Vol I, 2022
Prof. univ. dr., Director al Institutului de Cercetări Socio-Umane Sibiu, (Redactor-șef);
email: rudolfgraf2018@gmail.com
Pledoarie pentru o revistă de istorie economică
Cercetător științific II, dr. hab., Institutul de Istorie „George Barițiu” din Cluj-Napoca al Academiei Române; e-mail: marin.balog@academia-cj.ro
Istoria economică – repere și jaloane în evoluția unei discipline
Abstract. The present study proposes some points about the individualization of economic history as a discipline placed at the intersection between history and economics, and at the same time aims to systematize some elements of methodology and the main conceptual sets used, that can mark the status of economic history as an articulated discipline in the socio-human sciences. There are analyzed the main „schools of economic history”, both in the Anglo-Saxon space, in France, and in Germany. The main idea suggested by the author is that, after more than a century of evolution, economic history has acquired over time a complex and rich methodological arsenal, tried to keep up with both new acquisitions in economics and history and other adjacent disciplines, assuming what she needed from both, even if, at the same time, she had to fight a constant struggle to ensure her autonomy as an independent discipline.
Keywords: economic history, methodological debates, Annals School, cliometry, new economic history, social and economic history.
*Prof. dr., Universitatea din București, membru Academia Europea; email: bogdan.murgescu@istorie.unibuc.ro.
** Conf. dr., Universitatea din București; email: matei.gheboianu@istorie.unibuc.ro.
*** Drd., Universitatea din București & EHESS Paris; e-mail ionut.mircea.marcu@drd.unibuc.ro.
Andrei Oțetea și istoria economică. Abordări, contribuții, limite
Abstract. Andrei Oțetea (1894-1977) was one of the few Romanian historians who argued even before the communist rule that economic and social factors were crucial in history. This study outlines the way he approached economic history, his main contributions in this field – the monograph dedicated to the Renaissance and Reformation, the studies on the 18th-19th centuries in the context of the debates on the second serfdom, of the transition to capitalism and of the role of trade in connecting the Romanian Principalities in international economic networks – and his role in stimulating the interest for economic history in Romania from the 1950s to the 1970s. Besides accomplishments, the analysis reveals also the limitations determined by the absence of a distinct professional field of economic history in 20th century Romania, and by the difficulties (some determined by the general historical circumstances, some of a more personal and/or generational nature) to cope with the dynamic evolutions of global economic history.
Keywords: economic history, Andrei Oțetea, communism, Romania, Renaissance, capitalism, second serfdom.
Dr., Muzeul Universității din București; Interdisciplinary Schoolf of Doctoral Studies-University of Bucharest; e-mail: valentimmaiergh@gmail.com
Literatură despre o încercare eșuată: industrializarea stufului în România în perioada 1950-1970
Abstract: The utilization of natural resources is an important aspect for the well being of humanity since its dawn. As human society developed and the technology progressed, natural resources became a significant element for the delevopment of economy. Many new resources were being utilized, while the old ones were used in new manners. Political regimes also influenced the way resources were regarded. For example, in the 20th century, in the communist regimes, natural resources were used primarily to sustain the development of the industry. Searching for new ways to produce more quantities from the existent resources and new ways to use them more efficiently („superior use”) as well as discovering new natural resources to be used in an industrialized manner (meaning especially superior quantities than through manual or animal power, but also with an improved quality) for industry. Introducing new resources in the industrial use and the case of reed in the communist Romania is the main topic of this article. In spite of the fact that the use of reed was researched and experimented before communism in Romania, only in ‘50s and ‘60s reed was in fact a topic for many researchers and was industrialized and used in industry. Many scientific publications centered around the use of reed from the Danube Delta, where it grows in unique conditions in the whole world and that transform the reed in a potential plant that can be industrialized. New institutions were established in Romania, both in the research field and in industry, in order to experiment the new uses for reed. It was also mentioned along with its uses (primarily for the cellulose and paper industry) in political documents among economic objectives. Accordingly, many technological processes were researched for the growth of reed, exploitation, transport and use, and new specialists were trained in the higher education in the „science of reed”. Many scientific and also other types of publications followed closely all these process, resulting in a unique literature about the reed. As experiments were carried out and especially after the middle of ‘60s, it became clear that reed could not be delivered to the industrial enterprises in the desired quantities and therefore an industry based on it could not be achieved. This does not mean that the use of reed ceased after ‘70s, only that there were no hopes for a new industry to be based on reed and its uses.
Keywords: natural resources, industrialization, The Danube Delta, communism, reed.
