Ibrahım-alemdâr Pınjo, Jeftan Kovačević i sarajevska izvozna trgovina preko Dubrovnika (cca 1824 — 1825)
Ibrahim-Alemdâr Pinjo, Jeftan Kovačević and the Sarajevan Export Commerce via Dubrovnik (cca 1824 — 1825)

Summary/Abstract: In this paper it is analysed using the methods of the economic microhistory a letter written by a notable from Sarajevo, certain Ibrahim-alemdâr Pinjo. The letter is datable either in 1824 or in 1825. In his letter, Pinjo was recommending a Serbian-Orthodox merchant from Sarajevo, Jeftan Kovačević, originally native of Mostar in Hercegovina. The addressees of recommendation were the custom officers of the Trebinje custom-house lead by the revenue farmers of that custom-house: a Muslim notable family from the border town of Trebinje, the Resulbegovićes. Pinjo was seeking for a special treatment on behalf of Jeftan Kovačević who was exporting hare skins via the port of Dubrovnik. The paper provides review of the state of preservation and research of the Ottoman personal, family, and private archives in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The critical edition of the Ottoman original is provided, accompanied by Bosnian translation. For the purpose of the better understanding of the source, the biographies of both Pinjo and Kovačević are added. The paper dwells upon the economic, political , and social role of the janissaries in Sarajevo during the first three decades of the 19th century. Also the paper is devoted to the phenomenon of the Serbian Orthodox merchant diasporas from Bosnia and Hercegovina during the very same period. Another subject treated in paper were the Bosnian and Balkan production, commerce and export of the raw fur and skins, of their semi-products as well as of their final products. Those questions are especially illustrated using the traffic of zečina (hare skins). The role of Bosnia in the premodern global exchange was reviewed as well as the importance of the Bosnian raw materials for the European production of both felt and hats (1550 — 1880). Equally, the Ottoman system of the internal and international customs in Bosnia together with the role of that system in the traffic with the Bosnian fur and skins are dwelt upon. It is shown that Dubrovnik even after the fall of the independent Republic (the fall took place in phases: 1806, 1808. 1814 — 1815) – pace the declinist paradigm in the ex-Yougoslav historiographies – continued to be an important international export port, especially for Bosnia and Hercegovina.

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