O istorie a companiilor de navigaţie străine de la Dunărea de Jos

Abstract

Cristian Constantin’s study, O istorie a companiilor de navigaţie străine de la Dunărea de Jos (A History of Foreign Shipping Companies on the Lower Danube), is not only a history of foreign shipping companies active on the Lower Danube; it is also an affirmation of the significance of the expansion of Romania’s overseas trade during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Political conditions were favorable as a result of the ending of the Ottoman trading monopoly (1829), and the recognition of Romania’s independence (1878), while the country’s ability to supply large quantities of cereals, oil, and timber in return for advanced technology created a powerful economic basis for close commercial ties with the powers of Central and Western Europe. The growth of overseas trade led to radical changes in Romania’s economic geography because a much greater value was now placed on access to the Lower Danube and the agricultural potential of the steppes was greatly increased by the rising demand for cereals.Although the mouths of the Danube were important commercial highways in medieval times, providing economic underpinnings for the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, with their rival ports of Galați and Brăila, respectively, overland trade was fostered during the centuries of Turkish suzerainty. Over the last century and a half, there has been an emphasis on two principal routes for international shipping: one using the Danube right through the delta into the Black Sea, and another involving overland movement across Dobrogea, from Cernavoda on the Danube to Constanța on the Black Sea coast. The relative importance of these routes has fluctuated, but it is the maritime option that is the subject of Cristian Constantin’s book.The Lower Danube became a bone of contention between Austria and Russia as the Ottoman Empire continued its long process of contraction. Freedom of navigation for all was agreed upon between Russia and Turkey under the Convention of Cetatea Albă in 1825, while the Russian frontier advanced southward from the Chilia branch, reached in 1812 under the Treaty of Bucharest, to the Sulina arm in 1817, and finally to the Sfântul Gheorghe channel in 1829 under the Treaty of Adrianople. This latter treaty allowed the Russians to operate a quarantine station at the Sulina mouth. It was widely believed that the quarantine system was operated unfairly to divert shipping from Galați and Brăial to Russia’s own port of Odessa.Austria had an important interest in the Lower Danube when the introduction of a steamship in 1829 opened up the possibility of through sailings from Vienna to such ports as Constanța, Smyrna, Trebizond, and Varna. But by the middle of the nineteenth century, a critical situation had arisen on the Lower Danube. Britain, France, and Austria had a growing interest in trade with the Romanian principalities, but access through the delta was compromised by natural hazards and political problems. Frustration over Russia’s control of the Danube led to the Russian frontier being pushed well back from the delta, which was internationalized under the Treaty of Paris in 1856, and a European Commission of the Danube was established.The provenance of the companies covered in the seven chapters of this meticulously researched volume provide evidence of the international economic importance attached to trade on the Lower Danube: Austria, the North German shipper Lloyd, France, Russia, Britain, Italy, Hungary, Greece, and the Ottoman Empire are all represented.