International Scientific Conference
ECONOMY IN THE EUROPE AND THE BALKANS (FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE MODERN TIMES)
Belgrade, October 30-31. 2025
This study investigates the technological and economic aspects of household illumination in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with a focus on olive-oil lamps. Drawing on archaeological, textual, and experimental data, it models both the operation and use of these lighting devices as well as their fuel consumption and assesses lighting costs in relation to wages. The analysis highlights the economic burden of domestic lighting and traces both continuities and changes in lighting practices over time.
Trade in the medieval Serbian state was regulated through various legal acts. The status of foreign merchants was primarily defined by charters issued by Serbian rulers to their authorities. A vast majority of such preserved documents pertain to the Dubrovnik Commune. Owing to them, the legal status of Dubrovnik merchants in the Serbian state can be traced continuously from the late 12th century until the end of its existence. Furthermore, numerous documents preserved in the Dubrovnik Archive reveal important details about the conditions in which Dubrovnik merchants worked, as well as their disputes with Serbian authorities. General trade regulations are found in the provisions of Dušan’s Code from 1349 and 1353/1354. On the other hand, the statutes of coastal cities within the Serbian state contained a series of provisions related to trade. Also, in mining centres such as Novo Brdo and Srebrenica, there were regulations governing trade. Some charters of Serbian rulers also specified the manner of conducting trade at monastic fairs. The intention of this paper is not to provide a detailed overview of all trade regulations in the medieval Serbian state, but to highlight their most important aspects. We will also endeavour to elucidate the context behind the enactment of certain regulations. This particularly relates to customs duties and protectionist measures. We will thus be able to indicate the place of trade in the economy of the then Serbian state.
The economic development of a city in the early modern period undoubtedly influenced, at a local level, numerous aspects of its inhabitants’ lives, including the conditions in which they practiced their profession. On the other hand, in a broader sense, it could lead to shifts in international political and economic relations. Progress arriving from one direction meant, for another side, radical changes or even a break with established practice. Although this did not necessarily entail a reduction in the volume of a particular activity, the process of adaptation was often long and fraught with challenges for individuals active in a given line of work. Thus, in 17th-century Venice, an overly powerful network of artisan guilds and confraternities (scuole) began to affect the import of goods from the Balkans. This was particularly true for the import of various types of leather from the Ottoman Balkans, as Venetian confraternities imposed new rules and restrictions on Balkan merchants. In reaction to this, the Venetian archives preserve complaints from Balkan merchants who expressed their dissatisfaction with the new laws and requested a return to the old terms. Sometimes, changes in Venetian craft production also led to a drop in demand for goods from the Balkans, which often caught merchants unprepared to find ways to compensate for the losses incurred in such situations. Advances in Venetian production sometimes prompted the managers (gastaldo) of city guilds to assess the quality of certain Balkan raw materials as insufficient for their manufacturing needs, which also contributed to a fall in their prices in the Venetian market. How Venice established a balance between sustainable development and trade relations with the Balkans in this context, what legal measures it introduced to achieve this, what this meant for Balkan merchants, and what their reaction was, are some of the questions we will address in our presentation.
During the territorial expansion of the medieval Serbian state southwards in the last two decades of the 13th century, Polog and its towns were among the first lands conquered from Byzantium.
Our research into the economy of the Polog region in northwestern Macedonia during this period focuses on three aspects: the shift in the growth in church, and particularly monastic estates, alongside changes among secular feudal lords; the introduction of new duties and taxes, and the terminology for them; and the Byzantine practical and terminological influence on socio-economic relations and the economy.
The research will show in what form and to what extent the economic changes were implemented in the territory of the densely populated Polog region, and what resistance the well-established Byzantine feudal relations posed to the new authorities.
During the 17th century, Sweden rose to prominence as northern Europe’s leading economic power. This rise was driven by a combination of successful state centralisation, the exploitation of abundant mineral resources, and the strategic recruitment of foreign expertise, particularly in the mining industry. This period of dominance, however, was relatively short-lived, as neighboring states began to strengthen and challenge Sweden’s position in the following century.
