December
New Border
The northern border of the Empire has had some major changes. In a military sense, it has improved considerably. The great fortress in Krajina is now under Ottoman control. Along with that is the added ability to garrison 8 divisions at that one point. There is a good road going directly from Krajina to th Adriatic at Carniola. The same road is connected to Serbia. This will be of benefit to the Empire later on. Importantly also is the fact that such a system is now denied to our possible enemies.
There are some rather negative effects of gaining those 6 new provinces. As there were only 2 excess court developments the empire is now experiencing 8% waste. This seems to have affected food production and wool more than the other items. It is critical that manpower growth is maintained. This means that an even more disproportionate amount of labor needs to be dedicated to agriculture.
The new provinces are all suffering from unrest. This will likely continue for 9 months. During that period the normal production will be drastically reduced. Those places are barely able to cover their own food requirements. The end result of this is that the new provinces are actually a significant drain on Ottoman resources.
It is being considered at this time to create a protectorate-perhaps two. It was planned to make Montenegro a protectorate. However, that province is producing exactly what would be saved by reducing waste by 2%. It does not make any sense to release it. The new provinces can be released also. There is some doubt as to how well that would work while they are in unrest.
In July 2 more provinces will attain the magical number of level 5 courts. This will reduce waste to 4%. In September the unrest will end in the new provinces. As it will be another year before a further 2 court level 5 provinces will be completed there may be 2 protectorates formed at that time-if it has not been done already. The total number of provinces amount to 49.
Cotton and wool production has been affected in such a bad way that stocks will be exhausted in about 7 months. Reducing taxes would help alleviate this problem, but the funds are needed.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
Thomas Jefferson