Latvian-Lithuanian Economic Relations 1918–1940

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of Latvian-Lithuanian economic relations in the interwar period. In the interwar period, economic relations between Latvia and Lithuania were mainly confined to foreign trade, although there were some investments in Latvia from Lithuania, as well as tourism. Latvia’s foreign trade in relation to Lithuania was regulated by a number of trade treaties and agreements entered into in 1930, 1933, 1935, and 1936. Latvia’s main imports from Lithuania in the interwar period were horses, seed flax, cattle, pigs and piglets, and timber and timber products, whilst Latvia’s main exports to Lithuania were coal, machinery (agricultural and industrial), paper, timber and timber products, rubber goods (including galoshes), cement, as well as radios. In general, trade and thus economic relations were of marginal significance to both countries in the interwar period due mainly to similarities in their agriculturally based economic structures.