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 shows 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 before, then 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 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 production 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 impact range is large. Even Leizhou and Qiongzhou will snow. 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 been eating cheap food for several years, and it¡¯s time for price increases this year.¡±
Liu Jin is not worried at all about the possible drastic reduction in production. There is so much food in the Ming granary that it is impossible to eat it all. Even if there is no farming for several years, the people of the Ming Dynasty will 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 was 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 in Tianzhu. In the north of the Tianzhu continent, there is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that blocks the cold weather from the north. Therefore, it was 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 Daming¡¯s food is insufficient, food can be continuously transported to Daming from Tianzhu Continent to ensure Daming¡¯s food security in many aspects.
Liu Jin is not worried about the food problem. Instead, he is 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 profound 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 to make wine and feed livestock in large quantities, but also requires a large amount of exports to digest these grains and let them use them. Farmers are motivated to grow grain.
Otherwise, the food is harvested every year, but it will not be sold every year. The farmers will naturally not grow so many foods, and they will turn to breeding, vegetables and fruits.
On the other hand, the most important thing is to use food to control the world.
Whoever controls the food controls everything.
Cheap and high-quality grains are exported in large quantities. People in Europe, Persia, Ottoman and other regions seem to have taken advantage. They can buy more and better grains at a small price.
When there was a great famine in Europe, it was only through the cheap food provided by the Ming Empire that it could be successfully overcome.
¡°But because of the long-term continuous import of cheap food, farmers in our own country are veryTurning around, looking at the vast fertile land in front of me, it was different from the image of a fertile field in my 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 sheep are 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 food collected by the Ottoman Empire has been declining year after year, and the decline has been extremely severe in the past three years. (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com