The products of these mills form the principal article of export of
Hungary. Brewing and distilling, as other branches of industry
connected with agriculture, are also greatly developed. The sugar
industry has made great strides, the amount of beetroot used having
increased tenfold between 1880 and 1905. Other principal branches
of industry are: tobacco manufactories, belonging to the state,
tobacco being a government monopoly; iron foundries, mostly in
the mining region; agricultural machinery and implements, notably
at Budapest; leather manufactures; paper-mills, the largest at
Fiume; glass (only the more common sort) and earthenwares;
chemicals; wooden products; petroleum-refineries; woollen yarns
and cloth manufactories, as well as several establishments of knitting
and weaving. The various industrial establishments are located
in the larger towns, but principally at Budapest, the only real
industrial town of Hungary.
In 1900 the various industries of Hungary (including Croatia-Slavonia) employed 1,127,730 persons, or 12.8% of the earning population. In 1890 the number of persons employed was 913,010. Including families and domestic servants, 2,605,000 persons or 13.5% of the total population were dependent on industries for their livelihood in Hungary in 1900.
Commerce.—Hungary forms together with Austria one customs and commercial territory, and the statistics for the foreign trade is given under Austria-Hungary. The following table gives the foreign trade of Hungary only for a period of years in millions sterling:—
| Year. | Imports. | Exports. |
| 1886–1890 | 37.3 | 37.5 |
| 1891–1895 | 43.7 | 44.1 |
| 1900 | 46.3 | 55.3 |
| 1907 | 66.0 | 64.7 |
Of the merchandise[1] entering the country, 75-80% comes from Austria, and exports go to the same country to the extent of 75%. Next comes Germany with about 10% of the value of the total exports and 5% of that of imports. The neighbouring Balkan states—Rumania and Servia—follow, and the United Kingdom receives somewhat more than 2% of the exports, while supplying about 1.5% of the imports. The principal imports are: cotton goods, woollen manufactures; apparel, haberdashery and linen; silk manufactures; leather and leather goods. The exports, which show plainly the prevailing agricultural character of the country, are flour, wheat, cattle, beef, barley, pigs, wine in barrels, horses and maize.
With but a short stretch of sea-coast, and possessing only one important seaport, Fiume, the mercantile marine of Hungary is not very developed. It consisted in 1905 of 434 vessels with a tonnage of 91,784 tons and with crews of 2359 persons. Of these 95 vessels with a tonnage of 89,161 tons were steamers. Fifty-four vessels with 84,844 tons and crews numbering 1168 persons were sea-going; 134 with 6587 tons were coasting-vessels, and 246 with 353 tons were fishing vessels.
At all the Hungarian ports in 1900 there entered 19,223 vessels of 2,223,302 tons; cleared 19,218 vessels of 2,226,733 tons. The tonnage of British steamers amounted to somewhat more than 11% of the total tonnage of steamers entered and cleared.
Railways.—Hungary is covered by a fairly extensive network of railways, although in the sparsely populated parts of the kingdom the high road is still the only means of communication. The first railway in Hungary was the line between Budapest and Vácz (Waitzen), 20 m. long, opened in 1846 (15th of July). After the Compromise of 1867, the policy of the Hungarian government was to construct its own railways, and to take over the lines constructed and worked by private companies.[2] In 1907 the total length of the Hungarian railways, in which over £145,000,000 had been invested, was 12,100 m., of which 5000 m. belonged to and were worked by the state, 5100 m. belonged to private companies but were worked by the state, and 2000 m. belonged to and were worked by private companies. The passengers carried in 1907 numbered 107,171,000, the goods traffic was 61,483,000 tons; the traffic receipts for the year were £16,420,000. The corresponding figures for 1880 were as follows: passengers carried, 9,346,000; goods carried, 11,225,000 tons; traffic receipts, £4,300,000. The so-called zone tariff, adopted for the first time in Europe by the Hungarian state railways, was inaugurated in 1889 for passengers and in 1891 for goods. The principle of this system is to offer cheap fares and relatively low tariffs for greater distances, and to promote, therefore, long-distance travelling. The zone tariff has given a great impetus both to passenger and goods traffic in Hungary, and has been adopted on some of the Austrian railways.
