A Profession in Conflict: Croatian Pharmacy between Politics and Economy in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

ABSTRACT This paper will elaborate the impact of social, political and economic processes on the formation and development of the pharmaceutical profession in Croatia until the end of the Second World War. Political axes and dominant economic theories shaped a complex history of interactions between the pharmaceutical profession and state structures, dramatically polarizing the profession into interest groups. The paper will focus on the conflicts which arose from disagreements between owners and employees regarding professional interests, social issues and political ideologies, that became evident with the 1914 employees’ strike in Zagreb and ended with the nationalization of all Yugoslav pharmacies after the Second World War. The main argument is that the conflict between the owners and the employees created powerful dynamics of change in the pharmaceutical profession. It induced the establishment of various class bodies and official gazettes; influenced the debates around new pharmaceutical legislation; awakened the need to establish instruments of social protection and social insurance; problematized the concession system, and ultimately led to the conversion of private pharmacies into state-owned ones. These complex processes were embedded in the quest for the unique identity of the pharmaceutical profession.