Libmonster ID: RS-612
Author(s) of the publication: N. P. MANANCHIKOVA

Moscow, Nauka Publ. 1984. 288 p.

New monograph by Professor M. M. Freidenberg, Doctor of Historical Sciences (Kalinin University) It was the result of his long-term study of the medieval history of Dalmatian cities and further evidence of the interest of Soviet researchers in the history of the city in the feudal system. The author set himself the task of telling about Dubrovnik, "its historical destinies and how its relations with the Turkish state developed" (p. 6). This determined the breadth of the chronological and geographical scope of the work. Freudenberg focuses on the millennial history of the city from its foundation to its loss of independence in the early 19th century. The monograph traces the close relationship of Dubrovnik with the Bosnian, Serbian and Bulgarian lands, first independent, then under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire, and reveals the dramatic situation of free Dubrovnik, surrounded by Turkish possessions.

A special feature of the monograph is the brightness and expressiveness of the narrative about historical events, and the literary merits of the book bring it closer to a work of fiction.

The introduction begins with a vivid, emotional description of the 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake, when a large number of inhabitants were killed and "mountains of stone and rubble"remained of the city. But Dubrovnik was gradually revived after this disaster. Among the sources, M. M. Freudenberg names only the main ones - the statute of Dubrovnik, notarial acts, testimonies of contemporaries about individual events. Historiography is presented in a different way: first, the abundance of the latest Soviet and foreign, mainly Yugoslav, scientific literature, which was attracted by the author, is surprising, and, secondly, the conclusions and observations of most modern researchers are included in the book; this makes it a kind of horizontal cross-section of historiography, reflecting that level knowledge of the medieval history of Dubrovnik and Dalmatia, which is currently achieved.

Chapters one and two - "The Origins"," The Last Century of Independence " (p. 7 - 67), as well as separate essays of subsequent chapters (p. 73 - 80, 96-103) cover the history of Dubrovnik and Dalmatia from the early Middle Ages to the Turkish conquest, i.e. the period of the genesis and flourishing of feudalism in the South Slavic lands, whose problems have recently attracted the attention of Soviet and Yugoslav medievalists. It tells about the first centuries of Dubrovnik's existence, about the difficulties of developing the sea rock, where the urban settlement originally appeared, about the development of city blocks and the construction of fortifications.

Since ancient times, the city owned a number of nearby islands and a land district, which it constantly tried to expand. The geographical conditions of the area influenced the development of agriculture in the district, the formation of marine crafts and crafts. The book deals with the problems of ethnic and demographic development of Dubrovnik, shows the degree of study of the process of Slavization of Dalmatian cities, in particular:-

page 132

Modern researchers (I. Manken, V. Cestaric - Jakic), who attribute the beginning of this process to the XI century, are quoted in the history of Dubrovnik, where the Romanesque population prevailed in the early period. In connection with the demographic characteristics of the city, M. M. Freudenberg dwells on the history of Dubrovnik healthcare, the peculiarities of the city's architectural appearance, etc. But the core problems of the sections under consideration remain the problems of the development of the economy, social structure and political system of Dubrovnik. The description of these aspects of the city's history is based on the synthesis of conclusions that were made both by the author himself and by other researchers (see the literature to the chapters). One of the essays is devoted to the Dubrovnik craft, which formed the basis of the city's production base and was the sphere of activity of more than a third of its population. Dubrovnik was the most developed center of Dalmatia: in its heyday, there were 35-40 handicraft professions, while Zadar, the second most important city in Dalmatia, had only 24. The book covers several crafts in detail - jewelry, leather making, and cloth production. Typically medieval corporations-fraternities-absorbed the entire craft mass of the city. M. M. Freudenberg is not inclined to identify the loose and often heterogeneous craft corporations of Dalmatian cities with the workshops of Germany or northern France. And even in Dubrovnik, according to the author, the guild system almost did not develop (pp. 64-65).

It should be noted that A. A. Svanidze, studying the organization of crafts in medieval Swedish cities, offers a different solution to the problem. In her monograph, the craft shop is presented as a complex organization with its own dynamics of development. Vague forms of organization of Swedish craft are considered by A. A. Svanidze as stages in the development of shop 1 . And it seems to us that when describing the Dalmatian craft, there is no reason to contrast its organization with the Western European workshop. Would it not be more correct to ask what stages of the emerging guild were manifested in the fraternities of the Dalmatian cities?

