The Serbian flag on the Danube: on the history of the Serbian steamship company

The objective of this research is to analyze the history of the emergence and development of the Serbian Steamship Company, which existed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The research includes examining various aspects and prerequisites that led to the establishment of the steamship company. Particular attention is paid to international relations and the changing status of the Danube, which became one of the most important trade and transport arteries of pan-European significance, as evidenced by the creation of the European Danube Commission, in which the leading powers of the time participated. For Serbia, the 19th century was a time of national revival and long-awaited independence. In these circumstances, the establishment and development of its own steamship enterprise was one of the important tasks for achieving, among other things, commercial sovereignty. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it attempts to present the main stages of the Serbian Steamship Company's activities at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries through the prism of key events in Serbian history of that time. The research concludes that the Serbian Steamship Company was one of the instruments of Serbian state policy and was important both from the point of view of the country's economic development and from the point of view of Serbia's international prestige.