Page 75 - 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. 75
The Rijeka Trading Company
Antoniotto Botta Adorno (Branduzzo, Lombardy 1688 - Torre d’Iso-
la, near Pavia 1774), a former military commander and Austrian gov-
ernor of Genoa (Laenen 1901),4 was appointed as the minister plenipo-
tentiary (minister plenipotenziario) in Brussels just before the founding
of the Company in 1749; he was entrusted to find appropriate investors
and directors for the Company. Along with the governor, the Habsburg
Archduke Charles of Lorraine, Minister Botta Adorno was the most influ-
ential man inside the Austrian administration.5
On 23 August 1749, Botta Adorno contacted Aldegonde Proli Pauli
(Houtman-De Smedt 1983, 71–2), the widow of the banker Pietro Proli, the
former director of the abolished one-time East India Company in Ostend
(1722–1733) and the Proli banking family. Thereby, he also connected the
business circles of Antwerp with the Court Chamber in Vienna. Aldegonde
Pauli (born in the United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1685, died in
Antwerp in 1761), was the mother of fifteen children and the head of the
kept in Vienna, Trieste, Rijeka, and Antwerp, previous researchers, in Antwerp
and in Vienna, mainly focused on individual, isolated sources, and they had a
somewhat incomplete picture of the circumstances of the creation and develop-
ment of the Company. Several years ago, I reviewed part of the extensive mate-
rial about the Company preserved in the Finanz und Hofkammerarchiv in Vienna,
and the very thorough work of archivist Victor Hoffman was used. When the res-
toration research of the Company’s administration building in Rijeka started, oth-
er Croatian researchers began to be interested in the history of the Company and
the building, in particular, Petar Puhmajer of the Croatian Conservation Institute
from Zagreb, who had also researched in Vienna, as well as in the Archivio di Sta-
to in Trieste and the State Archives in Rijeka.
4 He was born inside an aristocratic family from Genoa, from which seven doges
were chosen. He distinguished himself in several wars and commanded Austrian
units in Northern Italy. He also became the Austrian governor of Genoa and was
remembered for the imposition of high taxes. He remained the minister plenipo-
tentiary (minister plenipotenziario) in the Austrian Netherlands in Brussels, with
powers close to the governor’s, until 1753. After returning to Italy he became the
prime minister of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and later an ambassador in Russia,
in the court of Empress Catherine the Great.
5 I am sincerely grateful to the experts, researchers and archivists in Antwerp who
deal with the Rijeka Company. Of great help to me during the research there were:
University professor Helma Houtman-De Smedt, my colleague from the Museum
aan de Stroom, Jan Parmentier, and Christian Selleslach, archivist in the Muse-
um Plantin Moretus, where extensive material about the Company related to the
Moretus family is preserved. With their collegial kindness, they allowed me an in-
sight into the material and enabled me to clarify the connection between the Vi-
enna Court and the bankers and merchants in Antwerp, who jointly founded the
Company and built the Company’s facilities and the administrative palace in Rije-
ka.
75
Antoniotto Botta Adorno (Branduzzo, Lombardy 1688 - Torre d’Iso-
la, near Pavia 1774), a former military commander and Austrian gov-
ernor of Genoa (Laenen 1901),4 was appointed as the minister plenipo-
tentiary (minister plenipotenziario) in Brussels just before the founding
of the Company in 1749; he was entrusted to find appropriate investors
and directors for the Company. Along with the governor, the Habsburg
Archduke Charles of Lorraine, Minister Botta Adorno was the most influ-
ential man inside the Austrian administration.5
On 23 August 1749, Botta Adorno contacted Aldegonde Proli Pauli
(Houtman-De Smedt 1983, 71–2), the widow of the banker Pietro Proli, the
former director of the abolished one-time East India Company in Ostend
(1722–1733) and the Proli banking family. Thereby, he also connected the
business circles of Antwerp with the Court Chamber in Vienna. Aldegonde
Pauli (born in the United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1685, died in
Antwerp in 1761), was the mother of fifteen children and the head of the
kept in Vienna, Trieste, Rijeka, and Antwerp, previous researchers, in Antwerp
and in Vienna, mainly focused on individual, isolated sources, and they had a
somewhat incomplete picture of the circumstances of the creation and develop-
ment of the Company. Several years ago, I reviewed part of the extensive mate-
rial about the Company preserved in the Finanz und Hofkammerarchiv in Vienna,
and the very thorough work of archivist Victor Hoffman was used. When the res-
toration research of the Company’s administration building in Rijeka started, oth-
er Croatian researchers began to be interested in the history of the Company and
the building, in particular, Petar Puhmajer of the Croatian Conservation Institute
from Zagreb, who had also researched in Vienna, as well as in the Archivio di Sta-
to in Trieste and the State Archives in Rijeka.
4 He was born inside an aristocratic family from Genoa, from which seven doges
were chosen. He distinguished himself in several wars and commanded Austrian
units in Northern Italy. He also became the Austrian governor of Genoa and was
remembered for the imposition of high taxes. He remained the minister plenipo-
tentiary (minister plenipotenziario) in the Austrian Netherlands in Brussels, with
powers close to the governor’s, until 1753. After returning to Italy he became the
prime minister of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and later an ambassador in Russia,
in the court of Empress Catherine the Great.
5 I am sincerely grateful to the experts, researchers and archivists in Antwerp who
deal with the Rijeka Company. Of great help to me during the research there were:
University professor Helma Houtman-De Smedt, my colleague from the Museum
aan de Stroom, Jan Parmentier, and Christian Selleslach, archivist in the Muse-
um Plantin Moretus, where extensive material about the Company related to the
Moretus family is preserved. With their collegial kindness, they allowed me an in-
sight into the material and enabled me to clarify the connection between the Vi-
enna Court and the bankers and merchants in Antwerp, who jointly founded the
Company and built the Company’s facilities and the administrative palace in Rije-
ka.
75
