Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
Pest-Buda from 1686 to 1849
were engaged in some form of livestock production, but in Pest, by the second half of the eighteenth century, primary production had lost its predominant position. In Buda, on the other hand, the production of wine predominated and maintained its leading place until well on into the middle of the nineteenth century. But between 1740 and 1760 the importance of the crafts had grown. From 1750 to 1800 some 100 to 120 guilds flourished in the two cities, and there were more master craftsmen and a greater variety of crafts in Buda and Pest, than in many of the other Hungarian towns. The production of the members of these guilds, however, was still insufficient to satisfy anything more than the needs of the two cities and their immediate surroundings, i.e. the demands of a relatively small market. The guild members were anxious to restrict production to these narrow limits through pettifogging regulations still imbued with a medieval spirit, and were supported by a conservative City Council, which was itself strongly influenced in the interests of the guilds. Apart from the adverse Austrian tariff system—which reduced Hungary to the position of supplier of food and raw materials to the Austrian hereditary provinces, and hindered the accumulation of capital necessary for larger industrial enterprises—the Council’s policy equally hampered expansion in the manufactured goods which were beginning to appear in the 1770s. Incidentally, the factories producing them were—with the exception of a single silk mill—extraordinarily short-lived, and their production hardly exceeded that of a large workshop. The composition, situation and manner of life of the population also recalled that of the medieval cities. The upper and middle classes of city society consisted of craftsmen and merchant burghers, the majority of whom had settled in Buda and Pest from abroad, mainly from German-speaking areas, and who owned real property—house and farming land— as well as enjoying full civic rights. At that time tradesmen employed few journeymen; most of the population were casual labourers and workers in the vineyards. Among the various classes and groups in this apparently clearly structured urban society, the confusion of social, legal, property, national and business conflicts set up permanent tension. The burghers needed the labour of those streaming into the city, yet the privilege of civic rights was denied to the newcomers, to make sure that they do not encroach on the burghers’ rights in the use of land in the city, which was becoming more and more scarce. The guilds wanted to guarantee their market and their customers by obstructing and limiting the admission of new master craftsmen. The right of self-employment in the exercise of a trade was increasingly restricted to members of the families of the existing master craftsmen, and wealthy craftsmen, coming in from abroad to settle, and the journeymen were forced either to accept employment under others, or to look for an independent livelihood in other towns or villages. There was also constant friction between the three nationalities living beside one another, the Hungarians, the Germans, and the Illyrians, consisting of Orthodox Serbs, Macedonians, and Greeks. The conflict between the Hungarians and the Germans was in fact a struggle between the Hungarian citizens engaged in the less profitable lines of work and the rich German craftsmen and merchants, mostly from abroad, who monopolized the administration of the city. And similarly, it was not for national or religious considerations, but in defence of their business interests, that the German and Hungarian merchants, at one on this particular matter, tried to oust their most dangerous competitors the “Greeks”, that is, merchants of the Greek Orthodox religion. These merchants had immigrated from 26