Dr., cercetător științific, Muzeul Maramureșan, Sighetul Marmației; email: ionboroica@yahoo.com
Cadastrul în paradigmele dezvoltării societății din Maramureșul istoric între 1850-1948
Abstract. The cadastre, as a technical issue, but also as an institution, has been less studied by the Romanian historiography due to technical and legal knowledge that would facilitate the decryption of its achievement, organization, economic and social involvements. The cadastre was introduced in the Habsburg Empire primarily in order to ensure fiscal stability and further for acquiring economic, legal and social functions. In the Romanian provinces of the Habsburg Monarchy the cadaster was differentiated and gradually introduced having as model the Milanese experiment. Based on this one, the cadastre was used as an administrative and fiscal tool within the colonization policy promoted by the Habsburgs in Banat after 1770. Between 1819 and 1893, the first stage of the introduction of the stable cadastre in Bucovina took place. The phrase ”stable cadastre” defines the fact that it focuses on the tax object – the land plot, for which the tax does not change even if the owner changes. The Imperial Patents of October 20th1849, and March 4th, 1850 generalized throughout the Habsburg Monarchy the existing tax system in the German and Italian provinces. As a result, the concrete cadastre was carried out as a matter of urgency, respectively expeditious measurements on lands and types of culture – in concreto – whence comes the name of concretual plans or maps. In Maramureș, the stable cadastre was introduced almost simultaneously with the concretual one by the specialized military personnel, but it did not enter into force, the concretual one being maintained. After 1918, the cadastral works, in Maramureș as well as in the other Romanian provinces, were focused on the application of the Agrarian Reform from 1921, the cadastral record being often neglected. During the Agrarian Reform of 1945 the cadastre was practically circumvented. The social and economic benefit of the cadastre, although difficult to follow from statistical data, was obvious, contributing to the modernization of society within the focused areas.
Keywords: Cadastre, stable cadastre, cadastral works, agrarian reforms, Transylvania, Maramureș, Banat, Habsburg Monarchy.
Cercetător științific I. dr. (emerit), Institutul de Istorie „George Barițiu” din Cluj-Napoca al Academiei Române; e-mail: istorie@academia-cj.ro.
Evoluţia industriei carbonifere din Europa
după primul război mondial (1919-1929). Partea I: Aspecte ale
economiei cărbunelui în Europa Occidentală (Franţa și Germania)
Abstract. After the Great War the European coal mining had to manage many new, sometimes unexpected challenges. Each country settled them in its own way. France was a leading industrial power in Europe, but the inadequate state of coal reserves represented the weak and sensible point of the French economy. During the Great War, the German Empire considered that the lack of combustible in France could facilitate the military victory, so that the troops occupying Northern France worked out and accomplished a detailed plan to destroy all available coal mines and in this way the coal output dropped in this region from 18.663.526 metric tones in 1913 to only 581.396 metric tons in 1919. There were great damages in the french coal mines so that France intended to pretend at the Versailles peace conference great war indemnities from Germany, including huge amounts of coal compulsory deliveries that raised to 20 million metric tons annually in the first five years after the war. Besides, the coal rich Alsace-Lorraine province was rejoined to France and the even wealthier Saar region was connected for 15 years to the French customs area. But Germany was very reluctant to fulfill the compulsory deliveries and therefore the French and Belgian army occupied the coal-supplier Ruhr region in 1923 and distrained upon all coal-stocks and stopped the functioning of iron work. So Germany eventually was forced to restart the coal shipments and supplied as many as 100 million tons to France between 1920 and 1930. In this way, the coal provision of the French economy grew up sensibly after the war. In 1913 France produced 40.8 million tons of coal, exported 1.8 million tons and imported 23.7 million tons, so that domestic consumption represented 62.7 million tons. But the middle average of the 1925-1929 years raised the production to 55 million tons (with the great contribution of Alsace-Lorraine province), with 2.6 million tons exported coal, and average imports of 36.7 million tons (including war indemnities and supplies from Saar region), summarizing a total consumption of 89.1 million tons. In this way the personal coal consumption for a year went up in France from 1.63 tons to 2.31 tons between 1913-1929, coming as fourth in Europe. The quick growth of domestic coal output was enhanced by the forceful action of the French government and the employers associations who succeeded to apply emergency measures for the fast recovery of the devastated mines in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments. One created special offices as the Ministry of the Liberated Regions. Other boards were set up by the Ministry of Commerce. The reconstructed exploitments were outfit with up-to-date equipment produced by the industrial engineering of the highest level in the world. Electric power was used at all levels of extraction, preparing of coal and the supplementary services. Besides, the coal enterprises built up an ever growing number of electric power stations and produced an increasing amount of coal-gas and coke. So one can say that the chemical processing of stone coal was very thoroughly promoted releasing all sorts of derivative by-products.
