THE NEW ERA
The Venetian administration on Korčula lasted for several centuries and the island was the easternmost point of Serenissima until its fall in 1797. The population of the island was already living almost exclusively on wine production, so the administrative authorities sought to protect viticulture with various orders. The Statute of Korčula devotes several provisions to viticulture. In order to protect domestic wine, Korčula regulations prohibited the import of wine, and fined the violator with 25 perpers. Import was allowed only in the case of crop failure, exclusively for domestic consumption, and a maximum of one barrel (about 65 litres) per family.
In 1420, the Venetians allowed Korčula to export its wine to Venice with special privileges, but not for long. At the end of the Middle Ages, in order to reduce the production of Korčula wine, the Venetians forbade the people of Korčula to build new vineyards and they needed a permit, if they wanted to plant vines.
Until 1852, nothing significant changed in the wine-growing practice of Dalmatia, including the island of Korčula. In the 19th century, the vineyards here were the most successful, but they also had to deal with severe crises. Namely, in 1852, a powdery mildew or oidium appeared in Dalmatia. After that, in 1886, peronospora arrived to Korčula, and in 1894 a phylloxera began to spread from northern Dalmatia. Since it spread relatively slowly to the south, before the phylloxera infection, and after the abolition of the wine clause, there was the golden age of viticulture, especially in Vela Luka. It caused the well-being of the inhabitants and lasted until the beginning of the First World War. During the war, when there was not enough manpower to take care of the vineyards, the phylloxera destroyed all the vineyards. Before the war, the area of the vineyards on Korčula was 4,136 ha, of which 4018 ha or 97.14% of the domestic vines were destroyed by phylloxera. Due to these diseases, many winegrowers were economically destroyed, so there was a great emigration, especially to overseas countries, from where emigrants paid off debts and helped rebuild the vineyards.
THE DEVELOPMENT IN THE FIRST HALF OF 19TH CENTURY
Because of a difficult economic situation in which the Dubrovnik found itself at the beginning of the 19th century, and the insecurity of navigation and the inability to board a large number of seafarers, many residents turned to agriculture, deforestation and planting new vineyards in hilly and difficult to access areas.
It can be said that viticulture in the former Dubrovnik Republic, when it was under Austrian rule, was at a higher level of development than in other Dalmatian regions, for two basic reasons:
– centuries of continuous development in peace under the auspices of the Republic and the supervision of a nobleman who saw both personal and general commercial interest in viticulture
– its sudden impoverishment towards the end of the Republic when its only chance of survival was the land
DISTRIBUTION OF VINEYARD
Then the nobility, which until 1800 formally owned almost all the land in the Republic, turned to its cultivation and paid more attention to it.
In addition, using the short-term abolition of the institution of fideikomis or trust, i.e. the institution of feudal law according to which the oldest male member of the family inherited the goods, with special conditions, because these goods were not to be alienated or in any way shared, the noblemen of Dubrovnik strove to sell as much land as possible, which, if neglected, represented only a burden
This leads to the fragmentation of the property, but also provides an opportunity for people who have acquired certain capital, e.g. a Pelješac seaman or merchant could buy that land for their own account, start clearing new areas and cultivating it with greater care.
CRISIS: PHILLOXERA, WINE CLAUSE AND MASS EMIGRATION
Competition
Towards the end of the 2nd Dalmatian viticulture conjuncture, fierce competition among the winegrowing powers became stronger.
France introduced protective import duties in 1888.
Exports from Dalmatia to the German market decreased.
The state did not help exports to Hungary where there was a shortage of wine due to phylloxera.
Market loss
France wanted to protect itself, especially against the import of Italian wines under someone else’s name. Therefore, after the restoration of the vineyard, it adopted a rigorous customs regulation according to which the true origin of the imported wine had to be proven, and in order to prevent fraud, all goods imported into France through Italy were subject to the same customs duty as the Italian ones. In February 1892, with the Austro-French Treaty, Dalmatia definitely lost the French market.
Crisis
Its viticulture was irreversibly destroyed when the political interests of Germany and Austria-Hungary intervened in the economy. They wanted an unreliable member of their Triple Alliance – to tie Italy more tightly, solving its economic difficulties by ensuring more favourable imports of Italian wine to the Monarchy. The consequence was the activation of the wine clause, which entered into force on 27 August 1892.
What is the wine clause?
The wine clause is a contractual reduction in import duties on Italian wine. It lasted until 1904 and did an enormous damage to all spheres of Dalmatian society that will feel severe consequences for decades, and those in the demographic area for most of the 20th century.
.The following wines were exported from Italy to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy:
1891 Germany 147.537 hl
A-U Monarchy 30,231 hl
1892 Germany 629.674 hl
A-U Monarchy 260.456 hl
1893 Germany 169.793 hl
A-U Monarchy 989.444 hl
MASS EMIGRATION
In the 1980s, the region was hit by the economic wine crisis, which caused the most damage to viticulture, the basic source of the existence of peasantry and capital accumulation. The disastrous consequences of the wine clause were further increased by the phylloxera, which appeared on the islands of northern Dalmatia in 1894 and spread from there to the south, to Pelješac and Korčula. After the expiration of the ten-year trade agreement with Italy, the wine clause was not renewed under the pressure of Hungarian producers. Since then, south Dalmatian wine production on the Monarchy market has competed with Hungarian wines.
One of the first triggers for emigration was the wine-production situation. South Dalmatian viticulture reached the peak when phylloxera appeared in France in the 1870s. This disease devastated vineyards in France and opened a new market for many regions to export wine.
One of these wine-growing regions was Dalmatia. The French found an excellent substitute for their Bordeaux wines in Dalmatian red wines and paid well for them. Increased demand for wine and good earnings encouraged many farmers to rapidly give up arable land and olive groves and turn them into vineyards. The wine renaissance of southern Dalmatia lasted for about 20 years, and the first problems arise with the French ban on the import of foreign wines, as soon as their vineyards recovered.
In order to make the situation even worse for southern Dalmatian producers, the government in Vienna responded to this situation. Instead of protecting their own market, they allowed Italy as an ally to import Italian wines to the territory of the entire Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with low imperial clauses. When this Wine Clause was announced, it created unrest, so it entered into force only in November 1891.
South Dalmatian winemakers had to lower prices in order to be competitive on the market, and so wine making changed from the most profitable agricultural branch to the edge of profitability. All this time, they also struggled with peronospora, a disease of the grapevine, and finally, in 1894, phylloxera appeared. All this resulted in the decline of peasants, traders, and craftsmen.
The phylloxera was particularly difficult, and the first towns where it attacked the vineyards were on the northern Dalmatian islands: Silba, Olib, Škarda and Ugljan. Over the next ten years, it reached the central part of southern Dalmatia, where most vineyards were located. For southern Dalmatia, which in the 19th century was completely dependent on viticulture, this unfortunate set of circumstances was a disaster.
The process of restoring the devastated vineyards that needed to be carried out was painstaking because many farmers were in debt. Given that at the end of the 19th century almost 70,000 families in Dalmatia were engaged in viticulture, it is not surprising that in the end this situation gave rise to so many poor and over-indebted families. Therefore, their only chance to get out of debt was to try their luck abroad.
