Contact details
Foundation for Industrial History of Győr
Address: 9021 Győr,
Szent István út 10/a
Phone:
+3696520274
Fax: +3696520291
E-mail:
ipartortenet@ipartortenet.hu
More...
Szent István út 10/a
Phone:
+3696520274
Fax: +3696520291
E-mail:
ipartortenet@ipartortenet.hu
Map
Győr Wood Industry and Wood Sales Co. Cardo Furniture Factory
| Address of the memorial site, route planning | ||
| What can we see at the memorial site? | ||
| Brief overview | ||
| Detailed company history | ||
| Related gallery |
| MEMORIAL SITE ADDRESS, ROUTE PLANNING |
| WHAT CAN WE SEE AT THE MEMORIAL SITE? |
Street view:
| BRIEF OVERVIEW |
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Cardo Furniture Factory Furniture factory road, corner of Kandó Kálmán street Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cardo_B%C3%BAtorgy%C3%A1r,_kapu,_2018_Gy%C5%91r.jpg Retrieved: 15 Oct 2020.
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| DETAILED COMPANY HISTORY |
The carpentry trade in Győr has a long tradition. In the early modern period, they were organized into guilds, and their rules were borrowed from the Bratislava carpentry guild. Most of them lived and worked in Újváros. [1] At the beginning of the 20th century, their number, including assistants and apprentices, exceeded one and a half hundred, making the craft carpentry industry the fourth most populous profession in the city. The mechanized wood industry, equipped with mechanical power, was represented by a few sawmills in the second half of the 19th century. [2]
In the woodworking trades – earlier than in other crafts, practically at the same time as the electrification of the city – a serious demand for the use of machines emerged. It was among them that the movement to establish a common machine shop began at the beginning of the 20th century. The carpenters, who typically worked with an assistant and an apprentice, could neither purchase the machines (of which several types were needed at the same time) on their own nor use them economically. The decisive impetus for the establishment of common machine shops for small trades operating on a cooperative basis was given by the action of Minister of Trade Ferenc Kossuth, who gave a significant amount of non-refundable state support to those industrial bodies that built the host building on their own. [3] Thus, in 1909, on a plot of land donated by the city, a puritanical but perfectly adequate one-story industrial association machine shop was built, equipped with woodworking and leatherworking machines partly donated by the state and partly purchased by the community. [4] The Győr machine shop was the first small-scale industrial machine shop in the country today , [5] which fell victim to the political drive to completely eliminate private property. (The building, which was used as a warehouse in the 1950s, still stands today and houses the Rábca Department Store.)
It was primarily thanks to the shared machine shop that by 1916, when the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. was founded, the factory’s skilled and trained workers were already comfortable using industrial machinery. In ensuring their replacement and in acquiring their theoretical and practical professional knowledge, the Győr apprenticeship school and the Hungarian Royal State Metal and Wood Industry Vocational School, founded in 1901, played an important role – in addition to the employers. [6]
During the boom following the outbreak of World War I, the woodworking industry also received significant government orders, while the number of conscripted carpenters and assistants decreased so much that the work could not be done by artisans. [7] This unsatisfied demand certainly led to the establishment of the first furniture factory in Győröt.
