In mid-August, the port of the East has entered the middle of winter, and the sleet outside the window hits the glass windows with a crackling sound by the wind. However, in this luxurious suite of the Oriental Hotel, it is unusually warm due to the well-designed heating facilities.

They spoke in an incomprehensible dialect of a region of Italy, and had a lively discussion while tasting the new Chinese coconuts sent by the host's family (at this time, the coconut had not yet spread to Europe and the Americas).

"Their agriculture officer took me on a tour of their farmland agglomeration in the Northern Lakes region, and to be honest, I have to say I was blown away by their work." Viano, from the Public Office of Abundance in Genoa, which was the equivalent of the grain store in later generations, took a pleasant sip of the blended cocoa coconut milk and continued: "They built incredible farmland water projects there, and I saw many of them going on during my visit. There were a lot of Greeks there, and at the same time there were a lot of Tatars - well, they weren't the Tatars of the Crimea - and there were a lot of Orientals who dug irrigation canals, widened rivers, cleared shrubs, leveled the land. They were like industrious ants, so hard-working, so obedient, truly, they were more industrious than the most docile serf I had ever seen in Bohemia. ”

"The 'cadres' in black uniforms were holding pen and paper all day long, as if completing the set workload by the deadline was an important condition for their promotion. More importantly, the excavation of the river and irrigation system seemed to pay the workers no wages at all, only the clothing, tools and daily rations of the river diggers. The reward is the right to reclaim part of the land and the right to buy cheap cattle. ”

"Speaking of which, I have to mention one more thing. Mario. I have to say that perhaps God is particularly fond of this place - damn it, they are still pagans - and the cattle here are as numerous as Jutland, and I don't know where they got them. Perhaps from La Plata, where the environment is perfect for the growth of cattle and sheep, is really a lucky East Coaster. Uh, that's a long way off, yes. They have a lot of cattle! In some mature agricultural areas, I have observed that on average there are more than 6 cattle per peasant family - 8o% of them are Andalusian black cattle. They made extensive use of the three-crop rotation system that had emerged in the Netherlands, England and North Germany, ensuring that one-third of the land was left fallow each year for alfalfa and fertilizing the fields with large amounts of manure produced by livestock, resulting in very high grain harvests. ”

"Their former Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Kinkola, told me that the noble Republic of Genoa and the House of Doria could sell us more than five thousand tons of wheat a year if they so wished, without violating the cooperation agreement they had signed with the Dutch West India Company. They don't think it's cost-effective for us to promote corn cultivation in central Italy and Sicily, where we are under our influence, because there are a lot of political risks. Secondly, the crop has not yet adapted well to the Italian environment; Finally, this crop is highly yielding. However, long-term consumption will yield a lot of adverse effects on health, such as pellagra and so on. So he suggested that we abandon the plan to promote the cultivation of this crop. Instead, they import wheat from us. And they are willing to give us a monopoly on the sale of wheat on the east coast within a certain range to ensure our commercial interests. ”

Viano was an official of the Office of Abundance and represented the official interests of Genoa. However, the so-called official interests of Genoa are just like that, and the Republic of Genoa is not just the toys of a few big families, and the Doria family is one of the most important ones, so the so-called official interests and the interests of the Doria family are also highly unified in a certain way. Viano was seconded by Mario to discuss cooperation with the people on the east coast on food, preferably to give the Genoese exclusive rights to the western Mediterranean, which was plagued by food shortages.

While much of China was plagued by the unusual weather of the Xiaoice period, the vast European region was also plagued by famine. Originally, the traditional grain-producing areas such as south-central Italy, Sicily, and south-France often experienced grain harvest failures, but fortunately, Europe was extremely commercially prosperous and transportation was relatively convenient (the Mediterranean and North Sea were convenient for shipping), so it did not cause a serious impact.

For example, one year, when a severe famine broke out in Naples, and the last grain of grain was about to be eaten, some merchant ships loaded with Egyptian wheat from Alexandria docked in the port on time, saving the safety of this large city with a population of more than 3o at its peak. And when famine also occurred in Sicily, Egypt and the Levant, the Dutch, who were doing business all over the world, would bring wheat and rye from Poland and Moscow to the ports of these countries, effectively ensuring the survival of the people in these regions.

