The Chamber of Commerce, Trade and Industry in Ljubljana

Abstract

The author presents a clear insight into the organization and operation of the Chamber of Commerce, Trade and Industry (CCTI), the oldest and the most important economic chamber, which expressed the interests of a specific social class - that of employers. The Chamber operated continuously for ninety-eight years, from 1851 to 1948. It was an economic association with a compulsory membership, the objective of which was to protect the interests of a certain class, to represent them before the authorities and to promote commerce, trade and industry. It was founded in 1851, as the Commercial and Trade Chamber for Carniola. In November 1918, the National Government for Slovenia extended its jurisdiction to the whole territory of Slovenia. In 1925, it was renamed the Chamber of Commerce, Trade and Industry which, after 1931, covered the whole of the Dravska banovina. In March 1941, its Trade Section separated from it, constituting an independent Trade Chamber, whilst the remainder of the chamber was reorganized into the Commercial Industrial Chamber. Under the Italian occupying regime, the chamber was integrated into the Italian corporative system and, under the subsequent German, subordinated to the Chamber for Carinthia in Klagenfurt. Even before, Upper Carniola and Styria had been subordinated to the economic chamber in Graz. After the liberation, the chamber's operation was restored to its original extent, until it was abolished in 1948.