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 human capital in Croatia. On the other hand, the existence of a productive agriculture facilitated a relatively high level of consumption, with a strong regional difference between western Croatia (relatively high overpopulation) and the eastern parts (where a better agriculture existed). There were also some natural resources (mainly forests) that could be easily exploited. It stimulated the immigration of merchants, artisans and entrepreneurs from more skilled areas of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy. If we look at the following charts, which present data on foreigners in inter-war Yugoslavia, we can recognise a fairly high incidence of foreign entrepreneurs and skilled workers in Croatia. Since capital accumulation from agriculture was not very high, the development of an industry depended very much on foreign capital. The whole region’s economy strongly depended on the consumption possibilities for peasants and on foreign capital.19 The import rate of human capital was very high, thus providing the framework for economic development and industrialisation.20 Foreign capital in Croatia had a developmental function, mainly improving human capital21 and developing a basis for small-scale industry, especially because most foreign entrepreneurs settled in Croatia. 19 The Great Depression reduced both of these factors. And that was the reason for the loss of strength within the Croatian tertiary sector during the 1930s. 20 One peasant, who was interviewed, had a very illustrative story about the importance of foreign human capital. During World War II, most Gennans and Jews left Croatia, thus destroying the web of foreign merchants and artisans. Peasants in Moslavina (relatively well situated agricultural area only 70 kilometres away from Zagreb) became dependent on their needs to domestic artisans. In order to make simple footwear, they used their own leather (which was cheap and readily available). But they were not able to tan it properly. During the summer, peasants used to keep their footwear in water to make it soft for use the next day. Taking into account that tanning is a relatively simple technology, we have to ask to what extent they were dependent on immigrated human capital as far as more sophisticated jobs were concerned. The author had practical business experience in Croatia. Even today, it is possible to recognise much better entrepreneur expertise with people whose family roots are connected to Czech, German or Jewish immigrants from the beginning of the century. 254
