"Crisis’s Transnational Approaches and National Case Studies: Quantification and Conceptualization, from the Local to the Global" 

Catherine Brégianni 

An Outline of the Main Approaches: From Economic Analysis to Social History, through Relevant Sources. Institutional Interaction and Social Actors (State, Banks, League of Nations) 

The Thematic Cycle -which closes with the seminar meeting of June 23^rd -, focused around the study of market mechanisms in relation to the evolution of the international monetary system (J. Nautz, L. Tsoulfidis, A. Antoniou).

Niccolò Mignemi

Chargé de recherche CNRS, UMR 8236 – LIED

The seminar will analyse the wheat policy adopted by the Italian fascist regime, which is generally known as the Battaglia del grano (Battle of Wheat). The Battle began in 1925 and was presented by fascist propaganda as a part of its nationalist program for economic development. It introduced protectionist tariffs (import duties and quotas), but also intended to modernise and increase domestic wheat production through innovations in the farming systems and the reorganisation of the cereal industry.

Jürgen Nautz 

Associate Professor for Economic History, Dep. of Economics, University of Vienna

This lecture deals with the economic and social processes in Germany in the 1930s, which were marked by the Great Depression. Mass unemployment, company collapses in the real economy and the banking sector, initially determined living conditions before the domestic economy experienced a revival in the mid-1930s. However,  in the meantime, the Weimar Republic had failed.

The upcoming meeting of November 23^rd  incorporates the seminar’s thematic: the quantitative elaboration of the Greek interwar crisis; this analysis is attempted through the usage of national accounting sources, as it is implemented within the framework of the Research Program. In addition, the explanation of the 1930’s economic crisis through the theory of economic cycles constitutes a broader -beyond the Greek- model and eventually correlates the past experiences to today’s recession.

In the framework of the Research Project Transnational Monetary & Economic Alternatives in the Interwar Politics. The 30s Greek Crisis in European Context, hosted by the Academy of Athens and financed by the HFRI is planned to hold seminar meetings on the general thematic Currency, crises, representations of money and of economy, in order to discuss the research results, as well as to include new perspectives, which will enrich the research hypothesis. TransMonEA seminar meetings are also conducted in correlation to the project’s milestones. 

Considering that History is not a suitable field for evaluating the experiences of the present, but is a reference axis for their reflection, the central theme of the seminar is the utilisation of infectious diseases, in order to apply techno-economic models of centralised character. Attempts also was made to highlight aspects of economic policy - especially in times of recession - in the light of a health crisis. Specifically, during the Greek interwar period, the organisation of health services (as well as the stabilisation of the country's public finances) was related to the action of the League of Nations, as far as the project of refugee settlement is concerned, and as it is known from the present state of the art. But what was the role of the Greek State or local actors before, and after, the period of the intercession of international institutions?

The organisation of the conference on Populations Transfers on the European Continent during the First Half of the 20^th  Century: Socio economic Outcomes and Perceptions of Displacements focused on the forced population movements that took place on the European continent after the end of the First World War, but expanded its chronological and spatial horizon to the “waves of refugees” caused by the aftermath of the Second World War.

The objective of the Conference was threefold.