The thematic focus surveys the Baltic Sea Region from diverse geographic and temporal vantage points. It examines the different forms of unofficial trade and business practices throughout the twentieth century. The history of the Baltic Sea Region in this era was for most of the time characterized by political disintegration and demarcation processes, which caused a decline of official trade and commercial exchange, but, at the same time, facilitated growth of grey economies and black markets. This process was most evident during the Cold War era when political, economic and infrastructural barriers blocked the emergence of a common market linking the Baltic coasts and their ports with each other. However, also in the 1920s and 1930s, when such a market in the Baltic Sea Region existed for a short time, contraband and unofficial trade still took place on a large scale. All three papers highlight the underestimated role of individual actors, who acted as transnational mediators and bridge-builders. They served as mediators with the necessary linguistic skills to operate in this highly multilingual and multicultural region. These individuals ranged from polyglot Baltic Germans who established the contacts between the sellers of liquor in Central Europe and the Estonian and Finnish buyers, to locals who were able to approach foreign sailors in the Baltic ports of the Soviet Union and, last but not least, the Baltic émigré communities in Sweden, which represented an important resource for Swedish firms wanting to establish contacts behind the Iron Curtain. Without such "agents of change," the described unofficial trade and business practices would not have been possible.
INHALT
Einleitung
Tomasz Blusiewicz, Lars Fredrik Stöcker, Adrian MitterIntroduction: Unofficial Trade and Business Practices in the Baltic Sea Region in the Twentieth Century (521–525)
Aufsätze
Adrian MitterRum Runners of the Baltic—The Rise of Transnational Liquor Smuggling Networks in Interwar Europe (527–550)
Tomasz BlusiewiczIllegal, Anti-Socialist and Petty Bourgeois: How Maritime Smuggling in the Baltic Undermined the Soviet Economy (551–575)
Lars Fredrik StöckerIn the Spirit of Perestroika? Swedish Involvement in the Soviet Baltic Economies, 1988-1991 (577–602)
Besprechungen
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