In his introduction the author stresses the significance of the policy and measures of the Austrian emperors in 18th Century manifested also in the proclamation of Trieste and Rijeka as free ports. Trade links with these two ports ensured the sale of home produce and products and served as a bridge between the Adriatic and the Panonian plane, which allowed the accumulation of small, medium and large capital. The most active in these processes were numerous riiral merchants, who had moved from the countryside into towns where they rapidly developed and spread their trade. The old nobility and the bourgeois, however, showed little spirit of enterprise. The same goes for a number of capitalists who, after having achieved a swift success, retired as rentiers.