Leon Wolfgang Wagner arrived at the port of Jiaohe on a ship.

This ship is a 650-ton flute-type transport ship produced at the Zhenhai Shipyard on the east coast, and the cargo in the hold is not only tobacco, coffee, cocoa, dried fruits, cane sugar, pepper, cinnamon and other tropical specialties, but also many masts, wood tar, cables and other ship equipment. The latter is an industry developed in recent years in the colony of New Courland, mainly by taking advantage of the unique natural resources of the Congo River basin, importing machinery and equipment from the east bank, employing technicians, and establishing a series of workshop-type enterprises aimed at making use of these resources. Among them, masts, wood tars, cables and other shipbuilding products are the focus of the development of the Courlands, because they have similar industries in the Baltic Sea in the Old World, and now they are familiar with it, the only difference is that a bunch of unfamiliar equipment was imported from the east coast to improve labor efficiency.

Actually, according to common sense, although the Courlands are used to the ship business in the Baltic Sea, and even have a sizable shipyard in the port of Wendao, their products are honestly not very competitive on the east coast, especially with the addition of transoceanic transportation costs and import and export duties. That is to say, from a purely commercial point of view, they should not and cannot afford to sell these goods to the East Coast market for a profit.

But who gave the East Coast government a very repugnable policy? That is, out of some political or other interests, deliberately support some enterprises or countries that they think should be supported, such as the Dutch West India Company, the North American Free State, New Courland, etc., and there are certain indicators of importing the above-mentioned companies or regional specialty commodities every year, which makes many domestic businessmen very dissatisfied, but helpless.

Therefore, that is to say, the economy of areas such as New Courland is heavily dependent on the market demand of the East Coast Republic of China, and the degree of prosperity is almost exactly the same as that of the East Coast. Especially when the population of this country has reached more than 4 million, and the number of consumers has increased greatly - according to the latest estimates, by the end of August 1678, the total population of the East Coast Republic of China had reached a historical high of 4,134,700, of which 35.46% were Ming people, 50.47% were second-generation nationals, and about 14.1% were whites. In addition, there are about 366,000 non-nationals, which is also the highest in recent years, mainly due to the large-scale infrastructure construction activities in the country in recent years.

A country with a population of more than 4 million people really cannot be regarded as a small country, especially the gap between the rich and the poor in this country is really not large (even non-national laborers have a certain amount of spending power), and there are large groups of yeoman farmers (agricultural operators who have transformed into cooperatives), workers, merchants, soldiers, civil servants and handicraftsmen. This is the key to the survival of the colony of New Courland.

The Latvians who founded New Courland certainly understood the trick and knew who their parents were. Therefore, the two governors of the colony of New Courland, Beveren and Wagner, attached the highest importance to the East Coast, as can be seen from the fact that they personally visited the East Coast by boat almost every two years to visit old contacts and friends, and they knew very well where the source of their wealth was.

Leon Wolfgang Wagner, the second governor of New Courland, sailed to the east shore today, the first time he had visited Governor Beveren alone since he retired and returned to the Baltic. The first stop for ships crossing the Atlantic from Jacobs Harbor is the northernmost port on the east coast, in a very hot region.

Jiaohe Port is now the county of Jiaohe County, and the economy is relatively developed. Founded in the middle of this year, the county is the 126th county-level administrative unit in the country, under the jurisdiction of Jiaohe Township, Xiaye Township, Gushu Township, Yanran Township (located near the small town of Itamaru) and Gezhi Township (located near the later Guala Tinga Town), a five-settlement, 10,000 or 20,000 residents, high per capita income, and not low consumption power.

Along with it, Gaochang County, the 127th county-level administrative unit in the country, was established. The county has five settlements under its jurisdiction, including Gaochang Township, Shule Township, Xuanchi Township, Huozhou Township (located near the later Taixiela DiFreitas City) and Loulan Township (near the later Nanuki Town), and is also a five-settlement area with a population of more than 12,000 people, dominated by a tropical plantation economy, logging and plantation.

In addition, there are several isolated settlements established in recent years, namely Puchangxiang near the small town of St. Matteus, Tuman Township near the small town of Linaris, Xianqing Township near the town of Alacruz, Cheshi Township near the town of Veria, Qianting Township near the town of Guarapari, Wusun Township near the small town of Colatina, and Liuzhong Township near the small town of New Venice.

These isolated settlements were placed under the control of two nearby counties, and life was already tight. In addition, the drastic reforms carried out by Chairman Liao after he came to power in the past two years have made the "disaster" of these settlements even deeper, and they are basically in a state of struggling to operate, with neither foreign investment nor internal immigration.

Of course, these places are so miserable, but the life of Jiaohe County, as the leader of the region, is quite passable, because its superior geographical location is incomparable to other places. Thanks to the blessing of the previous two governments, Jiaohe Port currently has a port and wharf facilities that look quite acceptable in the east coast of China, with all kinds of equipment and wharf ships, and at the same time there is a medium-sized ship repair station and a small marine industry chain that exists relying on this repair station, which makes Jiaohe Port have the ability to provide anchorage, supply, repair and maintenance services for ships sailing on the ocean, and can attract many merchant ships.

In addition, the port of the river is the only way for ships from the west coast of the African continent to cross the Atlantic Ocean to South America, and all kinds of goods and people gather here, so it is difficult not to develop. For example, Governor Wagner knew that the Courlands wanted to purchase production materials and labor tools, such as steel bars, gears, saw blades, blades, bolts, etc., which could be found in various shops in the port of Jiaohe, the difference was that the price was slightly more expensive, so after the merchant ships from Africa arrived in the New World, they liked to buy some of them at this first port of call and put them away, and then when they returned from the south, they went to other East Coast ports to see if they wanted goods, and then slowly filled up the required purchases.

