The Contributions of the Economic Press from the Lower Danube to the Development of Romanian Culture and Literature during 1846 - 1915

This paper presents some of the research conducted on the Lower Danube Press. In itsdevelopment it was intended to reveal important elements of the publication, in the economic domain,but also the contributions of the newspapers to the Romanian literature. The economic activityparticularly intense in the Lower Danube area resulted in the release of a large number of magazinesthat supported this activity. The first magazine in Galati was published in 1846, called theDunărea/Danube. Its content came in the support of the merchants, who dealt with trade, agricultureand navigation asMercur/Mercuryin Braila, following another publication in 1849 of economic fromGalati,Jurnalul de Galaţi/Galati Journal. These first publications have in common their release inseveral European languages of interest to traders: Italian, it was preferred as it used the Latin alphabetand it was easier to print the publication, Greek or French. In this category of papers there werereleased newspapers of scholarships, commercial clubs, as an expression of the concerns of suchmembers, among whom there were also the cultural ones. It was also highlighted the fact that thesepublications have contributed to the evolution of the Romanian language but also of literature, ofcourse at a lower level than the literary publications. There have been discovered also publicationsthat had nothing to do with literature or economic, financial or literary phenomena, their purposebeing only publishing documents regulating the economic activities, one example being theSemaphore de Brăila/Semaphore of Braila. It was also noted the involvement of the authorities in thepromotional activities of the economy through various publications with the title of calendars,monitors, or daily newspapers, which had a modest culturalcontribution. Compared with other typesof publications, the economic ones are the most numerous, as the ones from the political domain