French capital in inter-war Poland. The current state of research and new postulates

Abstract

France was a major source of capital for interwar Poland, providing funds for military matériel, key infrastructural investments, as well as for industry. On the other hand, France pursued an imperialist policy towards Poland, sometimes likened to colonialism. Conventional scholarship on the topic was born within three historiographies: Polish, French, and international, which evolved to some degree independently. Historians used different sources, asked different questions, and only partially knew the works of their peers from other countries. The article shows gaps in existing scholarship and suggests new directions of research, based on an analysis of two main interpretative contexts. One, which places French capital in the broader field of foreign capital activities in Poland, and the other, which focuses on the imperial dimension of French policy. Apart from the lack of a synthesis, which would account for the role of French capital in interwar Poland, and reconsider the imperialist interpretation by taking Polish agency into account, the author points to two gaps. Existing research does not adequately analyse important topics, such as the mechanisms of French domination; comparisons of French activities with those of companies from other countries, as well as French companies in other states of the region; reactions to French capital in Poland, and the way it shaped Polish identity. Second, important sources remain underutilized, such as the Polish interwar daily press, which contains hundreds of articles on the French, and diplomatic interventions of French companies in the ministries of foreign affairs in both countries.