Between late-lasting empire and late-developing nation-state: a Triestine perspective on city-state relations

摘要

This paper adopts the case of Trieste to critique ideas that urban authority is always and inevitably surrendered to the state, arguing that the relationship between economic and political change may be more complex than is sometimes acknowledged. Trieste's origins as a multi-ethnic trading community were not a consequence of the absence of state authority, so much as Habsburg calculation of the potential economic advantages of a policy of toleration. Equally, the subsequent erosion of Trieste's cosmopolitan character cannot be understood simply as the triumph of a nationalising Italian state. Trieste thus prompts a call for greater appreciation of variety in the character and identity of European cities, paying attention to the potential distinctiveness of port cities, cosmopolitan trading centres and border cities.