Petrović, Nikola: Hajózás és gazdálkodás a Közép-Duna-Medencében a merkantilizmus korában (Vajdasági Tudományos és Művészeti Akadémia, Novi Sad - Történelmi Intézet, Beograd, 1982)
Summary
large fluctuations; wheat waiting for the home market or export would deteriorate and go to waste. Streams and railway, of course, did not exist yet. To clarify the economic, social and political conditions under which two engineers, the brothers József and Gabor Kiss, proposed in 1791 the construction of a Danube — Tisa canal in southern Backa, the rise of Josephinism and the fall of that brief but nevertheless important period of Austrian history will be reviewed in some detail. CHAPTER I - STATE ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES IN RIVER TRAINING Improvement of Navigation and Schooling of Experts In order to give the reader a brief outline of the history of river training works in Hungary, the evolution of legislation concerning this matter in Hungary and Austria will be reviewed, beginning with 1595, when the Hungarian Diet (parliament) passed the first legal act on the clearing of the streambeds of all obstacles hindering navigation, and then, in 1613, an act on the construction of levees. Special attention is paid to the legal acts on the maintenance of river navigability, passed during the rule of Maria Theresa. With the 1751 act, river training for navigation and the construction of navigable canals became the responsibility of the central administration. A special administrative body was set up in Vienna, to administer all matters concerning river navigation via its own field representatives — the so-called chamber engineers. The Hungarian district authorities still retained an engineering office in charge of all matters concerning waters, except navigation. During the reign of M.Theresa the Vienna government enacted four decrees on waters — in 1751, in 1773, and in 1777, the year in which the whole edifice of the Austrian absolute centralized monarchy was practically completed, and the influence of Joseph II, as co—regent, had already become a decisive factor in state affairs. The act of 1777, got licensed the Vienna court chamber to set up a separate administrative body — a central authority for navigability of the Danube and its tributaries. This Authority was founded on four field sections, each headed by an engineer. Just before two engineers, József and Gabor Kiss, started designing a project to ling the Danube with the Tisa via a canal to be dug in southern Baőka, the Vienna River Navigation Authority was reorganized (in 1788), 483
