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 Slovenia and in the north of today’s Italy were also affected by these network activities. It is important to note that Vienna banks were also linked to some very important towns in Transleithenia, whereas Dalmatia, being commercially non- attractive, was not connected to Vienna commercial banks in any way. The networks of Vienna banks were mostly built on a base of branches and agencies. Very few financial affiliations existed in far-off territories, such as Lavov, Brasso, Sarajevo or Budapest, Bratislava and Zagreb in Transleithenia. It seems that for Vienna banks one of the advantages of their network activities were German speaking settlers, who lived in different parts of the Monarchy. They could provide affordable banking staff and directors even in towns far away from Vienna. In total, 1913, Vienna commercial banks had 144 branches, 25 agencies and 9 affiliations on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. As for international business, Vienna had five branches and six affiliations. Apart from its contacts to London and Paris (the two main international financial centres at that time), most of the other links indicate that Vienna had, above all, commercial interests towards South Eastern Europe.“ Branches and affilations of Vienna commercial banks -1913 The Croatian banking system was a strictly regional subsistence oriented banking system. There were just a few good and strong links to the main financial centres of the Monarchy. At the same time, however, most financial systems and financial services were organised through regional and local banks, including their branches. 8 The long-term orientation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy towards Levant and the oriental markets originated in a simple geographical reason: the shipping route from Trieste to the Suez Canal is 3,000 nautical miles shorter than the shipping route from Hamburg to the Suez Canal. 250
