The meeting of the board of directors of the Far Eastern Company was held for several days in succession, which determined the tasks of this year's work and voted on some reports submitted by various departments. Overall, the year 1637 had a much smaller number of tasks than last year.

The main work is to cope with the upcoming drought in Chongzhen, make preparations for the hoarding of various materials, and spare no effort to purchase grain, cotton, cloth and other materials. In recent years, the company has almost bought out the grain in Siam, the major sultanates of the South Seas, and the princely states in the southern part of the Mughal Empire.

In the past, due to the climate, these areas were cultivated for three seasons a year, so the price of grain was basically cabbage. However, with the unscrupulous and frenzied purchase of grain by the Far Eastern Company, the grain prices in these areas have been inflated. Although food prices in these areas have risen again and again, they are still much lower than those in Daming, Japan and North Korea.

In addition to the above-mentioned areas, the Far Eastern Company also bought a large amount of grain from the gentry in various parts of the Ming Dynasty at a high price every year, and the grain price of the Ming Dynasty was also speculated by the Far East to a sky-high price. Japan and Korea are also bought a lot of grain by the Far East every year, and the Far East is very tycoons and does not care about the price of grain.

However, except for the Ming Dynasty, which used silver to buy grain, in other regions of the Far East, most of the grain purchases were paid for by various commodities. More of the silver in the Far East was used to buy cloth, cotton, wool, furs, minerals and other materials in various regions.

In addition to buying grain on a large scale in East Asia, the Far East is also actively developing new grain import channels. Since the company opened up the trade routes between the Arabian Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire, the Far East's grain imports have taken another direction, and a large amount of grain will arrive in Manila from the Ottoman Empire every year.

This was a clause in the commercial agreement between the Far East and the Ottoman Empire, in which the Ottoman merchants could offset the payment for goods from the Far East with grain and young female slaves, which was also a terms that were satisfactory to both parties.

The Ottoman Empire was a vast empire and the leader of the Islamic world. The 16th century was at its peak. Become a world power. Its territory reached its peak in the 17th century. Its navy is more in control of the Mediterranean.

At its peak, it had a vast territory in Asia, Europe and Africa, and most of the territories in southern Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East and North Africa. west to northern Algeria; east to the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf; north and present-day Austria, Slovenia, Romania and southern Ukraine; Sudan and Yemen in the south.

However, the population of the Ottoman Empire was only about 30 million, and the demand for food was far less than that of the Ming Dynasty, so merchant ships sailed from the Ottoman Empire and the Arabian Peninsula every year. Loaded with grain, slave girls, cotton, wool, and sheepskins, they used them to buy large quantities of goods from the Far East, the Ming Dynasty, and other parts of East Asia, as well as various spices, in Manila and Batavia to be shipped back to the Ottoman Empire and the Arabian Peninsula.

Every year, the Far East would send a large number of sailing ships carrying large quantities of goods to the ports of the Red Sea and the Arabian Peninsula to trade, and then return to Manila loaded with grain and female slaves.

In the decades that followed, the ports along the Red Sea and the Arabian Peninsula became centers of grain trade and slave markets, with ships of grain and slaves sailing to the East. To a certain extent, the food and women's shortages in the Far East have been alleviated.

Since the Far East began to hoard grain, the price of grain in the whole of East Asia, including the Ming Dynasty, the Indochina Peninsula, Japan, the South Seas, Korea and other places, as well as southern India, the Arabian Peninsula, the Ottoman Empire, and the coast of East Africa, has been forcibly raised.

The influx of large quantities of grain into the Far East has also made the number of war-ready warehouses built in storage centers far from keeping pace with the pace of grain imports. The company had no choice but to order the infrastructure department to stop many projects that were not urgent. Every effort should be made to build modern strategic reserve warehouses in various parts of the Far East to ensure that all grain can be stored in a timely manner.

Another major work in 1637 was immigration. And this year will further increase the number and scale of migration. The main direction of migration has also increased from the original single Shanxi region to the number of displaced people from Shandong and Hebei.

These two areas will also be affected by large-scale drought in the next few years, and a large number of displaced people will flee the famine. The company will use various resources to transport this part of the displaced people to Liaodong.

Zhou Weifan, head of the Central Plains Intelligence Station of the Far East Intelligence Department, has already sent people to negotiate with Cai Huaze in Shandong and Wu Xiang of the Guanning Army, asking them to help the Far East collect the displaced people.

This year, a large number of intelligence personnel will go deep into Shandong and Hebei. Large-scale bribery of government and local forces at all levels to prepare for the next immigration work. They will also make a big deal of propaganda among the displaced people, so that the displaced people will flee in the direction of the coast, and the Far East will also send a large number of people to land in the northern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty. Establish a migrant reception base there. Beginning in May this year, a large number of displaced people from Shandong and Hebei will be transported to Liaodong by the Far East sea fleet.

Thanks to Zhou Weifan's active efforts, the Far Eastern Central Plains Intelligence Station in Henan, which is now located in Henan, has established a perfect channel for transporting displaced people in the Yellow River waterway, and through various means, has established close relations with the government and local forces along the way, and has formed a huge interest group.

At any time, once the local forces under the Celestial Empire system form a chain of interests in a certain field, it means that a difficult interest group has been established, and even if the central power of the past dynasties wants to do it, they will not dare to act rashly.

This was true in ancient times, and it is the same in modern society. The interests of all parties involved in this are like an insurmountable mountain, as long as one link is touched, the sky will fall apart in an instant.

The Far East's collection of displaced people was definitely a good thing for the local governments of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the Far Eastern Company had to pay a certain amount of money to all the displaced people who were collected, and although the officials and lords in various places did not necessarily look down on these silver coins, the low-level officials in various places were a rich amount of oil and water.

Moreover, the Far East also attracted a considerable number of local forces of the Ming Dynasty through commercial means such as opening stores in joint ventures and acting as agents for Far Eastern goods. The amount of silver bribed by the Ming official every year is a large amount. Even narcotics were used to control the difficult officials and local gentry in many places.

Henan is the base of the Far East Intelligence Department, and under the care of the tiger skin of Fuwangfu, the Far East Central Plains Intelligence Station in Henan, as well as the surrounding provinces of Henan, can be said to be invincible. Moreover, the Far East has never been stingy, spilling a lot of silver, and now the Far East Commercial Bank is very open to government offices at all levels along the Yellow River waterway.

Even the bigwigs in various places have turned a blind eye to the large-scale collection of displaced people in the Far East. This is because the Far East's actions to collect displaced people over the years have been very orderly, which has not only eased the tension in various places, but also reduced the pressure on the local government. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly pass support of Anwu and idle one.