Koroknai Ákos – Schlégel Oszkár: A Rimamurány-Salgótarjáni Vasmű és elődvállalatainak vízgazdálkodása 1808-1918. (Vízügyi Történeti Füzetek 11. Budapest, 1978)

The problems increased the tasks of the management and of the technical development. These were, therefore, assigned partly to the legal counsellors of the companies. The functions related to the (re)organization, and development of a company became thus interwoven with the complex tasks of legal securing-clearing and modernizing of water uses, raising the formerly simple task of industrial water management. All this was a corrolary, necessary consequence of industrial development (concentration of production), but the entire evolution would have been inconceivable without the managerial qualities of Borbély, an industrial organizer of international standard. He was the one who recognized the puroblems encountered and found appropriate solutions to them. The difficulties were increased by a deplorable phase shift between the two processes, or events outlined before, namely the concentration of industrial production and the legislative regulation of water rights. Preparatory work on the act was put on the agenda before the demands associated with the development of modern industry could have been assessed, or formulated by the interested parties, even for themselves. In the struggle for the ,,redistribution" of water rights the water demands of industry were thus announced belatedly in an extremely precarious and complicated historical situation, and could not be formulated adequately in the Water Act prompted by the need of finding solutions to problems of entirely different nature. Consequently, the legislation on water rights was in many respects obsolete as far as industrial water development was concerned even at the time of conception. Actual interests of industry were disregarded, although a deliberately general formulation made itsinterpretation extremely flexible, especially in the domain of civil law. This, however, served on occasion just as well the interests of industrial consumers (based on feudal water rights), as it proved injurious and retroactive to development, on others. During the process of securing and clarifying water rights the provision of the law were soon found to conflict with the interests of company development, and thelegal counsellor of the RMST, J. Marton supported byminor companies in the region organized a petition movement in the Parliament to revise the Water Act. The action was, however, inadequately prepared and poorly substantiated, so that it failed in achieving its purposes. Even at the subsequent amendment to renew the Water Act, in 1913 (in which the interests of the RMST were probably not represented at all), ne revision in principle was made, and the remained confined to some specific aspects alone, such as promotion of water power development and pollution control. A detailed description is presented in the study of the activities of the RMST to secure and develop its water uses, beginning 1885. These efforts were crowned with varying degrees of success, although appeals various parties interested, or processes in private law extending often over decares rerely served the interests of the company, but often hindered the development of industrial water supply. Nevertheless, in the course of the struggles for securing water rights and for expanding supplies, not only the beginnings of industrial water management, but all elements thereof in the modern sense of the word appeared and developed. In this course of historical evolution two different periods in company water management can clearly be distinguished. A first progressive, positive period was characterized by the achievements of technical developmentinitiated by the efforts of L. Borbély, who by his recognized authority gave an example notonly of the modern approach to water management, but also to water control and to drainage improvement of public interest affecting production in an indirect way. In the second, subsequent period water management within the company could no more keep pace with the growing consumption of an expanding production and water pollution complaints lodged against the RMST increased in frequency, just as was the case with other companies. L. Borbély hihmself, as the creator of the leading heavy industrial company of the country, was clearly aware of the role of water (such items amounted to almost 10 per cent of the development investments!), and handled water problems always with the greatest care and circumspection. Nevertheless, in later periods, as if his merits had become obscured, his personal influence decreased, and although the annual reports continued to demonstrate his efficiency, the growth in the volume of production and in profits, his earlier struggles for technical development revived and became keener, and the steering committee representing capitalist interests displayed growing resistance to water management (pollution control) investments, not serving the interests of production directly.