Page 121 - 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.

Trieste 1948–1952: A Contended Port City and the Marshall Plan

Table 6.4: Indexes of cost of living or retail prices (1948 = 100)

Period Austria Germany Italy Trieste
(bizonal area
1948 Jan. [not available] 100 99
1949 Feb. [not available] only) 99 107
Mar. [not available] [not available]
Apr. [not available] [not available] 102 97
May [not available] [not available] 102 101
June [not available] [not available] 101
July [not available] 100 99
Aug. 88 100
Sept. 87 100 95
Oct. 87 105 99 94
Nov. 100 104 101 95
Dec. 100 105 100 99
Jan. 104 109 101 102
Feb. 104 109 102 102
Mar. 104 111 103 104
Apr. 104 111 102 107
May 104 111 103 97
June 104 111 104 107
July 119 109 104 109
Aug. 119 106 103 113
Sept. 119 105 100 109
Oct. 120 106 101 105
Nov. 124 104 101 105
Dec. 133 103 99 103
135 103 99 102
103 98 101
103 [not available]

Source: Economic Cooperation Administration 1950, Table IX–2

Since 1948, the funds expected from the Marshall Plan would have
been spent especially to restore and to modernize the circuit of produc-
tion and use of ships that had been typical during the Austrian period:
shipbuilding, maritime transport, port activities, and commerce. Out of
about 170,000 gross tons of ships launched in those years in the Trieste
and Monfalcone shipyards, ships for a total of around 100,000 tons were
financed by the Marshall Plan (Valdevit 2002, 631–50). It is a known fact
that the Free Territory of Trieste was the unit that gained more in Europe
(on a per capita basis) from the Marshall Plan benefits.

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