The presentation examines the key factors that contributed to Sweden’s significant influence along the Baltic Sea, extending its geographical reach to what are now parts of the Baltic and Germany. Central to this discussion is the role of Gustavus Adolphus, who became ruler at the age of 16. As a visionary leader, he was instrumental in recruiting mining experts from abroad, thereby fueling Sweden’s economic engine. Additionally, he introduced the special “collegial bodies”, a system that organised and managed state affairs within specialised sectors, laying a crucial groundwork for efficient governance.
The 17th century was pivotal in establishing the foundations of modern Sweden and Finland, the territories that, under Swedish rule, began to embrace the principles of democratic decision-making rooted in the rule of law. This era not only transformed the economic landscape but also set precedents for political and social structures that continue to influence these societies today. This presentation will explore the lasting consequences of Sweden’s early modern economic policies and their role in shaping the future.
A constant threat within any market economy is the possibility that a company’s operations will end in failure, through bankruptcy, due to accumulated debt. In such cases, bankruptcy proceedings are initiated before a court, when the remaining assets of the liquidated company are listed and sold, and the profit is distributed among the creditors. Although bankruptcy has existed in central Europe for centuries, it was only in the 19th century that it was comprehensively regulated by legislation. For example, in 1868, a bankruptcy law was adopted for the Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, while the Serbian Law on Acquisition Procedure was passed in 1861. The main goal of bankruptcy legislation was to eliminate fraudulent practices applied by merchants who hid their assets or sought to avoid bankruptcy proceedings altogether. To some extent, this fear was justified, as there were several high-profile cases of financial fraud in Austria-Hungary. In the Slovenian countries that were part of Austria-Hungary, these included the collapse of Kranjska eskomptna družba, which led to the suicide of its director (1884), and the bankruptcy of Glavna posojilnica and Agro-Merkur, a cooperative owned by the Liberal Party, which caused losses for several hundred investors (1911). Such scandals reinforced the public belief that bankruptcy was always the result of merchant incompetence or fraud, and therefore meant not only financial ruin and loss of material security, but also a steep decline in social standing. Preserved archival documents written by bankrupt debtors testify to the dire straits in which they found themselves. However, bankruptcies in the Slovenian lands before 1914 were quite rare. From the adoption of the bankruptcy law in 1868 until the collapse of the Monarchy, there were an average of thirteen per year in Carniola and Lower Styria, which is several times less than in the period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / Yugoslavia.
The article examines the distinctive perceptions and definitions of “foreignness” on Slovenian territory before World War I. It emphasises that these ideas went beyond purely economic considerations and were much broader in scope. In the ownership structure of Slovenian financial institutions, for example, it is important to emphasise that there were two main aspects to the meaning of “foreign” identity: first, as non-Slovenian individuals and only then as non-citizens of the Habsburg Monarchy.
The study addresses two central research questions: how did the perception of foreignness influence the role of foreign capital in financial institutions in Ljubljana, and how did this perception affect the development of the financial sector in general. The relationship between public and private funds is also analysed, revealing different degrees of domestic and foreign investment – from purely local, to mixed, to fully foreign. The focus is on two financial institutions in Ljubljana. The first was the Carniolan Savings Bank, which was publicly regarded as a German political and economic pillar in the province of Carniola. The savings bank operated on Slovenian territory and primarily served the local Slovenian population, without itself belonging to the German or Slovenian political camp. The second is the Ljubljana Credit Bank, which was founded with the help of Czech capital from Živnostenská banka but was recognised in public as a Slovenian financial institution. These case studies will be used to analyse how the perception of foreignness shaped the role and understanding of foreign capital in the financial sphere of Ljubljana and in the broader socio-economic context during this period.
Mining towns, as separate economic entities – which, apart from mines, consisted of the land (atar) of the mining settlement and the mining market, where trade was conducted under regulations that primarily protected the miners, whose needs were regulated the first, while certain articles were also directly intended for the work and life in the mine – much like the mines, operated under specific laws, which are found primarily within the statutes of these montanae. However, although the names and rules governing the sale of specific articles in these markets are known, as are the collective names for merchants of certain products or for service and production craftsmen, the actual legal articles that mention them have not received dedicated scholarly attention. They are typically only mentioned in passing or cited within the context of other topics. Therefore, this paper is dedicated to a comparative analysis of specific examples found in the Excerpt from the Statute of Novo Brdo, compared to the statutes of other towns – with a special focus on mining towns. The aim is to identify potential influences on the organisation and regulation of the Novo Brdo mining market.
