April 30, 1686, Port Jacob, sunny. Governor Wagner wiped the sweat from his forehead with a silk scarf, and then walked quickly into the governor's palace.

It was the most imposing building in the whole of Jacobs, which was completed just last year and cost more than 15,000 gold marks, which once shocked the whole country. However, considering that this is the official residence built by the Grand Duke Frederick for his beloved son, according to tradition, each heir of the Duchy of Courland will automatically become the lord of the land directly under the direct jurisdiction of the New Courland Colonial Office, which is understandable, and it is normal for the private residence of the public office to cost a lot of money, not to mention that the Grand Duke himself has generously contributed part of the money.

Of course, in order to block the mouths of the domestic nobles, merchants and clergy, Archduke Frederick also "generously" stated that the palace-like building owned by the public office could be temporarily handed over to the colonial side to maximize its value. After all, the only son of the Grand Duke was not yet two years old, and it was impossible for him to cross the ocean to live in New Courland, and he was not in good health.

And Governor Wagner Wolfgang is also more interesting, this person who has been completely Germanized is not at all polite, directly used this building as his own governor's palace, and then divided the original old governor's palace into a noble school and a seminary, currying favor with the two most powerful forces in the region.

In front of the new governor's palace there are several huge stone pillars, which are carved with many religious myths and the history of the Grand Duke's family, recording the difficult years of the founding of the Principality of Courland. Behind the stone pillars is a tall and thick gate, custom-made on the east bank, covered with a layer of polished bronze skin, on which is the coat of arms of the great Grand Duke.

The four guards worked together to push open the previously closed door. Governor Wagner walked in, with a towering green tree overhead, a cloister and a small building to the left and right, and a stone main hall four stories high in front of him. The lighting of the main hall is very good, and a large amount of glass purchased from the east coast is used, which is not a small amount, and the large glass is very expensive, plus the wear and tear of long-distance shipping, it is an astonishing number, so that the Grand Duke and his subordinate officials who work in it are in a pleasant environment all day long.

There is even a small pond in the middle courtyard surrounded by willow trees. Obviously, this is the Chinese element added by Sun Dapeng, the designer of the palace and the famous designer of the East Coast, which gives this magnificent building a touch of East and West flavor as a whole, which is biased towards the Baroque style.

In addition, under the pond, which is invisible to the naked eye, there is an underground river dug day and night by a large number of black slaves, and is connected to the nearby water system. The purpose of this dark river is to cool the main rooms of the building, which is the kind of earth air conditioning that uses the underground water system to cool the building, which is currently popular on the east bank.

Without a doubt, this is yet another expensive design. But the Courlands did not care, they had a large annual surplus of tobacco, coffee, and slaves exported to the East Coast and the Mediterranean. Although Livonia was heavily taxed and the profits were transferred to mainland Europe, the government of the colony of New Courland was financially strong enough to allow some of its officials to live in luxury.

"The new French are making trouble again?" Governor Wagner asked with a frown as he took off his coat under the servants' service, then sat down at his desk.

"They wanted to build a church, but the people in the church didn't agree, and then there were some conflicts, but it didn't raise the level of the armed conflict, and Knight Michelle controlled the situation very well and didn't hurt anyone." A black-clad attendant replied.

He was a privately hired adviser to the Governor, and although he had no official position in the colony, he was very powerful and well-informed. To put it bluntly, this religious conflict was just some conflict between the Huguenots who had been exiled from the Kingdom of France to New Courland and the original Catholics in the area, and the intensity of the conflict was very low, which was not a major event.

It is said that since King Louis XIV of France had secured his throne and had established great prestige during his years of crusades, he had finally begun to turn back to the Huguenots. Moreover, the number of Huguenots in France has now fallen to about 1.5 million, and it is no longer "as numerous as dogs" when the Edict of Nantes was issued in 1598. As a result, Louis XIV began to gradually tighten his policy towards the Protestants, gradually abolishing the contents of the Edict of Nantes by boiling frogs in warm water, and finally announced the abolition of the Edict of Nantes last year, and the Huguenots had been completely reduced to inferiority in France.

The difficult situation naturally gave rise to the emigration tendencies of these Huguenots. Although the French government has repeatedly banned Huguenots from immigrating and announced that those who assist them in immigration will also have their property confiscated, there have been many immigrants to foreign countries through various channels for several years. Their preferred destination for immigrants is undoubtedly the United Provinces, but the country is currently overpopulated by 2,202.3 million people, and the economic situation is not as good as it was two decades ago. As a result, the thriving kingdom of England became an ideal destination for the Huguenots to emigrate.

The country is much larger than the United Provinces, rich in resources, and developed in industry and commerce, which is very attractive to the French Huguenots who are good at it. Although it may seem troublesome for their king to be a Catholic, isn't there a parliament that checks and balances him? As a result, a large number of Huguenots came to England across the sea with money, technology and knowledge to start a new life of their own.

There is no doubt that this was a wave of immigration that greatly strengthened England, just as the Dutch merchants, skilled craftsmen, artists, and intellectuals who immigrated to England during and after the Franco-Dutch War. These people brought capital, technology and new ideas from the continent to the rapidly developing England, and injected new impetus into the country's development, making it further widen the gap in industry and commerce with the European continent.

In addition to those who went to England, many French Huguenots poured into other places. Among them, the British North American colonies were probably the largest recipients, and the Protestants who had originally poured into Dutch South Africa in large numbers crossed the Atlantic to New England, Virginia, and the Carolina with packages, greatly enriching the population of these colonies while also improving the local cultural, commercial, and technological levels.

In addition, other countries that have overseas colonies and do not reject Protestant immigration are excluded from this article alone, Spain and Portugal, whose colonial immigration threshold is higher, that is, they must be natives and Catholics at the same time, no wonder the population is still so small for more than 100 years and has also taken a share of this immigration wave, and the Duchy of Courland is one of the best.

