Dr. Péter Balázs: Guide to the archives of Hungary (Budapest, 1976)

(Regional Archives)

and socialist periods (up to 1950) totals 45 995 running metres, le. 42,55 per cent, of the total material of regional archives. The records of towns and villages, subordinated to county administration have come to archival custody with many defects, but they are still indispensable sources of local history. In the archival material of the feudal boroughs we find usually journals and acts of the council, the accounts and records of the chief magistrate, the records of the public tutor, the city chamberlain, the tax-collector and the police commander. In the papers of the villages we rarely find material of the feudal period (judge's accounts, tax assessments and registers, a publication book, etc.). The capitalistic material of the towns is more differentiated. The bulk of it is made up by the journals and acts of the body of representatives, the records of the council and the mayor's office. Less has remained from the records of special offices. The journals of the village body of representatives have come to archival custody relatively complete. The records of village administration and taxation are more fragmentary. The frames of town and village self-government and administration remained up to 1950. The volume of the records of towns and villages up to 1950 totals 14 332 running meters, making 13,27 per cent, of the material of the regional archives. From the 1870s to 1950 the specialized administration in our country on county level, nay even lower, was entrusted to the special state offices, independent of the local administration. The former city police was supplanted by the state police, in Budapest in 1881, in the regional cities in 1920. River authority was in the hands of port administration and harbour stations. Fireprotection was the duty of the county and district fire inspectors. These organs were subjected to the Ministry of Interior. — The Ministry of Finance directed the inland revenue offices, the state tax offices, the customs directorates and offices, the offices for the purchase of tobacco and the directorates of tobacco factories, the salt offices, the land survey directorates and offices, the cadastral survey inspectorates and the organs of the customs police. — The specialized agricultural organs included the county and district economic inspectorates, the forest directorates, inspectorates and offices, various specialized inspectorates (for veterinary measures, fishing, hunting, apiculture, silkworm breeding, horticulture, viticulture, plant sanitation), the river engineer's offices for the control of flood protection, the civil engineer's offices for the intensive reclamation of soil, together with the organs for chemical experiments, assessing the character of paprika, etc. — The Ministry of Trade supervised the district inspectorates of mines, the regional trade