The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The factory-under construction

Before the state monopoly was introduced in 1850, tobacco production in Hungary was a free private trade. Besides private manufactures Royal Austrian royal factory was opened in Temesvár in 1846 where 200 workers produced cigars. An imperial order issued in 1850 extended the powers of the Imperial Tobacco Excise Office over Hungary, authorized the Treasury to monopolize the right to produce tobacco products, and also included regulations concerning the state monopoly of tobacco manufacture. To compensate this the Treasury bought up all raw stock and ready-made product supplies, and decided to set up further factories in nine Hungarian towns- which included Eger in addition to the besides the Temesvár factory. The conversion of the building to house the tobacco factory would have been a costly venture, obtaining the building and construction work a long process, hence the fact that the Treasury gave up the plan of opening a factory in Eger for some time. Until 1867 the Hungarian tobacco industry was subordinated to Vienna’s central tobacco excise office. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) was concluded, in 1868 an independent Royal Hungarian Tobacco Excise Office was set up. When Hungarian tobacco manufacture was monopolized there were seven factories in the countries of the Hungarian Crown, namely in Pest-Terézváros, Pest-Ferencváros, Kassa, Pozsony, Fiume, Temesvár, and Kolozsvár. After the Ausgleich the Hungarian Government opened a further three factories in Zagreb, Selmecbánya and Szomolnok.

...and Mr. Boltizár with the factory women