The sea breeze blows and the sun shines brightly.

In the beautifully landscaped harbor of Palermo, Mr. Zheng Yong, the special diplomatic envoy of the East Coast Republic of China to Europe, met with a special person here, Frederick from the Principal of Kurland, the heir of Grand Duke Jacob, the crown prince of the Principal of Kurland, and the lord of the Duke of Kurland.

Frederick is a young man in his prime. He was just in his early twenties. He was born in an aristocratic family and studied in Krakow, Lübeck, Hamburg and other places for many years. He has good swordsmanship and equestrian skills. He also inherited his father's business talent and is very good at doing business. At present, Grand Duke Jacob not only granted a town in New Korland to him as the fief of the crown prince. Zheng Yong even heard that Grand Duke Jacob planned to use the entire New Korland as the fief of the crown prince in case of accidents. This time, the destruction of the country by Sweden really scared him. He also planned to let Frederick serve as the director of the country's ocean-going merchant fleet, that is, he did not interfere in daily affairs, but supervised and studied on the side, thinking that he would be ready for a full succession in the future.

Frederick attached great importance to his new position. He not only invested heavily in Amsterdam, Lübeck, Hamburg and other places to invite many experts from the ocean trade as his consultants and consultants, but also stepped up learning Chinese so as to better exchanges with the East Coast Republic of China, the largest trading partner of the Principal of Kurland in the future.

By the way, thanks to the development of overseas colonies and the rapid development of trade, the Principality of Kurland currently has 28 ships of all sizes, almost double the size of before the colonization. These ships have different types, new and old, and the tonnage is also different. Among them, there are four 650-ton flute-type transport ships ordered from the east coast, and three 300-ton Garen ships ordered from England; the others are some transport ships ranging from dozens to more than 200 tons, with ocean ships and offshore boats accounting for about half each, and the total transportation tonnage remains at a scale of 6,000 tonnes, most of which are tonnages that can carry out ocean transport. In this area of ​​the Baltic Sea, it is already quite good. It is estimated that only those Lubek, which has frequent trade with the East Coast, can compare with them.

From this we can also see that after the failure of Grand Duke Jacob's colony of Tobago (squeezed away by the Dutch), he used his wealth to bet on how magical the New Kurland colony in the mouth of the Congo River. Grand Duke Jacob, who had firm will and colonial ambitions, brought great benefits to Kurland, a small Baltic country with a population of only 200,000. This is not only a commercial interest, but also a political retreat. The Duke of Kurland, which is sandwiched between Poland, Sweden, Russia, Prussia and other tiger and wolf countries, especially needs this overseas retreat, which is obviously one of the important reasons why New Kurland can become the fief of the country's crown prince (once the crown prince ascends the throne, the fief is automatically passed to the next heir).

Frederick ventured to Sicily to meet Zheng Yong for his own sake. Nothing else, the Portuguese Kingdom had declared war on the Principality of Courland. Although he had not yet launched a war, the Principality of Courland, which had few and weak people, was unable to compete with the old colonial country Portugal, so he rushed to find Zheng Yong to ask for advice and see what to do. To be honest, the few standing troops in the Principality of Courland were almost all overseas colonies (transferred after the war broke out to avoid being annihilated by the Swedish army). The local area was simply unable to resist any enemy attacks. If the East Coast people had not come to force them to send troops, they would have no courage to send more than a thousand musketeers to attack Luanda Port. To start a war with Portugal was really something they would never have dared to think about before.

"Governor Hewitt de Beverren is an upright person and a good friend of mine. I often travel with him when I work in Riga. A while ago, he wrote to me, introducing the current development of New Kurland, and briefly described the heroic posture of your army led by Krivitz in Angola. Please rest assured that we East Coast people will remember the position that your country stood at a critical moment. The peace issue between your country and the Kingdom of Portugal will also be included in the existing peace talks between the two countries of the East and Portugal, and will not let your country suffer losses. Perhaps, we can get some compensation for war expenses for your country..." In the apartment, Zheng Yong and Frederick said privately.

