Nowadays Ukraine, considering the prospects for economic develop¬ment, associates them with integration into the European Economic Community. Therefore, the study of historical experience, which clearly gives us examples of successful economic cooperation between different European structures, both at the national and regional levels, is very relevant. An example of such cooperation is Kryvyi Rig- Prydniprovia-Donetsk subregion of the Great South of Ukraine, which, in the XIX – beginning of the XX century, became the centre for attracting of the entrepreneurial capital and experience from England, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, thanks to which a unique industrial complex (the former Katerynoslav province — modern Dnipropetrovsk, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia regions) was created here.