On the Industrialisation of Maribor and Lower Styria in the 19th Century

Abstract

The author brings the attention to the contradictory interpretations of the early industrialisation in the Slovenian historiography and in the collection of scientific texts entitled Mesto in gospodarstvo, Mariborsko gospodarstvo v 20. stoletju [City and Economy: the Economy of Maribor in the 20th Century], published in 2010. On one hand these texts state that after the construction of the Southern Railway Maribor was quick to develop in the industrial sense, while on the other hand we see a standpoint that Maribor's development was not notably different from the development of the remaining Slovenian territory, characterised by the »depression «lasting almost until the end of the 19th century. The author supports the second viewpoint, simultaneously providing an extensive presentation of differences in the economic development of the Upper, Central and Lower Styria in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. In its conclusion the article states that the process of industrialisation and economic transformation in Lower Styria was much slower than in Upper Styria as well as in Graz and its surroundings. Maribor and the whole Lower Styria only saw new development possibilities after the dissolution of the Monarchy.