Economic history of Austria
The presentation of the economic history of Austria is complicated by the dramatic historical changes in the content and scope of the term Austria . In retrospect, current literature is based on the geographic area of today's Republic of Austria.
Overview
The area of today's Austria was already an economically important region of Central Europe in prehistoric times due to its strategically important location and its mineral resources ( ore deposits , rock salt ). After the setback of the Migration Period , the early and high Middle Ages brought a period of continuous growth, which was also consciously promoted by the respective rulers ( Babenbergs , Habsburgs ).
The European crisis around 1350 was somewhat weaker here than in other regions of Europe, and alpine ore mining in particular reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Thirty Years War started out from Habsburg territory, but essentially spared what is now Austria. On the other hand, the east of the region and the provincial capital Vienna were endangered in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Turkish wars that flared up again and again. Only after 1683 did this danger end and the huge land gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire led to the explosive growth of Vienna as a place of aristocratic display and consumption, but also to the establishment of corresponding luxury businesses.
In the industrialization period of the 18th and 19th centuries, today's Austria initially turned out to be a latecomer. The mountainous character of the country hindered the canal and later the railway construction , the construction of the Semmering Railway exceeded the capacities of private entrepreneurship. However, capitalist development was clearly promoted in the last decades of the Danube Monarchy, and the main drivers of this development were often immigrant entrepreneurs.
After the loss of leadership in the German Confederation (1867), the Habsburg state became increasingly dependent on the German Empire, which was newly founded in 1871. After the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in autumn 1918, this led to widespread doubts about the economic viability of the small remaining state. However, a ban on Austria joining the German Reich was recorded in the Versailles Peace Treaty . In the interwar period , the new small state proved to be viable despite the most unfavorable conditions ( armaments conversion of the war industries in the area of the Vienna basin , " water head " of the former imperial bureaucracy in Vienna, oversized banking sector, conflict in Red Vienna , conservative federal government). Large increases in productivity were achieved in agriculture, among others.
However, the world economic crisis of the 1930s hit Austria particularly hard, not least because of the measures taken by the neighboring Nazi regime against tourism, which is becoming an important economic factor.
The war-economic industrialization measures and infrastructure expansions (iron, aluminum and chemical industry, power plant construction, expansion of oil production), which were accelerated in the period of National Socialism from 1938 onwards, paradoxically strengthened the economic basis and self-esteem of the newly established Austria after 1945. The so-called “nationalized industry” was an essential factor in the country's economic performance until around 1980, but it became a problem due to excessive demands as an instrument to secure jobs in the recession of 1974-75 and politicization. In the 1990s and thereafter, there was an extensive dismantling of public service structures. The (economic and) social partnership that characterized Austria after 1945 has also decreased in importance in the last few decades.
The current situation of the Austrian economy in the EU is above average compared to most of the indicators.
Early history and antiquity
The emergence of ramparts as early as the beginning of the Bronze Age documents the early importance of the mining and processing of copper and tin in the Alpine region that is now part of Austria. The corresponding trade in raw materials and semi-finished products is documented by grave finds in Pitten , Franzhausen , Lower Austria. The mining of rock salt began in Hallstatt during the Urnfield period . In the older Iron Age (Hallstatt Period) there were trade contacts with the Greek colonies on the Ligurian coast and with the Etruscans, but also with the steppe peoples of the Carpathian Basin in the east. In antiquity, the Regnum Noricum flourished mainly through the mining of metallic ores. Its center was probably the settlement on the Magdalensberg (later Virunum ). Noricum slowly drifted into the position of a protectorate of the Roman world power and eventually became a Roman province. As such, it roughly encompassed today's Austrian federal states of Carinthia, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Styria, as well as southeastern Bavaria with the Chiemgau. It also included parts of Tyrol. The western part of the Roman province of Pannonia with the capital Carnuntum was also on what is now Austrian territory. Viticulture and the winter-safe connection between Carnuntum and Aquileia were of particular economic importance here . This Roman amber road is recorded in the Tabula Peutingeriana . After several centuries of dominance by Roman civilization in the Danube and Alpine regions, however, the collapse of Severin von Noricum (around 410 - January 8, 482) occurred in the 5th century from Noricum Ripense. Carnuntum, which flourished particularly during the Severer dynasty (193–235), also experienced a dramatic decline in late antiquity. In the middle of the 4th century it was probably hit by a severe earthquake disaster. Ammianus Marcellinus describes the once flourishing provincial capital towards the end of the fourth century as a dilapidated and dirty nest. Traces of ancient settlement can be found in Carnuntum until the first half of the 5th century.
