The Importance of the Danube Delta for the Local Population and for the Tsarist Authorities during the First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

The paper presents, on the basis of unpublished sources preserved at the Central Archives of the Republic of Moldova, the economic conditions of the inhabitants living in the Danube Delta during the period 1829 to 1856, when the area was part of the Russian Empire. The development of Danubian navigation after the Peace of Adrianople had a counter effect for the local communities in the Danube Delta area, now a “hot” border area between the Russian and the Ottoman empires. However, these inhabitants continued their traditional occupations (fishing, the exploitation of the rich resources of reed, the cultivation of plants on the agricultural estates in several Danubian islands, breeding of livestock, etc.). At the same time, starting in the 1840s, the Russian authorities became more interested to lease these areas to private contractors and get new incomes to the state budget.