Original scientific paper
The Economy of Šibenik from the Middle of the 19th Century to 1921
Milivoj Blažević
; Državni arhiv, Šibenik, Hrvatska
Abstract
During its almost thousand years old history Šibenik was one of the most significant economic centers on the Croatian Adriatic coast. It had an important role in the economy, particularly in the mercantile, crafts and industrial transformation of Dalmatia during the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. As the point of origin for the road connections between the littoral and the broad hinterland area, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Lika, Šibenik was, during a longer period of time, the harbor for exporting wood and minerals. It was the first city in Dalmatia to receive electricity in 1895 after which date its industrial development picked up in intensity. On the basis of new archival sources it is possible to reconstruct the changes from a city of agricultural laborers to the modern urban transformation of its core area with a number of economic activities that were at that time of recent date (mining, shipping, cottage industry, wine-growing, making of textiles, wood-pulp, carbides, fertilizers and others). From 1860 the accelerated development of the city was instigated by the initiative of the liberal segment of the enriched city stratum who in Šibenik had become the propagators of the political idea of the Croatian revival. Regarding this, the construction of the railroad link with the hinterland, the building of the new waterworks, the hospital, the theatre, the new operative waterfront and other infrastructural objects accelerated the development of the city which from the 5.000 inhabitants it had during the middle of the 19th century had reached the total of 14.000 inhabitants by 1918. This scholarly paper aimed to fill in and explain in broad outlines this important period in the development of the city of Šibenik. In addition to being the first industrial center in Dalmatia, Šibenik was also up to 1914 the second export harbor after Trieste on the eastern Adriatic coast.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
48325
URI
Publication date:
23.11.2009.
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