Rigo_Mate_A_vesztes_haboru_gyoztesei

This article expands on the themes explored in Rigó’s Capitalism in Chaos, How the Business Elites of Europe Prospered in the Era of the Great War (Cornell University Press, 2022) and traces why some industrial companies were enriched even as imperial treasuries were drained. It shows that the blockade of the Central Powers by the Allies and a series of pro-business policies led to an industrialization drive in East-Central Europe, even in previously underdeveloped regions such as Transylvania; as a result, the era of the First World War bred its own class of ultrarich military suppliers who profited from low taxes and increasing demand. In the meantime, military conquest in Southeast and Eastern Europe gave rise to Hungarian plans of economic expansion. Ironically, in the meantime, Hungary became subject to German economic domination. The second part of the article explores these themes through a case study of the Renner tannery’s expansion in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár).