Ignjat Bajloni
Ignjat Bajloni (Serbian Cyrillic: Игњат Бајлони; Litomyšl, then Habsburg Monarchy, now Czech Republic, 1811 - Belgrade, 1891) was a Serbian entrepreneur, the ancestor of the Bajloni family, of Czechs, who came to Serbia in 1855 with his wife and four sons.[1]he was reportedly a tireless worker and, for over two decades, expanded his family business from operating a large grain mill at Malo Crniće[2] in Braničevo District near Požarevac to include brewing in Belgrade and shipping on the Danube as well as cattle breeding and mining. He was also a generous philanthropist. When Ignjat Bajloni died in 1891 his sons continued his work.[3]
Biography
He was born in Litomysl in the Czech Republic, then part of Austria-Hungary, at that time the Habsburg Monarchy, where he studied leather and worked together with his brother. In search of a better life, he decided to move to America, but his sister and son-in-law Antonín Němec, who were already in Serbia, persuaded him to move in with his family.[4] After coming to Serbia in 1855, he settled somewhere on Topčidersko Brdo and did his Leather crafting. His eldest son, Jakov, learned the craft of cooperage in a Viennese brewery, and in Belgrade he worked for the cooper Kincel. The second son by birth, Anton learned the mill trade from his German brother-in-law, who leased the state mill in Bratinac na Mlavi. The third son, Venčeslav, called Vasa, stayed with his father, while the youngest Jovan was educated at the Serbian Military Academy.[5]
Doing business in Serbia
In the period 1858-1878, the Bajloni family ran an inn on Hajduk Veljkov venac. This building on Tobdžijska pijaca was bought by Antonin Njemec from a certain Milosav Pazarac, he finished it and gave it to the Bajloni family to manage it. In 1869, Bajloni bought an abandoned state mill on the Mlava in Malo Crniće, which was later taken over by his son Anton Bajloni, and who, after a trade with his uncle, was an intern at mills abroad.
The grain mill had quite a list of former owners -- a Turk, a Serb, and now Bajloni's German brother-in-law. However, Ignjat Bajloni was able to purchase it outright from the Serbian government and expand and modernize it. It was converted to steam power, and Bajloni brought in the finest equipment from Prague, Budapest, and other European industrial centres. Annual production of the mill reached 3,300 to 4,400 tons and employed 100 people.
Bajloni also bought 30 Hectare of agricultural land where he raised cattle and pigs and then sold them in Budapest. He bought a small hand brewery, on the site of which a large brewery was later built and equipped with the most modern equipment of world-famous factories, the first to use electricity from the Belgrade Power Plant and won significant awards for its products at the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris in 1900.[6]In 1870, the construction of a steam mill began, which was completed and put into operation two years later under the name Ignjat Bajloni and Sons (although the owners were only sons, because Ignjat Bajloni died in the meantime).[7]
After Bajloni died in 1891, his son Ignjat, was well prepared to follow in his father's footsteps. He finished secondary school and the state-run business school in Belgrade. In Vienna, he studied at the business academy and returned to Belgrade where he joined the family firm. In the World War I period, Ignjat bajloni was a prominent figure in Serbian business and government circles. He served on the auditing board of the National Bank of Serbia and then on its board of governors. In 1911 he was president of the Belgrade Society of Industrialists (Udruženje Beogradskih Industrialaca). In 1914, he became a member of the industrial commission and was the vice-president of the Serbian shipping organization (Srpsko Brodarsko Društvo). At one time, he was the president of the board governing the state's monopolies (Uprava Državnih Monopola) part of the state industrial corporation (Centrala Industrijskih Korporacija).
During the war, between 1914 and 1916 he worked with the war ministry to improve the food provided to the army. When the Austrians occupied Belgrade, the Bajloni brothers' brewery ceased operation, and it was years before production was restored. Following the war, Ignjat Bajloni served as the director of a program for rebuilding and strenghtening industry.He was a founder of a Serbian society for the redevelopment of the industries which had been destroyed during the Great War and twice served as a delegate to Paris for discussions concerning the enormous Serbian economic losses suffered during that war.
Bajloni prominence did survive the war, and the brwery was reuilt. By the 1930s, Belgrade's beers had rebounded and, perhpas, even surpassed their former popularity.
Bajloni significantly contributed to Belgrade's progress. The market next to the former brewery is named after him.[8]
References
- ↑ name="Bajloni"> Uspešna porodična firma, Ignjat Bajloni i sinovi
- ↑ https://rtvbiser.rs/porodica-bajloni-veliki-industrijalci-koji-su-razvili-malo-crnice/
- ↑ https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Basare_und_Boulevards/G6DZLH3hCZMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Ignjat+Bajloni%22+-wikipedia&pg=PP316&printsec=frontcover
- ↑ Telegraf, Pijaca čuvenog Čeha koju niko ne zove pravim imenom
- ↑ name="ТОБ"> Beogradski stranci, Turistička organizacija Beograda, 2009.
- ↑ https://scindeks.ceon.rs/Article.aspx?artid=1450-605X1516123L
- ↑ name="Bajloni"
- ↑ https://stil.kurir.rs/lifestyle/143495/ko-je-bio-bajloni-po-kojem-cuvena-pijaca-nosi-ime-zasto-je-ceh-zaljubljen-u-beograd-zauvek-napustio-srbiju
External links
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