In 1907 the length of the navigable waterways of Hungary was 3200 m., of which 2450 m. were navigable by steamers.
Seaports.—On the Adriatic lies the port of Fiume (q.v.), the only direct outlet by sea for the produce of Hungary. Its commanding position at the head of the Gulf of Quarnero, and spacious new harbour works, as also its immediate connexions with both the Austrian and Hungarian railway systems, render it specially advantageous as a commercial port. As shipping stations, Buccari, Portoré, Selče, Novi, Zengg, San Giorgio, Jablanac and Carlopago are of comparative insignificance. The whole of the short Hungarian seaboard is mountainous and subject to violent winds.
Government.—Hungary is a constitutional monarchy, its monarch bearing the title of king. The succession to the throne is hereditary in the order of primogeniture in the male line of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine; and failing this, in the female line. The king must be a member of the Roman Catholic Church. The king of Hungary is also emperor of Austria, but beyond this personal union, and certain matters regulated by both governments jointly (see Austria-Hungary), the two states are independent of each other, having each its own constitution, legislature and administration. The king is the head of the executive, the supreme commander of the armed forces of the nation, and shares the legislative power with the parliament.
The constitution of Hungary is in many respects strikingly analogous to that of Great Britain, more especially in the fact that it is based on no written document but on immemorial prescription, confirmed or modified by a series of enactments, of which the earliest and most famous was the Golden Bull of Andrew III. (1222), the Magna Carta of Hungary. The ancient constitution, often suspended and modified, based upon this charter, was reformed under the influence of Western Liberalism in 1848, the supremacy of the Magyar race, however, being secured by a somewhat narrow franchise. Suspended after the collapse of the Hungarian revolt in 1849 for some eighteen years, the constitution was restored in 1867 under the terms of the Compromise (Ausgleich) with Austria, which established the actual organization of the country (see History, below).
The legislative power is vested in the parliament (Országgyülés), which consists of two houses: an upper house or the House of Magnates (Förendiház), and a lower house or House of Representatives (Képviselöház). The House of Magnates is composed as follows: princes of the royal house who have attained their majority (16 in 1904); hereditary peers who pay at least £250 a year land tax (237 in 1904); high dignitaries of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches (42 in 1904); representatives of the Protestant confessions (13 in 1904); life peers appointed by the crown, not exceeding 50 in number, and life peers elected by the house itself (73 altogether in 1904); members ex officio consisting of state dignitaries and high judges (19 in 1904); and three delegates of Croatia-Slavonia. The House of Representatives consists of members elected, under the Electoral Law of 1874, by a complicated franchise based upon property, taxation, profession or official position, and ancestral privileges.[3] The house consists of 453 members, of which 413 are deputies elected in Hungary and 43 delegates of Croatia-Slavonia sent by the parliament of that province. The members are elected for five years and receive payment for their services. The parliament is summoned annually by the king at Budapest. The official language is Magyar, but the delegates of Croatia-Slavonia may use their own language. The Hungarian parliament has power to legislate on all matters concerning Hungary, but for Croatia-Slavonia only on matters which concern these provinces in common with Hungary. The executive power is vested in a responsible cabinet, consisting of ten ministers, namely, the president of the council, the minister of the interior, of national defence, of education and public worship, of finance,
- ↑ Merchandise passing the boundaries is subject to declaration; the respective values are stated by a special commission of experts residing in Budapest.
- ↑ The acquisition of the Austrian Staatsbahn in 1891 practically gave to the state the control of the whole railway net of Hungary. By 1900 all the main lines, except the Südbahn and the Kaschan-Oberbergar Bahn, were in its hands.
- ↑ The franchise is “probably the most illiberal in Europe.” Servants, in the widest sense of the word, apprenticed workmen and agricultural labourers are carefully excluded. The result is that the working classes are wholly unrepresented in the parliament, only 6% of them, and 13% of the small trading class, possessing the franchise, which is only enjoyed by 6% of the entire population (see Seton-Watson, Racial Problems, 250, 251). For the question of franchise reform which played so great a part in the Austro-Hungarian crisis of 1909–1910 see History, below.—[Ed.]
