Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 13. (1998)

Király István Szabolcs: A gazdaságilag fejlett országok hatása a mezőgazdaságunk fejlesztésére (1790-1944).

485 Advenced countries's effect on developing of Hungarian agricultural KIRÁLY ISTVÁN SZABOLCS The effects of developed countries on the technical progress of Hungarian agriculture can be observed and determined throughout in our surveyed period. At the turn of the 18

th and 19

th century it appears mainly in taking over data, literature sources, in reviews of modern, western productoin technologies. Until the middle of 19th century the machines, devices needed for the modern technology, mainly from England reached only a few number of the large estates, leased properties. Settled from the sixties of the centrury, warehouses of English, German, Austrian machine factories distribute then later produce the new agricultural machines, which spread firstly on the more capitalized large- and medium sized estates. The Hungarian agricultural machine production develops at this time, based on the experiences of developed countries and with the collaboration of their experts. We considered the effects of three countries detemining in terms of our project. England participated prominently in the introduction and distribution of the steam-plough, steam-thresher and sower; the United States in the application of the main scythe, the harvester and the tractors, while Germany in the distribution of the internal-combustion engines and electrical transmission. These countries obviously made an effect on the modernization of the production technologies (as this, together with the development of technology mutuallay influenced each other), on the development of agricultural machine production, on gaining and spreading of professional knowledge. In different fields of industrialization, other countries also influenced agricultural science - among them Austrian, Czech, Moravian, French, Flemish and Swedish influences have to be mentioned, which drew decisively also on the previous sources. Surveying merely the emergene of the most important machines, those can be found in our country at the beginning of their introduction (for example steam-engine: 1852, harvesting machine: 1852 etc.), which means that Hungarians were sensitive to innovation, recognizing the potentialities of the new technology. However, these potentialities had been restricted until 1944, due to lack of capital and the available, relatively cheap manpower. While the agricultural technical level of developed countries has been showing continuous increase and has made the significant reduction of people employed in agriculture possible, Hungarian development came to a sudden standstill after World War II. We thought it to be important to outline how the affects of developed countries have influenced the industrialization level of traditional cultivation technology between 1871 and 1935. (Chart 3) While at the turn of the 18'

h and 19

th century all operations (sowing, harvesting, threshing) were carried out with human effort, before World War II. a third of ploughing was performed by machines, sowing was completed by team of horses (very rarely by tractor), harvesting was done by hand, a third of harvesting by team of horses (very rarely by tractor), threshing was mostly carried out by machines. The accessible data, together with the related data of Barbarits, Szuhai, Sporzon, Konkoly-Thege were compared, the proportion change of the manual, horse-teamed and mechanical work in crop cultivation between 1871 and 1935. We are aware of the fact, that percentage rates could differ in 1-2 percent from the actual, due to the uncertainty of original sources or to lack of exact knowledge about the number of machines actually utilized. However, the data can be used for tendency demonstration of the proportion change. The foreign trade development of agricultural machines shows precisely the effects of developed countries. Data is represented in column diagrams with the help of the computer for better illustration. Expansion of the number of engines (Chart 2) allows not only a quantity comparison, but also demonstrates an important quality change of technical history. It also indicates why the industrialization of certain technological operation is low in Hungary. Change in structural elements of certain machines in connection with ploughs and threshers has been only sketched out as two valuable monographs are available for the researchers (Balassa Iván and Barbarits Lajos). Processing the harvesters and threshers in terms of technical history with the previous thoroughness has not been carried out. Therefore a more competent analysis was justified on this two area. National and foreign sources, having been revealed during the research, would have made a wider analysis of certain chapters possible. This, however, has been restricted by extent limits. The graphs and pictures clearly prove the technical development of this 150 years.