The First Romanian-Slovak Economic Contacts and Their Difficulties (March – December 1939)

The commercial relations that Romania had with the Axis satellites at the beginning of World War II have escaped the attention of researchers, the rapprochement between Romania and the Slovak Republic being nearly unknown. The examined states had different internal political systems, traditions and tendencies. Slovakia was born with the illusion of independence, finding itself from the beginning in the sphere of interests of the Third Reich. Romania swung between the England and France on one side and the Nazi Germany on the other during this period. Since there was no compatibility between Romania and Slovakia in 1939, economic relations developed slowly. Although a legacy of the old Czechoslovakia, economic relations represented the first signs of rapprochement between Bucharest and Bratislava, preparing the cooperation of later times. The analysis we propose is opened by the first economic contacts between the two countries during the period when political relations between Bucharest and Bratislava were limited to mere tentativeness. Romanian historiography has neglected the subject of Romanian-Slovak relations, only tangentially touching on the issue of bilateral relations between Romania and the first Slovak Republic. By contrast, Slovak historiography paid attention to the economic situation of the new state and its economic relations with Czechoslovakia’s old partners, including Romania. The establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations was favoured precisely by these economic ties. The need to develop economic relations between Romania and Slovakia was materialized in the Economic Agreement of December 1939, which we have under scrutiny in our analysis. The Agreement of December 1939 laid the foundations of trade between the two countries. It mainly concerned Slovak armament and Romanian oil. Economic relations between Slovakia and Romania developed under the conditions of the Bucharest-Prague-Bratislava trilateral trade and the domination exercised by Germany. The economic implications of this approach represent the focal point of our study.