Problems with 1.03B and C

[unmerged(36452)]

I bought Victoria recently, and patched to 1.03, and then after going crazy when my clerks were downgrading to farmers because of emigration eventually came upon the 1.03B and C patches. However, I downloaded them, extracted the files, and attempted to install the patch, but was told that "--- excel file 'db\province.csv' not found". Clicking 'ignore' on this error then brought me "--- excel file 'db\topology.csv not found". At this point the patch installer would shut down.
I uninstalled and then installed again Victoria, repatched 1.03, and tried again - with the same result.
I'm sick of those clerks picking up pitchforks, so please, tell me what the problem is here.

 

[unmerged(9404)]

I don't understand exactly how you installed the beta patches as there is no installer for it.

The proper installation method:
1) Install Victoria
2) Install patch 1.03
3) Unzip 1.03c in the directory where the Victoria.exe is located, when asked you should overwrite files.

If you now start the game the first Victoria screen (where you can choose between SP, MP etc.) should have Victoria 1.03c in its upper left corner.

 

[Castellon]

Sounds like you unziped the patch in it's own directory and tried to run it.
As Ironfoundersson mentions it is ment to overwrite the existing EXE, not stand on it's own.