultural cultivation will be greatly reduced. The growth of crops requires light and heat, and there is not enough time.
If the growth time is not enough, the natural yield will be greatly reduced, or even no harvest will occur.
The high intensity is also a problem. The temperature is much lower than in ordinary years. In addition, the scope of the impact is large. It will snow even in Leizhou and Qiongzhou. This is the scary thing about the Little Ice Age.
Leizhou and Qiongzhou are already at the junction of the tropics and subtropics, and it also snows here, which shows the power of this cold weather.
"If the production is significantly reduced this year, we can actually harvest a wave of leeks."
"Europe, the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and the Middle East have all been eating cheap food for several years. It's time for price increases this year."
Liu Jin was not worried at all about the possible drastic reduction in production. There was so much food in the granaries of the Ming Dynasty that it was impossible to eat it all. Even if there was no farming for several years, the people of the Ming Dynasty would not be without food.
What's more, in recent years, Ming Dynasty has focused on developing the grain planting industry in Guangdong, Guangdong, Nanyang and Huangjinzhou. The agriculture in these places has been much less affected by the Little Ice Age. They are in tropical and subtropical areas, and food production is guaranteed.
In addition, the Ming Dynasty also had colonies and vassal states on the Tianzhu side. In the north of the Tianzhu continent, there is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that blocks the cold weather from the north. Therefore, it is very little affected by the Little Ice Age. The land is fertile, there is a lot of arable land, and the grain output is very large.
, future generations will be able to feed more than one billion people.
If there is insufficient food in the Ming Dynasty, food can be continuously transported to the Ming Dynasty from the Tianzhu continent, ensuring the food security of the Ming Dynasty in many aspects.
Liu Jin was not worried about the food problem. Instead, he was thinking about whether the price of exported food should increase.
The grain exported by the Ming Dynasty to Europe, the Ottomans, the Middle East, and Persia has always been very cheap. Even if this grain is shipped to their local consumers, the price is cheaper than their local grain, and the quality is better than theirs.
The food is better.
Such a low price naturally has a deep meaning.
On the one hand, it is to dump Ming Dynasty's domestic overcapacity of grain. Ming Dynasty's grain production is too large to be consumed by itself. It is not only used in large quantities to make wine and feed livestock, but also requires a large amount of exports to digest these grains and allow them to consume them.
Farmers are motivated to grow grain.
Otherwise, if the grain is harvested year after year but cannot be sold, the farmer will naturally stop growing so much grain and will turn to farming, growing vegetables and fruits.
On the other hand, the most important thing is to use food to control the world.
Whoever controls food controls everything.
Cheap and high-quality grains are exported in large quantities. People in Europe, Persia, Ottoman and other regions seem to take advantage and can buy more and better grains at a small price.
When the Great Famine occurred in Europe, it was only through the cheap food provided by the Ming Empire that it was successfully overcome.
However, due to the continuous import of cheap food for a long time, farmers in their own country will soon find that growing their own food seems to be a very uneconomical business.
Because the food grown by oneself is not only not as good as the food of the Ming people, but also the price is much higher than that of the people of the Ming Dynasty.
People in the Ming Dynasty used large-scale mechanized farming to grow grain. A farmer planted thousands of acres or tens of thousands of acres. Machines were also used to separate and grind the grain, which was very efficient, fast, and of good quality.
I use traditional farming methods, which are not only inefficient, but also costly and of poor quality. I simply can’t compete with the Ming people’s food.
This kind of grain cannot be sold and cannot be sold at a high price, which greatly dampens the enthusiasm of farmers to grow grain. It will also dampen the enthusiasm of some big nobles and lords.
Many big nobles, lords, etc., own a large amount of land and rely on the food grown on the land as their main source of economic income.
When the price of food keeps falling and the food income on their territory drops significantly, they will find ways to do other things, such as raising sheep, shearing sheep and selling them, which seems to be much more cost-effective than growing food.
Once something like this happens on a large scale and in a large area, and the proportion of locally produced food in these areas is greatly reduced, the lifeblood of this food will be in the hands of the Ming people.
When I am in a good mood, I will sell cheap food to you. Once there is a natural or man-made disaster, I can find an excuse to raise the price of food significantly. At that time, no matter how expensive the price is, I will still have to admit it.
This is the strategy Liu Jin has been laying out six or seven years ago.
Use food to control the world!
"Come here and send electricity to Europe, Persia, Ottoman and the Middle East, and have people investigate the food growing conditions in these places."
After thinking for a while, Liu Jin also gave the order.
Let’s first take a look at the food growing conditions in these places. Once you have a grasp of their food growing conditions, you’ll know when it’s time to raise prices.
If there is less food grown in a place, the price of food in that place can be increased appropriately; if there is more food grown, the price can be raised less.
In short, the price increase this year is guaranteed!
There is a large-scale reduction in grain production around the world. When the Ming Empire tightens grain exports, they themselves will beg the Ming Empire to sell grain to them. Even if the price is higher, they will still have to accept it.
.....
The western territory of the Ottoman Empire and the Danube River Basin in Eastern Europe.
This was originally the land of the Europeans. After many westward expansion wars, the Ottoman Empire finally occupied a large area of fertile land in the Danube River Basin, and also occupied most of the Balkan Peninsula.
In the Battle of Vienna that year, the European Allied Forces and the Ottoman Empire fought to a draw. The two sides signed an agreement and ushered in a long period of peace.
This land was also occupied by the Ottoman Empire and gradually became the most important granary of the Ottoman Empire.
The land here is fertile, the terrain is flat, and the rivers bring abundant water sources, making it very suitable for the development of agriculture.
The Ottoman Empire also regarded this place as its important granary and moved a large number of people here to develop agriculture here and consolidate its rule.
The Ottoman Empire even planned to build a railway connecting here with the capital city of Istanbul to strengthen its rule and facilitate the transportation of food and so on.
However, building a railway is not an easy task. All aspects of technology and materials require reliance on the Ming Dynasty people, and the quotations quoted by the Ming Dynasty people are very scary, often costing hundreds of millions of taels of silver.
Such a railway is simply not something that the current Ottoman Empire can build, so the railway plan has been shelved. However, there are more and more fields here, and more and more food is produced.
However, this situation has undergone new changes and situations in the past three or four years.
In a vast plain area beside the Danube River, Ibrahim, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, was riding a horse to inspect the granary of the Ottoman Empire.
As a close confidant and childhood playmate of the current Sultan Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire, Ibrahim was deeply trusted and valued by Suleiman, and gradually reached the position of Grand Vizier in a very short period of time.
, this position is the prime minister of the Ottoman Empire, one person is inferior to ten thousand people, and he holds great power.
At this moment, Ibrahim frowned, looking at the vast fertile land in front of him, which was different from the image of a fertile field in his imagination.
The vegetation here is lush, and the water and grass are abundant. A large number of sheep are grazing on the plains where the ridges of fields can be vaguely seen. These sheep are fat and strong, and each one has thick wool. It is obvious that these are sheep, specially used to produce wool.
Sheep are not pure meat sheep.
"what happened?"
"Why is it that on such fertile land, instead of growing food, it is used to raise sheep?"
When Ibrahim saw such a scene, he immediately frowned and asked Governor Constant next to him. He was the governor here and was very clear about the situation here.
The reason why Ibrahim came here was actually to investigate the decline in food production here year after year.
The amount of grain collected by the Ottoman Empire here has been declining year after year, and the decline has been extremely severe in the past three years.
