ABSTRACT
The idea of freedom of navigation on the major rivers-with the easing of tolls and restrictions-gained ground as a result of the Congress of Vienna, and new arrangements, including the reduction of tolls, were eventually made for the Danube in 1856 and the Elbe in 1863. Internationalisation of Elbe was of the greatest importance for the Habsburg Empire and shipping companies were founded in the 1820s. Sachsische Dampfschiffahtsgesellschaft linked Bohemia and Saxony in 1826, and 1841 saw both domestic services between Prague and Mĕlník and international services to Dresden. A chain-drive ship was tested in 1866 and in 1886 the ‘Kette Deutsche Elbeschiffahtsgesellschaft’ (owned by German and Habsburg interests) proved highly competitive with its 740km of chain from Mélník to Hamburg. However, the railway challenge produced a grouping in 1903-Vereinigte Elbeschiffahrtsgesellschaft, with headquarters in Dresden-and finally in 1907 a union of private shipping interests was established; although this monopoly was then challenged by two new companies there was a measure of cooperation between them. Meanwhile, river improvements affected the Oder in Silesia (1848-58) while new canals around Berlin modernised both routes to the Oder and culminated in the Berlin-Stettin Ship Canal of 1914. Although the Vistula was used for navigation with regular passenger sailings from 1852 (Wocławek was reported a steamship port in 1853), there were no improvements in Russian territory. But although the Habsburg and Russian empires failed to cooperate over the basin as a whole, the former implemented river regulation and drainage in Sandomierz, affecting tributaries like the San (where work began in 1907) and the Wisłoka (where work went on over sixty years). The gradient between the Wisłoka and San mouths declined during 1857-87, while stream density decreased and the width of the main rivers was reduced (the San had been 800m wide), though depth increased by up to 3m, banks were consolidated and meanders cut off. Swampland disappeared as ground water level fell from just beneath the surface by 2-4m, which affected the forests as well as large swamps and peat bogs near Nisko and Rudnik. In the case of the Oder catchment in present-day Poland statistics produced by Bielecka and Ciołisz (2002) on the land-use changes from the nineteenth century through to 1992 show a sharp decline in the area of marshland and surface water (1,140 to 830 sq.km)—as well as agricultural land (41,230 to 35,390)—to allow for the expansion of forests (17,660 to 20,770) and settlements (2,740 to 5,770).
