Adamićevo doba 1780.-1830.- Adamić's era

A DA M I ∆ ’ S E R A THE RIJEKA MUNICIPAL MUSEUM Winter 2004 ∑ Spring 2005

WHO IS ADAMI∆

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ndrija Ljudevit Adamic (Andrea Lodovico Adamich, Rijeka 1766-1828), merchant and entrepreneur, designer and builder, inspirer of economic and cultural development, a great achiever, friend of many dignitaries, powerful politicians and army leaders. He established many manufactures (liqueurs, sails, ropes, paper, glass...), owned ships and a series of houses and estates.

As a builder (in the 1790's he was "the construction officer" for the Governorate of Rijeka) and inspirer of cultural and social life he applied all of his energy to transform Rijeka into a modern town. He designed urban plans - construction of new streets lined with plane- trees. He worked on the projects for navigability of the Kupa River and the construction of the Louisiana road connecting Rijeka with the hinterlands. At his expense he built a large theatre (1805) accommodating 1,600 spectators. He founded a modern orchestra, organized visits by theatre troupes, established a merchants' club - casino, lobbied for the construction of a large hotel suitable to host reputable businessmen and merchants. He also assumed the role of an enlightener - proposed the founding of a manufacture where boys from poor families would be taught trades, general subjects and music.

Adamic is a great achiever. During the threat of war he toured mediterranean ports to save his ships from confiscation. He traveled on business too. Most of his business he did with the English.

Hence his several trips to London. He developed several large business operations in different parts of the Mediterranean through a network of agents and partners (in Genoa, Malta, Tunisia...), traded with France (export of timber for shipbuilding), as well as with Malta,

WHO IS ADAMI∆

Tunisia, Turkey. His goods (glass) he exported to Central America and Brasil.

As a politician he fostered relations with the top statesmen and army leaders (including British Minister viscount Castelreigh, Austrian Minister Hudelist, French Marshall Marmont, Austrian Marshall Laval Nugent, the bishop of Zagreb Cardinal Vrhovec...). He was a councilor in Rijeka's Captains' Council, president of the Chamber of Commerce, member of several municipal delegations to the Emperor (in Verona, Ljubljana...), councilor at the Parliament of Croatia and Hungary in Bratislava. For a while he was a consul of Great Britain.

Adamic was a visionary with fast progress at his heart. He received Viennese style breeding and had connections throughout Europe (knew and spoke six languages Croatian, Italian, English, French, German and Latin) and thanks to his success as an entrepreneur and merchant was very influential in international political and commercial circles. He calls for economic development and establishment of credit banks. As a councilor at the Bratislava Parliament he lobbied for the establishment of a large trade association for the promotion of export of Croatian and Hungarian products. At the time of the construction of first railways and steamships he lobbied for the construction of a northbound railway and a southbound ship line.

And all that as early as the mid 1820's!

Ten years after his death an English travel writer wrote: "I had the privilege of knowing that extraordinary man!"

1. SWEET BEGINNINGS A small town but sweet Development of the society and population growth

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n 1779 when Empress Mary Therese gave Rijeka to Hungary on an initiative by her son Joseph II in order to develop there a port similar to the one that the Austrians had built in the nearby Trieste, a deft merchant Simone, Andrija's father, had already started accumulating his fortune and started improving the status of the Adamic family, building ships and his houses. Although from a humble working class origin and poorly educated, in the 1770's when business started picking up and the first manufactures were opened he was one of Rijeka's leading entrepreneurs.

At that time young Andrija received his first instruction from the young student Josip Sintic, the future bishop.

In a dormant town the only vibrant company was the Large Business Partnership Rijeka-Trieste and its sugar refinery that was founded by merchants from Vienna and Antwerp. Other then in sugar the partnership traded in coffee, spices and other colonial products. The partnership was at its peak at the turn of the century when it employed 1,000 persons. As many as 70 % of those worked in transport and the rest were employed in administration and in the production of sugar.

