Etudes balkaniques is a quarterly peer-review journal, which has been publishing research since 1964. Research papers related to the Balkan countries in French, English, German, Russian and Italian have appeared in it, thus making them available to a wide scientific community across borders.
LE ROLE DE LA LANGUE GRECQUE DANS LA VIE ECONOMIQUE DES BALKANS AUX XVIIIe-XIXe SIECLES
Nadia Danova
Institut d’Études balkaniques & Centre de Thracologie (Académie bulgare des sciences)
The Role of the Greek Language in the Economic Life of the Balkans in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Abstract: The purpose of this text is to present several exemples of the Bulgarian history that reveal the role of the Greek language in the transfer of knowledge concerning economic life and its importance for the modernization processes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
I comment on the use of Greek as a vehicle for knowledge in the field of commerce and I retrace the penetration of double-entry bookkeeping and the knowledge in commercial epistolography and geography, closely linked to commercial activities. The analysis of the correspondence of Bulgarian merchants of the 19th century reveals the current use of this language in trade, even after the cooling of relations between Bulgarians and Greeks during the second half of the 19th century due to the incompatibility of their national programs.
Keywords: Greek Language, Bularian Language, Transfer of Knowledge, Modernization, Economic Life
CE MONDE RAPETISSANT
Etudes balkaniques (Sofia) 2017 N 1
Abstract: This article presents in brief several rather unusual sources of Balkan social history, placing them into macro-historic context. It refers to three Greek itineraries produced for the needs of itinerant traders, which contain records that could contribute to our better understanding of Balkan national identities formation at the end of 18th and the beginning of 19th century. On the micro level of history these itineraries give us direct information, but viewed from the perspective of macrohistory they become really interesting. The first one of them is a MS written during 1769 and 1773, now at the Elenka and Cyril Avramovi Library Club, Svishtov, Bulgaria. It follows the route Trieste – Brasov via Graz and Vienna. The other two itineraries are printed publications from 1824 and 1829. All these three itineraries together eventually mirror the formation of national identities, the national programs in the Balkans at the time, and all those changes of mentalities that occur during the period.
Keywords: Itineraries, Mentalities, Identities, Greece, Bulgaria
