Buildings and Economy in the Hapsburg Port City of Trieste (1760-1809)

Abstract

With the one-sided proclamation of free navigation in the Adriatic Sea in 1716 Habsburg Emperor Karl VI made the first self-confident step concerning Austrian shipping policy. Three years later the ports of Trieste and Rijeka were announced to be «free ports» , which began an active mercantile policy in the Austrian Littoral that primarily challenged the predominance of the Venetians at sea. This paper focuses on the city of Trieste. The growth and development of the city did not immediately follow the political and economic measures that entailed consistent fiscal and other forms of relief and allowed public work on infrastructure, whose aims were to attract new inhabitants, and particular merchants. Nevertheless, in the following decades, Trieste started to grow and soon entered a phase of rapid economic development. In seven decades – from the 1730s to the early years of the 19th century – the private construction sector in Trieste shifted from the construction of shaky huts to that of monumental palaces. The main reason for rich buildings can be identified in the central role held by real estate in the economic system and development of the city that relied on tax relief and the flexibility of the financial system. In fact, real estate had a higher importance than simply that of «real estate capital » , which is why in the last decades of the 18th and in the first years of the 19th centuries the construction sector enjoyed a marked development boom. an active mercantile policy in the Austrian Littoral that primarily challenged the predominance of the Venetians at sea. This paper focuses on the city of Trieste. The growth and development of the city did not immediately follow the political and economic measures that entailed consistent fiscal and other forms of relief and allowed public work on infrastructure, whose aims were to attract new inhabitants, and particular merchants. Nevertheless, in the following decades, Trieste started to grow and soon entered a phase of rapid economic development. In seven decades – from the 1730s to the early years of the 19th century – the private construction sector in Trieste shifted from the construction of shaky huts to that of monumental palaces. The main reason for rich buildings can be identified in the central role held by real estate in the economic system and development of the city that relied on tax relief and the flexibility of the financial system. In fact, real estate had a higher importance than simply that of «real estate capital » , which is why in the last decades of the 18th and in the first years of the 19th centuries the construction sector enjoyed a marked development boom.