FACT AND FICTION ABOUT GRAIN EXCHANGE OF BRĂILA

Abstract

The slogans that have invaded the Romanian mass media after 1989 are powerful weapons of those leading a psychological warfare with the obvious intent to present a distorted image of historical realities. They had and have a common goal, the goal of suggesting that Romania before Communism was ahead of Europe in terms of economic and social development. Based on this perception, there was build the idea, the desire of returning to what was called' the 30's heaven' and, at the same time, there was cultivated the idea of hatred against everything that had been done during the communist period and the demolition of these achievements. The falsity of the slogan is proved by the history of stocks early days, including the wheat stock: Japan in 1697; Antwerp in 1531; London 1554; Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier and Rouen in 1639; Augsburg, Nuremberg and Hamburg in 1550; Berlin 1610; Basel (1699), Paris (1724), Vienna (1761), New York (1792), Brussels (1801), Rome (1827), Madrid (1831), Milan (1833), Geneva (1850), Tokyo (1855) ; the famous grain stock in Chicago (1865). Braila is not mentioned in the history of the most important world stock markets. Moreover, until 1859, Romania was not even a country, and Braila was a stronghold of the Ottoman Empire used mainly for collecting taxes from Moldavia and Wallachia.