The essays "Commercial success" and "Road Worries" provide all the basic information about the development of Dubrovnik's trade relations at sea, mainly with Italian cities, and on land - with the neighboring Balkan lands. The intensity of trade relations, types of goods, directions of cargo flows, the network of transport arteries, the influence of political factors on the exchange of goods, the organization of trade-this is the most complete list of issues raised by the author. All these facts are collected by various historians in the archives of Dubrovnik and Italian cities. Based on them, the author gives an impressive picture of the vigorous penetration of merchant capital into the lands of Serbia and Bosnia, where since the XIII century mines have been developed and Dubrovnik colonies have emerged. The export of non-ferrous metals, especially silver, falls into the hands of residents of Dubrovka.

Unfortunately, M. M. Freudenberg omits the name of M. Dinich when mentioning contemporary researchers of the Dubrovnik silver trade - his book on mining in Serbia and Bosnia was the first in a series of subsequent works on this problem .2 It is also necessary to make one clarification: the main object of export of Dubrovnik residents from Bosnia, in addition to silver, was lead, and not tin, as stated in the monograph, and the famous Dubrovnik merchant of the late XIV century. Jore Boksic did not trade in tin, but in lead (p. 54, 57).

An important question about the annual volume of silver production in the mines of Serbia and Bosnia has long occupied Yugoslav historians. Tadic, who estimated the total weight of silver exported annually from Serbia and Bosnia by Dubrovnik merchants in the mid-15th century at 25 tons (p. 55). Recently, the findings have changed. Tadic was supplemented and clarified by S. Chirkovic, who concluded that in 1421 - 1425 the volume of annual silver export by Dubrovnik merchants ranged from 3.9 to 11.06 tons .3
The social structure of Dubrovnik is typically Dalmatian: all power in the city belongs to the patriciate, which "closed" in the Grand Council at the beginning of the XIV century and jealously guarded its privileges. The rest of Dubrovnik's inhabitants were commoners. Large merchants from prostolyu-

1 Svanidze A. A. Craft and artisans of medieval Sweden, Moscow, 1967, p. 261 p.

2 Dinich M. For the history of rudarstvo in srednovekovnoj Srbiji i Bosni. Deo I, II. Beograd. 1956, 1962.

3 Tiirkovih S. Dubrovachka kovnica and produced silver in Srbijn and Bosniak. - Istorijski glasnik, 1976, br. 1-2. p. 97.

page 133

The Dinov fought for access to the Grand Council, but only achieved the title "citizens". The bulk of the commoners were artisans, small traders, day laborers, urban farmers, servants, and slaves. Farmers, artisans, and sailors lived in the city district. Among the direct farmers, two categories of workers were distinguished - tenants (colonists) and kmets.

All this large, scientifically significant material is presented in the monograph very concisely. But brevity, one of the main advantages of the book, sometimes turns into ambiguity. For example, with regard to the statement: "If the ruling elite has a feudal character, then it is not generated by the nature of property in the urban district, but by the whole complex of relations in which the city is located with the surrounding Balkan world" (p. 26), the questions arise: what is the property in the urban district, and what is the nature of the a non-elite character?

Essay "...Take care of public affairs!", written by M. M. Freudenberg and A. V. Chernyshev (pp. 96-102), is a new word in Soviet Dalmatian studies: for the first time, the authors consider the main bodies of urban self-government as an interconnected structure, which in Dubrovnik received the most complete form. The gradual transformation of the Dubrovnik commune into an aristocratic republic was associated with the complexity of managing the growing territory of the district. However, the authors no longer analyze the features of the republican system in Dubrovnik as the most widespread political form of the city-state in the Middle Ages.

Chapters three through seven (pp. 69-253) deal with the time of the invasion and domination of the Turks in the Balkans. Let us consider the main aspects of this part of the monograph.

