Comerţul, navigaţia şi construcţiile navale la Dunărea de Jos în secolul al XVIII-lea. Consideraţii preliminare

The Danube ports, connected with Ottoman trade even before the conquest of the Black Sea, became increasingly attached to the Ottoman economy with the accentuation of the vassal dependency of the Romanian Principalities to the Porte and their economic integration. They make the course of the Danube a transportation route of great importance for the Empire’s supply, military and civilian needs. For the Ottoman, the ports at the Lower Danube fulfilled a threefold function: firstly, outlets for the agricultural, animal and handiwork products of the hinterland, secondly, transit (but also market) points for goods that came from the terrestrial trading of the Ottoman Empire with the entire European area, and thirdly, import and export centers of the Empire’s maritime trade. The dispute between the Ottoman Empire, Russia and Austria is that which draws the directions for the events in the space between the Carpathians, the Danube and the Black Sea, from both the economic, political and military perspectives. The events at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century are the beginning of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, opening the path for a fight for supremacy in Eastern Europe and at the mouths of the Danube.