Page 10 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 10
plex Gateways
a black box, and very few scholars try to open and analyse it. However,
port histories are rich in very useful insights. Consider that, in order to
be successful, each port must effectively manage and overcome funda-
mental economic contradictions that are deeply rooted inside the local
environment. Traders want rates as low as possible, but the profits of
the logistic operators are tied to high rates; furthermore, the interests
of port workers clash head-on with those of both merchants and logis-
tic operators. Thinking on another level, we can recall the fact that all the
main economic actors (traders, logistic operators, port workers) are to-
gether interested in preserving the largest autonomy possible for their
activities, while at the national, regional, and municipal levels, the po-
litical operators want to contain such independencies as much as possi-
ble. From some points of view, seaports are self-governing bodies, living
side-by-side with other urban activities, with the risk of clashes between
the port’s and the city’s priorities, especially those involving movements
of people and goods, with ever-present risks of congestion, potentially
jeopardizing many other urban activities. The cases for the emergence of
conflicts are potentially countless. Moreover, we can speak about the im-
plementation of customs duties and border controls, the issues related to
health protection and safety, smuggling and tax evasion, the availability
and the quality of insurance services and other financial activities relat-
ed to trade, and so on.
We think that, within the available literature, some research ques-
tions seem to remain too poorly answered. In what ways did the internal
organization of ports, the management of the various work specializa-
tions necessary for their functioning, and the need to continuously re-
new the port organization interact and adapt to external changes over
time? And how were those issues recomposed into forms of unitary gov-
ernance? How effective were those forms of management in economic,
social, and even geopolitical and institutional terms? What about the hu-
man factor, inside the history of port development? Only a broad com-
parative analysis, through different geographical cases and different his-
torical periods, can allow us to find at least some satisfactory answers.
In November 2019, the Koper conference started looking for some
possible answers to these questions, beginning with the case of the
Northern Adriatic seaports, with some useful comparisons to verify on a
broader level the results coming from other local researches. As usually
10
a black box, and very few scholars try to open and analyse it. However,
port histories are rich in very useful insights. Consider that, in order to
be successful, each port must effectively manage and overcome funda-
mental economic contradictions that are deeply rooted inside the local
environment. Traders want rates as low as possible, but the profits of
the logistic operators are tied to high rates; furthermore, the interests
of port workers clash head-on with those of both merchants and logis-
tic operators. Thinking on another level, we can recall the fact that all the
main economic actors (traders, logistic operators, port workers) are to-
gether interested in preserving the largest autonomy possible for their
activities, while at the national, regional, and municipal levels, the po-
litical operators want to contain such independencies as much as possi-
ble. From some points of view, seaports are self-governing bodies, living
side-by-side with other urban activities, with the risk of clashes between
the port’s and the city’s priorities, especially those involving movements
of people and goods, with ever-present risks of congestion, potentially
jeopardizing many other urban activities. The cases for the emergence of
conflicts are potentially countless. Moreover, we can speak about the im-
plementation of customs duties and border controls, the issues related to
health protection and safety, smuggling and tax evasion, the availability
and the quality of insurance services and other financial activities relat-
ed to trade, and so on.
We think that, within the available literature, some research ques-
tions seem to remain too poorly answered. In what ways did the internal
organization of ports, the management of the various work specializa-
tions necessary for their functioning, and the need to continuously re-
new the port organization interact and adapt to external changes over
time? And how were those issues recomposed into forms of unitary gov-
ernance? How effective were those forms of management in economic,
social, and even geopolitical and institutional terms? What about the hu-
man factor, inside the history of port development? Only a broad com-
parative analysis, through different geographical cases and different his-
torical periods, can allow us to find at least some satisfactory answers.
In November 2019, the Koper conference started looking for some
possible answers to these questions, beginning with the case of the
Northern Adriatic seaports, with some useful comparisons to verify on a
broader level the results coming from other local researches. As usually
10