The growing period in the early and high Middle Ages (900-1350)
The historical core of today's Austria was formed in the second half of the 10th century by the margravate east of the Enns, which was subordinate to the Duke of Baiern. In 976 Liutpold (Leopold) from the Babenberg family was enfeoffed with this mark. In a document of King Otto III. The name Ostarrîchi was first mentioned in 996 . The spelling Austria later developed from this. The Babenbergers pursued a purposeful clearing and colonization policy and established a solid state rule with a gradual eastward relocation of the residence. The founding of the monastery by Leopold III was also of great economic importance . (Austria) , who was canonized for her sake.
Between the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 14th century, the population in today's Austria tripled from around half a million. This was made possible by the medieval agricultural revolution, which replaced the hook plow with the bed plow that overturned the clod , and alpine cattle grazing. The vertical water mill , a legacy of antiquity, gained great importance in the alpine area with its fast-flowing waters as a source of drive energy for a wide variety of machines, including for hammer, saw and ramming mills. The building of castles in the 9th to 12th centuries was decisive for the renewal of urban life. Between 1180 and 1270 there was a wave of city foundations. One of the economically relevant city rights was the stacking right , for example for Vienna in 1221. In the 13th and early 14th centuries there was a “silver rush” in the Styrian Oberzeiring , which ended around 1361 with a catastrophe (massive water ingress).
From the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages to Early Capitalism (1350–1600)
As early as 1317, the area of what is now Austria was affected by the then prevailing European famine. The great European plague epidemic from 1347 to 1353, which killed about a third of the European population at the time, had far-reaching effects. One of the two waves of propagation originated in Venice. From there, the epidemic reached Austria via the Brenner Pass. The Black Death came to Carinthia via Tyrol, then to Styria and only then reached Vienna. Vienna was the only city in which every dying person received the Last Sacrament, which suggests that Vienna succeeded better than in other cities in maintaining social order in the face of the epidemic that had broken out. The decline in population caused by the plague resulted in a labor shortage - wages rose. On the other hand, agricultural prices fell: frontier soils were abandoned, devastation resulted.
The economic dynamism of that time had its focus in the Alps, especially in Tyrol with its flourishing mining industry. During the heyday of silver and copper mining in the 15th and 16th centuries, Schwaz, the largest mining metropolis in Europe with 20,000 inhabitants (around 13,000 today), was the second largest town in the Habsburg Empire after Vienna . The mountain blessing, however, caused severe damage to the local environment through deforestation. Notwithstanding the use of labor-saving machines, American silver became an overpowering competitor from the second half of the 16th century.
Faith struggle, crises, absolutism (1600–1750)
In the Habsburg hereditary lands, which, with the exception of Tyrol, had become predominantly Protestant, the Counter-Reformation began on a grand scale with Emperor Rudolf II from 1576 and was carried out with particular severity in the 17th century. The united Protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against it and, with the Prague window lintel in 1618, set the occasion for the Thirty Years' War , which devastated large parts of Germany but only marginally affected the region of today's Austria. Sandgruber interprets the Counter-Reformation as a sovereign-absolutist "attack against estates and regionalism" and notes the negative consequences of the repression of printing. From an economic point of view, there was a deterioration in the climate in today's Austria in the 17th century with bad harvests and in the 1630s, a wave of plague.
The land gain in the wake of the Second Turkish Siege , which was successfully repulsed in 1683 , had a euphoric effect. In 1684 Philipp Wilhelm von Hörnigk published:
“Austria over everything, whenever it wants. that is: a well-meaning Fürschlag, like the Kayserl by means of a country's economy. To raise hereditary lands in a short time above all other states of Europe, and to make more than some of them independent of the others; "
In this treatise, which corresponds to the spirit of mercantilism, Hörnigk focuses on the development of the domestic market and protectionist protection from foreign competition. The work experienced numerous new editions in the 18th century and reflected the prevailing economic sentiment.
