Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1943 Overseas Interests ([-])

April 1686, 4, Jakobshaven, sunny.Governor Wagner wiped the sweat from his forehead with a silk scarf, and then walked quickly into the Governor's Palace.

This is the most magnificent building in Jakobshafen. It was just completed last year and cost more than fifteen thousand gold marks, which once shocked the whole country.However, considering that this is the official residence built by Grand Duke Frederick for his beloved son—according to tradition, every heir to the Duchy of Courland will automatically become the lord of the land directly under the Crown of the New Courland Colony—then It's understandable, it's normal for the private house of the office to cost a lot of money, not to mention that the Grand Duke himself generously donated part of the money.

Of course, in order to stop the mouths of domestic nobles, businessmen, and priests, Grand Duke Frederick also "generously" stated that the palace-style buildings privately owned by this office can be temporarily handed over to the colonies for use. maximize its value.After all, the Grand Duke's only son is less than two years old (it is said that his physical condition is not very good), so it is impossible to travel across the ocean to live in New Courland.

And Governor Wolfgang Wagner is also more interesting. This completely Germanized person is not polite at all. He directly used this building as his own Governor's Palace, and then designated the original old Governor's Palace as a noble school. And the Seminary, to curry favor with the two most powerful local forces.

There are several huge stone pillars in front of the new Governor's Mansion. Many religious myths and the history of the Grand Duke's family are engraved on the stone pillars, recording the difficult years when the Principality of Courland was founded.Behind the stone pillar is a tall and thick gate. The gate was custom-made on the east bank, and the surface is covered with a layer of polished bronze skin. On it is the coat of arms of the huge Grand Duke family.

The four guards worked hard together and pushed open the previously closed door.Governor Wagner walked in, with towering green trees above his head, corridors and small buildings on the left and right, and a four-story stone main hall in front of him.The lighting in the main hall is very good, and a large amount of glass purchased from the east coast is used—this cost is not a small amount. Large pieces of glass are already expensive, and the loss of long-distance shipping is added, which is an astonishing figure—— Let the Grand Duke and subordinate officials who work inside be 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 a famous designer on the east coast, which makes this magnificent building with a baroque style as a whole have a taste of the combination of Chinese and Western.

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

There is no doubt that this is another expensive design.But the Courlandians didn't care. With tobacco, coffee, and slaves exported to the east coast and the Mediterranean in large quantities, they had a lot of financial surplus every year.Although heavy taxes are levied here in Livonia (by transferring profits to Europe in this way), the financial strength of the colonial government of New Courland is strong enough to make some local officials They live a life of luxury.

"Those new Frenchmen are making trouble again?" Governor Wagner took off his coat under the service of his servants, and then sat down at his desk, frowning and asked.

"They wanted to build a church, but the people in the church didn't agree. There were some conflicts later, but they didn't rise to the level of armed conflict. Knight Michel controlled the situation very well and no one was hurt." The servant in black replied.

He is a private consultant hired by the governor. Although he has no official position in the colony, he has great authority and is well-informed.To put it bluntly, this religious conflict was nothing more than some conflicts between the Huguenots exiled from the Kingdom of France to New Courland and the original local Catholics, and the intensity of the conflict was very low, so it was not a big deal.

It is said that since King Louis XIV of France secured his throne and established great prestige during years of conquests, he finally started to turn around and deal with the Huguenots.Moreover, the number of Huguenots in France has now dropped to about 150 million, and it is no longer the "many as dogs" situation when the "Nantes Edict" was promulgated in 1598.Therefore, Louis XIV began to gradually tighten the policy on Protestants, abolishing the contents of the "Edict of Nantes" step by step by boiling frogs in warm water, and finally announced the abolition of the "Edict of Nantes" last year. In France has been reduced to the bottom.

The difficult situation naturally gave birth to the tendency of these Huguenots to emigrate.Although the French government has repeatedly ordered that Huguenots emigrate strictly, and announced that those who assist them in emigrating will also have their property confiscated, there are still many people who have immigrated to foreign countries through various channels in the past few years.The preferred destination for their immigration is undoubtedly the United Provinces, but the country is currently overpopulated (220-230 million) and the economic situation is not as good as it was 20 years ago. Rash immigration may not have led to a good life in the past.Therefore, the thriving Kingdom of England became an ideal target for Huguenots to immigrate.

This country's land area is much larger than that of the United Provinces, and it is rich in resources and developed in industry and commerce. It is very attractive to the French Huguenots who are good at this.Although their king is a Catholic, it seems troublesome, but isn't there a parliament to check and balance him?Therefore, a large number of Huguenots brought capital, technology and knowledge to England across the sea and started their new life.

There is no doubt that this is a wave of immigration that greatly strengthens England, just like the Dutch businessmen, skilled craftsmen, artists and intellectuals who immigrated to England during and after the Franco-Dutch War.These people brought capital, technology and brand-new ideas from the continent to the rapidly developing England, injected new impetus into the development of this country, and further widened the gap with European countries in terms of industry and commerce.

In addition to those who went to England, many French Huguenots flocked to other places.Among them, the British North American colonies are probably the largest recipients. Historically, a large number of Protestants who had poured into Dutch South Africa brought packages and crossed the Atlantic to New England, Virginia and the Carolinas, which greatly enriched the population of these colonies. At the same time, it also improves the local cultural, commercial and technological level.

In addition, other countries that have overseas colonies and do not reject Protestant immigrants-only this one, Spain and Portugal are excluded. Catholics, no wonder the population is still so small for more than 100 years - they also got a share of this wave of immigration, and the Principality of Courland is one of the best.

Although the national strength is weak, this country has always been yearning for trade and colonization. After many years of support from the people on the east coast, it finally put this business on the right track and became one of the best tobacco suppliers in the Mediterranean world. A big business miracle.

