Petrović, Nikola: Hajózás és gazdálkodás a Közép-Duna-Medencében a merkantilizmus korában (Vajdasági Tudományos és Művészeti Akadémia, Novi Sad - Történelmi Intézet, Beograd, 1982)

Summary

SUMMARY

Nikola PETROV IC, Ph. D.

NAVIGATION AND THE ECONOMY IN THE CENTRAL DANUBE BASIN IN THE AGE OF MERCANTILISM

The Construction of the Danube—Tisa Canal and Efforts to Connect the Central Danube—Basin with the Adriatic in the Late 18th Century

Introduction

The Habsburg Empire in the 2nd Half of the 17th Century

At a certain stage of socio-economic development the feudal monarchy of the early Middle Ages is replaced by absolute monarchy, or, as it is called by some historians, enlightened despotism (a term which I do not consider appropriate). States of this type, characteristically feature curbing of the rights of local feudal lords and the creation and consolidation of an absolute centralized governmental authority. Within the Habsburg empire this process was rather specific. In 18th century, this large continental empire stretched from the Netherlands in the west, to the farmost ridges of the Carpathians in the east, and to the Iron Gate (Djerdap) cataract in the southeast. It embraced lands and peoples at very different stages of social, economic and cultural development and of heterogeneous ethnic stock. Hence the strivings of the Habsburg family to forge this almost intractable melange into an organized and highly developed centralized state came up against much greater obstacles than in the states of Western Europe. During the reign of Maria Theresa the centralized absolute monarchy took on a definite shape. Her son, Joseph II pushed centralization still further, especially with the enforced introduction of German as the official language which met with oposition and finaly led to a revolt of the Hungarian aristocracy, so that on his deathbed (1790) he was forced to revoke a number of his own reforms and reinstitute the old Hungarian constitution.

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