Petrović, Nikola: Hajózás és gazdálkodás a Közép-Duna-Medencében a merkantilizmus korában (Vajdasági Tudományos és Művészeti Akadémia, Novi Sad - Történelmi Intézet, Beograd, 1982)
Summary
matter in 1796. In fact, it was not considered that the interruption of the works had in any way invalidated the legal force of the emperor's earlier decision. The request for a concession was submitted, on behalf of the company, by four influental Austrian and Hungarian magnates and a representative of the Zagreb archbishop M.Vrhovac. On 30 June 1801 the Emporor finally ratified the decision to award the concession, under the condition that a new, independent branch be set up within the Privileged Shipping Company to be called the „Company for Management of the Kupa from Ladasica to Brod na Kupi and Construction of a Road for Goods Transport from Brod na Kupi to Rijeka with Branch Roads for Bakar and Kraljevic". The concession states that the canalized part of the Kupa river would be 120 km long, that ships of 300 to 600 centners (168 to 336 metric centners) capacity would be able to navigate it, that a „comfortable road” would be constructed from Brod and that it could be able to take horse-drawn carts carrying 40 to 50 centners (22.4 to 28 metric centners), using four—horse teams without any changes right through to the Adriatic. The old Caroline road could only take 10 centner (5.6 metric centner) carts with the same number of horses. The concession would be granted for 50 years, i.e. twice as much as for the Danube—Tisa canal. The construction of the canal would be carried out in two stages, from Brod to Ladasic to Karlovac. The time limit for the completion of works was set at only two years. The company did not ask for a state loan or specify the cost of construction. In fact, it is completely unknown whether such an estimate existed at all! The company was granted the exclusive right to transport all goods by water and land. The shipping rates set by the concession were higher than in the case of the Danube—Tisa canal. Road tolls from Brod to Adriatic were fixed both for pedestrians and for all other forms of traffic and transport. The company was required to provide drinking water along the way. From the documents available to the author it cannot be seen who designed the new scheme for training of the Kupa. From among a number of possibilities it seems most likely to have been the French engineer Henri—Philippe Charpentier. The design makes use of several of the Kiss brothers' basic ideas. The company immediately opened a branch office in Karlovac, and in July 1801 the work was in full swing. Money was regularly flowing to the site, and monthly spendings were reaching a sum of about 50 000 forints. But no more, specific data on the problems and rate of progress of the works, successes and difficulties, can be found. 508
