Petrović, Nikola: Hajózás és gazdálkodás a Közép-Duna-Medencében a merkantilizmus korában (Vajdasági Tudományos és Művészeti Akadémia, Novi Sad - Történelmi Intézet, Beograd, 1982)
Summary
CHAPTER XI - CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANAL UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT SHAREHOLDERS ANNUAL MEETING IN 1798 The expert commission which inspected the canal in 1797 estimated that the works could be completed by the end of that year, provided the state authorities could at once send to the site some 3000 workers, mainly French prisoners of war and serfs from the Chamber estates. In this connection, the commission sent a memorandum to the Hungarian palatine, the Archduke Joseph of Habsburg. With the labour problem still unsolved in July, the head office decided to apply more strictly the principle of paying salaries according to efficiency, i.e. by the cubic fathom excavated or by the time required for the removel of the excavated soil. For the purpose of recruiting labour, agile and reliable man were sent both to the surrounding and to far off counties. The Regent Council in Buda was asked to call upon the county authorities to give these men full and effective help. The Council sent appropirate instructions to the counties, but the results were meager. Because of this, the problem was brought up again at the shareholders annual meeting in 1798. This meeting also had on its agenda another much more delicate problem. The emperor had requisted that the nex Aponyi—Redl management should be given unlimited powers to put the company affairs to rights, by raising a loan of 1 200 000 forints, upon an equal guarantee of all shareholders. In addition, Aponyi would be appointed a royal commissioner, and the company put under the direct control of the Ministry of Finance. These measures were to help consolidate the company's position, both on the capital market and with its shareholders, who had been asked to guarantee for the loans raised by the company. According to Aponyi, the state had decided in favour of such measures, because it could not allow the first ,,brave attempt" to set up a stock company in the Habsburg empire to fail. Considering that the cost of the canal had initially been estimated at 800 000 forints, and that a loan of 1 200 000 forints had to be raised in 1798, the Kiss brothers' failure in the financial sphere becomes quite apparent. They can be excused only partly on the account that the prices rose sharply with the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, which event they could not foresee. I have analyzed the social and class structure of the shareholders, on the basis of a list attached to the meeting minutes. Of the total of 50 preference shares of 10 000 forints nominal value, 14 were in the hands of five Hungarian magnates. Nine big holders were from among the top Austrian feudal lords, who owned 13 of the preference sheres. The pattern among the minor aristocracy, middle—class and army was quite the opposite: there was not one of Hungarian nationality. In this 503