The founding of the predecessor of the Cardo Furniture Factory, the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt., on July 17, 1916, proved successful. The furniture factory belongs to the three Győr enterprises that are over 100 years old and still operate in their original location and with essentially retained their initial profile. [8]
The company was founded by 12 owners with a share capital of 350,000 crowns, divided into 1,750 shares with a nominal value of 200 crowns each. The controlling stake was in the hands of the Stein family (Zsigmond and Olga), who, together with Ernő Szilányi, who was elected CEO at the founding general meeting, owned more than 60% of the shares. [9] Szilányi was replaced as CEO of the factory by Zsigmond Stein shortly after. [10] According to the company registration, the company, which was established for an indefinite period, was engaged in the production of all wood products by mechanical and artisanal methods, as well as the distribution of utility and firewood. [11] On October 10, 1916, they purchased 1 acre 136 square meters of land from the city in Gyárváros, between the Cannon Factory and the Meller Ignác Oil Factory, for the construction of their future factory, which could only begin in 1918 due to the war, amidst a thousand difficulties. [12] In the spring of 1923, they purchased two neighboring plots of land from the city, thus significantly expanding the premises of the furniture factory. [13] While the construction was going on, they rented the bankrupt sawmill of the master carpenter Hatschek Ede from Győr and worked there. [14] When they set out, they purchased most of the machinery and equipment from the Komárom timber and timber trading company of Dávid Grünfeld and his sons, which had existed since 1861, and from Hatschek Ede's bankruptcy trustee. [15] During the war, ammunition crates and hospital and military barracks were manufactured for the army. Construction of the new factory reached its peak in the summer of 1918. [16] The machines began to be assembled in January 1919, and work began in the first two workshop halls built on its own land in the autumn of 1919. [17] After World War I, the furniture factory was among the first of the factories in Győr to start production, as the chronic shortage of coal did not hinder work. [18] The boiler was heated with sawdust and wood waste, so the “bread” of industry for energy production was only needed as a supplement – about 10 wagons per year. [19] At the time of departure, 76 workers and officials were employed, whose number decreased to 10-12 in the first weeks after the fall of the Soviet Republic, then increased to 150 in 1918, 160 by the end of 1919, 200 by March 1920, and 250 by April 1920. [20]
After the transition to peacetime production, room furniture became their main profile, and by the end of 1919 they were producing 5 complete sets of bedroom furniture per day. [21] They also produced office, café and hotel furniture and did carpentry work. [22] The latter was responsible for the move of János Jordán, the managing director and later owner of the furniture factory, to Győr. After graduating from a commercial school, Jordán took a few detours and found a job in the Budapest headquarters of the Hungarian Depreciation and Exchange Bank. This bank had close business relations with several woodworking enterprises, including the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. from the early 1920s. Among other things, the bank's interests included the Budapest Malomsoky József Asztalosárugyár Rt., with which the Győr factory "jointly" carried out the carpentry work for the construction projects that began after the war. [23] The Hungarian Discount and Currency Exchange Bank placed Jordán at the Malomsoky joinery factory in 1921. He was certainly already familiar with the Győr furniture factory as a bank clerk, and in the summer of 1922, their managers lured the chief executive of the capital joinery factory to the Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. with the promise of a deputy director position. The agile, committed and talented manager, originally from Transylvania and who settled in Hungary after Trianon, from then on, as director and then from 1939 as factory owner, until the confiscation in 1948, his life and work were inextricably linked with the Győr furniture factory. [24]
After the war, domestic demand for furniture fell sharply, so from the beginning they produced primarily for export. The main markets for commercial furniture in the 1920s were Austria and Italy, and for luxury furniture – until the organization of the business in England – mainly France, the Netherlands and Belgium. [25] In order to acquire and retain foreign customers, they regularly participated with their furniture – with varying success – in exhibitions and fairs abroad, such as the Trieste fair at the end of 1920, where, despite the territorial changes caused by the lost war, the products of Hungarian industry were still well known. [26] They also planned to start barrel and parquet production, but in addition to the production of living room furniture and building carpentry, from the beginning of the 1930s only the production of fruit crates and industrial packaging employed a significant number of workers. [27]
