Economic transition as continuity (on the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Slovenia)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to establish the common features of the transition process from feudalism to the capitalist economic system in Slovenia. In the processes of the transition to the capitalist economy, Slovenia was on the European periphery. The export demand was the driving force of structural changes in the regional economy, as the weak internal demand was not in the position to foster economic development. Slovenian economy and society entered these processes with a delay of decades as well as with some discontinuity in the form of re-agrarization and de-industrialization, as it is outlined in the concept of proto-industrialization. During the periods of re-agrarization the model of distribution of the existing resources was predominant. It manifested itself in the form of the fragmentation of agricultural ownership structure, which was the most significant factor of the relative economic backwardness of the Slovenian territory. The Slovenian economic subjects were small, under-capitalized, and with outdated technology, and therefore uncompetitive on the interregional markets. So the prime instigators of the economic changes were foreign entrepreneurs with their know-how, capital, technology, and international markets. In the period before World War II the role of foreign investments was crucial for the process of the transformation into the capitalist economy. The most significant historical feature of the Slovenian economic development is the fact that the existing 'islands of modernization', which were more or less in line with European trends, remained 'islands' until their power to stimulate structural changes and new institutional forms in economy vanished completely in the predominantly agrarian economic and social environment.