The economic strengthening of the medieval Serbian state, which began in the mid-13th century, is linked to the start of mining production in the area of Brskovo. This activity was initiated by German miners – Saxons. They likely came from the area of present-day Freiberg in Saxony, a region known in the Middle Ages for mining, bringing with them advanced techniques of ore extraction and processing. It can be reliably assumed that mining activity in Brskovo was initiated based on traces of older, ancient mining. Mining, i.e. both the extraction and processing of ore, is attested in the area of Brskovo and its wider surroundings. The found remains of old works are the most numerous in the Brskovo area, where the most recent archaeological excavations have revealed an exceptional level of the construction technique and the provisioning of medieval mine shafts that have been preserved to this day. Old mining works have also been found in the surrounding areas that gravitate towards Brskovo. Traces of processed ore are the most numerous around the Rudnica river. Besides the Rudnica, traces of ore processing have been found around other, smaller watercourses in the surrounding areas, mostly on the right, but also on the left bank of the Tara. The mining activity in Brskovo and its surroundings has left a mark on the toponymy of the region, where many toponyms that can be linked to the process of ore extraction and processing can be identified on the ground. The motives that prompted Serbian rulers to launch mining production specifically in Brskovo were its relative proximity to coastal cities, where mining products could be exported. The initiated mining production and the associated trading activity led to an economic and social transformation of the place. It grew from a local market into an urban centre, the first of its kind in the interior of the medieval Serbian state, headed by a town knez. Economic links with the coastal cities led to migrations of the population from those communes to Brskovo, where they invested their capital and acquired property, and were religiously organised within their Catholic parish. The settlement of the Catholic population in Brskovo disrupted the previous ethnic and religious homogeneity of the interior of the medieval Serbian state, a feature that also characterised other mining centres in medieval Serbia.
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, possessed significant forest resources, characterised by a diverse timber structure and widely distributed forested areas. In this context, charcoal, as one of the products of timber use, was one of the more important sources of energy. Its use was multifaceted: it served as fuel and as raw material in various economic and manufacturing processes, from artisanal workshops and small power facilities to larger industrial plants, as well as for the daily needs of households.
This paper aims to present the production, use and significance of charcoal in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / Yugoslavia during the interwar period. А particular emphasis is placed on the economic and social aspects of its application, as well as its role in crafts, industry, and daily life of the population. Although there are no complete and systematised statistical data on the volume of production and consumption, the available sources indicate that the use of charcoal was widespread across the entire territory of the state, which was enabled by its rich and diverse forest stock.
The paper will present various forms of charcoal production, from traditional methods employed by “black men in the forest”, craftsmen who practised their trade according to skills and knowledge passed down through generations, to industrial types of production. Special attention will be paid to the most significant industrial plants for the dry distillation of wood, which were located in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. These are the “Gutmann Wood Distillation” factory in Belišće and the “Yugoslav Wood Distillation Ltd.” in Teslić, which played a leading role in the industrial production of charcoal in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the interwar period.
In this paper, we propose to address saltpetre (Rom. silitră) and potash (Rom. potasă), the products about which little has been written in Romanian historical literature. Saltpetre was used in the manufacture of gunpowder and has been documented in the Romanian principalities since the 15th century. In 1445, Vlad Dracul, Prince of Wallachia, requested saltpetre from the rulers of Brașov, and in 1475, Stephen the Great of Moldavia had a saltpetre craftsman in his service. The mentions of salpetre production in Moldavia multiplied significantly in the 17th century, reaching a peak in the following century. In 1742, more than 3000 workers were involved in the saltpetre process. A description from that period has survived, providing details of the production stages. The Ottoman Turks were directly involved in the export of saltpetre, enforcing a monopoly on the principalities, which was only abolished by the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829. We are also interested in potash, which was widely produced in the forests of Moldavia and exported in the 17th century through Poland (via Gdansk) to the rest of Europe. Over seventy years ago, E. D. Tappe uncovered sources that prove the involvement of several Scots in potash production in Moldavia. But from the end of the 17th century, the Scots were replaced by Dutch merchants, who redirected the potash trade to Istanbul. Obtained from twice-burned wood, potash was widely used in soap-making, and many cloth producers were interested in it. The places where it was produced were called budă in Romanian, and today several villages still bear this name in Romania.