Unlike the practice of joint-stock company foundations in Hungary, they closed their first business year with a profit. After the peace treaty, the war treasury cancelled all their orders and even delayed payment for the goods already delivered. In the absence of a solvent civilian order, the factory's production was stopped for several months in November 1918. They used the forced break to dismantle the woodworking machines from Hatschek's rented plant and transport them to their own factory halls and put them into operation. As a result, they closed their second business year, which ended on December 31, 1918, with a loss. [28]
Due to the disorganized economic conditions after the war and the significantly reduced demand for furniture, the board decided on August 12, 1919, to suspend further expansion of the factory site after the construction of the main building in Győr and the official apartments that would be located there, but to maintain the carpentry plant with the already equipped workshops, so as not to disperse their trained workers. In the first years after the Treaty of Trianon, their foreign market relations were disrupted, and the domestic demand for furniture was so reduced that the factory could only cover the costs necessary for continuous operation by selling their existing and indispensable raw materials. [29]
The inflation that had reached a galloping pace after the war was first stopped in the early 1920s by Finance Minister Lóránt Hegedüs, who wanted to achieve stabilization by imposing a one-time 5-20% wealth tax, in addition to a general reduction in state spending. The Győri Faipari Rt. enterprises met the 15% wealth tax required of them by reducing their share capital by 375 thousand crowns. [30]
The construction and furnishing of the factory's workshop, central building and officials' apartments, the enlargement of the plot and the transition to peacetime production made it necessary to increase the company's share capital as early as the summer of 1918. Later, due to inflation that began during the war and then became rampant in the early 1920s, the capital increase became regular. After the foundation, the general meeting held on June 22, 1918, decided to increase the share capital from 350,000 crowns to 1 million crowns for the first time. [31] From then on, until stabilization was achieved, the company's share capital was regularly increased year after year, which thus increased from the initial 350,000 crowns to 300 million crowns on April 15, 1925, which hardly represented an actual increase in real terms; in fact, they tried to keep up with the rampant inflation with little success. [32] The funds needed for the capital increase were partly raised by taking out bank loans and partly by involving foreign investors. In connection with the loans needed for the share and working capital increases, the company entered into business relations with the Hungarian Discount and Exchange Bank and the Győri Első Takarékpénzárt. [33] Due to the need for foreign funds, from 1923 until the bankruptcy of Faipari Rt., the absolute majority or a large part of the shares were owned by the Viennese manufacturers Ernst Pollack and Karl Wolf. In addition to the two Austrian businessmen, new foreign investors soon appeared in the company. [34]
Following financial stabilization, the assets and liabilities of the balance sheet were converted to pengő by decree of the Minister of Finance. The board of directors set the share capital at 375,000 pengő, divided into 7,500 shares with a nominal value of 50 pengő. [35] This was doubled at the general meeting on 11 April 1928 and increased to 700,000 pengő by issuing 7,500 new shares with a nominal value of 50 pengő. The capital increase was probably due to the fact that the factory had started a construction business shortly before the outbreak of the Great Depression, which necessitated the purchase of more powerful machinery and the establishment of a wood dryer. [36]
Another woodworking enterprise in Győr, with much more modest assets than the furniture factory, was founded in 1923. Vágó Rezső Faipari Rt. was primarily engaged in the trade of charcoal and firewood, and also produced picture frames. [37] According to financial compasses that map out the complex relationships between joint-stock companies, the fates of the two Győr woodworking enterprises were intertwined for a few years, but Vágó Rezső separated from the United Woodworking and Wood Trading Co. on April 28, 1927, and continued its operations as the Győr branch of a Budapest woodworking joint-stock company. [38]
Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. took advantage of the moderate economic boom that began in the second half of the 1920s and lasted for a few years and, in addition to furniture production, started building residential buildings. At first – as we have seen before – together with the Malomsoky factory in Budapest, in 1928 it undertook the construction of houses on its own. IBUSZ commissioned Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. to develop the plot on Klotild (now Béla Stollár) Street, which commissioned the construction of the huge apartment building as a subcontractor to a small construction company with a registered capital of barely 20,000 pengő, GÚLA Építőipari Rt. According to the contractor's contract, Faipari Rt. would have pocketed a profit of 8 pengő for every cubic meter of air in the apartment building, essentially without any particular effort. However, it took a considerable risk by taking out a loan of about $400,000 in pengó from the Ingatlanbank for the investment, which the financial