Authors

Megan Palmer¹;  ¹ University of Nottingham, UK

Discussion

The Braşov Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) was a late-Habsburg imperial institutional initiative executed at the local level by local actors. It held significant arbitration, evaluative and advocacy powers at both local and imperial levels. Membership was reserved for the city’s top industrial and commercial figures, who were elected on strict criteria.
This paper analyses the CCI’s membership lists from 1870–1915 using statistical and social network analysis to investigate the composition of its membership throughout the dual monarchy. In doing so, it considers how this formal imperial institution intersected with long-standing and overlapping informal social and professional networks. In particular, it explores the role of kin and nation-based loyalties and opportunities that existed in this time period.
The analysis shows that strong yet informal networks built on family ties and religious confession played a significant role in this period even in this urban, imperial economic entity. Family connections remained important for social advancement across national categories: even Braşov’s previously marginalised communities – especially the Romanian and Jewish ones – instrumentalised their networks to become increasingly represented in the commerical sphere. The findings problematise simplistic political nationalist narratives regarding economic and social behaviour, given the synchronous role of family and faith to national and other identity expressions. While growing political nationalism was a fact in Braşov in this period, any discussion of its role at the local level must also consider related, overlapping and tangental loyalties such as those relating to family, faith and personal relations.