The Niemen is navigable from about halfway between Grodno and Kovno to the Prussian frontier. The Pilitsa is navigable for rafts from a point near Novo Radomsk to its junction with the Vistula, so for a small portion of the year is the Bug from the point where it first touches Poland and likewise the Narew for a considerable distance. The Oder affords the products of Silesia an outlet not only to Stettin near its mouth, but also to Berlin and Hamburg with which it is connected by an extensive system of water-ways. The Dniester is used in Galicia only for rafting timber. The chief canals are the Dnieper–Bug Canal; the Augustowo Canal, uniting the Vistula to the Niemen through the Narew; and the Bromberg Canal, uniting the Brahe to the Netze and thus the Vistula to the Oder. Of these the latter is the only canal navigable for large boats and steamers. As regards railways, in 1912 the kingdom of Poland had 2·9 km. per sq. km., the Polish provinces of Prussia had 9·27 km. and Galicia (1911) 5·24 kilometres. As the railways were constructed for the most part from a strategical point of view, industry did not benefit so much from them as it might otherwise have done. The poor railway system between Russia and Danzig was one of the causes of the decline of the trade of that port.
Trade.—With regard to commerce the kingdom of Poland was closely attached to Russia by the protectionist system introduced in 1877 and this made trade with other countries difficult. The interchange of goods with Russia was about 212 times greater than that with other countries. The following were the chief exports: textiles, three-quarters of which went to Russia, though trade with countries further E., notably Persia and Mongolia, was increasing; clothing and boots, which found their chief markets in Russia; horses, poultry and eggs. The chief imports of the kingdom of Poland were: raw wool and cotton from overseas and from Russian Turkestan; iron ore and pig-iron from Russia; cattle from the steppes; and flour from Russia. In 1909 over 1·4 million q.m. of Russian flour was imported, this forming a formidable competitor to Polish milling thanks to special transport rates.
Galicia was united to the fiscal territory of Austria in 1784 and her commercial interests were generally subordinate to the will of the more powerful states of the west. The principal customer of Galicia was Germany. In 1909 the exports of Galicia to Germany amounted to 10·6 million q.m.; the imports from Germany to 6 million q.m. The chief exports were salt and petroleum and wood. The chief imports were: textiles to the value of about 300 million francs; iron and iron goods from Germany; coal, of which 712 million q.m. was imported in 1908.
The industry of the Polish provinces of Prussia began to decline after they were assimilated to the German hinterland. On the other hand, the protective custom tariff acted beneficially on agriculture and the trade in provisions. The principal customers of Posnania were the other states and provinces of Germany. The chief exports were sugar, alcohol and cereals. There were exported annually from 1885–1908 250,000 q.m. of wheat, 2,000,000 q.m. of rye, 410,000 q.m. of barley and 210,000 q.m. of oats. The rye was sent to Bohemia, Austrian Silesia and the kingdom of Poland, rye meal to Scandinavia, Belgium, Holland and Finland. Except for the products of local agriculture and forestry these provinces were entirely dependent on outside sources.
Cooperative credit societies developed vigorously and by 1913 they had together over 75,000 members and deposits of over 202 million francs. The Cooperative Societies' Bank, founded in 1910, formed a financial centre for the societies. With regard to savings banks, by the end of 1912 there were in Galicia 53 banks with deposits amounting to 336 million francs. In Prussian Poland cooperative societies were established on the principles of Schulze-Delitzsch and on the Raiffeisen system—after 1900 buying and selling societies were founded. The Polish credit institutions in Prussia, deriving their capital solely from Polish sources, had at disposal the sum of 498,631,000 francs.
The war left Poland in “a pitiable economic situation.” The country was devastated in the first years of the war and then its resources were drained by the German occupation. The mobilization of Polish industry depends on currency stability, improved transport conditions and an abundance of available coal. The following statistics show the number of industrial workers employed before the war and on Jan. 1 1920:—
| Before the war |
Jan. 1 1920 | Per cent as compared with pre-war figures | |
| Mining | 28,300 | 36,900 | 130 |
| Metallurgical | 18,650 | 5,450 | 29 |
| Metal | 52,415 | 7,151 | 14 |
| Mineral | 40,900 | 12,200 | 30 |
| Textile | 168,016 | 38,900 | 23 |
| Paper | 7,000 | 4,000 | 57 |
| Chemical | 8,550 | 3,220 | 38 |
| Tanning | 8,020 | 2,614 | 32 |
| Provisions | 33,200 | 14,370 | 43 |
| Wood | 9,540 | . . | . . |
| Total | 374,591 | 124,805 | 34 |
It will be seen that the coal industry has, in spite of housing and provisioning difficulties, increased from the pre-war standard. The production of coal in Congress Poland and Galicia does not suffice to cover the requirements of the countries at present constituting the Polish State. The Reparations Committee assigned to Poland only 250,000 tons of coal per month from Silesia; and the Polish Coal Sub-Committee has granted a lump sum of 450,000 tons of coal. This lack of coal is one of the most serious hindrances to the reorganization of Polish industry.
