Original scientific paper

The travel of land-surveyor Šimrak to “Upper Italy” – a contribution to the history of the Croatian-Slavonian economical society in the middle of the 19th century

Goran Arčabić ; Museum of city of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The leadership of the Croatian-Slavonian economical society planned to introduce the irrigation methods in order to improve the local agriculture. Therefore land-surveyor Vasil Šimrak was sent to the Kingdom of Venetia - Lombardy in the spring of 1845. It appears that Šimrak was also instructed by the bishop of Zagreb Juraj Haulik to seek information on silkworm industry in Lombardy. There was interest to develop such industry in Croatia in order to secure the ample supply of high quality fabric for priests’ clothes. Still, the attempt to inform members of the Society with the irrigation methods failed for various reasons. Although the Society aspired to become a true national institution, its membership was until 1848 and later made of landowners and civil servants from Croatia. The Slavonian aristocracy, mostly of foreign descent, did not participate in the activities of the Society and it was not interested to apply information collected by Šimrak during his stay in the “Upper Italy”. Traditional and conservative views of the Croatian landowners also contributed to the failure of Šimrak’s travel. The introduction of irrigation system needed the close cooperation of landowners and also the investment of financial funds. Landowners were not interested in such initiatives because they were content with the use of serfs’ unpaid manual labour with the low level use of available technology. The abolition of the feudal relations in the agriculture in 1848 did not change such views. Although Šimrak’s visit to the Kingdom of Venetia - Lombardy was not successful in its primary task, it certainly left a lasting impression on Šimrak himself. His remaining writings and published articles suggest that he was quite educated and open to new ideas. He was certainly inspired by the visit to Lombardy. He thought that Lombardy has a good organization of economy and as such it could be a model for Banal Croatian.

Keywords

Croatian-Slavonian economical society; Vasil Šimrak; Croatia; Slavonia; Lombard-Venetian Kingdom; melioration,; silk production

Hrčak ID:

22253

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/22253

Publication date:

7.6.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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