The partnership was an "omnipotent" privileged merchant' associations typical of the period of feudalism. In the beginning such partnerships comprised social and merchant elite closely linked to t he Court (the Empress herself possessed a few shares, which were given to her symbolically free of charge). The future belonged to the commercial capital and liberal entrepreneurship.

During the 50 years of the transition period the populations of many towns grew twofold or manifold. At the end of the period, around 1830, the population of Rijeka was only 10,000 and most Croatian towns were even smaller. At the same time, London was 1,000,000 strong and Paris 500,000.

2. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD One empress, one emperor The reforms by Mary Therese and Josip II

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n the late 1770's Andrija went to Vienna to be educated by Piarist monks whose main task was education and upbringing of the youth. He was one of the best pupils at the Hauptschule in Josefstadt. Other than the stale bookish knowledge he accumulated practical skills that would help him in his later endeavors as a merchant and an entrepreneur. He mastered engineering, technical drafting, building and economy. In Vienna he stayed until the mid 1780's in order to learn trade and finance. He learned several languages that would come handy later in life - other than bookish but still used Latin, he also spoke Italian, German, French and "Illyrian", i.e. Croatian. Later on he learned English.

Towards the end of her reign empress Mary Theresa reformed the education of "young native boys" in the spirit of Enlightenment.Yet, the reform was not implemented successfully.

Although mostly unsuccessful, the reforms by her son Josip II left a deeper mark on the empire by shaking the ancient regime and paving the way to a cautious transformation of the old aristocratic state into a modern bourgeois one.

Joseph II abolished church orders, divested them of the capacity to educate the young, which affected both the Jesuits in Rijeka and the Pierists in Vienna. He separated the state and the church and implemented economic reforms. He even tried to abolish serfdom but conditions for that were not be ripe for another 50 years. One of the most important reforms, which proved successful, was the one proclaimed in an edict on tolerance of non-coreligionists - Greeks, Serbs, Jews, Evangelists... That was especially important for trading and ports towns such as Rijeka and Trieste, with their growing populations of foreign merchants.

3. MERCANTILISM AND CAPITALISM Mercantilism and liberal capitalism The era of merchants and harbingers of progress

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lready in Vienna Andrija became familiar with the business world as a preparation for the establishment of the joint company Adamic and son in 1886.

Through marriage he entered into the circles of the Rijeka aristocracy.Vid Barcich, his successful father-in-law, a merchant and a consul of Dubrovnik, member of one of the oldest local families, helped him establish firm contacts that facilitated his operations in Dalmatia and Dubrovnik.

Adamic developed trade links with the Mediterranean ports, exported timber to England, and some of his products (glass) as far away as America. During the turbulent times of Napoleonic wars and trade sanctions that France imposed on England, trade often turned into smuggling and many merchants lost fortunes.

Occasionally Adamic ended up in prison, but he nevertheless kept trading with both warring parties. Many merchants from the two important imperial ports, such as Pasqualle Ricci from Trieste and Adamic from Rijeka enjoyed high reputation both at home and in the capital and hold different social and political offices. Already in the 1790's Adamic was charged with developing transport and trade. In 1825 he became a representative at the CroatianHungarian Parliament in Bratislava and an esteemed member of the royal trade commissions in Budapest.

Trade, investments and business were also pursued by aristocrats and church dignitaries, such as Maximilian Vrhovec, the bishop of Zagreb, who acquired stocks in the business partnership for the construction of roads connecting Karlovac with Rijeka, along with Adamic and many others.

Adamic even managed to fire up for trade Antun Mihanovic, an intellectual and future diplomat and politician. In 1826 Mihanovic traveled to America with the support and recommendations by prince Metternich, court chancellor.

4. THE ERA OF MANUFACTURES On the road to industrialization Adamic expanded his trading operations...

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damic expanded his trading operations and established and developed a large number of manufactures for a production of a range of different products rosolio (liqueur, sails, ropes, paper, glass...) First major plants in Rijeka were located in the delta of the Rjecina river which provided sufficient water for running and production. Adamic was in the vanguard by the number of manufactures founded and the visions of development.

