Romanian Economy during the Great War 1914-1918

AuthorStefan Gheorghe
Pages189-194
Performance and Risks in the European Economy
189
Performance and Risks in the European Economy
The Romanian Economy
during the Great War 1914-1918
Gheorghe Stefan1
Abstract: The resumption of economic p rogress will be slow, but unevenly, and after overcoming the food
crisis of 1920-1921, Romania will be able to deliver on economic recovery by attracting the capital
investment, increase the number of enterprises and workers, and especially by increasing the driving force
and technical endowment of enterprises. The Central Authorities will draw up a legislation related to
protectionist economic liberal doctrine by ourselves in most of the period, according to political algorithm
and the result of increasing resource mobilization of domestic capital while limiting the foreign capital in the
Romanian economy.
Keywords: economic war effort; economic recovery; economic blockage; economic aid; reparations.
Introduction
The outbreak of World War I represents a turning point in the contemporary history of world states
due to both causes and consequences it has generated. The struggle for the division and redivision of
the world, mainly on economic considerations will find most of the belligerent states unprepared to
support an economic war effort so long, among which will include also Romania. The issue of
financing military spending will be an extremely urgent one for governments of states that are
involved in conflict, only solution external crediting. Romania will range from the start in frontline
disputed by the two military and political blocs, the Central Powers, respectively Entente. The political
class and the public opinion also will be divided into two camps on the grounds of sympathy or
political opportunity supporting country entry into war on one side or the other. Both belligerent
parties promised more or less veiled the support of the Romanian interests in the provinces under
foreign domination, the Entente guaranteeing the rights of Romanians in the Banat, Transylvania,
Bukovina, under the Austro-Hungarian domination to unite with the Old Kingdom while the Central
Powers claimed the right of Romania to unite with Bessarabia, the territory between the Prut and
Nistru which was under Tsarist occupation. Given this situation and the lack of preparedness of
Romania to have a successful military campaign, Crown Council will decide the adoption of armed
neutrality in the early years of the war 1914-1916. The dispute between the belligerents did not take
into account the status of neutrality of Romania, each side seeking to occupy dominant positions in the
Romanian economy, using every possible economic weapon from buying shares in industrial or
1 Senior Lecturer, PhD, Department of Economics, Danubius University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd., Galati
800654, Romania, Tel.: +40372361102, Corresponding author: stefangheorghe@univ-danubius.ro.

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