Another aspect of the significant enlargement of the Habsburg state was the construction of numerous baroque garden palaces of the high nobility around the Vienna city walls and the glacis in front of them - with the Belvedere of Prince Eugene as the most imposing document of the enrichment through the Turkish war. This concentration of consumer power in the capital and residence city of Vienna also stimulated the capital's luxury industries, such as silk processing.
Enlightened absolutism Fears of revolution and proto-industrialization (1750–1848)
Enlightened absolutism and its economic doctrines aimed at a unification of the dominated economic area. This aim was served by the abolition of internal tariffs and the expansion of road connections. State monopolies served to generate income, but also to some extent socio-political goals (such as the state tobacco monopoly introduced in 1784, which favored war invalids). In addition, one relied on the promotion of industry and productivity of the population. The founding and management of state-owned factories, such as the Linz woolen factory or the Vienna porcelain factory , as well as the fight against begging and the dissolution of the contemplative orders by Joseph II represent the same ideas. Sandgruber calls the period 1750–1850 the "century of hard work". Basic knowledge of reading and writing now appeared to be necessary, but “reading anger” remained the object of authoritarian suspicion. The offer of higher education was rather throttled, the distrust of potential "troublemakers" also led, especially in the wake of the French Revolution, to the ban on industrial enterprises in the royal city of Vienna.
There were serious national debt problems from the end of the Seven Years' War, in particular, but after the wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France in 1811 it went bankrupt . The latent weakness of the state also corresponded to a certain weakness of the domestic business community. Many leading Austrian business families of the 19th century were immigrants and / or came from religious minorities. The history of the railroad in Austria with its multiple changes between private and state railroad systems illustrates this phenomenon.
One last upswing of the Danube Monarchy (1848–1914)
The peasant basic relief is one of the lasting achievements of the revolutionary year 1848. After the abolition of the landlords, several laws regulated in the two following years how the landlords and tithe recipients were to be replaced by the services and taxes of their former subjects. The unfortunate war of 1866 against Prussia and Italy marked the end of a restrictive monetary policy. Some exceptionally good harvests also contributed to the economic upswing. The rail network doubled between 1867 and 1873. The unsuccessful World Exhibition in 1873 and the stock market crash certainly marked the end of the short-lived dominance of liberalism. After a pronounced recession there was again a growth spurt in the Wilhelminian style, but under Karl Lueger clearly anti-capitalist, but also anti-Semitic tendencies became noticeable, and urban utilities were communalized.
Comparison of the per capita incomes of Austrian crown lands 1911-13 in kronen (after Good)
| country | Per capita income in kroner | For comparison | Per capita income in kroner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Austria | 850 | Bohemia | 761 |
| Upper Austria | 626 | Moravia | 648 |
| Salzburg | 641 | Silesia | 619 |
| Styria | 519 | Carniola | 439 |
| Carinthia | 556 | Coastal land | 522 |
| Tyrol, Vorarlberg | 600 | Galicia | 316 |
The era of the world wars (1914–1945)
The Danube Monarchy gave the impetus for World War I with the ultimatum to Serbia, but was de facto already an economic satellite of the German Empire . As early as September 1914, a Central European trade association under German leadership was defined as the German war objective. As a result, the heterogeneous structure of the Habsburg state came under increasing pressure. From 1916 strikes and unrest spread. The increasingly precarious supply situation saw agriculture as "war winners". Towards the end of the war the supply situation became more and more dramatic, 1917 was already a year of “substitute food”, 1918–19 was a downright starvation winter, especially in the metropolis of Vienna.
In post-war Austria, which had become small, the majority did not believe in the independent viability of the country and sought a connection to democratic Germany - or in Vorarlberg to Switzerland. The referendum on this in Vorarlberg in 1919 became obsolete when the ban on joining the Weimar Republic was established. The uncertain political future of Austria and the many other problems also prevented the stabilization of the krona currency, which was heavily burdened by the war debts. By 1920 the currency in circulation in the country had increased from 12 to 30 billion crowns. From autumn 1921 the price of the krona fell out of control and at the end of the year the money in circulation was already 174 billion kroner. In August 1922, the trillion mark was finally exceeded.
