Petrović, Nikola: Hajózás és gazdálkodás a Közép-Duna-Medencében a merkantilizmus korában (Vajdasági Tudományos és Művészeti Akadémia, Novi Sad - Történelmi Intézet, Beograd, 1982)
Summary
course of the Napoleonic Wars. All persons employed on the canal were given the some legal status as those employed by nobles in the Kingdom of Hungary. In addition, the company was accorded the right to fly the Hungarian royal standard and the canal was given the official name of the Francis II Canal. With this act, the company acquired the legal status of a privileged shipping stock company, the first of its kind in the central Danube Basin, and in fact in the whole if the Habsburg empire. It was to build the largest hydraulic engineering structure in the central Danube Basin and in southeastern Europe, which would not be surpassed in size and significance until the construction of the Danube—Tisa—Danube canal after the Second World War. CHAPTER V - STOCK SALES, COMMENCEMENT OF WORKS LABOUR PROCUREMENT In spite of the fact that the company records disappeared during World War II, information on the conditions for buying shares and of the actual sales have been preserved in printed form in the Hungarian periodical published in Vienna Magyar Hirmondo (The Hungarian Courier). Two days upon the signing of the contract between the Kiss's and the Chamber (March 31, 1793) an article about the decision to building a navigable canal in southern Backa was published in this paper. The first part of the article was a short account of the economic significance and technical features of the canal. After this, the designers informed the public that the canal would be built by a stock company and what that meant, what was stock and what benefit prospective bayers could expect from acquiring a share of the stock. They envisaged that shareholders would receive an interest of 5 pet during the construction of the canal, and 9 to 10 pet after its completion. It may be noted that they had to explain in the press not only what was stock, but also what a stockmarket was, and also that Wienna, i.e. the private banking house Baldtauff, was chosen as the transaction centre for this stock, because there was no appropriate organization in Buda. This throws some light on the level of Hungarian edonomic development at that time. The designers emphasized particularly that the famous ducal family Dietrichstein had promissed to invest a sum of 300 000 forints in the works. Three sorts of stock were issued: first-order shares, nominally valued at 5 000 forints each, second—order shares, at 1000 and third—order shares, at 500 forints. The holders of the first were guaranteed a preferential and decisive influence on the company policy. 491
