4. THE ENGLISH CONNECTION

In 1800 Adamić travelled via Vienna and Hamburg to England in order to save his ship which had been seized by the English on Jamaica. This journey turned out to be very successful although he did not settle the damage. As soon as on 5 December 1800 Lord Mint, the British Ambassador in Vienna, received a message from the Foreign Office requesting that Adamić should purchase six thousand sacks of rusks, which should be delivered to Malta from Rijeka or some other Adriatic harbour.

Later, Adamić even strengthened his connections with England and started making business with John Leard, a marine agent responsible for supplying the English navy with oak timber. Adamić had long-standing contracts and received loans amounting to very high sums from the English for the shipment of oak wood from the area around Karlovac to Deptford, a dockyard near London. During the French administration Adamić was entrusted with a very fragile diplomatic mission. He had to mediate between the Illyrian Provinces and the British government. In 1811 he travelled again to London for this purpose - this time, however, via Malta, the English stronghold in the Mediterranean. Later, in 1814, he even became the English consul in Rijeka for a short time. After Adamić's death, his wife traded with the famous “English earthenware”.