the Loka dominion
while the more difficult cases (crimin maiore) were handed over to the execution judge from Gorizia. The trial of serious crim-inals started in March 1779. It was presided over by the noble-man Josip Locatelli Gibellini and his assistant Anton Comini.
The mine justiciar, nobleman Karel Gariboldi and the court recorder Joseph Enhuber were also present at the trial. The pro-cess resulted in execution sentences on November 23 and 24, 1779. Judge Gibellini announced the convictions on Novem-ber 20, 1779.
The main defendants were Jožef Ambrožič from Loka do-minion, Luka Bizjak from Tolmin dominion and Tomaž Bonča and Anton Pivk from Idrija dominion. They were sentenced to death by hanging.3After the execution judge read the senten-ce, they were taken to the castle prison, each put in their own cell and allowed one last conversation with the priest. A red flag was hoisted over the castle. They set up gallows at a place near the road that leads to Spodnja Idrija on the right bank of the Idrijca. Past this point was the path the offenders used to smug-gle the ore. This choice of location served as a reminder to every-one else if they thought to do something similar. At 8 o’clock in the morning on November 26, 1779 all the delinquents were read their indictments once again, then each was taken by wagon to the gallows, accompanied by a large division of the Idrijan mining militia.4The executions were carried out by the executioner from Gorizia. Afterwords, those remaining were gathered in the courtyard and admonished once more.
As I mentioned before, this was the largest trial in the Idrija mine, where fifty five suspects were interrogated. Twenty six of them were brought in front of the Gorizia execution judge Locatelli, who immediately pardoned eleven suspects of any guilt, condemned nine delinquents to public work at the mine (ad labores publikos) for ten years or less, and banned rest from the Idrija area from a few years or for life. The mine manage-ment complained regarding the nine delinquents’ conviction, arguing that they should work together with fair playing min-ers. At the request of mine management, the Court Chamber in Vienna expelled the offenders and sentenced them to public work to Trieste. The Higher Mining Office assured the Gover-nor of Trieste, Count Zinzendorf, that it would pay for the care of the offenders and agreed that they would stay in Trieste only for the duration of serving their punishment. It was also determined that the offenders should be paid for their work.
Below I focus only on the smugglers of mercury ore from the Loka dominion. Eighteen people were interrogated, one of which was sentenced to death by hanging.
In 1778 in the village of Davča, Loka dominion, a search was conducted at the home of the commoner Jožef Ambrožič Žagar. He was about sixty years old. He was a man from the cot-tage industry and worked with linen. Before this trial he had
3 SI_ZAL_IDR/0055, Mercury mine Idrija (Rudnik živega srebra Idrija), f. 873.
4 SI_ZAL_IDR/0055, Mercury mine Idrija (Rudnik živega srebra Idrija), f. 873.
already served a prison sentence of several years in the Kar-lovac fort. After completing this sentence he began cultivating the land, which was not sufficient for his survival, so he again returned to his trade in cloth and to illicit trade in mercury as well. The investigation yielded 134 ounces of mercury ore, twenty two lots of cinnabar and thirty seven florins and twenty five coins worth of goods (thirteen retorts, a cave lamp and various kinds of fabrics). He paid suppliers of mercury ore with money, bacon, yarn and fabrics. Ambrožič smelted ore in a forest fifteen minutes away from his house, where he had a stone furnace with two retorts. His accomplices Poljanec and Kodermač supplied him with retorts purchased in Bled (aus Ober Krain). Ambrožič bought the mats (Vorlagtegeln) by him-self in Železniki. Typically he smelted ore in the autumn for a month or five weeks twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. As Ambrožič himself said, he produced forty five to fifty ounces of mercury over two years. Luka Kodermač from Železniki and Štefan Polanec, an Idrijan who had moved to Železniki, helped him smelt the ore. Ambrožič then sold the mercury to an Italian, at the price of one ounce per four seven-teens (silver coins with the number 17), and also to Gregor Šaul from Lazec at Cerkno. He demanded two ducats for ten ounces.
To succeed as moonlighters smelting ore many reliable suppliers of ore were required. The network was well organiz-ed and often the ore came into the right hands only after it had passed through the hands of second or even multiple inter-mediaries or brokers. At this point I should mention that Am-brožič’s son Pavel, who was not included in the criminal pro-ceedings, also participated in supplying ore. I will now de-scribe other suppliers listed from Loka dominion.
