Original scientific paper
Artur Benko Grado Bojnički, Chronicler and Statistician of Migrations and Mass Socio-Economic Events in Early 20th Century Croatia
Mira Kolar Dimitrijević
orcid.org/0000-0002-6050-5700
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb – Full Professor (retired)
Abstract
Artur Benko Grado Bojnički (born Ogulin, 1875 – died Zagreb, 1946) was one of the most prolific Croatian chroniclers and statisticians between the two world wars. Since he was a keen observer of
the world movements too, surely he is Croatia’s first globalist. Being a law school graduate with 20 years of experience in administration and fluent in foreign languages, Benko had a solid background
for systematic research of mass events in Croatia, especially prices, wages and migrations. He was a pioneer in these fields. Another pioneering aspect of his was his family background - they were the
Military Border people, serving in the military of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until he prioritized his interests to economy and migrations. Artur Benko himself claimed his family originated from Peteranec, nearby Koprivnica. His work was definitely multi-layered, being an administrator, writer, poet, translator (in his early years; until 1918) and statistician, economics writers (his late years, until he died). Both his early and late stages of life were extremely prolific, as he was hardworking, systematic, with vast knowledge of history and economics literature, published in various foreign languages. Thanks to him, today we can monitor movement of prices, wages and living costs (his statistical review »Index« was published in Serbo-Croatian, English and French); he also made necessary statistics on mass social movements and events for banking sector. He is best known for his research of
migrations; out of ten planned volumes of Migrations encyclopedia, he managed to publish two: Encyclopedia of Canada’s migrations (1930.) and U.S. Immigration law - Common Law (1933). He was a member of many professional associations and his work is of great value for our economic, social and migration history.
Keywords
Arthur Benko Grado; famyly Benko Bojnički; Emigration; Statistik; Social wiew
Hrčak ID:
95369
URI
Publication date:
3.12.2012.
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