relations involving the Emperor's Italian and Belgian outposts. The project failed, but links between Fiume and the Banat of Temesvar remained strong. In 1741, under the reign of Maria Theresa (1740–1780), the Comercien Ober Directorium (Commercial High Directory) was formed in Vienna, to oversee all the commercial affairs of the empire. In 1745, Maria Theresa united the administrations of all the ports within an Oberste Commerz-Intendenza (High Commercial Intendancy), which originally had been established by her father in 1731. Fiume, instead of being a kreisamt (district seat), was subordinated to a gubernium (governorate) and had a Direzione Superiore Commerciale (Kommerzassesorium) subordinated to the Cesarea Regia Intendenza Commerciale per il Litorale at Trieste. From 1748 to 1776, the Intendenza was the first provincial imperial institution to govern the city. In 1749, Maria Theresa issued the Haupt Resolution by which the civil and military Capitan of Trieste was placed under the control of the Comercien Ober Directorium at Vienna. All the littoral region, in fact, became a territorial dependency of this new institution, which was specifically concerned with the development of commerce; and thus the littoral was very different from the other, feudal provinces. From 1753, the Intendenza Capitanale di Fiume Tersatto e Buccari executed the orders of its head office in Trieste. The Fiuman luogotenente of the Cesarea Regia Luogotenenza Governale del Capitanato di Fiume, Tersatto e Buccari, played the role of the captain, and his jurisdiction extended from Moschienizze to Carlopago. The Intendenza transmitted orders to the justice rectors in Fiume. Thereby the autonomy of the local institutions (the justice rectors previously headed the communal administration) was gradually eroded. Charles VI also founded the institution of a "privileged company" in Fiume. The purpose of this measure was to attract foreign investments, but the first companies were controlled from the chamber in Vienna and went bankrupt. A turn of affairs came in 1750, with the foundation of Urban Arnold & Co., with its seat in Antwerp. Initially, it dealt with the refinement of sugar, and the production of potash, tallow candles, and salted meat. It possessed its own port basin, and the number of its sugar refining plants grew from one to five. By 1754, the company was supplying the monarchy with sugar, which became its main traded article. The company was bigger than anything Fiume had previously seen. It employed more than 1000 at a time when the city had