At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, Rijeka was a small town with great production potential. The harbour in the centre of the city in the Rijeka riverbed (additional materials on urbanistic characteristic of the area are at artandscience.rs/en/fasih), the construction of roads connecting the city with the inland, and tax concessions for trade through the port of Rijeka are the first steps towards production and attraction of foreign investment. The establishment of a direct Hungarian
administration in Rijeka brings capital and political will to promote production and sales, and the positive environment is an invitation to various industrialists from Great Britain, Italy, France, Hungary and Austria to come to the Rijeka plants.
In the first half of the 19th century, the trade in rags became extremely important for paper production. Rags were transported overland from the Rijeka hinterland to the port, and in 1821 paper production began in Rijeka’s mills. The entry of the British merchant Walter Crafton Smith and the French industrialist Charles Maynier into
the Rječina paper mill in 1827 marked the beginning of its golden age. The factory is modernized, the flow of the Rječina is regulated, canals are built to fully utilize the potential of water, and as early as 1833 a steam engine is delivered, the first of its kind in this part of Europe. Products such as fine postal, office and royal paper,
the production of paraffin matches and cigarette paper were exported all over the world. In the eighties of the 20th century, cigarette paper production in Rijeka covered seven percent of the world market.
After 1990, paper production was discontinued. For detailed chronological development of the Paper factory more materials are available at artandscience.rs/en/fasih.
Author of the photographs: Dario Jakovljević
