Halmos_Tamas_Forgalmazas_kereskedelem_bizalmatlansag

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the provisions for the imperial and royal army consumed a large part of the Habsburg Monarchy’s treasury expenditure, making army supply one of the most important public procurement procedures of the time. In this article, this complex system, which, in the words of O. Williamson, operated on the borderline between market and hierarchy, is presented through the memoirs of Ignác Vörös de Farad (1757–1825). The author of this ego-document was a commissioner during the war between the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire in 1788–1791, and as such was involved in the management of the supply system. Through textual analysis, the system and its stakeholders in a period of military conflict are made visible and interpretable, using methods of new institutional economics and new economic criticism. The paper is based on the forthcoming publication by the authors, entitled A katona, a kereskedő, a tisztviselő és az egér: Hadseregellátás és mikrotörténet: a regénytől az aktáig (The Soldier, the Merchant, the Clerk, and the Mouse: Military Supply and Microhistory from Novels to Archives.).