Believing that Navigation and commerce are the foremost pillars of the state, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI engaged in other projects beyond the establishment of the Ostend Company in order to increase Austria's merchant marine and establish a proper navy to protect it. This included constructing a new road through the Semmering Pass in order to link Vienna to Trieste, and declaring Trieste and Fiume free ports in 1719. In order to help protect Austrian merchants from piracy in the Adriatic and Mediterranean, Charles VI also purchased the three-decker 80-gun third rate ship of the line Cumberland from the United Kingdom in 1720. The ship was renamed San Carlos and stationed out of Naples.