Rural Financial Networks: A Comparative Study of the Province of Carniola, Lower Styria, and Bács-Bodrog County before 1918

The paper explores the influence of economic nationalism on the development of rural financial infrastructure in Central and South-Eastern Europe prior to World War I, focusing on financial intermediaries in the Province of Carniola, Lower Styria, and Bács-Bodrog County. Set against a backdrop of late 19th-century national differentiation, when parallel institutions emerged under political and economic pressures from competing national movements, these institutions served both as instruments of financial inclusion for the peasant population and as expressions of competing national projects. The research presents new comparative evidence on the interaction between nationalism, microfinance, and rural development in these regions.