Розвиток міжнародних економічних зв'язків Західної України в другій половині ХІХ – на початку ХХ ст.

Abstract

The article describes the main forms and channels of international economic relations of the Western Ukrainian lands during their being in Austro-Hungary state. The role of government policy in attracting foreign investment for the development of economy of the Western Ukrainian region has been clarified. The role of railway network development in the integration of Western Ukraine economy into the world commodity-cash flows is analyzed. It was noted that the northeastern regions of the empire were developed by the central government primarily in order to obtain cheap raw materials and labor, as well as to create a market for the sale of industrial goods produced by enterprises from the central regions of the empire. It is noted that the then shaped specialization of production laid the foundations for the disproportionate development of the economy of Western Ukrainian lands in the future. Generalized sectors where foreign capital participated most, in particular: railway construction, chemical, machine building, oil and refining, electricity, sawmill, woodworking and ozokerite industry, banking and wholesaling. The role of Austrian, German, American, French and English capital in the development of individual branches of economy was tracked down. It is shown that the weakness of the competitive environment and institutional mechanisms of asset capitalization, governmental patronage for large enterprises caused the emergence and accelerated development of monopolistic tendencies in the economy of the region. The main vectors of foreign trade relations of Western Ukrainian lands are analyzed and the reasons and directions of labor migration of Ukrainians in the second half of the nineteenth – beginning of the twentieth century are highlighted.