Original scientific paper
A Contribution to the History of the Agricultural Šibenik Region from 1921 to 1941
Milivoj Blažević
; Arhivski centar u Šibeniku, Šibenik, Hrvatska
Abstract
During the inter-war years from 1818 to 1941 agriculture was an important occupation for a large number of the populace of the city of Šibenik and its surrounding area. In the period when industry developed in the city on the basis of the use of electricity through which Šibenik is famous as the first city in Croatia that used it, agriculture was primarily based on the growing of vineyards and olive groves and partially on the cultivation of vegetables. All the indexes bring data indicating the significant contribution made by agriculture in sustaining the then contemporary standard of living of field workers element of the city population and its immediate surrounding area. According to the production of wine and oil the Šibenik area held the central position in Dalmatia. On the local level the crux of the political conflicts was conditioned by the desire to ensure better conditions for the production and the finding of markets for these basic agricultural products through the sale of whose surplus this area realized significant profit. The problem of an insufficiently educated populace to implement a modern mode of agricultural production prevented this branch of the economy to undergo significant growth. Insufficient protection by state policies relating to taxes, tariffs, investments and raw materials did not enable a higher level of organization of agriculture nor the rise of an independent market. The size of the holdings and the inherited feudal relations limited the application of modern modes of tilling the land because the field workers did not easily change primitive ways of working the land and did not willingly accept modern technologies in this branch of the economy. This article is the first scholarly contribution to this theme relating to Šibenik and a part of the countryside that gravitates towards the city.
Keywords
Šibenik; agriculture; wine and wine production; agrarian reform; olive growing; cooperatives; taxes
Hrčak ID:
26698
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2007.
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