Agricultural Crisis in Yugoslavia 1930-1934. A General Survey

Abstract

The world agricultural crisis of 1929-1933 – the first universal crisis of capitalism to seize all countries without exception – struck Yugoslavia with particular intensity. Economically backward, with retarded capitalism and burdened with unresolved agrarian problems inherited from before the First World War, Yugoslavia bore the crisis more severely than developed countries.
This article presents a general overview of the agricultural crisis in Yugoslavia from 1930 to 1934, examining the exogenous causes (world agricultural overproduction, protectionist policies of developed countries, falling world agricultural prices) and the internal causes (rural overpopulation, price scissors, peasant indebtedness, backward agricultural technique, retarded capitalism) and tracing developments until 1934.
The analysis draws on official Yugoslav statistics (Statistički godišnjak Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1929-1938), reports of the Privileged Agricultural Bank, studies by Frangeš, Mirković, Goranović, and the author himself (Agrarna kriza u Jugoslaviji, 1968), and League of Nations publications.
The analysis shows that the crisis had both exogenous roots and deep internal causes. Rural overpopulation was massive: of 13.9 million inhabitants in 1931, 10.7 million lived from agriculture, and 67% of properties did not exceed 5 ha. Disguised unemployment, the pauperization of the peasant masses, and patrimonial stratification conditioned vulnerability to price shocks. The price scissors unfavorable to agriculture and growing peasant indebtedness deepened the crisis. The Privileged Agricultural Bank was unable to remedy the situation. The crisis spilled over into the urban economy, aggravating industrial unemployment. Internal recovery forces began only after 1934, but the essential problems of Yugoslav agriculture remained without decisive solution.