# Customs Treaty with Austria (5 June 1852)

URL: https://allhistories.com/liechtenstein/timeline/1852-customs-treaty-with-austria
Location: Vienna, Austria
Themes: Key Events

After the end of the old Empire, Liechtenstein was a tiny, landlocked economy surrounded by customs frontiers. Its farmers, cattle dealers and craftsmen faced duties when selling to Vorarlberg, Switzerland or Germany, and the principality was too small to sustain its own customs administration. The German Customs Union (Zollverein), led by Prussia, was closed to it, while Austria under Prince Schwarzenberg was keen to bind the small states of the German Confederation to itself. On 5 June 1852 Prince Alois II concluded a customs treaty with the Austrian Empire. Liechtenstein became part of the Austrian customs territory; Austrian customs officials guarded its border on the Rhine with Switzerland, and the principality received a share of the customs revenue, which soon became one of its main sources of public income. Renewed several times, the treaty lasted until 1919. The customs union opened the large Habsburg market to Liechtenstein's agricultural products and made the country attractive to Swiss and Austrian industrialists, who began to build textile mills there in the 1860s. It also tied the principality's economy, currency and administration closely to Austria for almost seventy years, until the collapse of the monarchy led Liechtenstein to turn to Switzerland in 1923.

## Why it matters
The 1852 customs treaty with Austria transformed Liechtenstein's economy and remained the basis of its foreign economic relations until 1919.

Ruler at the Time: [Aloys II](https://allhistories.com/liechtenstein/rulers/aloys-ii)

Landesverweser of Liechtenstein: Michael Menzinger

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Economy of Liechtenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Liechtenstein)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Liechtenstein economy](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Liechtenstein+economy)
- [Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein — Zollvertrag 1852](https://historisches-lexikon.li/Suche?query=Zollvertrag+1852)
- [Wikipedia — Sovereign Principality (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Liechtenstein#Sovereignty)