ЧЕТВОРНА КОМИСИЈА КАО МЕХАНИЗАМ ЗА ШИРЕЊЕ ПРИВРЕДНОГ УТИЦАЈА АУСТРОУГАРСКЕ НА БАЛКАНУ 1878–1883.
QUADRUPLE COMMISSION AS MECHANISM FOR ENLARGMENT OF ECONOMIC INFLUENCE OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY ON THE BALKANS 1878–1883

Summary/Abstract: In the second half of the 19th century, the Habsburg Monarchy tried to overcome the limitations determined by its geographical position through the development of the land transport infrastructure or through control of the railway network development in the European southeast. The railway development issue on the Balkans after the Berlin Congress and the work of the Quadruple Commission are a paradigmatic example of internal and external contradictions and the problems that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria-Hungary faced in the effort to gain control over the construction and exploitation of the railway network in the Balkans. In the spring of 1878, the Quadruple Commission was conceived as a mechanism for the realization of the economic interests of the Monarchy or for imposing its own concept of building and exploiting the routes to Thessaloniki and Istanbul. However, resolving the problems was first postponed due to internal misunderstandings between the Austrian and Hungarian governments, and, during the negotiations with Serbia, representatives of the Monarchy had to change their attitudes towards the most important parts of the treaty – those that were concerned with tariff control (in part, but with the recognition of equality) and with the imposing of baron Hirsch’s company as builder and controller of exploitation. The model applied with Serbia could not be amended later, because the Austro-Serbian Railway Convention was a model for the convention of four states, and Bulgaria also used its own negotiating position to execute the exemption from obligations to Hirsch. Emil Palotás rightly assessed that Austria-Hungary was able to achieve only what was not in direct contradiction with the national interests of the Balkan states, while the decades that were needed to realize the idea of reaching the Aegean Sea provided an even more pronounced disparity between the influence of the Austrian trade, in comparison with the British and French one. The level of control of the trans-Balkan railway line, which Vienna was trying to achieve, remained an unrealistic dream.

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