Book Reviews 257 Márton Pelles, Gábor Zsigmond, A fiumei magyar kereskedelmi tengerészet története (1868-1918) /The Hungarian Maritime Trade, History of Fiume (1868-1918), Bilingual edition, Pro Pannonia Kiadói Alapítvány, 2018. 216 pp. illustrations, maps, diagrams, endnotes, bibliography. ISBN 978-615-5553-50-9; £15.00. It is not widely appreciated that Hungary had an exit to sea in the nineteenth century. Since the Habsburgs were the reigning dynasty of Hungary from the sixteenth century the land stood in union with their territory but still with no direct sea exit. Nineteenth- century nationalism and the revolutions of 1848, followed by unsuccessful war of inde- pendence, brought Hungary to a negotiation table with the Austria to redefine their relationship in the mid-1860s, the result of which was Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, followed by Croatia-Hungarian Compromise of 1868, since Central Croatia was part of Hungarian Kingdom for centuries. Such negotiation allowed Hungary to acquire the sea exit in the form of Fiume (Rijeka) city at the north-eastern top of the Adriatic Sea. From 1868 till the end of World War I, Fiume was a Hungarian owned port that saw the rise of Hungarian maritime business and trade. M. Pelles and G. Zsigmond wrote this lavishly illustrated book with parallel texts in Hungarian and English language with the aim to reconstruct maritime history of Fiume and the Hungary from 1868 till 1918 in a particularly important period of transition from sail to steam. Besides Trieste, the most important Austrian port, Fiume was the second largest port in the Monarchy and on Adriatic, since the importance of Venice ceased to exist with the Republic’s demise. On the territory of 1,957 km 2 Hungary built modern a port with the necessary infrastructure, docks, storage facilities and other buildings neces- sary for the commerce and shipping. Railway construction and connection of Fiume with mainland Hungary and Budapest was of the utmost importance in order to start exporting the agricultural products from the country. In the course of several decades the line was built which facilitated Hungarian economy, since the Fiume became the focal point of the territory that stretched from Adriatic to Carpathian Mountains. Coinciding with the rapid industrialisation in the second half of the century Fiume was a natural exit for the Hungarian products to be exported throughout the world. Hungarian government invested in port facilities that made Fiume the tenth busiest port of Europe in the period. However, to develop maritime commerce is was not only necessary to invest heavily in Fiume, but also to put up shipping companies and their fleets that would participate in highly competitive business. In the period when sailing ships were gradually swept over by steamers Fiume was still mostly using sailing ships for trading. The only steam giant on Adriatic was Austrian Lloyd, with the centre in Trieste, who took all the service lines and spread out to Mediterranean, Black Sea, and further eastward to Asia. Since the beginning of Dualism in 1868 Hungarians sought to create independent companies and fleet that would support their commerce. However, the first Hungarian investments were in Austrian Lloyd which became Austrian–Hungarian Lloyd, lasting up until 1891 when the Hungarian government dissolved the contract with Trieste since the lines were still unfavourable to Fiume. The first true Hungarian company, subsidised by the govern- ment, was Adria Hungarian Royal Maritime Company (1874–1914) with the base in Budapest and commercial centre in Fiume. With the line between Fiume and Liverpool in 1877 the company started the business that reached the top with 43 steamers and the commerce that was mostly focused on the Western Europe and America. Adria Co. had