An Economic History of Central East and

Austria-Hungary was seen for a long time as a land of oppositions: an empire without colonies, a liberal parliamentarian state oppressing its nationalities, a Great Power shrinking instead of building an empire, the second largest state in Europe (except Russia) in terms of population numbers and still weak in terms of its economy. This course will look at one of these oppositions, the alleged absence of imperialism. In doing so we shall focus on the economics of the empire, its high capitalist circles, and Austria-Hungary’s economic presence in East, Central and Southeastern Europe.  Thus, the course presents the economic history of the region not in the conventional form of parallel national narratives, it is rather focusing on a structure that lent a kind of coherence to it.

Mobilizing the toolkit of political, social, economic and business history, the discussions shall revolve around what is economic and political imperialism, how businesses are embedded in national and local contexts, and how business networks operate and delineate economic regions without necessarily relying on politics or clashing with each other. We shall look at Austria-Hungary particularly as the story of its economic networks runs through the dissolution of the empire, shifting the focus from politics to business and social continuities. We shall think about how an Austro-Hungarian economic space was part of broader continental economic configurations reaching to the late Ottoman Empire and how a regional economic space is created. Finally, this story is a good starting point to think about rival understandings of capitalism.

This course is partly based on the ongoing research project of the instructor. Based on the linguistic skills of attendees, the students could engage with primary sources, and they will be able to gain experience with how research is developed and operationalized.