Dalmatia: Ships & Grapes The early 1990s were years of war in
Croatia and Dalmatia while the last five years of the decade
were ones of slow recovery. The 1890s by contrast were years of
peace but in Dalmatia especially, they were also years of
economic depression not helped, explains Marcus Tanner in his
history of Croatia "by Vienna's policy of vesting political
power in the city council's in the hands of a tiny Italian
minority. " The region eked out a poor existence on wine and
shipbuilding. But in the 1890s blight destroyed vineyards
throughout Europe. Another blow was a favourable trade agreement
reached with Italy that allowed Italy to flood the empire with
cheap wine, undercutting Dalmatian exports. The switch to iron
and steel ships then ruined the Dalmatians' second principal
industry; there was not nearly enough capital in the region to
finance the restructuring of Dalmatia's old wooden ship
industry. Nor was there any money to finance the building of
railways. By the turn of the century short line