Trieste 1948–1952: A Contended Port City and the Marshall Plan

In some aspects, the maritime identity of Trieste is more complicated than usual, being not only an international port, but also a borderland city, and a link (or a chokepoint) between different nationalities and cultures. For these reasons, the historical reconstruction of the local port system activities is never a simple matter of recognition and reconstruction of roles, rules, the efficiency and efficacy of the businesses carried out inside the port areas, and the extension and shape of the interconnections. Instead, it is a matter of reconstructing the complexity of the port system as a whole, with its interweaving of different and interacting levels and dynamics, rather than a mechanical succession of causes and effects.