Exporting Environmental Burdens into the Central-European Periphery: Christmas Tree Trade and Unequal Ecological Exchange Between Germany and Habsburg Galicia around 1900

The article intends to bring new light on the German exploitation of Central European forests within the theoretical framework of the unequal ecological exchange. Focusing on one commodity in particular, the Christmas tree, it shows how foreign trade with Habsburg Galicia was used by Germany in order to get rid of the socio-environmental burdens of tree extraction. Ultimately, the article confi rms the peripheral status of Habsburg Galicia within the world-system by stressing its negative environmental consequences.