The Trieste-Suez Connection: How Businessmen and Explorers Reshaped the Mediterranean in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

The cosmopolitan nature of Trieste played a pivotal role in the multi-layered story of the great project of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez and as a result, in the revolution brought about in the 19th century by the opening of the Canal. Fittingly, in more recent years, the New Silk Road project via Suez has made the former Austrian city one of its European docking points, thus reaffirming the joint role of Trieste and Suez in linking the two shores of the Mediterranean. This is just the latest stage in a story featuring several fascinating characters who were in action along that geographical red line which, in the second half of the 19th century, marked the end of Modernity and the beginning of Globalisation. In 1719, Charles VI had granted Trieste the status of porto franco (free port), fostering its ambitions to become the principal centre for trade in the Adriatic Sea, as well as for relations with the Levant; the Imperial Privileged Oriental Company was founded in the same year. Trieste’s role in international commerce was further enhanced in 1843, when the Austrian Chancellor, Prince von Metternich, suggested that the city should become a hub for trade with the East Indies through the Adriatic route; shortly afterwards, the local Chamber of Commerce backed a mission to the Levant to investigate the convenience of transporting goods via Suez. Alongside these imperial manoeuvres, however, other factors were decisive in promoting Trieste’s role in the great expansion of world trade which was happening then: the brokerage by a dynamic entrepreneurial class, the creation of financial service companies such as Assicurazioni Generali (1831) and the founding of the Austrian Lloyd shipping company (1833), as well as the commitment of several individuals to establishing solid connections with Egypt, following in the footsteps of the enigmatic businessman Antonio Faraone (‘Pharaoh’) Cassis at the end of the 18th century. It was from Trieste that Archduke Maximilian sought to set up cooperation between the Lloyd shipping company and the Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez. Subsequently, Baron Pasquale Revoltella, once appointed vice-president of the Universal Company, took charge of the sale of shares, bought the Austrian stake on behalf of the imperial government – the largest private part after that of Mohamed Sa'id – and eventually visited Egypt in 1861-2, leaving an interesting account of his journey. Maximilian, Revoltella and Ferdinand de Lesseps came face to face in Trieste on 23 February 1859 and discussed how the Mediterranean might be connected to the Red Sea under the auspices of a trading genius: three features which Pietro Magni rendered allegorically in his marble sculpture entitled The Cutting of the Isthmus of Suez, located today in the Revoltella Museum in Trieste. The aim of this contribution is thus to retrace the steps of the protagonists and witnesses (including the renowned explorer Sir Richard Burton, appointed British consul in Trieste in 1872) and the key moments which taken together, resulted in the fates of Trieste and the Suez Canal becoming intertwined: a complex story whose consequences were felt throughout the twentieth century and even to this day