Page 98 - 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.
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plex Gateways
and soap producers (Naccarini 1827).10 Then, the sources reveal the local
Chamber of Commerce’s protagonism, when it was capable of becoming
a place of mediation between the various instances, successfully convey-
ing to the Imperial court in Vienna its own project to establish a free
port.11 As for the second aspect, those who fought for the creation of the
free port in Venice often resorted to the example of Trieste. In fact, the
Habsburg city actually had a well-rooted image of progress due precisely
to its status of free port, which had favoured trade development, popula-
tion growth, urban redesign, and the foundation of cultural institutions
(Foramiti 1829, 18). Trieste had also been able to convey a triumphant im-
age by promoting the constant publication of the Portate, namely the lists
of ships arriving and departing, to display the growing amount of its traf-
fic.12 The success of Trieste and the decline of Venice had become a veri-
table topos: ‘Venise, qui n’avait pas fait plier à temps des anciennes règles
exclusives, avait perdu presque tout ce qui lui était resté de commerce
depuis que, dans son voisinage, le gouvernement autrichien avait fait de
Trieste un port franc sur le plan le plus libéral; institution qui avait rep-
euplé et recréé cette ville’ (Vincens 1834, 3:413).
Meanwhile, in 1832, Carlo Afan de Rivera (1832) launched a debate
on the opportunity of having a free port in the areas surrounding Naples.
The past Napoleonic domination had revived a debate that had actually
erupted several times in the Neapolitan area, where, since the sixteenth
century, the question of creating free ports or entrepôts had been dis-
cussed. In the Napoleonic era, to counterbalance the continental block-
ade, as already happened in Venice, Naples had been declared a free scale
(Ciccolella 2019). This status was initially maintained upon the return
of the Bourbons, and new reflections on the possibility of extending the
10 ASVE, ACC, b. 13, t. 1, n. 30: L’arte dei tintori alla Camera di Commercio Arti e Mani-
fatture; I Fabbricatori di Vetro di Murano alla Camera di Commercio Arti e Manifatture,
29 gennaio 1816; Notificazione di Giacomo Pasini Fabbricatore di Saponi, 15 ottobre
1816.
11 ASVE, ACC, b. 59, t. 1, n. 10; b. 68, t. 1, nn. 10 e 28; b. 81, t. 1, nn. 10 e 11; b. 89, t.
2, n. 35; b. 103, t. 6, n. 14.
12 The Portate had been circulating from 1776 (in handwritten form) by the will of the
governor Karl von Zinzendorf and then were inserted in the appendix to the city
gazettes (‘Triester Welt-Korrespondent’, ‘Triester politische und Handlungs-Zei-
tung’ and, from 1784, ‘Osservatore Triestino’). From 1805 to 1858, annual collec-
tions were published under the title of Portata de’ Bastimenti del porto-franco di Tri-
este. Once it became a free port, Venice too, from 1835 to 1847, had proceeded to
print the same publication format (Delogu 2019c).
98
and soap producers (Naccarini 1827).10 Then, the sources reveal the local
Chamber of Commerce’s protagonism, when it was capable of becoming
a place of mediation between the various instances, successfully convey-
ing to the Imperial court in Vienna its own project to establish a free
port.11 As for the second aspect, those who fought for the creation of the
free port in Venice often resorted to the example of Trieste. In fact, the
Habsburg city actually had a well-rooted image of progress due precisely
to its status of free port, which had favoured trade development, popula-
tion growth, urban redesign, and the foundation of cultural institutions
(Foramiti 1829, 18). Trieste had also been able to convey a triumphant im-
age by promoting the constant publication of the Portate, namely the lists
of ships arriving and departing, to display the growing amount of its traf-
fic.12 The success of Trieste and the decline of Venice had become a veri-
table topos: ‘Venise, qui n’avait pas fait plier à temps des anciennes règles
exclusives, avait perdu presque tout ce qui lui était resté de commerce
depuis que, dans son voisinage, le gouvernement autrichien avait fait de
Trieste un port franc sur le plan le plus libéral; institution qui avait rep-
euplé et recréé cette ville’ (Vincens 1834, 3:413).
Meanwhile, in 1832, Carlo Afan de Rivera (1832) launched a debate
on the opportunity of having a free port in the areas surrounding Naples.
The past Napoleonic domination had revived a debate that had actually
erupted several times in the Neapolitan area, where, since the sixteenth
century, the question of creating free ports or entrepôts had been dis-
cussed. In the Napoleonic era, to counterbalance the continental block-
ade, as already happened in Venice, Naples had been declared a free scale
(Ciccolella 2019). This status was initially maintained upon the return
of the Bourbons, and new reflections on the possibility of extending the
10 ASVE, ACC, b. 13, t. 1, n. 30: L’arte dei tintori alla Camera di Commercio Arti e Mani-
fatture; I Fabbricatori di Vetro di Murano alla Camera di Commercio Arti e Manifatture,
29 gennaio 1816; Notificazione di Giacomo Pasini Fabbricatore di Saponi, 15 ottobre
1816.
11 ASVE, ACC, b. 59, t. 1, n. 10; b. 68, t. 1, nn. 10 e 28; b. 81, t. 1, nn. 10 e 11; b. 89, t.
2, n. 35; b. 103, t. 6, n. 14.
12 The Portate had been circulating from 1776 (in handwritten form) by the will of the
governor Karl von Zinzendorf and then were inserted in the appendix to the city
gazettes (‘Triester Welt-Korrespondent’, ‘Triester politische und Handlungs-Zei-
tung’ and, from 1784, ‘Osservatore Triestino’). From 1805 to 1858, annual collec-
tions were published under the title of Portata de’ Bastimenti del porto-franco di Tri-
este. Once it became a free port, Venice too, from 1835 to 1847, had proceeded to
print the same publication format (Delogu 2019c).
98
