Review article
A Contribution to the History of the Harbor-Merchant and Railroad Traffic in Šibenik from 1921 to 1941
Milivoj Blažević
; Arhivski centar u Šibeniku, Šibenik, Hrvatska
Abstract
The geo-strategic significance of Šibenik enabled a period of more intensive development up to the beginning of the economic crisis in 1929. In this respect Šibenik was the emporium for the surplus of commodities and raw materials from the hinterland of the country and from a number of the countries of Central Europe. Wood, coal, bauxite, aluminum, gypsum, artificial fertilizers and other products of the chemical industry as well as surpluses of agricultural products (wine, oil) were of great significance for the export balance of harbor traffic. The absence of a concerted care on the part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for the maritime tradition, for the importance of the Dalmatian harbors and for industry in general was the reason that the city, despite the enormous potentiality of its infrastructure, did not develop more complex forms of harbor-transportation economy. Foreign capital generally participated in the exploitation of the raw material basis of this region and did not impact on the development of technology which would have enabled a more significant advancement of industrial production. The absence of economic strategy and political disagreements of different protagonists as agents of general development were the causes of a self-sustaining growth and the slow trend of the increase of the general standard and the organization of the communal system. The field worker element in the populace of the city, even in the face of all industrial-craft innovations and progress, in large part gave the basic tone of particularist interests of modest agricultural and transportation-merchant development. In this respect, from the mid 30ies Šibenik shared a similar fate with the whole of Dalmatia all the way to the beginning of WWII in 1941. Discovered archival sources, up to now unknown and not researched, have made it possible that for the first time these issues be presented for the said period in which Šibenik played a significant role. During the period when Zadar was outside the framework of state territorial borders, Šibenik assumed many functions as the center of northern Dalmatia and alongside of Split, which up to 1941 experienced a more powerful period of growth, was the central locality of a good part of trans-oceanic exports and trafficking towards Italy and other Mediterranean countries as well as towards Great Britain, Holland, Germany and the United States.
Keywords
Šibenik; Šibenik harbor; railway; geopolitics; trade and transportation; industry; operative harbor and storage place; Šipad; SUFID; Vrulje; Dobrik and Rogač; Trade industrial-craft chamber
Hrčak ID:
26697
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2007.
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