Cheap labour on the timber frontier : migration of forestry workers from Austria- Hungary to Southeast Europe, ca. 1880-1914

By considering the expansion of the timber trade in southeast Europe as a resource frontier, this article explores the relationships between the transformation of the technical and material conditions of forest exploitation and the development of its labour force. Previous studies have identified the period from about 1880 to 1914 as the last phase of the European timber frontier, with new areas of virgin forest being integrated into the European market. During this period, the arrival of foreign industrialists led to a radical transformation of working conditions, both in terms of quantity and quality. A study of the migration process shows that workers from Austria-Hungary provided a reservoir of labour. A thorough analysis of working and living conditions also helps to understand how migrant labour was necessary to keep costs low enough to maintain the profits of large timber companies. Finally, this study contributes to our knowledge of labour issues in the context of the expanding resource frontiers of the late nineteenth century.