A contribution to the economic history of Venetian Istria: main traits, sources and some research attitudes

Abstract

First, the Author values the results of the historical science (Italian, Croatian and Slovenian) in the study of the economic history of the 17th and 18th century in Istria. He concludes that the period was always considered troubled and critical, and that only rarely scholars entered into deeper and more precise studies. The approach to these problems should be more systematic and it should follow two main lines: the study of macroeconomic characteristics and the study of microeconomic traits, i.e., the situation in various local environments, urban and rural. The material for general questions can be found in the Archivio di Stato in Venice, some also in the Museo Correr. Important archival sources are kept in the archives of Pazin, Rijeka, Kopar and Trieste, as well as in the ecclesiastical archives at the Croatian part of Istria (for example an enormous quantity of notarial documents, economic data in the books of religious associations). In the second part of the paper, the Author describes the importance of single collections of documents in the Venetian archive for the history of the Istrian economy.