LIBAU (Liepja) in Latvia. The modern Liepaja, is one of the two major ice-free ports (with Ventspils) in Kurzeme, the westernmost  region of Latvia. Courland, as it once was, was named after the Curi, a seafaring people, who lived here before the  German knights arrived. Courland became a duchy under Polish sovereignty after the breakup of Livonia (1562) as a result of the Livonian wars between Sweden and Russia. It belonged then to Gotthard Kettlers, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and flourished in the next century under Jekabs Kettlers. It became the Courland-Semigallia imperial port (1625-1795) born out of a wish of the small Duchy of Courland and Semigallia to become a major naval power. For this it needed ports, and Liepāja located on a great location between sea and lake was granted city rights in 1625. Ships left its shores to colonize Gambia and Tobago, while the port was constantly expanded (in 1697 artificial lake-to-sea shipping canals have replaced a local river). While the majority of Courland-Semigallia population was ethnically Latvian, its leadership and elite were German. As such, the new Liepāja was overwhelmingly German, who called the city Libau. The plan of colonization may have been too big for the small Duchy. After losing multiple wars, Courland-Semigallia had to relinquish its American and African colonies in the 18th century and ceased to be a naval power. Liepāja’s importance plummeted together with that of its owner-state, which slowly came under Russian influence, who used the port to export large quantities of flax and hemp to the UK. The railway reached Liepāja (1871), allowing development of factories. Liepāja expanded as Russia’s westernmost port. It received a direct steamship service to New York and was used for cargo export. It was the starting point of Russia-USA Transatlantic telegraph (est. 1906). Shipments of flax are made from Libau as (K) crown ; and 4 brand (superior to 3-band).

Vessel	Ship Arrivals and Departures for Libau					Cargo
Bruce	20-09-1820	Arrived	Dundee	from	Libau	Flax
Mary	29-05-1831	Arrived	Dundee	from	Libau	Flax
David	11-06-1831	Arrived	Dundee	from	Libau	Flax
Therese Horn	31-12-1889	Arrived	Dundee	from	Libau	Tow Flax
Therese Horn had flax identified 7 bales tow - 38 cwt and 18 bales flax - 85 cwt

#	OBVERSE click thumbnail		REVERSE click thumbnail			Finder/Location
IDS 1831		MAHLMUHLE (Flour Mill) BEREND & CO 1880		Sch M	Mill in Libau Office in Riga	Taneli Leinonen Loppi Southern Finland

                      MAHLMUHLE BEREND & Co, DAMPFMEHLMUHLE, LIBAU. KONTOR: RIGA, L.KEINU 32.

                     MAHLMUHLE BEREND & Co, STEAM FLOUR MILL, LIBAU, OFFICE in RIGA, L.KEINU 32.

In the 1880s and 1890s, several specific production units were built in Jaunliepāja (New Town) one of the neighbourhoods of Liepāja, (Libau) in Latvia . In 1880, a merchant Löwenthal from Libau built a grain mill on the corner of Aleksandra and Tirgus iela, and the Prussian businessman Siegfried Berend, in cooperation with a company Krakau und Hesse from Berlin, built a steam flour mill on Preču iela 64, next to the railway.

 Company Berend & Co built a compact six-storey steam mill building to the Berlin’s architect Karl Hesse project. It was the largest such company in Kurzeme. Annually it processed from 12,000 to 15,000 tons of corn and produced flour, bran, pearl-barley and grits for export. They had a main office in Riga at L.Keinu 32.

Liepāja in 1701, looking from the sea. The seashore was occupied by a large fortress (later replaced by a district of wooden villas), while the town itself stood further inland. The shipping channel connected the sea with the lake.

  By order of the Queen in Council dated St. James's Jan. 5 inst. 1710, for leave to the "Fortune" (John Mattinson master, with flax from Libau) to come to their place of discharge and unlade, they having come thence early in the spring before any infection was known either at Dantzic or Queenborough [Konigsberg]: all on the petition of the Governor and Fellowship of the Merchants of Eastland.