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Hungary’s Awakening
Hungary's Awakening
Hungary's Awakening

Mosaics from Pesti Vigadó's History

At the beginning of the 18th century, which marks the dawn of the Hungarian Reform Era, Hungary was part of the Habsburg Empire and served as the main agricultural land of the Monarchy but had no industry. In Austria, a high tariff was levied on all cereals and other food products produced in Hungary. On the other hand, products made in Austria, which may not have been of so high quality, were certain to be sold in the town of Pest as these products had no competition. These circumstances ensured financial gain for Austria at the expense of Hungary.

Due to Hungary's complete lack of industry, the country could not produce industrial goods of appropriate quality and had no chance of marketing her goods on international markets. While Austria's Vienna saw the commissioning of the first jacquard loom only in 1816, in France, where the loom was invented, there were as many as 11 thousand machines of this kind in 1812 already. On the other hand, at that time, the full territory of the Habsburg Monarchy had 337 steam engines in 1837, whereas France had as many as 4 thousand. In 1846, when the first railway line between Budapest and Vác was opened in Hungary, the Habsburg Empire had a rail network of 151 km in length as opposed to Germany's 2-thousand-km-long lines and England's 4-thousand-km-long lines. As compared to other European countries, Austria's level of development left a lot to be desired but Hungary was even more underdeveloped. At that time, Hungary faced a severe situation of hopeless competitive disadvantage.

This was the age and circumstances when the gates of the prison where Hungarian would-be statesman Louis Kossuth was kept eventually opened in May 1840. In his prison cell Kossuth learnt languages and kept himself well-informed thanks to his extensively readings. This was the way he got information about industrial exhibitions, which were already in fashion in Western European countries. As a further development of the idea behind markets functioning as crucial places of goods exchange in the Middle Ages, the notion of industrial exhibitions – functioning as places offering examplary developments to follow and exhibiting newly-developed goods and great industrial achievements rather than operating simply as market places – was born. Organisations set up for the promotion of the arts, industry and commerce awarded products entered for such competitions on a yearly basis. Not surprisingly, the members of these organisations and the general public wished to see these products exhibited as part of one single fair. This wish was realised in Hungary in 1756, when an exhibition showcased not only works of fine art but also award-winning machines, industrial developments and new tools. Prompted by the success of the exhibition in 1756, a separate call for tenders was posted in 1761; it invited tenders in two fields: the development of goods of production and the manufacturing of looms. The best entry works were envisaged to be available for purchase and be showcased at future permanent exhibitions.

Industrial exhibitions were first organised in England but soon after France took the initiative and at the turn of the 18th century such industrial exhibitions were commonly held. Vienna saw the first industrial exhibition only decades later, in 1835: the first exhibition was staged in the Vienna-based Burg's ground floor hall. Even if the exhibition saw the products of 8 Hungarian masters among the 594 exhibitors, the first Hungarian exhibition was opened only 7 years later. In Hungary, Louis Kossuth's organisational work, inventiveness and perseverance finally bore fruit: following the 16th June 1842 call of the Industrial Association established by Kossuth, on 25th August the first exhibition of industrial products opened in the halls of Redoute, which stood in the place of today's Pesti Vigadó. This meant that the Hungarian industry was awakening well in time for enabling itself to serve the military demands generated by the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.