Even daily necessities can be bought here. The only pharmaceutical company in the country on the East Coast, the state-owned North Pharmaceutical Factory, has set up a store here to sell medicines, including aspirin. In particular, the best-selling tropical commodities such as wind oil essence, carminative oil, and cool oil are never sold out in containers, and they are always sold out early.

In addition, wine, liquor, beer, biscuits, cured meats, canned goods, chocolate, coffee, cigarettes, matches and other common daily necessities on the East Coast – and even less common goods such as musical instruments, paintings, carvings and other goods – can be found in the rows of shops on the street of the docks. Everyone, as long as you have money, whether you are an East Coaster, a European, an Indian or a black, can make purchases here, and you can buy and sell fairly.

It can be seen that the development of Jiaohe Port and Jiaohe County is based on the passenger flow and the consequent prosperity of commerce. Without the numerous merchant ships and warships that sailed to and from South America, Africa, and the Caribbean, the county became a small and uncharacteristic seaport city, as it was in the hands of the Portuguese, although it was the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal's General Seguro at the time.

The officials of Jiaohe County are not stupid, and they can naturally see their future development model. Especially now that the country has run out of food – well, maybe it's not appropriate to say that there is no food, but it's clear that the focus of development has shifted to the south – and they should figure out how to go in the future and see what path they should take in the future. Just as the Bac Ninh region has found its own positioning, intends to develop canned food, biscuits, dried fruits and other food deep processing industries and supporting food machinery design, manufacturing and repair, Hue area focuses on the development of sugar refining, by-product development, timber industry and the corresponding machinery design, manufacturing and repair industry, the Jiaohe area (already in the brewing) will take the main business route in the future, which is already a high probability event.

For example, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce should be a little interested in the proposal of Jiaohe Port to focus on building an international trade port, and give them some talent and technical support. For example, Dayuhe Higher Finance College has arranged hundreds of graduates here to engage in import and export trade and daily financial management, which has strongly supported the development of Jiaohe County.

Governor Wagner, as a very important business partner of the East Bank Republic, naturally got the news about this, so this time he went to the East Bank by boat, he planned to stay in Jiaohe Port for a while longer, and find someone to understand the details of the future development of Jiaohe Port. If necessary, the colony of New Courland should buy land, build warehouses, and store goods at the port of Jiaohe, because it is said that there is a good chance that the port of Jiao will obtain a lower tariff rate on the import and export of goods from the government on the east coast, which will serve as the basis for the future development of the port city.

Truth be told, low tariffs are a very tempting temptation for legitimate businessmen, especially off the East Coast. This country has a large number of light and fast "Star" class light cruisers, which patrol the coastal waters from time to time, hunt down pirate ships, and pursue smuggling ships, which is very efficient, and it cannot be said that there is no smuggling at all, which is unrealistic, but it is certainly much less than the coastal areas of other countries, and the risks that smugglers need to take are extremely high, and the costs are too great, and they cannot do it for non-profiteering goods. Therefore, the vast majority of merchants who trade with the east coast are still willing to go to the port to trade through formal channels, although it is painful to pay import and export duties, port entry fees, service fees, etc., but they can only endure it.

And if the port succeeds in obtaining a lower tariff rate from the East Coast government, and at the same time reducing the amount of miscellaneous charges such as port entry fees and service charges, it will certainly be able to attract more merchants to trade than ever before, whether it is domestic merchants on the east coast or from overseas.

Governor Wagner stayed here for more than half a month, during which he visited many of the contacts accumulated during Governor Beveren's time, learned some little-known things, and became more and more optimistic about the future of the port. Therefore, he has basically decided that when he returns to Jacobs Port, he will start to deploy manpower to set up offices, warehouses and shops in the port of Jiaohe on the other side of the Atlantic, which will serve as a showcase for New Courland goods on the east coast.

You know, even the famous Dutch West India Company intends to set up a branch here, and it is also a decision made in the context of the company's years of entanglement with the English and the French in the Atlantic, and the increasingly difficult finances, which shows that this large colonial company has bet on the East Coast, and is counting on this place to turn over.

And the Dutch West India Company was determined to do so, so why shouldn't the New Courland colony, which was not so financially stressed? Whether to follow the policy of the east coast and respond to the call of the east coast is a major event related to the future development of New Courland, such as investing in the establishment of commercial institutions in Jiaohe Port, which has both practical benefits and can sell the people of the east coast, why not do it? Silly?

What's more, since the East Coast people fought with the United Provinces and the Baltic market sales plummeted, the Principality of Courland has become the de facto largest agent of East Coast goods around the Baltic Sea, shouldering the important task of opening up markets for East Coast goods and recovering lost territory. At present, they have not done a very satisfactory job in this work, the progress is very limited, and there is also some dissatisfaction on the east coast, and His Majesty the Grand Duke is worried about this and has been thinking of a way. And if the Duchy of Courland can purchase goods on the east coast at a relatively low price at the port of Jiaohe, it will also have a certain positive effect on the work they are currently working hard to promote, right? At least they can give agents more room to make profits, can't they?

"The Duchy of Courland lacks strategic depth in the Old World, the country is small and weak, and its neighbors are all jackals, tigers and leopards, and it will be swallowed up if you are not careful, so the back road of New Courland is extremely important, and you must not be angry with the people on the east coast in this regard. If the Jiaohe area is to be transformed and an international trade port is to be established, then we must be closely involved. Governor Leon Wolfgang Wagner thought.