Entrepreneurship and Industrial Policy in Bulgaria after the Liberation until the Balkan Wars (1878–1912)

At the core of the analysis of the topic is the understanding that in the course of socio-economic changes on the way to modern capitalist society, Bulgarian entrepreneurs had only such a degree of freedom and opportunity for action as the initial internal conditions and external constraints gave them. In Bulgaria after the Liberation, in the absence of a clear social structure and significant social forces, the state became a major factor in economic change. In the conditions of general backwardness, preconditioned by the centuries-old separation of the Bulgarian lands from the European transformation processes, the Bulgarian entrepreneurship was gaining strength, gradually acquiring self-confidence and experience. It is in this context that those Bulgarian entrepreneurs, who showed an unwavering will to succeed, adopting the economic innovations and models of a production organization from the developed world stand out even more clearly. Despite their efforts, actively supported by the state's industrial policy, Bulgaria was moving slowly along the path of its capitalist development.