Blaž Lorković, a painting by S. Milanese.
Blaž
Lorković (29 January 1839 – 17 February 1892
[1])
was a Croatian economist, lawyer, political
and cultural worker, and the founder of Croatian political economy.
Because of his contributions, the Republic of Croatia named
its
Order of
Danica Hrvatska for business and economics after
him.
Lorković was born in Jarče
Polje near Karlovac in a
rural family as the only child of Pavao and Julka Lorković. In 1851
he attends high school in Varaždin where
he was noticed and in 1854 with the help and persuasion of his
uncle, the parish priest in the village Rasinja near Koprivnice, he
moved to Zagreb. He was located at the Episcopal orphanage. After
completing high school education in October 1857 Lorković goest to
clergy and enters the archdiocese seminary, deciding for priest's
call to satisfy his parents and uncle. During the stay in the
seminary he edited some literary magazines, and fought
against germanization. He
left the seminary on 17 February 1862. In October 1863 he entered
as a regular student into the University of
Zagreb Faculty of Law. He passed all the exams in regular
period with highest grades. In July 1867 Lorković successfully
finished his four-year study of law science.
On 16 December 1871 Lorković became a teacher at the Royal
Juridical Academy. He replaces his belletristic work with
scientific and educational at the Juridical Academy and similar
associations.
The most important Lorković's scientific work is Počela
političke ekonomije ili nauke obćega gospodarstva, which was
published by Matica
hrvatska in 1889 in the context of a series of
publications for the Croatian dealers.
He served as a rector of the University of
Zagreb in the academic year 1883/1884.