Historical perspectives of material use in Czechoslovakia in 1855–2007

The article deals with the historical development of material use in the Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia/Czechoslovakia in 1855–2007. We calculate domestic material consumption (DMC), an indicator based on the concept of socio-economic metabolism and economy-wide material flow analysis, and relate it to various socio-economic factors such as changes in political regimes, industrialization and consequent growth in GDP and population. DMC is good at reflecting the gradual industrialization which took place up to the First World War, then the strong focus on the development of heavy industry under communist rule, and finally the swing to a more consumer industry and service-oriented economy after the fall of the communist regime and the subsequent transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. The comparable DMC figures per capita for Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom prove that we arrived at feasible values of material consumption.