The Ottoman Empire, as shown by the author, appreciated the ability of Dubrovnik merchants to accumulate trade capital, and independent Dubrovnik became for it not only a window to Western Europe, but also a source of receiving gold ducats. Dubrovchane annually paid tribute (harach) - 12,5 thousand ducats, bought off trade duties, presented gifts-magnificent silver dishes, bags of gold were constantly sent to the Sultan, Turkish nobles and were the main argument of dubrovchane in conflicts with the Turks. Dubrovnik bought the patronage of Turkish dignitaries, for example, Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokolovich, whose politics, activities and personality are described on the pages of the monograph. The Empire gave the Dubrovchans the opportunity to conduct extensive trade in their European possessions, charging them a minimum duty of 2%. Dubrovnik's monopoly in the Balkan trade has led to an unprecedented enrichment of its merchants. The book contains data on coins on the Balkan market - Dubrovnik dinars, Venetian ducats, Turkish akche and reals, on fluctuations in their exchange rates during the XVI century and later (c. 139-141, 230), about changes in the structure of Dubrovnik import and export - Dubrovnik residents no longer export precious metals, trade now goes to agricultural products and cattle breeding. The author uses a huge digital material (p.144, 233, 236, etc.) to illustrate the changes in Dubrovnik's Balkan trade, its expansion, and the rise of new shopping centers. But if the growth of the Dubrovnik colonies in the Bulgarian lands is described in sufficient detail (p. 154sl.), then almost nothing is said about the activities of the Dubrovchans in those regions of Serbia and Bosnia where their trade activity was greatest before the Turkish rule.

Indeed, the question of changes in the economic development of the Balkan countries that came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire remains largely unexplored. Some works partially fill this gap, and among them, in our opinion, is S. Dimitrievich's monograph on the trade of Dubrovchans in Southern Serbia in the XVII century, 4 whose conclusions, unfortunately, were not reflected in the book under review. In this regard, it should be noted that not all the provisions of M. M. Freudenberg concerning the economic development of the Balkans in the XVI-XVIII centuries seem indisputable. There is no doubt that the trade activities of the Dubrovchans had a huge impact on the economy of the Balkan lands, but was it only beneficial? (p. 6, 138). It is more likely that the influence of merchant capital on the agrarian relations of the feudal regions was, as a rule, the same as in the case of landowners.

4 Dimitrijevih S. Dubrovachki karavani v Jujnoj Srbijn u XVII veka. Beograd. 1958.

page 134

and in most such cases, it is far from unambiguous. The heyday of Dubrovnik, which reached its peak in the 70s of the 16th century, was a striking, even exceptional phenomenon, and it can hardly be called without serious reservations an integral part of the overall economic recovery in the Balkans (p.138). It is also impossible not to object to the author who claims that Venice in the sixteenth century was experiencing a period of economic decline, "the scale of which is now being reassessed, but the very existence of which is indisputable" (p.146). Opinions about the decline of Italy, including Venice, in the sixteenth century, as is well known, have long been rejected in modern foreign and Soviet historiography .5
Since the end of the XVII century. Dubrovnik has new competitors-the British, the French are entering the Balkans, French fabrics are flooding the Turkish markets (p. 230). The competition of Western merchants, the formation of the local commercial bourgeoisie in the Balkans lead to the weakening of Dubrovnik's trade, to the deterioration of Dubrovnik's political position outside and inside the Ottoman Empire. The monograph presents new data on the establishment of diplomatic contacts between the Dubrovnik Republic and Russia. Although Dubrovnik finds the strength to renew and expand its fleet in the mid-18th century, the republic's decline is just around the corner. The first signs of political collapse and the demise of Dubrovnik as an independent state are shown in the final chapter of the monograph.

We did not have the opportunity to dwell on the essay on Venetian Dalmatia, written by M. M. Freudenberg together with I. G. Vorobyova, on the sections on the Haidut movement in the Slavic lands, on the literature and theater of Dubrovnik in the XV-XVII centuries, on the stages of development of Dubrovnik humanism - all of them are interesting and contain fresh material on the history of the southern Slavs in the the Ottoman yoke.

So, M. M. Freudenberg's monograph, addressed to the general reader, is a notable phenomenon in our historiography: the issues raised on its pages and related to the development of the city in the system of feudalism (in this case, Ottoman) remain relevant in Soviet medieval studies. Some controversial provisions of the book only emphasize the scientific significance of this issue.

5 See Rutenburg V. I. Italy and Europe on the eve of the New Time, L. 1974, pp. 9-15.

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