Abstract (eng)
The thesis investigates the impact of processes of interregional connections and exchange on economic development in Habsburg Galicia between the late 18th and early 20th century by applying the centre-periphery model and the postcolonial approach. In the first part of the study, which follows a quantitative approach, the structural characteristics of the Galician economy and their inducement by trade, money flows, migration and technology are traced. In contrast the second part, which follows a narrative and discursive orientation, uncovers not only the actors of these interactions, but also highlights the regulation of interregional competition by the state’s institutions. In this context, discourses legitimizing or transforming socioeconomic spatial orders in connection with developmental paradigms are paid special attention. Three phases are distinguished, starting with the cameralist spatial economy (1772-1830), followed by the liberal, de-territorialized economic space (1830-1873) and finally organized capitalism (1873-1914).
In the course of this longue durée perspective of the long 19th century Galicia’s external trade structure was gradually peripheralised, meaning a development towards imports of finished goods and exports of raw materials, while Galicia’s productive status in the commodity chains was downgraded, driving a range of crafts and industries off the market. The notorious lack of capital was reduced by inflow of investment and financial capital starting in the 1860s, which accelerated growth of production and productivity, but could not initiate a catching-up process and actually made the imbalance of payments worse.
The gradual degradation of Galicia’s status in the interregional division of labour, passing from a semiperipheral to a peripheral region, changed its spatial exchange pattern profoundly, which was essentially shaped by the three spatial orders and developmental paradigms mentioned above.
While cameralism forced the region’s incorporation in the Habsburg division of labour after its conquest in the First Partition of Poland-Lithuania at the cost of disintegration of trade relations beyond state borders, liberalism again opened up Galicia’s contacts to foreign countries and improved existing networks through the construction of railway lines. Organized capitalism in turn accentuated Galicia’s integration into the internal market by the return to protectionism and the consolidation of the railway network.
In spite of their differences the single spatial orders and developmental paradigms assigned a subaltern status in the interregional division of labour to Galicia and legitimized the existing spatial order by applying a discourse based on ideas derivated from Orientalism: Development was defined as the periphery’s duty, while regional requirements for changing the division of labour were only acknowledged punctually at best. This pattern fits with the lacking capacity for innovation and reform on behalf of the Galician agrarian elite, which maintained an extensive production model as well as its socioeconomic privileges. This in turn accelerated peripheral integration into interregional exchange processes, the contradictions of which led to ethnicizing solutions locally.