Primož Eržen was born in Ledine, under the Žiri parish in Loka dominion. He was about forty years old, a tenant at the church of St. John in Oslica (Oselica), without a profession. In the summer he worked in the fields, and among other things in the winter he smuggled mercury.5According to his statements he was unknowingly enticed. He met the old Žagar at a restau-rant in Oslica, who addressed him with a request to transport some cargo for him. He told him he was already old and no longer able to work so much. Eržen was promised him such a good salary he did not ask what the cargo was. He found that out over time but kept it up because those earnings alleviated his poverty. Eržen transported ore that was being brought from the pit by Štefan Vrišer and Luka Bizjak from Tolmin do-minion and Andrej Beričič from Poljanska Valley. They were all employed as miners in the mine. Eržen received ore secretly given to him by the miners from the smelting plants. It was then smuggled to the mill in Vrhčev (where today the farm Na Lužniku is located), or Žagar and Štefan Vrišer would wait for him at the bridge near the church of St. Cross in Idrija. Luka
5 SI_ZAL_IDR/0055, ZAL IDR/0055, fasc. 691.
Bizjak and Pavle Ambrožič, Žagar’s son often helped transport it. Primož Eržen was caught and arrested near the smelting plants (locus delicti) on May 8, 1778. He was handed over to the judicial authorities, but it is not clear from the judicial records what kind of punishment they gave him.
Andrej Beričič from Poljanska Valley was about forty years old. He was a stonemason who moved to Idrija and was em-ployed at the mine as a miner. He lived as a tenant at the miner Luke Jereb’s home. He was one of the miners who supplied ore for Primož Eržen and Žagar. He secretly took it out of the cave to the kilns, but he stood in before the court for the illicit sale of gunpowder, which he collected while working in the mine.
Lovrenc Šušnik, nicknamed Luka Kodermač, born in Smo-leva, was forty five years old. He lived in Železniki, where he was the tenant of a shoemaker nicknamed Kopčaber. He was a charcoal burner and he burned charcoal for ironworking blacksmiths. Kodermač was familiar with smelting of the ore, given that he already smelted it together with Štefan Polanc on Blegoš, even before he met Žagar. At first Kodermač sup-plied Žagar with wood and ore, but later he joined him in the production of spirits as well. He was arrested while transport-ing ore to Žagar in the forest Kokonak in Železniki. Kodermač was supplied with ore by the miner Valentin Filipčič. The pun-ishment he received is not recorded.
Štefan Polanec was sixty five years old, born in Spodnja Idrija, but moved to Železniki. He was a tenant with Simon Mihelič, nicknamed Kamč. A shoemaker by profession, he was arrested for the illicit trade of ore having become entangled in the mercury trade completely by chance. For the repair of shoes, his customer gave him mercury ore in exchange for pay-ment, saying he should sell it. When he realized how sought after the cinnabar ore was, he started to deal in it. Later, in Ve-harše, where he had a kiln together with one Resosa from Kam-nik, he was burned in an accident. During his clandestine busi-ness he was introduced to major parties from all three border dominions (Cameral, Loka and Tolmin) in the smuggling chain that sustained contact between miners and peasants.
Pavle Bizjak was fifty five years old, born in Žiri, but later moved to Plužne, which was in Tolmin dominion. He was a roofer by profession, and also sold fruit. Knowing that there was mercury on the black market in Idrija he started inquiring among his customers for the precious metal. He came in con-tact with the miner Tomaž Lampe who was supplying ore in exchange for tobacco. In 1778, while under interrogation, Biz-jak fell ill in prison and died. Thus, the judges no longer con-cerned themselves with his sentence.
Matevž Beričič was thirty two years old. He was born in Dobravlje in Loka dominion, a stonemason by profession who also worked as a miner. According to his claims he sold only five
or six ounces of mercury ore once to Štefan Polanec because he needed new shoes. Ore was brought out of the cave while he was making stairs there, and debris that contained mercury was created in the process. The judge Karel Gariboldi did not consider taking this debris to be a criminal offense, so he was released from prison with a warning to not repeat the offense and an order to leave Idrija within three days.
Ninety-year-old Miha Dauč (or Daus) from Davča illus-trates the degree to which mercury was interesting for people of all ages. He was arrested because he bought some mercury a single time. Since he was not involved in this type of trade regularly, he was released from detention with an order not to appear in Idrija again.
Gašper Derlink, called Potočnik, was thirty years old. He was from Leskovica, where he had a farm and an inn. Accord-ing to his statement mercury ore smugglers gathered at his inn and temporarily stored their ore there. He was never a part of illicit trade but he followed all of it, so he was ordered to pay a fine of seventy florins only.
Jernej Jemec was forty eight years old, a native of Davča.
He transported mercury officially for the mine. Sometimes he stole some and immediately sold it to Janez Podobnik, son-in-law of Jožef Ambrožič. The value of this was estimated at twen-ty nine florins, fiftwen-ty three kreutzers and 3/4 coins, and he was ordered to reimburse these costs.
Štefan Žakelj was from Žiri. He was Matevž Mravlje’s tenant in there, where he worked as a farm hand. He liked to entertain himself and others by occasionally playing the fiddle. His char-ge states that he one day came to the inn Pri Skvarču in Spod-nja, Idrija where the smugglers gathered with a man named Jurij from Veznica (Besnica). There they met with someone named Matevž (probably Beričič). According to people’s stories he supplied Žakelj with mercury ore. Žakelj acknowledged that he was with Jurij in Spodnja Idrija but denied getting the ore. Franc Skvarča, the innkeeper, who was also the mayor of Spodnja Idrija, was criminally deposed from office of the mayor because he did not denounce the smugglers to the authorities.
