Page 122 - 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. 122
plex Gateways
ECA aid to Trieste has, therefore, been of benefit of Italy, as well,
both directly in that a considerable portion of the imports provided
by this aid have been on Italian account, and indirectly, in that the
receipt of aid by Trieste and the resulting generation of counterpart
have decreased the contribution of dollars which Italy has been re-
quired to make from the common foreign exchange pool, and of lira
to cover Trieste’s budget deficit, which Italy is committed to supply.
[…] Properly stated, therefore, the issue is not whether aid to Trieste
should be terminated but rather whether it should continue to be sup-
plied directly as Eca aid to Trieste, or should be handled indirectly
through the Italian program.15
The construction of this new identity for the local economy should
also keep in account the particular interplay between the internal and
external determinants. After Tito’s expulsion from Cominform (1948),
the American politics for the area’s stabilization succeeded in detaching
Yugoslavia from the Soviet influence, also subsiding the construction of
a new port system in Slovenia, located near the boundary with Trieste at
Koper-Capodistria. The help given to Capodistria is a good example of
the limits of the short-term optics of that time. The doubling of the har-
bour capacity was a good choice with respect to the Anglo-British desire,
after 1953, to solve the problem of Trieste with a compromise, assigning
Zone A to Italy and Zone B to Yugoslavia. However, in a more long-term
perspective, the objective of a self-supporting economy was lost, and for
Italy there remained the commitment to assist an over-sized and in part
parasitical economy.
‘Unfortunately, during the reconstruction process Trieste missed a
priceless opportunity to renew its port facilities in the light of recent ex-
perience made in the field of maritime transport, and in view of its fore-
seeable evolution’ (Maggi and Borruso 1996, 38). In fact, in other ports,
especially in Germany, after the almost complete destruction suffered
during the war, the ports were completely rebuilt following an up-to-
date approach. In contrast, the prevailing trend in Trieste was to restore
things exactly ‘as they were before’, thereby missing a crucial opportuni-
ty for endowing its port facilities with a layout that might have been more
15 NARA, RG 469, Eca, Deputy Director for Operations, Office of European Opera-
tions, Italy Division, Trieste Decimal File 1948–1953, folder: TR Ec. Activ. 1.0 1.2
1.24 (copy in IRSML, b. 76), Alex B. Despit to C. Tyler Wood, 16 February 1951.
122
ECA aid to Trieste has, therefore, been of benefit of Italy, as well,
both directly in that a considerable portion of the imports provided
by this aid have been on Italian account, and indirectly, in that the
receipt of aid by Trieste and the resulting generation of counterpart
have decreased the contribution of dollars which Italy has been re-
quired to make from the common foreign exchange pool, and of lira
to cover Trieste’s budget deficit, which Italy is committed to supply.
[…] Properly stated, therefore, the issue is not whether aid to Trieste
should be terminated but rather whether it should continue to be sup-
plied directly as Eca aid to Trieste, or should be handled indirectly
through the Italian program.15
The construction of this new identity for the local economy should
also keep in account the particular interplay between the internal and
external determinants. After Tito’s expulsion from Cominform (1948),
the American politics for the area’s stabilization succeeded in detaching
Yugoslavia from the Soviet influence, also subsiding the construction of
a new port system in Slovenia, located near the boundary with Trieste at
Koper-Capodistria. The help given to Capodistria is a good example of
the limits of the short-term optics of that time. The doubling of the har-
bour capacity was a good choice with respect to the Anglo-British desire,
after 1953, to solve the problem of Trieste with a compromise, assigning
Zone A to Italy and Zone B to Yugoslavia. However, in a more long-term
perspective, the objective of a self-supporting economy was lost, and for
Italy there remained the commitment to assist an over-sized and in part
parasitical economy.
‘Unfortunately, during the reconstruction process Trieste missed a
priceless opportunity to renew its port facilities in the light of recent ex-
perience made in the field of maritime transport, and in view of its fore-
seeable evolution’ (Maggi and Borruso 1996, 38). In fact, in other ports,
especially in Germany, after the almost complete destruction suffered
during the war, the ports were completely rebuilt following an up-to-
date approach. In contrast, the prevailing trend in Trieste was to restore
things exactly ‘as they were before’, thereby missing a crucial opportuni-
ty for endowing its port facilities with a layout that might have been more
15 NARA, RG 469, Eca, Deputy Director for Operations, Office of European Opera-
tions, Italy Division, Trieste Decimal File 1948–1953, folder: TR Ec. Activ. 1.0 1.2
1.24 (copy in IRSML, b. 76), Alex B. Despit to C. Tyler Wood, 16 February 1951.
122
