Századok – 2006

TANULMÁNYOK - Cieger András: Az alkudozás küzdőterei. Lónyay Menyhért szerepe az 1867-es gazdasági kiegyezésben 1377

1404 CIEGER ANDRÁS THE SCENES OF BARGAINING. THE ROLE OF MENYHÉRT LÓNYAY IN THE ECONOMIC COMPROMISE OF 1867 By András Cieger (Summary) The aim of the present study is to analyse the bargaining process, involving many actors on several niveaux, which finally led to the economic compromise of 1867. The importance of this, hitherto unknown, section of the process lay in the fact that the Austrian political elite intended emphatically to protect the economic interests of Austria and regarded as a prerequisite to accepting governmental dualism the settlement of the economic relationship of the two constituents of the Empire (e.g. a division of state debts and common expenses, bank and financial system). The author analyses according to the different scenes of negotiation the preconceptions of the Hungarian minister of finances, Menyhért Lónyay, the evolution of his economic conception and its gradual rejection. On the basis of archival documents from Budapest, Vienna and London he comes to the conclusion that during the negotiation which lasted for three quarters of a year, Lónyay gradually lost his freedom of action. On the one hand, after the rejection of his concept he was forced in crucial matters to cede to his Austrian colleague, Franz Karl Becke, while on the other hand he was in the necessity of somehow talk the Hungarian parliament, which was unwilling to make more than a minimum of sacrifice, into accepting the compromise. Lónyay tried at any price to break out of this double pressure: he stuck to fake results, overemphasised his results in the course of the negotiations, and occasionally resorted to the double-edged weapon of conspiracy of silence. Finally, he tried to shift to or at least to share responsibility with the other actors of the bargaining process. At the same time the author proves that that diametrally conflicting interests excluded any definitive settlement of the problematic questions, which were instead merely postponed in 1867.