Slavonski Brod through centuries

Trough centuries   Turkish authority   Habzburg Monarchy   Brod na Savi   I World War   II World War  

Slavonski Brod in Habzburg Monarchy - Vojna Krajina

The Governor Nikola Erdödy and the general Hercog de Croy set Brod finally free from the Turks on 12th October 1691. Sava River becames border between Turkey and Austria, the Posavina part of Slavonia was included in defence system of Vojna krajina.

An important event in Brod history was building of the fortress (Festung Brod) in the 18th century. It was built for defence against Turks at first, but this purpose in praxis has never been confirmed. The danger of Turks has already weakened in the time of its` construction and soon it has not existed. The fortress contributed considerable in the entire development of town, but it became a problem by stopping its' natural, topographical development because it was forbidden to build buildings of brick in its` surroundings.

The building of the Franciscan Monastery started paralleled with the building of the fortress. "The walls of a new church and a monastery were built in accordance with military ground-plan, the fortress style, and a great contribution to all of this gave its` inhabitants in material transport and other charge free works.

Brod lost by transferring the headquarter of the regiment in Vinkovci in 1747. but it got the status of the independent military community (komunitet) with privileges for its' inhabitants who were occupied with handicraft and commerce. The inhabitants of komunitet were free from military service and numerous hard manual labour (obligatory public works) with privilege to elect prefect independently, who was confirmed by the emperor or war ministry, to hold cattle, to have gardens and fields inside the town area. The obligation of the community was to take care of all the expenses of town's government what means support by various sorts of taxes. The number of military komunitets in Vojna krajna have been changed according to circumstances so some of them were abolished. Living without privilegies was hard for inhabitants especially in 1800. when Brod became a part of Podvinje`s kumpanija. "This unbearable condition", as I.A.Brlić said, the inhabitants of Brod tried to get rid of on every way, "but all their efforts and expenses remained unsuccessful till the 1817. when the tzar Franjo I came to town. The inhabitants gave him the plea for return of the komunitet. "Although they used to get negative answers" they were surprised when after two years, in 1819. the tzar accepted their plea by giving them back the position of a military free komunitet. Formally, the Brod komunitet started to function in May of the 1820. when the town authorities were established.

The conditions of giving back this privileged status were not easy at all. They had to pay the flat rate of 6.000 forints in military treasury, to pay all the expenses of town authorities and in a case of war they had to equip 6 soldiers. Although these obligations were hard they were much easier than these as they had as ordinary borderers.

The transfer protocol from the 17th June 1844. between the previous prefect of Brod, Ladislav Dolacki and the newly elected, Josip Herman Wagner, show us the organisation of town authorities, which services it had and what was paid from the magistrates treasury.

There were 49 people on magistrates` list and 31 of them performed their service professionaly with salary which were determined by the town authorities. These were: town judge, a doctor, two midwives, nine teachers, five town soldiers, two corporals, a sergeant, a drummer, two night-watchman, a grave-digger and a dog-catcher. Twelve outside advisers, and six handicraftsmen performed their duties without charge.

Town was divided in six wards and for every of them one respectable handicraftsman, skilled workman of the ward was in charge. He took care of order and cleanness, established the number of cattle, gathered charity for the injured, took care of children`s vaccination against infectious diseases, took care of mulberry-trees and so on. Because of numerous obligations he had, skilled workman of the ward was set free of public works.

Brod was always an important trade's centre which supplied with products even wider surroundings. In the middle of the last century, there were 48 different professions in town, 367 handicraftsmen who performed them were classified, according to relationship of the profession in the 6 guild sections. Here are the names of the most of these professions to show what handicraftsmen produced and with what they dealt with in Brod:

1st guild section gathered skilled workmen who used needle in work: tailors, cloak-tailors, button-makers and coverlet-makers.

The 2nd guild belonged to skilled workmen who dealt with wood: carpenters, coopers, wheelers together with rope-makers, fishermen, glaziers, butchers, stocking knitters, bricklayers and bookbinders.

The 4th section made all the skilled workmen who worked with fire or were indirectly in touch with it: blacksmiths, locksmiths, painters, soap-manufacturers, bakers, gingerbreadmen, barbers, tinmen, gun-makers, millers, hatters, clockmakers and comb-makers.

The 5th section made furriers and belt-makers.

The "opanak"-makers, as the most numerous, made peculiar, the 6th guild of Brod skilled workmen.

After year 1851 the number of the handicraftsmen was in decline, what was in close connection with development of a new, capitalistic socio-economic relations in Vojna krajna. Free competition with cheap industrial goods which Brod salesmen got from more developed parts of Monarchy, kept back tradesman's manufacture, and many of traditional handicraft vanished.

Brod became not just trade's but commercial centre in which peasant from border surroundings could get the most needed tradesman's and industrial goods. The traders from Brod (60 of them in 1870) sold cattle, corn and other goods exported from Turkey and then transported it in other parts of the Austrian empire. The turnover of goods took place on the Sava river, on barges, the boats which were dragged upstream, on a separately prepared road, "kopitnica" by horses, but also people, the convicts.

When the regular steamship navigation was brought in from Sisak to Zemun in 1846. in Brod by which the steamships operated twice a week: on Sunday from Sisak and on Wednesday from Zemun, the steamship company was established. However, the shipping of the goods performed boats mostly without machine power, up till the construction of the railway to Budapest, Zagreb and Bosnia across the river Sava bridge. The transport by railway was to more expensive but faster.

The important service of belongings` protection and other material goods, the fire-brigade's service, rest on the solidarity of its inhabitants, up till 1859.,when the building of the Magistrate was burnt. The town authorities (Magistrate) brought The regulation of setting up "the Town fire-station" with its rules, who- and- how to do in a case of the fire outbreak. The inhabitants of Brod were not satisfied with the efficiency of that association so they established "Voluntarily fire-brigade's association"after a great fire on the 6th March 1872. "by following the progressive trend", on the model of the other towns in Croatia.