'Shadows in the Image' or about the Political Mentality of the Commercial Entrepreneurial Class in Svishtov in the Context of the Development of the City after the Liberation until the End of the Nineteenth Century

In this article, the object of research is the commercial entrepreneurial class in Svishtov from the period after Liberation to the end of the 19th century. The subject of research is its political mentality. By definition, it represents a set of persistent beliefs, ideas, views, etc. about the political reality of a certain social community that guide its behavior. In the political mentality of Svishtov merchant entrepreneurs (they practice wholesale trade – export for grain and import of colonial and manufactured goods) four main components are highlighted. Their content and, reactions and actions motivated by it are clarified. Merchants engage in strong and rough political struggles. They obstruct important decisions of the municipal government. A sense of self-sufficiency is formed and useful connections with governments through which to protect the interests of the city are not built. Svishtov sees the rise of Ruse as a reason for its backwardness and underestimates the innovation in the work of the business circles there. All this casts shadows on the image of Svishtov merchants as respectable and honest entrepreneurs with a high social consciousness, acquired in the years of the Renaissance. The conclusion is reached that the political mentality can be seen as a cultural-value barrier to the development of Svishtov and that it contributes, along with other objective reasons, to its backwardness, which began to be felt at the end of the 19th century.