Technikatörténeti szemle 17. (1988-89)

TANULMÁNYOK - Vámos Éva Katalin: The Hungarian Industry at teh Budapest Spring Fairs (1918–38)

refrigerators) suspended motors for small boats. Italy produced several types, not only for sports but for military purposes. The political realities of the age are also reflected by these advertisements like the one of the „Fascistic Organization of the Italian Cotton Manufacturers" (16). The organizers of the 1934 Fair summarized the effect of politics on the fairs as follows: „The fair kept in the new political situation of Central Europe should overcome difficulties caused by the still existing foreign exchange restrictions and succeeded to adapt itself to the conditions caused by the new ways of foreign affairs" (17). 5. View of the Budapest Fairs, 1934 From the beginning of foreign exchange restrictions in 1934, all export and import deals had to be reported immediately to the organizers of the fairs. Thus, 1934 the structure of exports at the fair was as shown in the Table below. This meant a total value of 2 322 399.84 pengoes. This chart was very different from the country's export list. That started with wheat, pork, lard as best selling articles. Summarizing, one can conclude that, during the two decades discussed the Spring Fairs a/ were a very effective tool of promoting Hungarian exports, b/ helped much in diminishing the total political and economic isolation of the country after World War I, and c/ increased the foreign tourist traffic of Budapest. These were by far not the aims of the founders of this institution but, nonetheless, made it into an indispensable and characteristic event in Budapest.