- INCENTIVE FOR THE BUILDING OF NEW MILLS
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INCENTIVE FOR THE BUILDING OF NEW MILLS
One of the decisions of the Small Council from 1771 outlined the way the Government of Dubrovnik encouraged the construction of new mills.
Thus, Ivan Kapetanić from Lovorno and Niko Živanovic from Ljuta were granted a 30-year-long lease of land in Ljuta, where they could build a mill at their own expense, for an annual amount of seven ducats and two groats which, converted into perpers, gives the amount of 23 perpers and 23 little groats.
The same lease could only be offered to someone else after 30 years by way of a public auction. And the one who would then take that mill in the lease was obliged to pay the previous leaseholders the costs of improvements and investments they had in the mill based upon the estimate of an independent expert.
Such a 30-year lease is mentioned several times in contracts, but contractual terms could be somewhat different. For example, in a contract concerning a part of Bat in Ston, the government allowed Rade Marković to make a windmill in 1495. He was in possession of it for the next 30 years without paying any lease, but the price he could charge for grinding grain was precisely determined. The price of milling, by the so-called star , in this case was 2 groats.