The granary of the Republic of Genoa was in Sicily, and most of the nobility on this island was heavily influenced by the Genoese, which could almost be regarded as an economic colony of the Genoese. However, in the last decade, Sicily's wheat crops, which have traditionally produced a steady dìng, have also been frequently poor, and many landowners have abandoned wheat cultivation in favor of more profitable sugar cane, so the island's wheat production has fallen again and again, causing alarm among Genoese. A few years earlier, the Venetians, who had also suffered from food shortages, had set their sights on the traditional agricultural regions of Sicily and central Italy, and had resolutely competed with the Genoese, further accelerating the search for new sources of food.

"Diversification of food sources is our established policy, and there is nothing to discuss." Mario commented, "The Republic of Genoa needs 50,000 lasts per year (about 1o tons, which generally refers to the weight unit of the ship, which is common in the Netherlands and Northern Europe, usually 2 tons; Sometimes it's 1 ton, for example, 1 raste fish is 1 ton; It is also sometimes referred to as a unit of shipping volume). At the moment Sicily supplies us half (wheat), the Netherlands supplies us a third (wheat, rye mixture) and the rest comes from other regions. It's a good thing that the people on the East Coast are willing to sell grain to us, because they sell it at a lower price, and they promise to sell 5,000 tons of wheat, 3,000 tons of coarse grains (sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and soybeans), which is already 8% of our annual needs. And looking at their posture, it is inevitable that the grain production will increase year by year in the future, so I think it is necessary to talk to them about formal cooperation, because this is a commodity supplier with great potential - and it just so happens that they are also interested in this aspect now. ”

"However, we must also be steadfast in our own policies. The cultivation of maize must be introduced in certain friendly city-states in Sicily and the central region, as it can greatly increase our total food production. The poor sailors, soldiers, and peasants did not need to eat wheat as a high-class food, and rye or even sea wheat (a crop from the Levant, cheap and low in nutritional value, farmers in the grain-producing regions of southern France often sold wheat and bought it for their own consumption) was enough to beat them. And this corn is also tailor-made for them, and the problem of eating habits is not a big problem, because people change themselves when they are hungry. Mario drank a glass of East Coast's own Fragrant Hills dry red wine and went on to express his opinion.

"By the way, don't the people of the East Coast still produce that snow-white flour? I've seen it, and in terms of quality, it surpasses the so-called high-quality flour produced by most of the mills of the old Big 6, and the price is still extremely low. I think even after a long sea journey of several months to the port of Livorno, the flour is still profitable. Churches, aristocrats, merchants, and official families are now in demand for fine white bread, and I think there will be a great market for this kind of fine flour on the east coast. If nothing else, Genoa alone can consume 2ooo-3ooo rastes per year, and even if each raste earns 5o bank lira, then this is a business of more than 1o thousand lira. Besides, when the actual sale is made, the profit may be much more than that, and the market demand may not be more than this at all, this is a good business, Viano, write it down, and talk to them when the time comes. ”

"One last point, Viano, they may have approached you too, and that's what they call the soybean oil business." Mario took a sip of red wine and said casually: "Their traditional agricultural areas seem to be popular for soybean cultivation, and they either grow soybeans or corn after the wheat harvest every summer, so soybean oil extraction is a new industry for them." And as it stands, their domestic soybean oil production is clearly in surplus, and they can't consume so much oil, so hopefully we can use our strong distribution network to sell their soybeans. However, considering that the old big 6 does not have the habit of eating soybean oil, Viano, can you judge from a professional point of view, is soybean oil a profitable business in the old big 6? ”

"It's hard to say." Mario frowned and thought for a long time before he said uncertainly: "As far as the current situation in the Mediterranean region is concerned, olive oil is very popular, and it is mainly produced in the Ottoman Empire; In the North Sea and Baltic regions, butter is the main edible oil - this is mainly produced in Jutland, but it is mainly operated by the Dutch. I can't give an exact conclusion about whether there is a market for soybean oil, because it requires market feedback, and I think maybe we can import a small part of it, try to promote it in our distribution outlets first, and then decide whether to increase the operation of this business according to the situation. ”

"It's a safe build, I agree, Viano." Mario nodded in agreement, "Then from tomorrow onwards, you will take your assistant to start in-depth negotiations with the East Coast people on food cooperation, and you will personally report to me every night." (To be continued......)

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