Older Slovenian merchants moved up to a certain level of welfare and reputation mostly with selfeducation and diligence. It is therefore possible that the Slovenian mercantile circles thought about the importance of education as early as in the mid-19th century, in the era of national awakening. Merchants namely have presented one of the main pillars of bourgeoisie and it was important how educated and civilized they were. The beginnings of mercantile education in Austria date back to the 18th century, to the time of Empress Maria Theresa. At that time the fist mercantile school was founded in Vienna, the Imperial Royal Real Handlungsakademie. One hundred years later, in Slovenian territory there was only one, established in the year 1834, the Mahrov mercantile school in Ljubljana, but even this one with the German language of instruction. Moreover, the mercantile schools were divided into follow-up (gremial) schools, lower mercantile schools, secondary schools designated as higher mercantile schools (at first designated as Academies) and finally mercantile colleges (at the time of the AustroHungarian Empire these were only in Vienna and Trieste). Next to the gremial and two-classroom mercantile schools in Slovenia two more mercantile academies were active at the time of the first Yugoslavia. We can say that until World War II it was well taken care of for mercantile offspring.