Page - 45 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Poor State, Wealthy Businesses 45 Upper Styrian in Kapfenberg, Donawitz and Mürzzuschlag and in the Wiener Neus- tadt region, and the Lower Austrian in Wöllersdorf, Felixdorf, Enzesfeld and Hirten- berg. These were joined by the important site in Steyr. There was also a whole series of smaller sites, which were just as important, however, and which above all also benefited from the boom. These included Trieste, or the Hungarian armaments factories around Budapest or in Mosonmagyaróvár (Ungarisch Altenburg) that were still in the process of being built. The Hungarian armaments industry even showed growth rates that were significantly higher than those in Austria, although the dominance overall of the latter remained uncontested. The armaments industry can be taken as a classic example of a capitalist economy. It was highly dependent on capital and had international branches, and was characterised by the fact that it not only took up a sizeable portion of the available bank capital, but also made enormous profits. The armaments sector was also strongly export oriented ; indeed, without the export of munitions, it could not have become established in the way it was. Just how export-dependent the industry had become is illustrated by the Steyr factory, which in 1910 received no orders from the Imperial and Royal Army Administration, and as a result had to dismiss workers immediately. However, shortly afterwards, exports increased to new record levels. The main customers for munitions from Steyr were the Balkan states, Turkey and South America, as well as China between 1911 and 1913, which had been granted an armaments loan by Austrian banks for 7.2 million kronen. Even as late as the spring of 1914, 200,000 rifles from the Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft Steyr and its partner in the cartel, the German company Mauser, were sent to Serbia.87 In 1913, Greece ordered around 200,000 rifles, Romania ordered 230,000, and so on. By con- trast, orders for the Austro-Hungarian army were relatively modest, totalling 324,346 rifles during the first decade of the 20th century. In 1911, around 6,500 hand guns were supplied to the domestic Army Administration, with 2,700 items sold in 1912. However in some cases, other designs were produced for export than those supplied to the Imperial and Royal Army. For this reason, the conversion to domestic requirements took some time when the war started. As a result of the Russo-Japanese War, followed by the Balkan Wars, Hirtenberg en- joyed a boom period, too. Precisely how exports flourished can no longer be researched, since the company archives have been lost. However, the dividends of 15, 16 and finally 18 percent during the years preceding the outbreak of war (with dividends rising to 25 percent in 1914, reaching 44 percent in 1916) speak for themselves.88 While Škoda may have been based in Pilsen, it only enjoyed a revival when the com- pany headquarters moved to Vienna.89 Before 1905, Škoda, which mainly produced machinery, had made losses with its military products. Škoda had also first supplied products to the Imperial and Royal Navy. However, its fortunes then took a sharp turn