Österreichische Wirtschaftsgeschichte

A Dissection of Trading Capital: Trade in the Aftermath of the Fall of the Iron Curtain

“…Butschek’s (2012, p. 405) key explanation for the surplus trade is that: “Austrian managers seem to have been more familiar with the situation in the successor states than their colleagues from other countries.” 18 Here, we translate the original verb “vertraut sein” as “familiar with.” However, its German form offers a wider meaning: “vertrauen” also means “to trust,” and when used as a noun is the German word for “Trust.” In using this verb, Butschek suggests two main positive explanations we share for the surplus trade: trust and information.…”

“…16 The placebo exercise using neutral Switzerland may also help to address this concern. As Felix Butschek (2012) notes, the Austrian government contributed little to build friendly relationships with its eastern neighbors in the first years after 1990.…”

“…The Empire consisted of 53 million people, numbering 13 percent of the total European population and producing 10 percent of Europe’s gross domestic product (GDP) (Butschek 2012). As these figures imply, the economic condition of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in its final decades prior to 1913 was poor in comparison to other European countries 3 .…”

Globalization and the City: Two Connected Phenomena in Past and Present

“…Furthermore, the national accreditation policy of the new states promoted their own banking systems, and Viennese banks were pressured to sell their foreign subsidiaries or to focus on less profitable investments. 63 In sum, Viennese banks had only very limited success. The 1931 collapse of Austria's largest bank, Creditanstalt, and the disengagement of most foreign capital mark the failure of the attempt to re-establish Vienna as a financial center and its decline as a relay city for the Danube region.…”

“…By the end of the second century BC, up to 300,000 people (including the rural proletariat that had moved there) lived in Rome. 63 From then on, Rome was the center of the western Mediterranean world. Using the resources of the Mediterranean, the city became a metropolis with cultural influence throughout the eastern Mediterranean.…”