This country, which has always been very yearning for trade and colonization, has finally put this business on the right track after many years of support from the people on the east coast, and has become one of the top tobacco suppliers in the Mediterranean world, which can be regarded as creating a small business miracle.

Historically, although the Courlands have been seafaring and colonizing again and again, and have come to Africa from the Americas, they have always been unable to keep their own territory because of their weak strength, which makes people feel embarrassed. Of course, this is actually the norm of colonization, don't you see that many islands in the Caribbean Sea change hands all year round? If you don't have enough strength, you will naturally not be able to keep your colony, which is a matter of course.

Luckily for the Courlands, they hugged the thighs of the East Bankers and then managed to gain a foothold in the "remote" Congo River valley. This place, far from the world's colonial hotspots, has little competition, except for the early Portuguese, who can devote their limited funds and manpower entirely to the colonial cause, rather than to defend against the attacks of other colonists. But this also has the disadvantage of being far from the mainstream European market, and the cash crops produced and the slaves captured do not know who to sell to, which is a very real difficulty for anyone.

Fortunately, the existence of the Eastern Coast Republic solves everything! The well-informed Courlands hugged the thighs of the East Coast and produced all the goods aimed at the East Coast market, thus surviving the first difficult years. Later, with the help of the East Coasters, they built a fairly good infrastructure in New Courland, received a large amount of medicine, weapons and tools, and effectively reduced the operating costs of the colony through trade with the East Coast.

In the last decade or so, the colony of New Courland has seen a boom in the export of tropical goods, and black slavery has gradually become an enduring industry, and even their territory has expanded considerably, reaching far into the upper reaches of the Congo River. As the territory expands, it naturally needs more people to fill all kinds of vacancies, and the so-called "population" here obviously cannot be blacks, but whites.

The Courlands' favourite immigrants are undoubtedly immigrants from their own country. But Courland is a small country in Europe, with a population of only 300,000, and counting the large influx of Polish refugees and their descendants, there is really little left to support the overseas colonies. As a result, the Courlands retreated and began to pursue Livonian immigrants with similar cultures, but with little success, mainly because it was not a densely populated place, and the people lived a decent life, so naturally there was no population.

Now that Poland is stable and the economy of North Germany is becoming more and more prosperous, the Duchy of Courland has sold enough strength to shout, and in a year it can only get a few hundred or thousands of immigrants from the above areas to New Courland. The inefficiency is of course due to the Courlands themselves, but more often than not, due to the lack of reasons for the people to emigrate.

Fortunately, King Louis XIV of France helped the people of Courland. His policy toward the Huguenots caused thousands of Protestants to leave France and settle in other countries. The Courlands were a little slow to react to this wave of immigration, but in the later period, they were more vigorous, and sent special people to preside over it, and contributed money and ships to fund these French Huguenots to immigrate to West Africa. This even angered King Louis XIV of France, because he vowed to punish those who helped the Huguenots flee France, so he ordered the confiscation of some of the goods deposited by the Duchy of Courland in the ports of Bordeaux and Marseille, and at the same time banned the entry of New Courland tobacco into the French market, etc., and brandished the stick of economic sanctions.

The Courlands were also a little confused. But everything has been done, what else is there to say? They did not give up at all, and still tried their best to collect immigrants from France and send them to settle in New Courland through various channels, so as to enrich the white population there. Wagner, as the Grand Duke's appointed governor of New Courland, was well aware of this: he dispersed them and placed them in various towns and villages in his jurisdiction, while swearing allegiance to Archduke Frederick.

On the whole, he did a good job of receiving and resettling migrants, at least there was no major chaos or any large-scale epidemic, and the skirmish that broke out today was nothing at all. After all, it is not uncommon for the local population to be dissatisfied with the sudden influx of Protestant speakers from New Courland, who originally spoke and German were the official languages of Latvian and German. What's more, many people have faintly heard that in the next few years, I am afraid that more French Huguenots will pour in. Many of the traditional and conservative courtran nobles and clergy were worried about this, and today's conflict is just an outpouring of their fears.

Fortunately, Governor Wagner is very clear-headed. As a descendant of German immigrants from Livonia, he was equally unimpressed with these French-speakers, but with his professionalism he meticulously carried out the orders of the Grand Duke, properly housed them, and constantly sent troops on patrols to avoid any tragic incidents, and now everything seems to be working well.

"Let the Knight Michelle not let his guard down and closely monitor the development of the situation." Governor Wagner thought for a moment and then ordered: "In addition, the Huguenots' request to build a church may be granted to a limited extent. These churches should not be built in a bustling city, but only in a village in the wilderness, and the number should not exceed one-third of the number of the Celestial Church, and they should also pay for it themselves. There is a saying among the people of the East Coast, which is called to follow the local customs, and we are not free to help these French Huguenots out of the sea of suffering. They had to put their knowledge and skills at the service of New Courland, and the first step naturally began with learning Latvian. If this is not possible, I would advise His Excellency the Duke to suspend the emigration of the Huguenots. They could have gone to the East Coast, and I've heard that quite a few of them went to the East Coast Republic, and they were brave people. ”

"By the way, all the sailors of the Huguenots were singled out, and they were all organized to serve on the new ships. Courland has given them a new lease of life, and they naturally need to repay Courland. Let them join the combined fleet with the East Coasters and use their own swords to fight the pirates. Governor Wagner added: "Sea voyages are extremely boring and dangerous activities, and the fighting is extremely cruel, and the precious lives of the Courlands cannot be wasted on these meaningless things. ”

The advisor bowed his head slightly, wrote down these things, and planned to carry them out tomorrow.