Ranonovovjekovna melioracija, protomoderne migracije i ekonomski razvoj vranskog posjeda

In the paper the authors are focused on local and trans-border migration processes in Northern Dalmatia and their influence on the economic and demographic development of the Vrana feudal estate during the 17th and 18th century. The research was based on the complex and qualitative analysis of demographic, economical, confessional and cartographic archival sources, followed by the correlation of existing secondary literature research (desk-study analysis). The primary scientific goal was to determine how the land reclamation and corresponding protomodern migrations, which had occurred prior the statistical period of migration registration, have changed and influenced further economic and environmental development of this particular hinterland of the Dalmatian area. The change of the lowland marshy borderlands was investigated within the frames of its physical ambience, geo-strategic position, and its communication, commercial and migratory potential, within the interdisciplinary framework and discourse of ecohistory and environmental studies methodology and approach. In addition, this paper tends to discuss whether the Borelli family's private venture of investing in land reclamation was an economic success or rather an adventurous experiment since they failed to keep the immigrants colonized from Bukovica in permanent settlements. After getting the Vrana estate as a feudal possession in 1752, these Italian family members undertook a huge action of marshland and land reclamation in order to re-evaluate and redefine land use in the area that was once a prosperous Roman barn field, which provided food for a much larger population. Consequently, these newly gained lands were used by the state, along with some other tax and administrative benefits, to attract agrarian labour force. After drying the Vrana moors and marshes, damp soil improved in quality and the excess water was taken away, especially after the trenching of main and collateral ditches and a huge canal of Prosika, which connected the Lake Vrana with the Adriatic Sea, and the immigration has continued. Considering the motives of these protomodern migrations as an interplay of intertwined migration factors, some typology of the most common patterns of spatial mobility has been discovered, including the patterns, shapes, directions and intensity of these migration lines. They included not only the war and post-war emigration from the estate, but also the immigration of Morlachs from the hilly area o