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This paper attempts to go beyond the myth built around the foundation of the free port of Trieste, in order to analyze the different steps of its development throughout the eighteenth century. The foundation of the free port must be seen in the light of a political struggle between the municipality of Trieste, the Duchy of Carniola and the House of Austria. The free port progressively removed Trieste from the political authority of Laibach while simultaneously undermining its political privileges to the benefit of the Hofkammer. Trieste’s economic boom fitted in with the House of Austria’s global policy, which rested on the integration of private agents into the government of the monarchy. As a result, the Trieste elite diversified and reflected the global socio-political evolution of the Habsburg composite monarchy.