Although the Courlandians in history tried their best to sail and colonize time and time again, and came to Africa from the Americas, they were always unable to keep their territory because of their weak strength, which was embarrassing.Of course, this is actually the normal state of colonialism. Don’t you see that many islands in the Caribbean change hands all the year round?Without sufficient strength, naturally one cannot keep one's own colony, which is a matter of course.

Fortunately for the Courlandians, they hugged the thighs of the people on the east coast tightly, and then managed to gain a firm foothold in the "remote" Congo River Basin.This place, far away from the world's colonial hotspots, has almost no competition (except for the early Portuguese), and limited funds and manpower can be fully invested in the colonial cause, rather than being used to defend against the attacks of colonists from other countries.But this also has a disadvantage, that is, it is far away from the mainstream European market, and the cash crops produced and the slaves captured do not know who they can sell to. This is a very real difficulty for anyone.

Fortunately, the existence of the East Coast Republic solved everything!The well-informed Kurlanders hugged the thighs of the people on the east coast, and all the products they produced were aimed at the east coast market, so as to survive the initial difficult years.Later, with the help of the people on the east coast, they developed a fairly good infrastructure in New Courland, received a large amount of assistance in medicines, weapons and tools, and effectively reduced the operating costs of the colony.

In the New Courland colony for more than ten years, the export of tropical specialty commodities has become increasingly prosperous, and black slaves have gradually become a long-lasting industry. Even their territory has expanded a lot, and they have penetrated far into the upper reaches of the Congo River. far away.As the territory expands, more people are naturally needed to fill various vacancies, and the so-called "population" here obviously cannot be black people, but white people.

The favorite immigrants of the Courlandians are undoubtedly those from their own country.But Courland is a small country in Europe, with a population of only 30 (even counting the large influx of Polish refugees and their descendants), so there is really not much left to support overseas colonies.Therefore, the Kurlanders took the next best thing and began to pursue Livonian immigrants with a culture similar to theirs, but with little success. The main reason is that this is not a densely populated place, and the lives of the people are still decent. So of course we can't get any population.

Now that the domestic situation in Poland is stable, and the economy of North Germany is also becoming more and more prosperous, the Principality of Courland has sold out its strength and shouted, and it can only get hundreds or thousands of people from the above-mentioned areas to immigrate to New Courland in a year.Such inefficiency is of course due to the Courlandians' own factors, but it is more due to the lack of reasons for the people to immigrate.

Fortunately, King Louis XIV of France helped the Courlandians a lot.His policies against the Huguenots caused thousands of Protestants to leave France and settle in other countries.The Courlandians were a little slow to respond to this wave of immigration, but in the later stage, they were more vigorous. They sent special personnel to preside over it, and provided money and boats to subsidize the immigration of these French Huguenots to West Africa.This move even angered King Louis XIV of France for a time, because he had vowed to severely punish those who assisted the Huguenots to flee France, so he ordered the confiscation of some of the goods deposited by the Duchy of Courland in ports such as Bordeaux and Marseilles, and banned new The entry of Courland Tobacco into the French market, etc., has waved the big stick of economic sanctions in a serious manner.

The Courlandians 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 New Courland to settle in New Courland through various channels, so as to enrich the white population there.As the Governor of New Courland appointed by the Grand Duke, Wagner naturally understood this work: he dispersed these people and placed them in various towns or villages within the jurisdiction, while swearing allegiance to the Grand Duke Frederick.

Generally speaking, he has done a good job of accepting and resettling immigrants. At least there have been no major disturbances or large-scale epidemics. The small conflict that broke out today is nothing serious at all.After all, New Courland, which originally used Latvian and German as its official languages, suddenly flooded with French-speaking and Protestant outsiders who accounted for half of the original population (about 2.8 people). The local residents are very dissatisfied. usual thing.What's more, many people have vaguely heard that more French Huguenots will pour in in the next few years. Isn't this world going to change?Many traditional and conservative Courland nobles and priests are very worried about this, and today's conflict is just a leak of their worries.

Fortunately, Governor Wagner is very clear-headed.As a descendant of Livonian German immigrants, although he was also unimpressed with these French-speaking people, he was full of professionalism and still carried out the order of the Grand Duke meticulously, properly placed these people one by one, and continued to send troops to patrol , avoiding any tragic events, everything seems to be working well now.

"Let Knight Michel not relax his vigilance and closely monitor the development of the situation." After thinking for a while, Governor Wagner ordered: "In addition, the request of the Huguenots to build churches can be granted to a limited extent. These churches are not It should be built in a bustling city, only in a village in the wild, and the number should not exceed one-third of the Church of Heaven, and the cost should also be borne by them. People on the east coast have a saying that is called "do as the Romans do", We are not free to help these French Huguenots out of their misery. They must serve New Courland with their knowledge and skills, and the first step is naturally to learn Latvian. If even this If it can’t be done, I will suggest to His Excellency the Duke to suspend the immigration of the Huguenots. They can go to the East Coast at that time. I heard that many people have gone to the East Coast Republic. They are really courageous people. "

"By the way, all the Huguenots who knew how to sail were picked out, and then organized to serve on several newly commissioned warships. Courland gave them a new life, and they naturally need to repay Courland. Just right Let them join the joint fleet built with the people on the east coast, and use their own swords to fight against pirates." Governor Wagner added: "Sea sailing is an extremely boring and dangerous activity, and fighting is even more cruel and precious. The lives of the Courlandians cannot be wasted on these meaningless things, and these Frenchmen just happened to come, let them take the top, of course the officers and backbone of the ship must be people we can trust."

The consultant nodded slightly after hearing this, and wrote down these, planning to implement them tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)