Why did Balkan states depend on foreign capital and expertise in the 19th century?

In the 19th century, the newly emerging Balkan states faced significant challenges in building modern, Western-style political and economic structures due to their historical background as part of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the region was dominated by small, self-sufficient peasant proprietors who generated little surplus capital, and those who did possess funds often found that money lending offered higher returns than productive investment.1

Furthermore, the region lacked financial sophistication, as double-column bookkeeping was largely unknown. Because these societies were not yet modernized, the new states were forced to rely on the external developed world for capital and commercial expertise, as well as for manufactured goods and arms. While Romania was an exception due to its developed, export-oriented agriculture, the rest of the formerly Ottoman territories struggled to generate the internal wealth necessary to support their state-building efforts independently.1