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German Economic Controls in Bulgaria: 1894-1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

M. L. Flaningam
M. L. Flaningam*
Affiliation:
Purdue University
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Extract

The diplomatic entanglements of Bulgaria and the Great Powers in the period 1894-1914 are well known. Political instability in the Balkans and in Bulgaria itself discouraged extensive and sustained German economic penetration of the region until after 1894. Apart from political difficulties in Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary and Germany frequently found themselves in competition in Bulgaria. Although bound by the Dual Alliance of 1879 and allegedly pursuing a Drang nach Osten, those two great powers frequently worked at cross-purposes both in policies and practices in Bulgaria.

German economic interests in Bulgaria may be observed by examining (a) banking and financial activity and (b) tariff and trade relations. Industrial development including railroad promotions in Bulgaria assumed relatively less significance. German long-term capital investments in 1914 in the entire Balkan area amounted to about one and three-quarter billion marks, a figure that does not appear outstanding in comparison with German investments elsewhere.

Type
Articles
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1961 , pp. 99 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1961

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References

1 See Feis, Herbert, Europe, the World's Banker, 1870-1914 (New Haven, 1930), p. 74.Google Scholar

2 Jahrbuch der Berliner Börse (hereinafter referred to as JBB), 1889.

3 Ibid., 1893. See also the Annual Reports of the Deutsche Bank.

4 JBB, 1906, Discontogesellschaft. See also British Parliamentary Papers, Commercial 9 Reports, Annual Series, 1908, Nos. 3949, 1132 (hereinafter referred to as Annual Series).

5 Annual Series, 1908, Nos. 3949, 4132.

6 Ibid., No. 4132.

7 The French created the Banque Generale de Bulgarie, 1907-08, with a capital of two million francs. This was too little, too late, if its purpose was to counteract the German and Austrian banks.

8 See Laves, W. H. C., “German Governmenal Influence on Foreign Investments, 1871- 1915,” Political Science Quarterly, XLIII (1928), 498–519,CrossRefGoogle Scholar for an analysis of these considerations.

9 Deutsche Bank, Annual Report, 1912, pp. 14-16.

10 JBB, 1914, Discontogesellschaft.

11 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1906, 1, 1-86 for the text of the treaty. See also C. Abadjieff, “Die Handelspolitik Bulgariens,” Stoats- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungen, No. 143 (1910), 53-155, for a study of Bulgaria's commercial treaties.

12 Ibid.

13 Annual Series, 1912, 94, No. 4493. Bulgarian tariff duties were reduced on Austrian furniture, hops, malt, and glassware, and Austria reduced its tariff on live cattle from Bulgaria.

14 Hoffman, R. J. S., Great Britain and the German Trade Rivalry (Philadelphia, 1938), pp. 136 Google Scholar ff.

15 Annual Series, 1900, 92, No. 2493, p. 28.

16 Ibid., p. 4.

17 Annual Series, 1908, 90, No. 4817.