Between 7 and 9 January 2026, Dr Maja Perić, Senior Assistant, participated in the 55th Annual Conference of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS). The conference, entitled Big and Small, was hosted at Pembroke College, University of Oxford.
Dr Perić delivered her paper, Big Plans and Small Realities: The Organisation of the Rijeka Sugar Factory in the Context of Habsburg Commercial Policy, 1750–1775, on Friday, 9 January, as part of the panel Imperial Matters. Drawing on a preliminary analysis of correspondence, her paper examined the tensions between the Habsburg Monarchy’s ambitious commercial strategies—particularly those associated with the establishment of the Privileged Company of Trieste and Rijeka in 1750—and the day-to-day operational realities of the Rijeka sugar refinery.
The paper was very well received, prompting a lively and constructive discussion that opened up promising avenues for further research. During the conference, Dr Perić also introduced participants to the project and directed them to its website. In addition, she benefited from detailed feedback from her assigned conference mentor, who offered valuable guidance on methodological approaches to analysing an extensive corpus of French-language sources.
Photographs, the presentation, and the conference programme are available below. You can find the full text on academia.edu.
Abstract:
In order to reduce dependence on other colonial foreign trading powers for the import of exotic goods, the Viennese court under Charles VI and later under Maria Theresia introduced the so-called “Adriapolitik”. This meant especially investing in the commercial routes in their Adriatic territory and in 1750, the granting of a patent to the free seaports of Trieste and Rijeka to establish a monopoly without taxes and duties on the import of products such as sugar. Both free ports were connected through the foundation of the Privileged Company of Trieste and Fiume. The sugar factory in Rijeka consequently became one of the largest industrial complexes in Southeastern Europe. The establishment of this refinery was in line with the major economic strategies and reforms of the Habsburgs during the Enlightenment, with cameralism and the accumulation of capital clearly playing a central role in this case.
The factory was run by investors from Antwerp, which also illustrates the size and complexity of trade networks in the eighteenth century.
This presentation examines the contrast between, on the one hand, the large-scale strategies of mercantilist and cameralist reforms of the Viennese court in the wake of the Enlightenment and, on the other hand, the small-scale details of reality and the day-to-day organisation of the factory. A single grain of sugar thus connected micro-level archival traces with macro-level questions of imperial strategies, revealing how empires functioned not only on the basis of big plans but also through the smallest grains and characteristics of world trade.
We find it appropriate […] to promote the establishment of a Trading Company, which, by uniting its strength, knowledge, and care, will strive […] to develop the various branches of a necessary and profitable commerce.