Potash is a mixture of chemicals dominated by potassium carbonate (K2CO3), which was produced from the ashes of wood and other terrestrial plants using a complex multi-stage technology.
Potash was used primarily in glassmaking, where it was added as a flux to the so-called glass strains. Potash was also used in the production of paints, saltpetre, gunpowder and soaps, and potassium carbonate solution was used to bleach linen and other textiles or to make leather. In fact, it was one of the two (together with sodium carbonate) universally used alkaline chemicals produced in Europe and the world in the pre-industrial period.
In Bohemia, the first written records of production date back to around 1530, but production certainly has older roots. The peak of production occurred between 1650 and 1820. Potash production was clearly the strongest chemical industry in the early modern period, and long before the development of modern industry, hundreds of specialised craftsmen were engaged in it. Production was an important part of local economies and was the main source of income for some estates. From the state’s point of view, the industry proved to be strategically important and crucial for the economy of the entire Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th century, and so a state monopoly on the potash trade was even introduced between 1764 and 1776.
Written sources sometimes give exact numbers on production (in 1766 there were 294 producers, in 1798: 842), but it must be taken into account that many producers, as elusive “forest people”, escaped any records. Moreover, the figures given only refer to potash workshops operating as independent economic units, while the works built directly at the glassworks and also producing significant volumes of products do not appear in such statistics at all. Similarly “leaky” contemporary statistics on production volumes show that in around 1750, about 560 tonnes of potash were produced annually in Bohemia (western part of the Czech Republic) alone. Half a century later, annual production was around 1,400 tonnes. However, the following period saw a rapid decline and the entire industry disappeared completely between 1890 and 1900.
The paper will assess the economic significance of potash production on several basic levels – from local and regional economies to the economic system of the entire Habsburg Monarchy in the 16–19th centuries. The entire industry, which was characterised by a number of other specific features (for example, potash producers in Bohemia were mostly Jews, and potash production was one of the few crafts officially permitted to them), will also be outlined in a broader socio-economic context.
In the mid-19th century, Novo Brdo with its surrounding villages was administratively part of the Morača nahiya within the Gnjilane kadiluk of the Priština kaymakamlik. This area, situated near Velika Planina, north of Gnjilane, between the headwaters of the Prilepnica and Novo Brdo rivers and the Kriva Reka, left tributaries of the Binačka Morava, is known in historiography primarily for its mineral wealth and centuries-old mining tradition. However, the geographical diversity of Kosovsko Pomoravlje, which includes plains, lowlands, hilly regions and mountains, also created conditions for the development of agriculture. Owing to Ottoman sources, it is possible to trace the development of this economic branch, which was crucial for providing food for the local population, throughout the centuries.
The foundation of this paper will be the previously unused Ottoman profit tax registers (Temettüat defterleri) for the Morača nahiya from 1845. Data from this source, which documents the centre of Novo Brdo and 38 surrounding villages, will be compared with data from the population census (Nüfus defterleri) dated about a decade earlier, in 1832/33. By cross-referencing them, we will be able to determine what portion of the total population in this part of Kosovo Pomoravlje was engaged in agriculture as an economic activity. The focus will be on the livestock population owned by each household, more specifically its structure – breeds, gender, age and fertility of the animals. Furthermore, based on this material, we will determine the types of arable land available to the taxed population. In some cases, it is possible to identify the type of crops cultivated on a specific plot. Based on the obtained results, as well as relevant ethnological and agrarian literature and other sources, we will identify which settlements were key economic points and the general boundaries of areas with predominantly developed livestock breeding, crop farming, or viticulture.
Agricultural production became the primary occupation of man and was widespread 7,000 years ago in all parts of the world. Food production is an activity without which human life on planet Earth would not be possible. Within agricultural production, the production of food of animal origin is of particular importance, with the greatest emphasis placed on meat production. Already at the time of the first civilisations and organised states, livestock markets, animal slaughter and meat trade were regulated. In the Middle Ages, regulations regarding slaughterhouses and animal slaughter existed. One such regulation was enacted in Kotor in 1321. In medieval Serbia, there were regulations on livestock farming and meat trade (Dušan’s Code, Law on Mines). The path towards the regulation and modernisation of slaughterhouses was laid out in the late 18th and especially in the 19th century. At the very beginning of the century (in 1804), one billion people lived in the world, and an increasing number of people lived and worked in cities, which could not be supplied with meat without high-capacity slaughterhouses. In Belgrade, there were 30 slaughterhouses in 1739, and in 1855, a modern slaughterhouse for its time was built. Regulations on animal slaughter appeared during the time of Karađorđe, and particularly during the Obrenović dynasty. The Joint-Stock Company for Livestock Slaughter (founded in 1897) was an exporter of meat products (ham, bacon, lard). Towards the late 19th and early 20th century, slaughterhouses were built in several cities in Serbia, and after the First World War, in several cities in the territory of present-day Vojvodina. In the 1980s, there were about 550 slaughterhouses in Serbia, of which 20 were industrial facilities registered for the export of meat and meat products. Since 1990, the majority of export-oriented facilities ceased operations, and Serbia was transformed from a known exporter of meat and meat products into an importer of meat for processing and finished meat products. The reasons for such state of the slaughterhouse industry in Serbia were numerous (the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, wars, sanctions, loss of foreign markets, a decrease in the number of farmed animals, ageing of the rural population, market instability).
From the early modern period, the supply of energy to a city was a key concern that required reliable supply. Solving the historical fuel problem of cities involved changes in the supply areas of the city, an increase in the productivity of agricultural and forest land and later the transition from biomass-based energy carriers such as firewood and charcoal to fossil fuels. The supply of fuel often conflicted with other industrial uses of forests and therefore the key was to find a balance between competitive interests.
From the 15th century shipbuilding for maritime warfare was a key concern for the Portuguese Monarchy because it connected the Portuguese maritime Empire and provided large income to the Crown. During the last quarter of the 15th and first decades of the 16th century, the construction of large ocean-going ships was largely centralised in Lisbon and its hinterland. Therefore, royal forestry legislation aimed to conserve the future existence of the tree species demanded by imperial shipbuilding. Royal forestry legislation favoured imperial shipbuilding and the supply of fuel consumption of Lisbon by prohibiting other activities that were considered harmful to these industries.
Using original sources available since the 16th century to the end of World War II, we investigate how the supply of firewood and charcoal to Lisbon evolved with changes in the size of the city and competition with imported fossil fuels. The transition to fossil fuels in Lisbon was relatively fast and, at the turn of the 20thcentury, more than 75% of Lisbon energy consumption came from fossil fuels. A fast transition on an aggregate scale hides distinct sectoral developments, with charcoal remaining the most important fuel in the Lisbon household market up to World War II.
Forests, as unique ecosystems with high biodiversity and a complex organisation of the life in them, have always provided multifaceted support for the daily life of traditional societies. In addition to supplying raw materials such as timber and fuel, they have been, and remain, regulators of the climate and protectors of the soil from erosion.
In the early 19th century, a large part of the liberated parts of Serbia was covered by forests, where pigs, the most important agricultural product of the time, were fattened on acorns. Population growth was accompanied with the expansion of arable land. This expansion was achieved at the expense of forests through clearing. This led to forest ecosystems receding from the plains and hilly regions of Šumadija, Mačva, Braničevo and Stig, which became the largest producers of arable and orchard crops. On the peripheries, in predominantly mountainous areas, various types of forests were preserved, where the population continued with traditional crafts whose raw materials were provided by forest complexes. In the Zlatibor region and the mountains of southwestern Serbia, the traditional method of producing tar from resin-rich wood in special pits, by heating it in the absence of oxygen, was preserved. From this region, tar was transported by caravans to markets across Serbia and beyond. In the same area, due to the abundance of conifers, resin was also collected, and special logs were cut into splinters and dried to produce luč used for lighting. Unlike the above products, charcoal was produced over a wider area, wherever there was sufficient high-quality wood, such as oak or beech. Charcoal was typically made in the open air where the so-called štala or kupola was constructed. After a lengthy process of wood heating, charcoal (ćumur) was produced. The charcoal produced was sold in markets of the nearest urban settlements.
This paper will provide a detailed description of the traditional methods of producing the aforementioned products, as well as their use in rural households and beyond. Furthermore, the production zones for individual products will be identified.
Free AI Website Maker