The Merchant Tsvyatko Radoslavov Kanev (Sahatchiev) from Svishtov and His Will from 1876
The Merchant Tsvyatko Radoslavov Kanev (Sahatchiev) from Svishtov and His Will from 1876

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the current article is twofold. On the one hand, brief, otherwise important information regarding the life and long-lasting entrepreneurial activities of Tsvyato Radoslavov Kane (Sahatchiev) (1820-1880) has been presented.Tsvyatko was born in Gabrovo into a wealthy (merchant) family. His relatives managed to establish lucrative trade contacts with Wallachia and Moldavia, as well as with the Austrian monarchy, in the first years of the 19th century. What is more important is that their experience and connections have passed to the next generation, whose representative is Tsvyatko. Around the 1840s, he decided to move to the Danubian town of Svishtov in order to expand his entrepreneurial ventures. He managed to establish several commercial enterprises. Despite his bankruptcy, he managed to revive and to expand his economic activity. As a result, Tsvyatko had the opportunity to amass significant fortunes. The second aim of the paper proposed is to shed light on Tsvyatko’s testament drafted in the early spring of 1876. Currently, the document is stored in the collections of the Historical Museum in Svishtov and has not been subject to thorough scientific analysis. The will gives him the opportunity to reveal additional and little-known aspects of his personality, family, and private life. The text of the primary source (the will), provides hints about Radoslavovʼs kin (about his wife Kiriakitza, his sisters, and adopted son Tsvetan Radoslavov-Hadjidenkov); about his charitable donations to schools (in Svishtov and in the native Gabrovo); about Tsvyatko’s desire to help financially needy individuals; one can find, albeit briefly, data on Radoslavov’s movable and immovable properties (a house, café, two shops, money, an inn, vineyards, fields, and meadows); last but not least, there are some clues about the executors (Kostaki G. Avramov and Georgi h. Denkov) of the will, who were also representatives of the entrepreneurial elite in Svishtov. In general, the will provides valuable details about the life and last wishes of an open-minded, entrepreneurial person. As a representative of the Bulgarian (and the Balkan) bourgeoisie, he was actively involved in various public activities, thus contributing to the process of modernization of the Bulgarian society during the National Revival period.

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