The new Poland

After over a hundred years of foreign rule the dream of independence had been achieved, but it was no easy task to unite areas which had for so long been integral parts of Russia, Austria–Hungary and Germany, and whose social and economic development had as a result diverged enormously. Thus the mines, textile industry and metallurgical works of the Kingdom of Poland were dependent upon the Russian market, while Upper Silesia's coal mines, iron and zinc foundries and chemical industry had been linked with Germany. The efficient capitalist agricultural system of Poznania and Pomerania had supplied food to the large German towns. It is estimated that of products exported from partitioned Poland 83.3 per cent had gone to the partitioning powers, while 85 per cent of imports came from them. After 1918 this association ceased. The Russian market was virtually closed, while the high tariffs of Poland and the Habsburg successor states hampered trade. Some industries like sugar refining duplicated one another in the different parts of Poland, while others, such as machine tools and armament industries, were almost entirely lacking. The level of agricultural development varied widely from the highly productive farms of the former Prussian areas to the backward estates of the eastern borderlands and the dwarf holdings of Galicia, where in 1921 four-fifths of all farms were less than 5 hectares.

The creation of a single economic system was a slow and difficult process. It was only in 1920 that a single currency was established. Until then as many as six currencies had circulated in the country.