The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory
The factory-under construction
On their way out they must have been grumbling about the insatiability of the butchers and merchants; most likely, the cause of the tobacco factory did not come up. Even more likely, none of them considered that the cases of the Crown tavern and the tobacco factory, which were quite by accident subsequent items on their agenda, would be tightly linked in the future. The newly set up committee was not idle. To gain support for the cause of the tobacco factory it turned not only to the Lord Lieutenant and the Archbishop, but also the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and many members of the Government. Due to their work, Nándor Szederkényi, Member of Parliament for Eger, and the Mayor Sándor Grónay were received by the Finance Minister Sándor Wekerle only three weeks later who confirmed that he kept Eger in evidence as one of the locations for a new tobacco factory. “It is not a cigar but a tobacco factory we are talking about,” the Finance Minister told Sándor Grónay. “Due to the immense consumption of cigars and especially cigarettes (half of which are smoked in Budapest) the production of cigarettes requires immediate action, expanding production in Hungary is vital. Regarding a tobacco factory, as I have already discussed the issue in detail with my right honourable friend, and representative of this city,” he said, casting a glance at Nándor Szederkényi, “I am primarily interested in Eger.” And as Sándor Wekerle had prognosticated, in order to cater for the increase in demand in Budapest, first the Budapest-Óbuda factory came into being, but it was not before 1893 that the events leading up to the establishment of the Eger factory took a new turn.
