Conditions of Industrial Development in Poland in the Years 1918-1939

Abstract

The history of industry in Poland in the interwar period has generated substantial literature, but a comparative analysis using long statistical series to assess the structural conditions of industrial development remains to be done. Comparing the overall production index for 1913, 1929, and 1938 is indispensable for a general evaluation of the economy of the twenty years.
This article analyzes the conditions of industrial development in Poland in 1918-1939, distinguishing six economic regions with differing social, national, and industrial structures, evaluating industrial output through the overall production index and the net production of manufacturing industry, and examining the process of economic integration of the Polish lands and the role of economic infrastructure.
The analysis draws on Polish interwar statistics (Mały Rocznik Statystyczny 1939), Colin Clark's estimates (The Conditions of Economic Progress), Zienkowski's data on national income (1937-1960), and regional studies by Popiołek on the mining and metallurgical industry of Upper Silesia.
The analysis distinguishes six regions with differing conditions: Upper Silesia - the most developed but dependent on the German market; the Kingdom of Poland - oriented toward eastern markets whose loss after 1918 severely affected the textile and metallurgical industries; Greater Poland, Western Galicia, Pomerania, and the eastern borderlands. The overall production index of 1938 did not reach the 1913 level, while the net production of manufacturing industry doubled. National income per capita in 1929 stood at 74% of its 1913 level. Economic integration was achieved mainly in the four western regions with ethnically Polish populations, through the construction of 1,770 km of railways, the port of Gdynia, and the Central Industrial District (COP), leaving the eastern borderlands outside the new economic organism.