The economic advancement of Częstochowa and the Sosnowiec-Częstochowa industrial region in the years 1877-1914

Abstract

The economic development of Częstochowa and the Sosnowiec-Częstochowa Industrial Region was determined by changes in the economic policy of Russia, trade fl uctuations in Europe and the location which attracted foreign investors. The advantages of the region were: its closeness to the state border, good railway connections, cheap labour force and access to a ready markets (local, Polish and imperial Russian). The nearby Zagłębie Dąbrowskie  (Dąbrowa Coal Basin) supplied cheap coal. Due to all those factors Częstochowa became the centre of the Sosnowiec-Częstochowa Industrial Region, in which both domestic and foreign investors built textile mills, mineral industry factories, chemical plants, ironworks, paper mills, wood- and food- processing plants. Częstochowa and the region had more foreign-capital-based factories than the Łódź Region or even Warsaw. Foreign capital dominated, investing in particularly capital-intensive branches: mining, engineering industry, steel and iron indus-try, chemical industry. Polish companies lacked suffi cient capital, and in chemical industry — technologies, which made way for Western investors, mainly from Germany, but also from France and Belgium.