IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/pal/psmchp/978-3-031-32565-6_6.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

French Capital, Gdynia, and the Position of Polish Coal on International Markets in the Interwar Period

In: Fuelling the World Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Jerzy Łazor

    (Warsaw School of Economics)

Abstract

This chapter analyses the radical reorientation of Polish coal exports in the interwar period, and the role of French capital and authorities in the process. Until 1925, Poland’s coal sector catered primarily to Central European markets via rail. A trade war with Germany pushed Warsaw to search for new markets overseas, making Baltic ports the new locus of exports. Initially the mineral was sent through Danzig, but by the 1930s the new Polish harbour in Gdynia dominated shipping. This change was facilitated by French companies, which built the port, and French authorities, which supported the project. The success of Gdynia in the late 1930s in coal sales also depended on new railways connecting the Baltic to Polish coalfields, likewise built and financed by the French. These significant outlays were motivated by Paris’ security considerations, and were pushed for by the Ministry of War. The French also had significant holdings in the Polish coal sector, dating back to before World War I. They were not a major factor in Quai d’Orsay’s infrastructural decisions, but, since the companies relied on exports for dividends for much of the interwar period, they had significant influence on Polish coal sales, often through dumping.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerzy Łazor, 2023. "French Capital, Gdynia, and the Position of Polish Coal on International Markets in the Interwar Period," Palgrave Studies in Maritime Economics, in: Daniel Castillo Hidalgo & Cezar Honorato (ed.), Fuelling the World Economy, chapter 0, pages 99-121, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:psmchp:978-3-031-32565-6_6
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-32565-6_6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:psmchp:978-3-031-32565-6_6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.