Ministerul Afacerilor Străine și coordonarea navigației pe Dunăre (sfârșitul secolului al XIX-lea și începutul secolului al XX-lea)

The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Coordination of Danube Navigation (Late 19th and early 20th Centuries)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAS) in the coordination of national navigation, highlighting the main legislative provisions related to the functioning of the ministry and the duties that required it to stay in touch with foreign and Romanian shipping companies. It will also detail how, through the mediation of MAS, the Romanian authorities obtained and passed on information on the naval legislation of other countries, knowledge that was used in the drafting of national legislation based on best practices at European level. Finally, MAS negotiated treaties and conventions aimed at serving Romanian interests. In addition to commercial provisions, aspects related to cooperation in the field of navigation became increasingly important.
The growing interest of foreign shipping companies in the resources of the Romanian economy meant that, towards the end of the 19th century, the Danubian ports, especially Brăila and Galați, were overcrowded and could hardly cope with heavy traffic. At the same time, local port authorities wanted to clarify the situation of the concessions made before 1878 to various shipping companies, which often violated the terms of the agreements and claimed absolute ownership of land they had received in use. Agents of some of the foreign companies also took advantage of unclear situations in the Romanian legislation, considering that the Romanian state favoured certain shipping companies, primarily the two Romanian national companies. In the second part, this paper outlines some of the directions in which the Romanian state wanted to assert its sovereign rights in its ports, but also to create appropriate conditions for all shipping companies.