IZVOARELE DE APĂ SĂRATĂ DIN BUCOVINA ÎN ATENȚIA ADMINISTRAȚIEI AUSTRIECE (II)
Sources of Salt Water from Bukovina in the Attention of the Austrian Administration (II)

Summary/Abstract: In the period immediately following the annexation of Bukovina, the Austrian authorities showed a special interest in finding solutions in order to stop salt imports from Turkish Moldova. As a result, the Lemberg administration ordered the sending, in the autumn of 1783, of a team with a geology specialist in order to identify all the sources of salt in the Bukovina area. The expedition was led by aulic commissioner Johann Thaddäus Peithner of Lichtenfels, who reported on his findings in the field, accompanied by a detailed table of salt springs in Bukovina, which were chemically analyzed using three methods: the Tyrolean hydrostatic balance, with the medical balance and by the fire test, thus determining exactly the salt concentration for each salt water source in Bucovina. Peithner reviews the springs of salt water from Vijnița, Berhomet, Banilova, Crasna, Vicovul de Jos, Stulpicani, Putilova and the monasteries of Sucevița, Solca and Brodești. For each locality, the number of salt water springs, their distance from the localities to which they belong, the condition of the roads leading to these springs, the information about the condition of these springs or salt water wells, the salt content of these sources are shown, salt quality, but also information on the nature of the mountains and the surrounding soil. The journal and the attached table are considered by the author as constituting a first scientific paper on the history of determining the sources of salt water in Bucovina. Based on D. Cantemir’s statements about the Moldovan salt, the author of the study makes processing, often extensive, for comparative purposes, from reports or writings of personalities who had a special role in the administration of the province, describing it and making it known to the authorities, as in the case of General Gabriel Splény of Miháldy (1775) and Major of Mieg, or from the Moldavian boyar Vasile Balș (1780) or from the works of specialists such as E. P. Fichtel (1780), Balthasar Hacquet (1789) and Karl Denarowski (1880) and reaches the decree of Emperor Frantz II, of August 17, 1798, which prohibits the import of salt into Bucovina, from which date the province can be considered independent in terms of providing the necessary salt for its inhabitants.

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