Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.58565/vda.6.1.6
A Contribution to Understanding the Organisation of Financial Offices in the Kingdom of Dalmatia under the Second Austrian Administration (1814–1918)
Ankica Strmota
; The State Archives in Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This article delivers a survey of the financial offices in Dalmatia during the years 1814–1918 under the Second Austrian Administration. It examines information on their establishment, administrative operations, territorial competence, and statutory authority on the basis of which they carried out their duties. Decisions on the establishment of financial offices were made by the central authorities in Vienna, meaning that their creation was closely linked to both the political and socio-economic situation in Dalmatia and throughout the Monarchy. The central authorities in Vienna precisely prescribed, strictly supervised, and closely monitored the work of the financial offices, so that the regulations concerning their establishment and operation were published in the official government gazette, the Reichs- Gesetz-Blatt. “Instructions on Work and Internal Organisation” can be found either in printed form or as transcripts at the hierarchically highest administrative body in Dalmatia — the Presidential Office of the Government/Viceregency for Dalmatia — as well as at the highest financial authority, the Provincial Financial Directorate for Dalmatia. For these reasons, the sources most frequently used in this study were precisely the legislative regulations and official directives. The records of the financial authorities presented in this study are preserved in the holdings of the State Archives in Zadar, most of which have survived only in fragments. This article focuses on the work of the following financial offices, whose records are kept in archival fonds as follows: HR-DAZD-99 Pokrajinsko Financijsko Ravnateljstva (En.: Provincial Financial Directorate) (1813–1918), HR-DAZD-103 Financijsko Ravnateljstvo u Zadru (En.: Financial Directorate in Zadar) (1816–1868), HR-DAZD-101 Predsjedništvo uprave državnih dobara u Trstu (En.: Presidency of the Administration of State Property in Trieste) (1840–1854), and HR-DAZD-100 Državno Pokrajinsko Računovodstvo (En.: State Provincial Accounting Office) (1819–1866). In addition to these archival fonds, the archival fonds HR-DAZD-88 Vlada/Namjesništvo u Zadru (En.: Government/ Viceregency in Zadar) preserves documents relating to provincial finances, particularly after 1866, when a reorganisation of the financial administration and offices took place throughout the Monarchy, which involved the abolition of the provincial state accounting offices and the establishment of accounting departments within the central administrative bodies. A key feature of the operation of financial offices in Dalmatia during the Second Austrian Administration was the clear delineation of the responsibilities and scope of duties of each individual financial office, as well as the strict centralised control exercised by the state over public finances.
Keywords
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, second Austrian administration, Dalmatia, financial office
Hrčak ID:
343691
URI
Publication date:
30.1.2026.
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