Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Dieter Stiefel, Alice Teichova (Hrsg.): Sonderband 9. „Zarte Bande” – Österreich und die europäischen planwirtschaftlichen Länder / „Delicate Relationships” – Austria and Europe’s Planned Economies (2006)
Damir Jelic: “Living in the neighbourhood” - Economic Relations between Capitalist Austria and Socialist Croatia in Historical Perspective
Damir Jelic markets also blended in with the main Danube economic region. The mountain areas which surrounded the Bohemian Valley owed their economic integration to their natural and mineral resources. So did Silesia. The areas close to the Carpathians, as well as some non-mountainous regions on the other side of the Carpathians, had problems with their economic integration because of the unsatisfactory transport structure. Mountainous regions in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina would have been in a similar situation, if there had not been a strong tendency of enterprises from the Danube region to find their way to the world market via the Adriatic Sea. The areas surrounding the Alps as well as Slovenia with its unfavourable geographic structure, profited from being near the centre of economic activity and mineral resources. Serbia, located on the southern border of the Austro-Hungarian area and towards the Turkish cities of Solun and Istanbul, was in a similar situation. In addition, Serbia was, to a great extent, integrated in the Danube economic region due to the fact that it had good transport facilities towards the Danube in its northern part. Austria and Croatia in the Danube economic region Vienna managed to take on the position of a main clearing point for the region. Typically of such centres, its strength did not come from natural resources, but from the relative lack of resources which redirected their economy towards exchange earlier than other centres.5 It is not surprising that Austrians did business outside Austria.6 Such strategic positions developed some long-term economic characteristics for Austrian business. Human capital is, in general, the strongest quality of any centre of economic intermediation. The enduring quality of the Austrian economic expansion in the region was certainly based on human capital.7 German-speaking settlers in different parts of the Monarchy were one of the elements which fortified the expansion of Austrian business within the Monarchy. Another important characteristic was the accumulation of financial resources. Towards the end of the Monarchy, Vienna was able to attract the most significant part of financial resources. In the last few decades of the Monarchy, Croatia was a provincial region of limited political and economic importance to Vienna. There was not much to do for 5 When developing his model of world economies and its centres, Braudel undervalued the importance of regional world economies. Vienna and its growth perfectly correspond to similar stories about centres of world economies, but it controlled a smaller region. 6 Economically speaking and being under strong influence of the capital Vienna, Bohemia was the most active region of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 7 Limited in natural resources, the Austrians had to concentrate their attempts on quality. One of numerous small scale profitable businesses of Austrians during the Monarchy (and later) was the development of quality cattle breeding. With great success they sold their cattle to less developed regions of the Monarchy. It was an agricultural, low technology business based on high human capital. 248