He was on the right track to outgrow his merchant status and become and industrialist.Yet, only the next generation would be able to accomplish that task and to fully separate trade operations from industrial ones.

The 18th century was the time of the flourishing of manufacture production. By the late 18th century (1775) steam engine had already been patented in England. Although they were often referred to as "fabbrica" (factory), manufactures, small plants with about a dozen employees and without steam engines (except in England) were more common then real factories at least until the 1850's.

It was only in the 1830's that the use of steam engines in Europe took hold.

Compared to manufactures factories were much more productive. New means of production generated mass consumption. The first industrially produced house utensils hit the market. They started reaching more and more households thanks to their steadily falling prices.

Europe was introduced to porcelain. Stone products, glass tableware and, slightly later, cast-iron products, such as stoves, were becoming more accessible. Mass production hinged on advertising and mail order purchasing was invented. First major factories published lithographic print catalogues advertising their products.

5. COMMUNICATIONS How to expedite transport?

Adamic had poor means of communication at his disposal.

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att's steam engine had started operating shortly before he ventured on his trading career in the mid 1780's but the first steamboats and railways were not around yet. Roads were very bad and some were to steep for the primitive horse-carts.

Most propitious traffic routes were those on the sea, the rivers and the canals. Hence, as early as 1796 Adamic embarked on a long-term ambitious project of regulation of the Kupa river for navigation between Karlovac and Brod na Kupi and later on the construction of the so called Louisiana road. He also called for the introduction of ship services along the Adriatic coast, all the way south to Albania. He personally drew preliminary design for the Louisiana road and promoted and advocated the regulation of the Kupa and the construction of the roads for the next few decades.

Technical inventions in the early 1800's, including the first steamship and the first steam locomotive (1814) inspire him to propose the introduction of a steamship service along the Adriatic coast (1821). He also argued for the construction of railways between Rijeka and Vienna and Rijeka and Budapest (1825).

The late 1780's finally saw the development of a network of good roads, accommodating cargo horse-carts and the first stagecoaches. A regular weekly stagecoach service between the royal ports of Rijeka and Trieste started operating on 1 August 1794. For a long time the traffic was cheapest on the sea and the rivers and there were doubts whether maize form the Panonian region should be transported to the Black Sea on the rivers or along the forbidding mountain roads between the mainland and Rijeka. Thus in 1795 Adamic was also sent into a fact-finding mission to the estuary of the Danube River from where he sent a detailed report.

6. RELENTLESS WAR Napoleonic wars Trade sanctions and flourishing of smuggling

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hortly after the French Revolution Adamic very aptly adapted to the wartime conditions. Already in 1789 he toured the Mediterranean ports to save his ships from confiscation.

Between mid 1790's and mid 1810's Europe lived under the sign of the Napoleonic star, constantly vacillating between war and peace. Adamic adapted very well to such circumstances, frequently making hefty profits from trading with both parties at the same time and enjoying their protection.

Of course, the price for that were occasional stressful situations and unsavory incarceration, yet without serious consequences.

He managed to find protectors in both sides to the conflict.

Thanks to his good relations with the French authorities and with the Marshall Marmont, military reader in the French campaigns in the Hrvatsko primorje region and in Dalmatia, he achieved a monopole in provision of salt for the Illyrian provinces. He was first and foremost a pragmatist, concerned primarily with business and profits. Hence his involvement in risky smuggling trade deals and dispatching of goods via secret "Balkan" routes to Vienna at the peak of the trade sanctions. In such deals he lost an occasional ship and cargo, but such risks were figured in wartime trade.

The French first came to Rijeka briefly in 1797 and 1805 and then for several years between 1809 and 1813 when they established the Illyrian provinces. They brought with them administration and the revolutionary spirit of the bourgeois era, leaving some of that behind after their departure.