His words undoubtedly made the young heirs of the priesthood frown, and he was even more happy after hearing about the war reparations. You should know that the Baltic war has just ended. Sweden, Poland, Brandenburg-Prussia and Emperor Leopold I signed a peace agreement at the Monastery of Oliva, but the trauma caused by the war cannot be recovered so quickly. Especially in the locust-like Sweden, a series of rich grain-producing areas passed by the Russian and Prussian army - such as the central Poland - the grain production plummeted. The Swedes set fire to Warsaw, robbed the Warsaw palace, and caused a large number of war refugees. These people flocked to other Polish cities that were less affected, and even Kurland and East Prussia.

In the Treaty of Oliva, the entire Livornia, which was clearly ceded to Sweden, a large number of small farms were abandoned. The reasons were both war factors - the destructive robbery of Sweden and the Russian army, as well as non-war factors - the Swedish kingdom, which obtained these lands after the war, took away a large amount of Livornian land and rewarded it with Swedish aristocratic families, which was believed to have created a large number of landless refugees. A considerable number of them went to the east coast through remittances of relatives overseas. Many of them flocked into the Kurland Peninsula, taken in by Grand Duke Jacob Kert, and placed in the Port of Vandao, preparing to look for an opportunity to send them to the New Kurland colony. These Livornians were naturally close to each other in the view of the Kurland and were "relatives" of the Kurland. Therefore, after loading ships to the Congo River, it would help New Kurland maintain its culture rather than becoming more and more like a Polish province.

Grand Duke Jacob had reason to do this, because New Courland was humid and hot, harsh, and had to fight the natives continuously. The East Coast people almost opened up to acquire Congolese black slaves, so that the Kurlands themselves did not have enough black slavery. Therefore, although there were constant immigrants to supplement the population, the population could not increase. Even if the East Coast people had not provided many medicines and helped them design urban planning, their population would have a great chance of falling. Therefore, this would catch a large number of Livornian refugees - although they might not be very adaptable to the Congolese climate - Grand Duke Jacob wanted to send them overseas immediately to grow tobacco, cotton, cut down large trees, and arrest black people.

However, immigration naturally requires money, and if the number of immigrants is large, the money is not a small amount. Grand Duke Jacob, who had just been plundered by the Swedes in China, was a clever wife, and he had to use his old relationship to Hamburg. Lübeck borrowed a sum of money and mortgaged the land of New Courland. At the same time, the British also extended an olive branch to him. Now that the shipping industry is entering a period of rapid development, the Englishman who is extremely short of all kinds of harnesses, so in recent years, he has been sending a large number of merchant ships to Riga to transport marijuana and linen, and to Sweden to import wood tar and plates. For the traditional wood exporter, the British merchants have not forgotten that they signed an agreement with Grand Duke, and mortgaged a sum of money to Courland for his recovery of domestic production and immigration.

After obtaining funds from these two channels, immigration work that had been interrupted for some time was finally restarted again, but the Principality of Courland also had a heavy debt burden (don't forget that they still owe several loans of more than 100,000 yuan in the East Coast). Now Frederick heard that the people of the East Coast would help them get a certain amount of war compensation, which was simply a surprise - even if only 500,000 florin could greatly reduce the financial burden of the Principality. How could this not be exciting?

"Sir, Mr. Envoy, I am about to take the Mitao warship to New Courland. It is great to hear such exciting news before leaving. The Kert family will always be good friends of the East Coast people. Let us join hands together in the South Atlantic. Those savages are not worthy of enjoying the vast and rich land of Rui. We should expand the living space of civilized people there. Please rest assured that the Congolese slaves that our friends in the East Coast need have been arrested continuously. I believe that the supply will be greater in the future." Frederick Kert said excitedly, solving the major issues that have been under his heart for many days. He now feels refreshed.

The heir of Grand Duke Jacob left the Port of Palermo two days later. The three-masted warship "Mitau" guarded four merchant ships toward New Courland. When they followed the north wind and ocean to the sea south of Cape Verde, it was already summer in the southern hemisphere. From the Gulf of Guinea south is the famous "big wet season", with the northeast wind prevailing, and you can go to New Courland (because it is against the current, you have to wait for the northeast wind).

