UN NEGUSTOR DIN BRĂILA ÎN SLUJBA FRAȚILOR GHEORGHIEV: IANKO NEDELKOVICI (1853–1856)

In this article, we present the commercial relationship between the merchant Ianko Nedelkovich from Brăila (the representative of the company ‘Hagi Petre and Nedelkovich brothers’) and the Bulgarian brothers Evlogi and Hristo Georgiev, events that took place during the Crimean War (1853–1856). The Georgiev brothers’ trading house, supported by the maternal uncles, Puliev, became one of the most powerful companies in the Wallachian business environment in the mid-nineteenth century. Our scientific endeavour is supported by the possibility of exploiting primary sources of great importance, such as the commercial letters addressed by Ianko Nedelkovich to the two Georgiev brothers. The correspondence is preserved in the Evlogi and Khristo Georgiev archive at the Central National Historical Archives in Bucharest, and its content has been only partially used so far in the work of Romanian and foreign researchers. The inclusion of this information in the historiography succeeds in ‘uncovering’ one of the central figures of the Georgiev brothers’ network in the Romanian lands, Ianko Nedelkovich, a character as complex and skilful in the art of trade as the two brothers from Karlovo were. This study presents only an insignificant fragment of the Georgiev brothers’ prolific entrepreneurial, political and philanthropic activity.