In my thesis I explored the demographic as well as the economic rise of Trieste in the 18th century. In the first place there will be an emphasis on the political and economic decisions that made possible such growth, where the most important on is the status of freeport that was granted in 1719. I analyzed the demographic shift in Trieste over the century, which are the main city mobility indicators. The main focus was on the immigration from the region with Slovene population, so the County of Gorizia and Gradisca, Istria, Carniola and Styria. In that context I did a research on the professional structure of the population, which tells us a lot about the different social status of immigrants from different backgrounds and gives us a more complete overwiew on the social structure of Trieste in that period. I highlighted the most importatn figures among the immigrants from slovene-speaking region, that had a crucial role in the emporial Trieste. The focus is also on the proven examples of the everyday use of Slovene language in Trieste, along the immigrant component in the emporial times I researched as well the presence of Slovene speaking population in the city and the nearest hinterland in the time before Trieste got a freeport status. After the research part there is a final reflection on the role of the Slovene population in the buergois society of Trieste in the 18th century, where we can conclude, that this role is not at all marginal, as it may seemed in the past.
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