After the Kurians left, on November 5, Zheng Yong met the East Coast escort ship in the port of Palermo again, who returned from the Ottoman Empire after the end of trade. Anyway, he had nothing to do now (the negotiations have been stuck since last time), so he boarded the ship and had a good chat with Wang Tiechu, who was leading the team.

Many ships returning from the Ottoman Empire have been empty this year. In addition to importing a large number of livestock (camels, horses), copper tin lead ore, raisins and dates, the number of slaves that occupied the trade heads in previous years has decreased this year - there were only more than 4,000 female slaves and less than 2,000 male slaves - which greatly increased the surplus of the East Coast trade fleet. The heads of various merchant stations were both happy and worried about this. The debts owed by slaves in the past few years (including the cost of renting French and Dutch merchant ships) could finally be repaid. The worry is that this large-scale trade that exceeded the limit may not last long, otherwise the Ottoman Empire's already extremely chaotic and embarrassing economy would only become more and more difficult, and in the end the trade could not continue, so it must be found a way to solve it.

Gao Wengang, who was fully responsible for the Ottoman affairs, once convened the heads of various commercial stations to discuss trade issues with the Olympics. After thinking about it, they finally found that they could only return to the old road of population trade. The Ottoman Empire, with a population of 30 million, needed a series of commodities on the east coast, including arms, textiles, steel bars, hardware tools, agricultural tools, soda ash, soap, medicines, wagons, ships and even technical services, but what did the east coast need to import from the Ottoman Empire? Strictly counting, a lot of things are needed, but the quantity is too small, and exports and imports are too unequal.

At present, relatively large amounts are livestock trade (mainly imported horses and camels), ore trade (copper, lead and tin lacking on the east coast), dried fruits (raisins, dates, etc.), refined blankets, etc., but how big can these demands be? For example, camels, Patagonia, South Africa, Australia and even the western part of New China Island need a large number of camels, but this trade volume has been suffocated for 200,000 yuan a year, and there is no more; excellent Arabian horses, Turkmen horses, and Laschekma are similar, which looks less than 300,000 yuan a year; dried fruits are only 300,000 yuan a year, and they cannot be imported to balance trade, forcing the people of the East Coast to eat raisins every meal; blankets are even smaller, and they will not exceed 100,000 yuan a year; other miscellaneous things are added together, and I don’t know if there is 200,000 yuan a year.

In total, the total amount of goods imported from the Ottomans on the East Coast each year is only about 1.4 million. If the most bulk commodities such as slaves cannot be used to balance the difference, it can be imagined that Coplulu Davizi, who is already worried about paying national military pay and official salaries, will definitely cut the import share of goods on the East Coast to balance the trend of Ottoman precious metals. After all, the country's finances are relatively difficult. In recent years, the quality of Ducat silver coins has been repeatedly reduced, so that the Ducat (called Golden Geng) minted in Venice has become increasingly strong in the Ottoman currency value, and the silver coins on the East Coast have also begun to circulate within a considerable range, which is very telling.

What a hard thing! Let's get through these two years first. Zheng Yong, who had already understood this result, was quite helpless. A few years ago, the local government demanded a reduction in slave import quota. Their European trading station tried hard to get a buffer period of two or three years, trying to help the Ottoman Empire think of a solution. As a result, the Ottomans placed more and more orders for various commodities to the east coast, but their export structure was still unable to adjust, which finally led to today's result.

It has already helped the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate to connect with agricultural products and wood (produced in the Balkans, where there were dense forests and large woods) to sell. There are also many merchants in ****, Tuscany, Palma and other places trying to buy goods from them (in fact, there were originally such transactions, and the East Coast just took advantage of the sharp decline in grain production in Poland to expand the transaction volume). Although it is not possible to temporarily cover the gap brought by the slave trade, it can make their lives less difficult.
Chapter completed!