Adamic was not particularly affected by the legacy of the Revolution, although some of his acquaintances were. Adamic was more interested in climbing the existing social ladder and in vestiges of the nobility. Always ready for risky business enterprises, he was not interested in social revolutions.

7. MASTERS OF THE EUROPEAN SEAS The British in the Mediterranean and in the Adriatic First British trade agents came to the Adriatic ...

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irst British trade agents came to the Adriatic already in the late 18th century and soon after them British councils, with whom Adamic immediately bonded and established business relations. His well developed business relations with the British, that would last for almost three decades, were further strengthened by his several months long stay in England and visit to Malta, then under British rule.

Already in the second part of the century England exported unrefined sugar to Rijeka, where it was refined in a local refinery. In the early 19the century the English looked there for timber for shipbuilding, a strategic commodity at the time when they could not import it from the USA due to bad bilateral relations. The Mediterranean became one of their "home" seas.

In the Mediterranean the British waged wars, traded and kept the balance of power - they were the only power that could competently oppose Napoleon's France - albeit only at the sea. When Napoleon decided to stop them by trade sanctions, the English developed smuggling activities and supported pirates. What Malta was for the British in the south Goeteborg was in the north. Both towns were far from the European mainland and out of the reach of the French. From both points English industrial and colonial goods were sent to their destinations through smugglers' channels.

In that complex system of relations Adamic fared very well. For years he organizes shipment of timber from the Croatian woods for the British government, keeping in touch personally with the Prime minister, viscount Castelereigh, as well as with many merchants, sailors and naval officers. He was a regular visitor on Malta and in London. For a while he was even a British consul.

8. THE OLD AND THE NEW WORLD New markets and new habits

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he United States were already an independent county (1776) and Latin America was waking up too.

Transoceanic travel was no longer a trailblazing enterprise but was still an adventure that called for a lot of courage. If you survived a tempest, you could be captured by pirates or by an enemy battle ship. Already in 1798 Adamic's ship Il Fortunato set out to Cuba, was captured by the British and towed to Jamaica. Later on it vanished in a fire.

Many years later another ship, this one co-owned by Adamic, vanished in a similar enterprise. In the mid 1820's Adamic exported his goods to America in cooperation with British merchants. He also exported glass from a manufacture in the village of Mrzle Vodice.

Young Mihanovic was clearly under his influence when he traveled to America (the itinerary included New York, Kingstone on Jamaica and Rio de Janeiro). A lot hinged on that trip, as evidenced by the fact that he carried recommendations by the state chancellor, prince Metternich, who put his weight behind the enterprise due to its strategic importance for possible future export of Croatian and Hungarian products.

In the late 18th century the importance of the Americas for the export of European goods grew, while the Europeans acquired taste for colonial wares.

Yet, the Europeans were not interested only in trade. At that time European scientists started studying far away cultures and exotic languages. Thus, e.g. An Austrian Filip Vezdin and Antun Mihanovic, who later befriended Adamic, studied Sanskrit.Vezdin published one of the earliest grammar books of Sanskrit.

Seasoned sailors from the Adriatic region, especially those from Dubrovnik and the Losinj islands, also sailed to faraway countries, Latin America and Africa.

9. EXOTIC EXPLORATIONS Entertainment of the curious and challenge for the scientists

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damic boasted with having supplied the Court in Vienna with an especially good natured small monkey and obtaining from Abyssinia an "icheneumon", a special kind of weasel.

Emperor Franz was very fond of exotic animals and kept his "menagerie" (the name for a zoo at the time) in Schoenbrun well stocked.

When compared to some other presents Adamic's were quite practical.

Thus, already in 1821 the first crocodile arrived to Josefplatz and a few years later Ethiopian vice king Mehmed Ali presented to Emperor Joseph a giraffe and along with it two African cows and a calf.