Martin Mlinar, nicknamed Hamc, was seventy years old.
He was born in Žiri, and lived with Martin Jurjavčič on Vrsnik as a renter. A tailor by profession, during interrogation he ad-mitted that he was bringing Matevž Stopar gunpowder, which was brought to him by the miner Miha Ragnus from Idrija. He confessed that he stole some mercury twenty years ago and traded it with someone named Blaž Kralj from Ljubno (Maria Laufen) in the Gorenjska region. He was given the penalty of either paying all damages in cash or repaying them with pub-lic roadwork. What he decided is not known to us.
Janez Rasp from Žiri was sixty six years old. He was a tenant with the innkeeper Marija Kameršek in Žiri, where he helped
her with daily chores. He was charged because he was trans-porting mercury ore with Jurij Demšar, also an innkeeper from Žiri (I will say more about him later), for Jože Jurman. After thirteen days of detention he was released and was no longer allowed to show himself in Idrija.
Janez Jesenko was seventy years old, born in Žiri. He was a tenant of Janez Gantar in Brekovce. He was charged with il-licit trade in gunpowder. Since he did not do that on a large scale, his only penalty was to pay the expense of his custody; he was banned from entering the Idrija area on release.
The last person questioned in the interrogation process from Loka dominion was Jurij Demšar, nicknamed Spick (Špik) from Žiri. He had a cottage and an inn. This apparently was not earning him enough money, so he moonlighted as a mer-cury ore transporter to Selce. He received the ore in Veharše from miners in the Zois iron mines. Demšar was transporting this iron ore to Škofja Loka legally. But in Veharše he also met with two Idrijan miners, Jožef Jurman and Matevž Stopar, who would bring him ore stolen from the mine. Upon investigation, the Imperial Royal Mining Interrogative Commission found that he had managed to resell 190 ounces of mercury ore this way. As a punishment, he had to repay the ore and the costs of his detention. He was banned from entering the Idrija area.
I described the cases of people from Loka dominion who were interrogated and punished for engaging in illicit trade as examples, to illustrate their motives for embarking on the path of trafficking.
To conclude, I would like to summarize the financial re-port of one mine official, for the two-year trial and cost of the recorder of the process Anton Kavčič. The total cost of the trial amounted to exactly three thousand one hundred fifty eight florins, fifty eight 1/4 coins, and the Court Chamber recovered three thousand florins for the mining administration.
lived at the edge of Planinsko polje (Planina Basin), located directly by the Rapallo bor-der, which was established after the First World War. My grandmother never spoke about smuggling, only about contraban-dists, and I never had the feeling that she was talking about illegal business, but rather about great adventures with many comic details that confirmed the cunning and cleverness of the contrabandists, as she called them. I most vividly remember the double- or triple-sewn hems of skirts in which women sewed tobacco and cigaret-tes and smuggled them across the border.
However, this was not organized smug-gling of large dimensions, but (just as ille-gal, of course) smuggling ‘for home use’, as Pavšič says (Pavšić, 1999: 14).
While my grandmother’s stories were about the 1920s or 1930s, given that she was born in 1913, this contribution will focus on the period of time after the First World War and after the establishment of the Rapallo border. The war left a mark on the daily life of the border population, which was left to make the best of things on their own. Smuggling became a strategy to help people survive given that the delicate social balance had been upset. It began to crumble during the war, and was only more damaged after the war by the financial cri-sis and the adaptation to new cultural and political conditions, especially the rising price of food and the desire for additional, usually quick earnings.
This paper illustrates how the daily Slo-venian press reported on the rise in illegal border crossings between Kingdom of Serbs, Introduction
The political journal Jutro published a news story that a certain Evgenija from Trieste was earning large amounts of money and doing profitable business smuggling. For one silver gulden she received 6 to 8 liras, so it comes as no surprise that she attracted the attention of the customs guards who decided to do a control search one Friday evening. Even though she kept resisting, they escorted her to the customs office, where they decided to ‘subject her to an especially delicate operation’, as the report-er of Jutro ironically remarked. During the search, they discovered that the lady had been smuggling old silver guldens under her blouse. They confiscated 1150 silver coins that all together weighed 14 kilo-grams, and handed her to the authorities (Anonymous, Jutro, 1920).
As is evident from this example, the woman from Trieste together with specu-lators had weaved a real smuggling network
‘that was chainlinking’ with the old money.
But of course we do not encounter only pro-fiteers among the smugglers, but also sim-pler sections of the population who engag-ed in illegal activity in order to ensure for themselves and their families a slightly better life. They, too, illegally crossed the border, and traded mainly in tobacco, salt, coffee, eggs, sausages, saccharin, wine, tim-ber or horses (Trobič, 2005; Pavšič, 1999;
Stanonik, 2007: 43-76), as well as dishes and silk or other linens (Vavken, 2012: 81).
I remember often hearing stories of smugglers as a child, as my grandparents