Historians usually assume that the rapid collapse of factories founded in the first half of the nineteenth century was normally a result of the lack of capital, expensive credit or the recession of the early 1840s. However, the documents concerning the foundation, management and bankruptcy of the Sugar Refinery (Cukorfinomító) established in Pest in 1830 by antiques dealer Károly Lichtl and his brother-in-law, Viennese merchant Károly Ellenberger, suggest that the downfall of their short-lived enterprise was rather brought about by the founder’s lack of expertise and adventurer personality. Besides the risks associated with the return on investments, the study demonstrates the dangers of imprudent bank loans and provides a glimpse into the rivalry among Pest merchants at the time. Lichtl was a genuine adventurer entrepreneur who jumped into any enterprise that promised good profit. He was quick to take bold chances as long as the consequences were to be borne by others. His creditor, Pest wholesaler Frigyes Kappel, was hoping for quick return on his investment when he loaned a significant sum to Lichtl without due care and thorough assessment. He was able to recover his capital only after a lengthy lawsuit and had to bear the unsavoury effects of defamation when his debtor sued him for usury.

Nincs absztrakt.

For the nineteenth-century, the sources for this study are the documents in the family archives, while their twentieth-century history is reconstructed on the basis of the recollections of family members. Demeter Mannó, the family founder, was a Greek Orthodox merchant who moved to Pest from Vienna. Here, he relinquished his trade and also instructed his sons’ guardians to encourage their training for administrative careers. Both sons graduated in law: the older son, who died at an early age, became a clerk, but István, the younger one, grew up to be a successful merchant and an eminent public figure. István married his daughters to educated, liberal burghers. Szilárd, István’s less gifted son, received land and married a woman from a noble family. Szilárd’s children, the fourth generation, married into the landed nobility and did not continue their grandfather’s work to increase the family’s estates. Although the two sons graduated from university, they chose to live on their land and did not see mush use of their education. Their lives and social position were entirely based on the revenues from their inherited wealth. Despite their fundamentally gentry lifestyle, their education and distance from public life separated them from the rest of the gentry community. Following the Second World War the family members became impoverished. For the fifth generation, the sons growing up after the war, university education was not merely the done thing for an aristocratic family, but an investment to build their future on. Although their childhood and upbringing was similar to previous generations, their mentality was markedly different even before the war. The fortunes of the family were finally on the rise again due to the educated members of the sixth and seventh generation.

The case study presents the story of an unusual marriage. Both parties, as well as their respective families, employ a diversity of practices breaching contemporary norms and etiquette. The aristocratic groom is motivated to win the hand of the daughter of the ennobled rich Greek merchant by the supposed wealth of her dowry. In the meantime, the mother of the girl is out to find the best husband for her barely grown-up, illegitimate child. The story of the marriage is known from two versions of the girl’s own narrative. The first version, a lengthy detailed letter to her father, was written shortly after the marriage, in which she, blaming her mother for what had happened, pleads for the promised annuity. The second version was written during the divorce and blames everything on the dowry-shark husband who had ripped off her father in the most deplorable manner. In this letter she chooses to remain silent about the role of the mother in the case. The story is evidence how etiquette guides are very unreliable sources in assessing the norms of behaviour and values of the nobility (and possibly the bourgeoisie too) of fin-de-siecle Hungary.

Nincs absztrakt.

The study examines in the case of five Transdanubian towns – the free royal towns of Kőszeg, Sopron and Székesfehérvár and the manorial towns Nagykanizsa and Szombathely – the reception and integration of the narrower group of those immigrants that gained civic rights in the first half of the 19th century. The study establishes that concerning the chance of integration of immigrants, in the practice of donating citizenship there was a significant difference depending on whether the town management increased or limited the number of citizens accepted, moreover, whether individual towns preferred locals or gave more chance to immigrants. With the exception of Székesfehérvár, which attracted immigrants from broader regions of the country, the great majority came from the immediate neighbourhood of towns. An increasing number of new citizens came from towns or market towns, again with the exception of Fehérvár. The professional composition of new citizens was in accordance with the international experience, namely artisans and traders, that is, skilled people, made up the majority in these towns. Contrarily to this tendency, the number of primary producers significantly rose in Székesfehérvár in the first half of the century. By analysing data, the author arrives at the conclusion that concerning the integration of immigrants by donating them citizenship, two models can be sketched. Kőszeg, Nagykanizsa and Szombathely belong to the first, since these towns were open to immigrants and broadened the ranks of the middle class primarily by receiving immigrants of civic professions. Sopron and Székesfehérvár represent the other model, which preferred locals and primary producers and rendered the integration of immigrants more difficult.

Nincs absztrakt.

Nincs absztrakt.