Prof univ. dr., Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai Cluj-Napoca, Director al Institutului de Cercetări Europene, Prof. Jean Monnet Ad Personam; email: npaun@ euro.ubbcluj.ro
România între cele două războaie mondiale.
Începutul procesului de modernizare și europenizare a
economiei
Abstract. Immediately after the Great Union, Romania was not prepared for a development based primarily on the potential offered by its natural heritage. The approach materialized in the change of the character of the economy from eminently agrarian to agrarian-industrial and fully demonstrated the opportunity for industrialization, highlighting all the possibilities that the country had regarding the recovery of energy resources and raw materials. It is an époque when Romanian economic situation registered a raise in production and productivity, when the financial and bank activity intensified, and the money were directed towards the basic branches. We will refer in the current study at the dialogue liberalism-interventionism taken from the European and Romanian space, as an answer to the economy, the greatness and the evolution, development and modernization of our economic factor after 1918. An inflection point in the evolutions from the new historic era was the Constitution from 1923. Western-style economic principles have rejected statism, while the state and its institutions rejected totalitarianism, even if not always in a convincing manner. But it can be said in the same that the Romanian experience was not just a simple copy of the western model, but an appreciable connection to the European spirit, in different socio-economic and geopolitical conditions.
Keywords: Interwar Romania, economics, industrialization, industrialism, agrarian.
Conf. univ. dr., Facultatea de Studii Europene, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai Cluj-Napoca; email: astangaciu@yahoo.com
Strategii și obiective ale băncilor italiene în
Transilvania și Banat după Marea Unire
Abstract: In the Romanian economy after 1918, the largest share of Italian capital investments was held by 3 large Italian banks, Banca Commerciale Italiana, Credito Italiano and Banca Italiana di Sconto, banks that developed industrial bank holdings and trade, loans and other types of financing. The industrial participations of the Italian capital of Comit type in Transylvania and Banat materialized in the forestry industry through the presence at Foresta Românæ (Valea Mureşului, Valea Someşului), a structure integrated in the concern of Foresta S.A. Milan, in the metallurgical industry at Astra Arad, at Phoebus Oradea, at the Resita Plants and Domains and in the mining sector, at the Mining Industries in Banat. Credito Italiano, the second most important Italian bank with a foreign presence, had an important presence in the forestry field at Forestiera Feltrinelli Sibiu (Tælmaciu).
Keywords: Romanian economy, foreign investments, Italy, Comit banks, Credito Italiano.
Prof. dr., Școala gimnazială nr. 1 Padina, județul Buzău; e-mail: gheorghe.miu@drd.unibuc.ro
Producția agricolă în satele socialiste din câmpia buzăului (1962-1989)
Abstract. This article analyses the rural economy of a group of villages in the Buzæu Plain during late communism by taking into account the levels and main components of the agricultural production, yields, costs and commodification of agricultural products, as well as related economic activities and services for the agricultural economy. The historical research on the agricultural production relates to three rural localities from Câmpia Buzæului, Padina, Smeeni and Pogoanele, at present these settlements being administratively framed in Buzæu county. In the period 1962-1989, the socialist agricultural enterprises from the villages of the Buzæu Plain, the agricultural production cooperatives (CAP), the state agricultural enterprises (IAS), the intercooperative economic associations (AEI), but also the agricultural households of the population have former generator of agricultural production. Agricultural, vegetable or animal production, according to the pattern of socialist agriculture, was a planned production, carried out on the basis of annual and quarterly production plans.
Keywords: agricultural production, the socialist agricultural enterprises, the agricultural production cooperatives (CAP), the state agricultural enterprises (IAS), the intercooperative economic associations (AEI), planned production.
Prof. univ. dr., Departamentul de Istorie, Universitatea din Oradea; e-mail: mihaidrecin@yahoo.com
Pentru un Muzeu al băncilor din Transilvania epocii
moderne la Sibiu
Abstract: The author argues for the need to establish a Museum of Banks in Transylvania in the Modern Era. It should set out documents on the establishment of banks, their activity and those of their personalities, the links with banking centers in Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Bucharest, the process of organizational modernization through the reform launched around 1900 at European level, exemplified by documents archive, the economic and political press of the time. The Museum should illustrate the life of bank officials, their involvement in professional organization, culture and politics. Sibiu should host this Museum for several reasons. First of all, because in this city appeared the most important banks with Saxon capital (1841 – Hermannstädter Allgemeine Sparkassa) and Romanian (1871 – „Albina” Bank in Sibiu).
Keywords: Banking History, Banking Museum, Transylvania, Sibiu, economic history.