The oil industry was not much devastated by the war, but for the first five months of 1919 the Boryslaw-Truskawiec basin and that of Bikhov were under Ukrainian administration, and oil had to be used instead of coal for working the shafts. In 1920 about half the textile industry had been mobilized and many factories started in Lodz and also in Czenstochowa, Kalisz and Bielsk. In 1919–20 the output of sugar scarcely amounted to 65% of the expected output, i.e. instead of 500,000 q.m. only 350,000 q.m. were produced. The iron foundries came to a standstill during the war and no plant was left without some essential part wanting. In July 1919 the first blast furnace started work and by the beginning of 1920 a few others were in working order. Steel production is hampered by lack of coal.
Finance.—The revenue of the Russian Treasury of the Kingdom of Poland in 1912 amounted to about 609 million francs and the expenditure amounted to about 371 million francs. From 1905 to 1912 inclusive, the excess of receipts over expenditure in the Kingdom amounted to 1,034 million francs. State officials administered the finance of 116 towns in the Kingdom of Poland. The revenue of Warsaw according to the budget of 1914 was 39 million francs. The rural communes possessed a limited autonomy. In Galicia the largest item contributed to the Austrian State was from the taxes on consumable articles and monopolies. The total receipts were 42·37 francs per inhabitant and the expenditure 26·90 francs per inhabitant. As regards the finance of Galicia as an autonomous province, in 1911 the expenditure amounted to 66 million francs, derived mainly from taxes on articles of consumption and provincial surtax on direct contributions. In the 74 autonomous districts the income amounted to 12 million francs, derived from the surtax on direct contributions and the tolls of the districts. The budget of Lemberg was over 11 million francs and that of Cracow nearly 9 million francs. In Prussian Poland the finance of the Empire was based on indirect contributions, customs yielding the largest return. In Prussia direct contributions played the most important part, the income tax producing 9 million francs in Posnania in 1911, and 7 million francs in W. Prussia. The total of the autonomous taxation of the province, districts and communes amounted to 24 francs 350. per head in Posnania and to 30 francs 01c. in W. Prussia.
In the Kingdom of Poland the chief bank was the State Bank. In 1914 there were 38 private branches accredited to it, five branches of Petrograd large banks and five branches of the Riga Bank of Commerce. In Galicia the most important were the Austro-Hungarian Bank, with 13 Galician branches and 20 branches of Vienna and Tchek Banks. Branches of the Reichsbank and of large German Banks protected the German element in Russian Poland. In addition to these there were joint stock banks for credit for short periods. In the Kingdom of Poland there were nine; the deposits amounted to over 296 million francs in 1914. In Galicia the Mortgage Bank was the largest joint stock bank, which in 1912 discounted bills of exchange for 178 million francs. In Prussian Poland the most important was the Bank of the Federation of Cooperative Societies, which had a capital of 29 million francs in 1916. Credit for long periods depended, in the Kingdom of Poland, on the Land Credit Society and the Peasants' Bank; in Galicia, on the Land Credit Society and the Commission of Rentengüter, and in Prussian Poland chiefly on cooperative credit societies.
Finally Poland was in a crippled condition financially. The mark which was at 40 to the pound sterling in 1919, touched a new low record on June 28, 1921—namely 6,400 to the pound, and after that fell for two days to 9,000 to the pound. This rate of exchange prevented Poland from trading internationally and consequently hindered her economic reconstruction. On July 30 the Polish budget for 1921, the first real balancing of expenditure and revenue produced by any Polish finance minister, was presented to the Diet and showed a deficit of 80,000,000,000 marks (the exchange on that day being about 8,000 to the £) for Russian and Austrian Poland without the Polish part of the Austrian duchy of Teschen. The former Prussian provinces which only came under the Ministry of Finance on Sept. 1 1921 have a surplus of 6,000,000,000 marks which reduces its national deficit to 14,000,000,000 marks.
The Ministry of War was responsible for 30 % of the expenditure, railways for 21 % of the expenditure and food supplies for some 10%. But it may be said that'the existing low rate of exchange gave no real indication of the prosperity of the country. Polish indebtedness was not great (about 6,600,000 at the exchange of July 30 1921), the productive capacity of the country was increasing, and the harvest prospects were excellent.
References.—The one indispensable introduction to things Polish for English readers is the little volume entitled Poland in the Home University Library by Prof. Alison Phillips. In that admirable summary there are but two lacunae. The Exodus to Paris after 1830 and the Jewish question are not adequately treated, but it