After a long sea voyage from Egypt to Rijeka, giraffe had to walk to Karlovac, where it was, quite exhausted, loaded on a coach. Thus, on 7 August 1828 first live giraffe arrived to Vienna. The present was accommodated at the court menagerie in Schoenbrun. The impact that had on the public, and especially a series of drawings published in lithographic print, generated fashion trend "a la giraffe", like the one that had already caught up in Paris and London.

Already in the late 18th century many naturalists, especially botanists, traveled to the south to study sights of nature.

One of the earliest and best-known academic scientist was the Emperor's physician Nikola Toma Host, native of Rijeka, who subsequently published a book titled Travels of a Botanist. In the 1830's even the Saxon king got as far as the Ucka Mountain and the Hrvatsko primorje region to study natural sights.

Already around 1750's Hofburg, the Court in Vienna, established a "life science cabinet" ("Naturalienkabinet"), which soon grew into a "Museum of Life Sciences".

10. THEATRES, CAFES AND CLUBS Social life and entertainment Adamic built a theatre in Rijeka

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t his own cost and based on his design Adamic built a theatre in Rijeka and planned the construction of two more theatres - one in Karlovac and another in Zagreb.

In his theatres he opened a "Merchant Navy Casino" and organized balls in a special reception hall. According to some sources he even owned a manufacture for the production of playing cards.

Cafes became trendy in the late 18th century, along with the modern habit of socializing in clubs and associations.

Some of the most famous were the cafes of Venice. The ritual of coffee sipping and "debating" developed in other major towns. In Vienna it caught up later then in other capitals, but Viennese cafes soon became widely know for their special atmosphere.

The first patrician club, "casino" in Rijeka opened already in the 1780's, possibly by the Swiss from Graubunden, who develop catering services different from those in typical working-class restaurants. The patrons read newspapers, played cards and the new game of billiards. In the 1830's, one such back-street cafĂˆ in Rijeka was secretly frequented by local pupils who neglect their school duties. That time also witnesses fast spreading of new plights - lottery and card playing.

At that time all main events took place at the theatre, which was the hub of the social life. Other than stage performances, the theater also featured balls (in the special reception hall). Adamic's theatre (built in 1805) contained a casino (opened in 1806) and a cafĂˆ. He personally founded a theatre (doubling as municipal) orchestra and a school of music.

Except in Rijeka, Adamic intended to build theatres in Karlovac and Zagreb!

11. THE ROAD TO THE FUTURE Development of technology and the visions

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n London Adamic owned a steam saw (built in 1810), obviously to saw logs that were imported for years from the woods in the Gorski Kotar region. Like so many other people, he was obsessed with technology, whose fast implementation he obviously saw as an opportunity to business development.

The first railway was built by George Stevenson in 1814.Yet, only in 1829 the USA and the continental Europe started developing railway networks.

Steamships start plying the Adriatic Sea and the Danube river in 1818, and Austria-Hungary opened its first railway only in the late 1830's.

Already in the mid 1820's the renowned inventor Josef Ressel tried out the propeller (as a potential substitute for paddles). In 1827 he was granted a patent for it and in 1829 in Trieste he tested it for the first time on the Civetta steamship.

A steamship docked at the port of Rijeka for the first time only in 1836, slightly after the first installing of a steam engine in the paper factory.

This was a definite harbinger of a new era of industrialization and modernization. Indeed, construction and implementation of different machines had been widely discussed and planned before too. In letters to Marshall Nugent Adamic frequently referred to them, just as he often expressed his disappointment with useless ideas of certain "inventors". In 1815 a designer in Rijeka designed a special excavator.

In the early 19th century bulk of the industrial production in the developed countries consisted of textiles, i.e. "light industry". It was only in the 1830's that now perfected machines came into use throughout Europe. The heavy metallurgy gained strong momentum only after the fast development of the railway network.

EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS

ADAMI∆'S ERA An exhibition - an anthology, The Rijeka Municipal Museum FASHION DURING ADAMI∆'S ERA An exhibition and a publication, Maritime and History Museum of the Hrvatsko Primorje Region COMMEMORATING ADAMI∆ Labeling of important locales from AdamiÊ's era Tourist Association of the Town of Rijeka IMPRESSIONS Individual exhibitions by Croatian designers and photographers inspired by AdamiÊ Croatian Designers' Guild, Zagreb ADAMI∆'S MUSIC - a series of concerts, Ivan Matetic Ronjgov School of Music BOOK OF ADAMI∆'S CORRESPONDENCE Adamic publishing house ADAMI∆'S PICTURE-BOOK FOR CHILDREN Skolska knjiga Zagreb COMMEMORATING ADAMI∆ - launching of a project for an AdamiÊ memorial center, Department of Development, Urban Planning, Environment and land management Rijeka ADAMI∆'S LEGACY State Archives Rijeka READING ADAMI∆ University Library Rijeka HOMMAGE TO ADAMI∆ The Rijeka Philharmonic Orchestra

THE RIJEKA MUNICIPAL MUSEUM Muzejski Trg 1/I Rijeka Head of project and author of the exhibition M.A. Ervin DubroviÊ Author of graphic design and visual design of the exhibition Klaudio Cetina Associate researchers Dr. Miroslav Bertoπa from Pula, Dr. Tatjana BlaæekoviÊ from Zagreb, Theodor de Canziani JakπiÊ from Rijeka, Ines Cerovac from Rijeka, Manon Giron from Rijeka, Mladen GrguriÊ from Rijeka,Vladimir Haklik from Vienna, Malcolm Hardy from London, William Klinger from Rijeka, Mira Kolar DimitrijeviÊ from Zagreb, M.A. John Kraljich from New York, Nenad Labus from Rijeka, Dr. Julija Lozzi BarkoviÊ from Rijeka, Dr. Irvin LukeæiÊ from Rijeka, Dr. Rüdiger Malli from Graz, Miodrag MiloπeviÊ from Rijeka, Boæe Mimica from Rijeka, Dr. Amir Muzur from Opatija, Dr. Imre Ress from Budapest, Dr. Drago RoksandiÊ from Zagreb, Lovorka Ruck from Rijeka, Nada SabljiÊ Butorac from Rijeka, Rastko Schwalba from Rijeka, Josip SerπiÊ from Vienna, Dr. Istvan Soos from Budapest, Dr. Nada ©iπul from Rijeka, Dr. Ante ©krobonja from Rijeka, Katica TadiÊ from Rijeka, Dr. Ljubinka Toπeva Karpowicz from Rijeka, Milica Trkulja from Rijeka, Boris Zakoπek from Rijeka, Igor Æic from Rijeka.

Reviewers Vladimir MarkoviÊ, academician Petar StrËiÊ, academician Dr. Agneza Szabo Project financed by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia County of Primorje and Gorski Kotar Department of Culture, Municipal Administration, the Town of Rijeka Croatian Chamber of Commerce - Rijeka County Chamber We would like to thank the following for cooperation and use of sources

Archivio di Stato Trieste Biblioteca Civica Trieste Finanz und Hoffcammerarchiv Wien Haus und Hoff und Staatsarchiv Wien Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien Magyar Orszagos Leveltar Budapest Technisches Museum Wien Societa di studi Fiumani - Archivio museo di Fiume Roma Stadtmuseum Graz The Rijeka Municipal Museum, 2004-2005

Muzejski trg 1/1, Rijeka, Hrvatska tel:+ 385 51 336711, fax: +385 51 336521 e-mail: muzej-grada-rijeke@ri.tel.hr

CD+AD+D CLAUDIO CETINA PREPRESS WELT

The State Archives in Rijeka The Croatian State Archives Zagreb The Museum of Arts and Crafts Zagreb The Maritime and History Museum of the Hrvatsko primorje region Rijeka The History Museum of Croatia Zagreb The University Library Rijeka