Petrović, Nikola: Hajózás és gazdálkodás a Közép-Duna-Medencében a merkantilizmus korában (Vajdasági Tudományos és Művészeti Akadémia, Novi Sad - Történelmi Intézet, Beograd, 1982)
Summary
category, only Austrians held 23 shares. It should be noted that at the end of 18th century the gentry numbered about 400 000, but none of these was in a position or wanted to invest in such a venture. Therefore, of the total 500 000 forints of capital stock, only 140 000, or 28 pet., was of Hungarian, and more than two thirds of Austrian origin. That is a good indicator of the relative level of economic development of the eastern and western parts of the empire. Not a single shareholder belonged to any of the other nationalities within the empire, accounting for approximately half its total population. This was all, naturally, a consequence of the unequal economic and social development within the Habsburg emipre. With Court backing to solve the problem of labour and its full support and control, the company promised publicly to complete the works, having overcome its financial difficulties, by the end of 1798. CHAPTER XII - REYIZED DESIGN AND RESUMPTION OF WORKS In this chapter I survey the struggle of the new management to solve three key problems at the same time: to make good the faulty works, to raise more funds through a loan, and to mobilize the necessary labour. After summarizing the problems which the management had to face, I give an account of the problems which Heppe had to solve himself. Above all, it had to be decided whether a lock would also be required at Szent Tomas (today Srbobran). After measuring twice the elevation difference between the relevant points, Heppe decided in favour of such a lock. His reasoning on this point is discussed in detail. The Kiss brothers tried, once again, to fight this decision, but they were severely reprimanded and removed from the site. Works on this lock began in September 1797. In measuring the elevation differences the surveyors did not employ the methods we now use, because elevations above sea level had not been determined in the Hungary of those days. Because of this, an imaginary point above ground level at Monostor, 42 feet above the highest recorded high-water mark on the Danube, was chosen as a reference for all elevations. I have also reconstructed the progress of work on the inlet and outlet gates. The greatest hazard was that sudden floods on the Danube and the Tisa might destroy everything. The documents allow the construction of these works to be followed continuously through 1798 and part of 1799. 504
