An economy of trust: chains of debts and favours in rural Istrian Business relationships

摘要

It was summer and just months before the grape harvest in Istria, Croatia. Danilo, a winemaker,visited his nearby agricultural input supply shop (agraria) urgently seeking a spray to combat acommon vineyard disease. It was also the middle of the tourist season in this popular vacationdestination on the Adriatic coast, increasingly visited for its wine. Prior to World War II, Istriahad been part of Italy and was known for its Malvasia and Teran wines. As part of Yugoslavia,the region’s wine production increased, due to the introduction of state wineries and theproliferation of small-scale family winemaking. In the early post-socialist period, restrictions onprivate winemaking were lifted. State wineries were eventually privatized beginning in the early2000s. With the help of the Istrian Tourist Board and other local institutions, winemaking in theregion has grown and been professionalized at a rapid pace, such that in recent years Istria hasbeen likened to Tuscany and other important winemaking regions of Europe. Croatia’s EUaccession in July 2013 marked the midway point of my two years of doctoral fieldwork in theregion, during which time Istrians were adjusting to market and legislative changes thatchallenged them to change everyday business practices. However, I found that some less thanoptimal business practices were increasingly being relied upon as coping mechanisms to dealwith the rising issue of illiquidity. Many businessmen find themselves in the situation of being inlong-term debt to clients, waiting for long-term debts to be repaid, or most often both. Thepersonal nature of so many business transactions, along with the long process of formallypursuing debt collection, contributes to this business environment of debts. In Danilo’s trip to the agraria, he had not anticipated a long-term debt to arise, but eventually this is what occurred, leading the respective transactors to turn to a debt resolution practice common to the region.