The government of Courland was next to the then existing provinces Estonia (the present-day northern part of the Republic of Estonia) Livonia and the third of the Russian Ostseegouvernements, by the Baltic German nobility were each managed autonomously.

The edition “Courland freight documents” the research developed a central source of information for the Livonian history of the late Middle Ages and the Reformation, to the particular economic, socially- opened and population issues new historical insights. The data relating to rural land in the area of ​​the later Duchy of Courland “Freight documents” – primarily feudal, Purchase- and deposit certificates, Documents about Eheberedungen, Border inspections, litigation, Pension activities u.a.m. – are in the publication of the Liv-, Is- Courland and document book recessed remained, so that with their publishing a hitherto largely unknown source fundus presented[...]