Page 119 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 119
Trieste 1948–1952: A Contended Port City and the Marshall Plan
my, and that goal was believed to be easily achievable because the Trieste
and Italian economies were considered not complementary (Economic
Cooperation Administration 1949b). Apart from other things, self-suffi-
ciency was intended as a result of economic integration between Trieste
and the entire Western Europe economic system, in coherence with one
of the fundamental postulates of the European Recovery Program. A lit-
tle romantically, it seems that Allied officials thought it possible to create
a kind of Hong Kong on the Adriatic, an autonomous and economically
efficient port-city, capable of providing its maritime and commercial ser-
vices to all possible customers, on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
Such a view led the AMG to privilege, between the objectives of the
plan, the immediate restoration of transport activity from the port of
Trieste to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland (Valdevit 1999, 126). In
1950, the Austrian ECA mission organized a major ceremony in Trieste,
on the occasion of the arrival of the four-millionth ton of ERP goods, un-
loaded in the Adriatic port and directed to Vienna (Schröder 2000, 219). It
was the confirmation of the pivotal role assigned to the city, inside a wide
network of interdependencies, that was the backbone of the American
control strategy along the southern section of the Iron Curtain (Hogan
1987).
Especially at the beginning of the Marshall Plan, for different rea-
sons, the logistic opportunities available in Trieste were considered as a
key element for a quick start of the recovery not only in Austria, but also
in Southern Germany and Italy.
For the Western-occupied zones of Austria, one of the main concerns
was the lack of fuel and raw materials, indispensable for a restoration
of the main industrial activities and after that, for the reactivation of
the entire Austrian economic system along a self-sustaining perspective
of development (Economic Cooperation Administration 1949a, 4 and 55–
9). Without an initial injection of food, fuel, and raw materials the en-
tire Austrian industrial system could not have produced sufficient out-
put to restart the export circuit and gain an acceptable level of economic
self-sufficiency for the entire country.
For Germany, the question of the availability of supplies was critical.
The main problem was the complete disruption of the system of comple-
mentarities that had sustained the economic development of the country
since its unification:
119
my, and that goal was believed to be easily achievable because the Trieste
and Italian economies were considered not complementary (Economic
Cooperation Administration 1949b). Apart from other things, self-suffi-
ciency was intended as a result of economic integration between Trieste
and the entire Western Europe economic system, in coherence with one
of the fundamental postulates of the European Recovery Program. A lit-
tle romantically, it seems that Allied officials thought it possible to create
a kind of Hong Kong on the Adriatic, an autonomous and economically
efficient port-city, capable of providing its maritime and commercial ser-
vices to all possible customers, on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
Such a view led the AMG to privilege, between the objectives of the
plan, the immediate restoration of transport activity from the port of
Trieste to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland (Valdevit 1999, 126). In
1950, the Austrian ECA mission organized a major ceremony in Trieste,
on the occasion of the arrival of the four-millionth ton of ERP goods, un-
loaded in the Adriatic port and directed to Vienna (Schröder 2000, 219). It
was the confirmation of the pivotal role assigned to the city, inside a wide
network of interdependencies, that was the backbone of the American
control strategy along the southern section of the Iron Curtain (Hogan
1987).
Especially at the beginning of the Marshall Plan, for different rea-
sons, the logistic opportunities available in Trieste were considered as a
key element for a quick start of the recovery not only in Austria, but also
in Southern Germany and Italy.
For the Western-occupied zones of Austria, one of the main concerns
was the lack of fuel and raw materials, indispensable for a restoration
of the main industrial activities and after that, for the reactivation of
the entire Austrian economic system along a self-sustaining perspective
of development (Economic Cooperation Administration 1949a, 4 and 55–
9). Without an initial injection of food, fuel, and raw materials the en-
tire Austrian industrial system could not have produced sufficient out-
put to restart the export circuit and gain an acceptable level of economic
self-sufficiency for the entire country.
For Germany, the question of the availability of supplies was critical.
The main problem was the complete disruption of the system of comple-
mentarities that had sustained the economic development of the country
since its unification:
119
