STAMBIOSIOS PRAMONËS ATSIRADIMAS KLAIPËDOS KRAÐTE (XIX AMŽIAUS PABAIGA – XX AMŽIAUS PRADŽIA)
THE ORIGIN OF THE LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRY IN KLAIPËDA’S REGION IN THE END OF THE 19TH – BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: Industrialization in Germany in the 19th century was not a homogeneous process. Firstly, the industrial upheaval started and quickly permeated into the West German lands. The rail freight and the system of factories based on heavy mechanical production and hired labour started and developed there. Meanwhile, the provinces of Prussia were rather poor, even at the end of the 19th century. Talking at this point, the most behindhand was the province of the East Prussia. That slippage was mainly conditioned by poor natural resources, adverse geopolitical situation, financial deficiency, undeveloped infrastructure and other important factors. The investment was impede by the unsafe frontier with the Russian Empire, the major German trade sets could not find any serious interests there, whereas the province bourgeoisie was too conservative and tried to avoid any novelty. One of the most sequestered and the least modernized district of the province was Klaipëda Region (Memelland), mostly determined by the specific historical development of the city of Klaipëda, which left the seaport located in very convenient spot, yet whitout any natural economical rearward. Consequently, the development of the city was rather slow (Klaipëda had only 17490 inhabitans in 1861), and there were no other important trading centres in the region. The entire economics of Klaipëda substantially depended on the opportunity to intercede in trading between Russia and other European countries. Howewer, those opportunities were constricted because of the rivalry with Königsberg, which was the centre of East Prussia, and the protectional politics of Russian Empire. The Russian governance was developing Liepoja (Libau) port in the latter part of the 19th century, thus nurturing another strong contestant to Klaipëda. Therefore, the trading set of Klaipëda’s Region was not able to hoard up a large capital and hesitated to invest in modern branches of economics. The enterprisers of other regions of Germany established almost all of the first major industrial corporations of Klaipëda. Oddly enough, but the mining company laid the foundations for the heavy industry in the region of scarce resources. The corporation named Stantien & Becker used industrial method to mine the amber from the bottom of the Curonian Lagoon near Juodkrantë (Schwarzort) from 1862 until 1891. The company wringed 2250 tons of amber during that period. Throughout the working years, it was the biggest company in the land of East Prussia. The amber was realised in Southeast Europe and Asia. Union, the factory of chemical production that manufactured artificial fertilizers, was another big industrial company in Klaipëda’s region. The fabrication required a great deal of stock and a fair amount of it was transported from Spain, USA and even Australia.

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