Austro-Hungarian economy

[hauptmannn]

Hi people i am just wondering if anyone knows about how strong the AH economy was and how strong was their industrial base? could you also include GDP per capita if that were possible?

[Orok]

Hauptmann,

I don't have the comprehensive stats, but if steel output is any indicator, I have the following numbers for 1914:

Austro-Huangary: 2 million tons
Germany: 17 million tons
France: 4 million tons
Russia: 4 million tons
Great Britain: 9 million tons

Another figure is the aircraft and engines produced during the war:

Austro-Hungary: 5,000 aircraft & 4,000 engines
Italy: 20,000 aircraft & 38,000 engines

Although these numbers cannot be taken at their face value, but they indeed tell something of the economy of the empire just before and during the war as compared with her neighbours.

Best Regards!

[dead-cat]

what are the steel production figures for the USA 1914?

[Orok]

Hi cat,

I only have the 1907 figure, which is 23.3 million long tons!

Best Regards!

[hauptmannn]

I have 17 million tons of steel as between Germany and Austria-Hungary and 15.3 million between the allies.

[Chadwick]

Another thing I would be interested in knowing would be the state of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's infrastructure. If I remember correctly I believe the Austro-Hungarian Empire like Russia was primarily agrarian in their base economy. The questions dealing with the economy would involve the following: How easy was it to get the goods out to the world markets through railroads, canals, etc. Also did Austria have a strong Merchant Marine to carry the goods to foreign countries or did they rely on other countries to do this?

chris

[dead-cat]

The questions dealing with the economy would involve the following: How easy was it to get the goods out to the world markets through railroads, canals, etc.

since the danube was navigable, a large part of the slow cargo would be transported over the river. i'm not sure if it was really cheaper than by railroad (because today it certainly isn't. shipowners on the Rhine regularily recive subsidies from the German gov.).

until 1870 all major cities were linked by railroad. Temesvar, in the south-eastern part of the empire, was linked to the railroad network in 1857 allready. Vienna, Budapest, Pressburg and several other cities earlier. the rail netowrk was not as dense as in Germany, but A-H. was larger.

while the number of rolling stock in Imperial Germany 1914 was around 1 million (rough estimation, but cerainly more than 800 000) railcars i have yet to find figures for A-H.

[dead-cat]

a few railroad related things i just found:

first railroad in A-H. 1837.
cca 45 000km regular track (of which 8 500km double track) (Germany had about 55 000km)
2520 km narrow gauge.
445 000 employees

rolling stock figures are very difficult to find, so i can only estimate. for the Piave offensive 1917 the army recived 2500 engines and 100 000 railcars for this operation alone.
my guess for rolling stock figures (1914) would be 6-700 000 railcars for the entire A-H. most railcars however were equipped with an individual braking system which considerably reduced the speed. during the 1914 mobilization army trains with 50 railcars would travell with average speeds of about 20km/h (30 km/h in Germany).

the conservativeness of the A-H. military hampered the tenchical innovation. the maximum axle load was 14.5t through A-H, while it was 16-18t in western europe. the argumentation was, that in case of an invasion, the enemy would be prevented from using its own rolling stock, thus running into supply problems. this brought up several technical problems for engine builders.

[Gwynn Compton]

Interesting that that theory of denying the use of strategic railways would be employed in Austria-Hungary. It seems to be more of a strategy that would suit a larger Empire, such as Russia. The Austrian-Hungarian territories weren't big enough to cause the denial of railways to be such a big problem, though it could still cause some headaches to logistics.

Gwynn

[dead-cat]

unfortuntatly it didn't affect just the strategic railways, it affected ALL railways through A-H. russia employed a similar strategy too. they use broad gauge.
A-H. was, after russia, the second largest state in europe. but i think emplyoing a different gauge would have been more effective from military point of view. with reduced axle load, the enemy had to make sure he doesn't load the railcards 100% and use lighter locomotives. shouldn't be more than an inconvenience.

[Chadwick]

thank you for the information dead-cat. I am a real railroad buff and the information you provided about the railroads both in Imperial Germany as well as in the AHE were very interesting.

[dead-cat]

I am a real railroad buff

me too. unfortunatly books about A-H. railroads(or that period generally) are very difficult to find, so information is not as abundant as i'd like to .

[Karl]

1914 A-H
National Income $3 Billion
Population 52 million
Per Capita Income $57

1913 Steel Production of the United States is 31.8millions of tons.

[dead-cat]

another transport thing (but for Germany):
fluvial transport accounted for 22% of the internal transport amount, the rest of 78% is railroad.

related to what Karl just posted:

what was the $ / Mark ratio (around 1910) respectively $/ A-H. crown?

what did an average worker earn (let's take dockyard workers for example) per month in the different countries (USA, England, Germany, France, A-H. Russia)?

[dead-cat]

i found following figures:

http://www.uc3m.es/uc3m/dpto/HISEC/EHES ... hultze.pdf

GDP/ Capita (1990 Intl. $) in 1913:

UK: 5,032
Germany: 3,647
France: 3,452
Italy 2,507
Austria-Hungary: 2,008
Russia 1,488

a few non-great powers as comparision:

Switzerland 4,207
Belgium 4,130
Netherlands 3,950
Denmark 3,764
Sweden 3,096