ABSTRACT
W hen the Great Elector died he left an arm y 30,000 strong. Taxation and subsidies from other powers alone were no longer sufficient to m aintain the army. The need to finance the arm y was one m ajor factor responsible for his expanding trade and commerce in BrandenburgPrussia. One of the m ajor aspects of his domestic policy had been to a ttract im m igrants to Prussia and in this context, during the last years of his life, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 had played into his hands because it brought some 20,000 French and W alloon H uguenot em igrants to B randenburg-Prussia. Possessing more highly developed commercial and industrial skills than the m ajority of the native population, and having also a rather better education, the H uguenot im m igrants represented an asset the value of which to the commercial, industrial and intellectual developm ent of BrandenburgPrussia can never be overestimated.
