Magyar News, 1998. szeptember-1999. augusztus (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1999-03-01 / 7. szám
”Kossuth Lajos azt izén te ...” People joining Kossuth The “KÉT (two) FORINT bank note MARCH 15, 1848 was the shining star in modem Hungarian history and it will always be while the Hungarians write their own history. Among the many outstanding people who lead the Hungarians in their freedom struggle was Lajos Kossuth then governor of the country. We know many things about him. Many were written, many were told. Late last year an old friend, Joseph Gergely, sent over a few bank notes and asked if I could use them for the Magyar News. Immediately the image of a blank page of the March issue popped in front of my eyes. I definitely could use it. For years we travelled many avenues of March 15. It is nice to find a subject that we missed until now. Kossuth in April of 1848 became the finance minister. After strong demands he was able to obtain a separate financial system for Hungary within the Austrian Empire. Here are some figures of what the treasury was in those years. In 1848 the royal court spent over two million Forints, the prime minister 42,000 Ft. The defense ministry received 16.5 million, while the ministry of foreign affairs had only fifty thousand Forints. The total amount spent in that year was 29 million and the total income came to 10 million. So the country was in the red by 19 million Forints. The next year, in 1849 everybody received more except the prime minister who spent 7 thousand less, total of 35,500 Forints. The royal court got three million clear and the defense ministry doubled its amount. The total expense raised to sixty two and a quarter million. One would hope that the income would be the same. Unfortunately the total income for that year was only sixteen and a quarter million Forints. The balance, or as we call it, the challenge was a The TIZ (ten) FORINT NOTE devastating 46 million Forints. Actually when Kossuth took over he only found a half million Forints in the treasury. Kossuth immediately took steps to raise money for the depleted Treasury by issuing interest bearing treasury bills. The success rate of these was very low. He tried again then issued four million forints in bank notes under the auspices of the Hungarian Commercial Bank. Naturally Austria was against this and prohibited the use of it. In retaliation the Austrian Goulden was not accepted in Hungary. The same time the armed confrontation with the Austrians continued. The need for money was imperative. September 1, 1848 Kossuth put into circulation bank notes backed by a 61 million government loan. By December Hungary was attacked from three directions and the Assembly retreated to Debrecen. Here Kossuth became Chairman of the National Defense Committee. He regrouped the Hungarian army and successfully pushed toward Pest. After nine days he proclaimed independence for the country and became governor of Hungary. Page 1 ^
