International Contacts of the Bulgarian Chiflikchii – the case of Holevich and Vaccaro

Petar Dobrev ()
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Petar Dobrev: Sofia University 'St. Kliment Ohridski', Bulgaria

Proceedings of the Centre for Economic History Research, 2017, vol. 2, 447-455

Abstract: The Holevich family, whose personal archives I am currently researching, were some of the richest and most influential landowners (or chiflikchii) in the region of Dobrudja prior to WWII. The most prominent member of the family was hadji Vasil Holevich, who apart from having a serious political career, was also doing business with one of the most important industrialists in the young Bulgarian state – the Italian K.A. Vaccaro. At the end of the 19th century, they became partners in the sale of agricultural machinery. The paper researches the complicated business contacts between Holevich and Vaccaro, which started promisingly but ended up with serious losses for the Italian. At a moment when the Bulgarian state budget was dependent of Vaccaro and the European loan, he was negotiating, Holevich was in a position not to answer the Italian's letters and didn't seem very concerned with collecting the money that was requested of him. This can show the powerful position local landowning elites had in Dobrudja, which allowed them to have the upper hand even against some of the most influential men in Sofia.

Keywords: Balkan merchants; capitalist agriculture; Dobrudja; capital accumulation; political networks; merchant networks; Bulgaria; Italia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N94 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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