Introduction

conomic co-operation with neutral countries Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Sweden had an important place in the foreign economic relations of Czechoslovakia after 1945, even though their political systems were different. Slovakia also had an important role in the co-operation with neutral countries after the end of the 1960s, as part of post-war Czechoslovakia. After the constitutional changes in Czechoslovakia in 1969, Slovakia represented to a considerable extent an independent administrative and economic unit with its own government and parliament. This fact enables us to evaluate the development specifically of Slovakia's relationships with neutral countries. From the end of the 1960s we also have at our disposal statistical information about Slovakia's foreign trade. Its industrial potential grew approximately thirty-fold between 1945 and 1989 and its share of Czechoslovak industrial production grew from about 10 per cent to 29 per cent. In this connection, its share in foreign trade grew as well. The number of inhabitants saw an increase in this period from 3.2 million to 5.2 million, which was about the same as Finland. The economic structure of Slovakia also had many features in common with the neutral countries.

Political changes and economic relations between Slovakia and neutral states, 1945–53

Between 1945 and 1948 Slovakia had favourable conditions for co-operation with neutral European countries with free market economies, namely with Austria, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. Czechoslovakia very quickly revived its rich pre-war trade relationships with these countries. The influence of the Soviet Union in post-war Czechoslovakia was considerable, but it was indirect, and only marginal in the economy.