The prices had at least doubled annually between 1914 and 1922 and reached monthly increases of 50 percent in the final phase of hyperinflation . Overall, by the summer of 1922, the cost of living had risen 14,000 times that of the pre-war period. It was only through a loan from the League of Nations and the establishment of the Austrian National Bank that inflation could finally be brought to a standstill. The period of stable monetary value in Austria began with the Schilling Invoice Act of December 20, 1924 and the establishment of the conversion rate of 10,000 kroner to one schilling.
The new state structure remained economically and politically fragile. As early as the 1920s, a series of financial scandals shook the country ( Niederösterreichische Bauernbank , Centralbank of the German Savings Banks , Postsparkassenskandal , Bodencreditanstalt ), which followed in the 1930s, with international repercussions, the collapse of Creditanstalt and the Phoenix scandal . A German-Austrian customs union failed around 1930.
During the global economic crisis, the small country was forced to adopt a drastic austerity policy that kept the value of the currency stable, but made an expansive fight against mass unemployment impossible. In addition, the majority of voters were alienated from the Austrofascism that had ruled since 1933 . Half-hearted attempts to create work , such as the construction of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road , were largely ineffective, and tourism suffered from the one-thousand-mark ban imposed by Nazi Germany .
After the " Anschluss of Austria ", the hoarded foreign exchange treasure of the Austrian National Bank was immediately plundered, on the other hand, the overheated arms economy during the " Nazi era " absorbed Austrian unemployment within a short period of time.
From reconstruction to integration into the EU (from 1945)
After the total defeat of the Nazi regime, the re-established democratic Austria was confronted with a number of half-finished and / or half-destroyed industrial and infrastructure projects, the construction of which had been started in the Nazi system with the most brutal means ( forced labor of concentration camp inmates) and about whose future there was disagreement. It was decided, paradoxically with the consent of the Western occupying powers and against the opposition of the Soviet Union, to continue building with public funds. The nationalization in Austria made possible, among other things, the prefabricated construction of the VÖEST , the aluminum works Ranshofen and the power plant Kapruns , secured by funds from the Marshall Plan . The comprehensive consensual system of social partnership ensured social peace in the post-war period.
The ban on joining the State Treaty of May 15, 1955 was for a long time interpreted by important signatory powers as a ban on joining the EEC. Austria therefore temporarily joined EFTA . However, the membership application submitted on July 17, 1989 was finally granted. The country has been a member of the EU since January 1st, 1995.
literature
- Felix Butschek : Austrian Economic History - from Antiquity to the Present. Böhlau, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-205-78643-6 .
- Günther Chaloupek , Peter Eigner , Michael Wagner: Economic history of the city of Vienna 1740 to 1938. 2 volumes. Jugend & Volk, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-224-16051-9 .
- Peter Eigner, Andrea Helige: Austrian economic and social history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Brandstätter, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85447-693-0 .
- David F. Good: The economic rise of the Habsburg Empire 1750–1914. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Graz 1986, ISBN 3-205-06390-2 .
- Roman Sandgruber : Economy and Politics. Austrian economic history from the Middle Ages to the present. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-8000-3620-7 . (Austrian history, ed. V. Herwig Wolfram, vol. 10)
- Dieter Stiefel : The big crisis in a small country. Austrian financial and economic policy 1929–1938. Böhlau, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-205-05132-7 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Roman Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. Austrian economic history from the Middle Ages to the present. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-8000-3620-7 , p. 9.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 9.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 16.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 22.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 26.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 50.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 68ff, on deforestation p. 82.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 130.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 132.
- ↑ Faculty Edition first edition published in 1684, Düsseldorf: Verl. Wirtschaft u. Finance, 1997
- ^ Peter Eigner, Andrea Helige: Austrian economic and social history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Brandstätter, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85447-693-0 , p. 13.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 153.
- ^ Eigner, Helige: Austrian economic and social history. 1999, p. 15.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 222.
- ^ Eigner, Helige: Austrian economic and social history. 1999, p. 16.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 243.
- ^ Eigner, Helige: Austrian economic and social history. 1999, p. 13.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 316.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 332.
- ↑ a b According to: The Schilling. 1924-2001. Exhibition catalog. Edited by the Austrian National Bank, revised new edition 2011, no ISBN, p. 5; Information on the permanent exhibition in the Money Museum of the Austrian National Bank.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 460.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 482f.
- ↑ Sandgruber: Economy and Politics. 1995, p. 492.