institution disbursed as the construction progressed. However, in the opinion of the client, the subcontractor did not proceed with the work according to the construction schedule, and even stopped work for several days. Therefore, Faipari Rt., in agreement with IBUSZ, terminated the contract with Gúla and entrusted the work to another construction company, which, however, was only able to take over the construction site under scandalous circumstances due to Gúla's resistance. [39] The experts of the Ingatlanbank concluded that against the loan of about 1.5 million pengó that had been disbursed up to that point, only approx. An investment worth 1.1 million pengő was made, so he terminated the loan agreement with immediate effect and threatened both IBUSZ and Faipari Rt with lawsuits if the construction of the apartment building was not completed by the deadline agreed upon in the contract. [40]
In addition to the damage to its business prestige, Faipari Rt. suffered significant financial losses in connection with the construction in Budapest. Fearing the impending bankruptcy of the furniture factory, the financial institutions in Győr refused to prolong the company's bills of exchange from June 1, 1929 and called on the factory to pay its debts immediately. They were only willing to continue lending to the company if Ernst Pollack, with his total assets estimated at 5-6 million dollars, provided a 100% guarantee for the payment of the furniture factory's debts. However, the factory owner was unwilling to do so, so the furniture factory went bankrupt and its board of directors decided to liquidate the company. [41]
The company paid modest dividends to its shareholders every year until 1927. [42] It even ended the 1928 business year with a profit, but this was so small (6919.85 P) that it was not enough to pay dividends, and the profit was carried over to the following year. The unknown large investors – sensing the impending collapse – withdrew from the company, and the majority of the shares were once again owned by the two Austrian manufacturers. By then, the furniture factory was in serious trouble. The board of directors’ report on the 1928/29 financial year was prepared when the scandal surrounding the construction of the IBUSZ headquarters in Budapest had already escalated to the full extent, the banks were not granting new loans, and the company’s bills of exchange were not being discounted. It is no coincidence, then, that the company's managers reported their deep disappointment in their annual report of October 10, 1929. [43] In the second half of 1929, the factory operated with significantly reduced staff and capacity, laid off workers one by one, and then on January 1, 1930, gave the officials three months' notice. From this, it could be concluded that the liquidation of the furniture factory was on the agenda.
This soon happened, as the company closed the 1929/30 business year with a brutal loss of 150,045.59 pengő. The general meeting held on July 25, 1930 was chaired by János Jordán, the managing director, who proposed the liquidation of the company and the sale of the company's assets on behalf of the board of directors, justifying this by saying that the factory had already been “forced to cease operations (…) in 1929 and to place the management of its affairs under the supervision of a committee also composed by the creditors. The poor business performance and lack of working capital do not provide any prospects for ensuring the existence and continuation of the company in the current unfavorable economic conditions. Therefore, the board of directors is forced to propose the dissolution and liquidation of the joint-stock company and the sale of the real estate, etc. that it owns.” As there was no other option, the two main shareholders, Ernst Pollack and Karl Wolf, were forced to accept the proposal. [44] However, it was stipulated that the buyer would have to pay a minimum of 150,000 pengó for the factory's assets, and the factory could not be sold for a lower amount. [45] János Jordán and Andor Steiner were entrusted with the liquidation of the company, whose task was to settle the debt with the creditors and find a buyer for the bankrupt Győr company. [46] At the same time, the owners' membership in the board of directors and their right to sign the company's name were terminated. [47] The liquidation of Faipari Rt was legally completed on 30 June 1932. By then, the losses had accumulated further and approached 870,000 pengó. This resulted in the company's share capital, reserve capital, and depreciation fund (i.e., all of its assets) being lost, so that by the end of 1932 the company had no equity left. [48]
In Hungary between the two world wars, there was no regular state unemployment benefit; apart from poverty relief and charitable organizations, only the trade union provided some support to its members as long as the modest financial framework for this purpose made it possible. Therefore, the dismissed furniture factory workers found themselves in an impossible situation. On July 14, 1929, a delegation of Győr woodworkers desperately asked for help from the city’s mayor. They said that “the factory had dismissed a significant number of woodworkers, who had thus greatly increased the number of unemployed woodworkers.” They urged the creation of job opportunities, but for the time being, Mayor Ferenc Szauter could do nothing but listen to them with “understanding goodwill.” [49] However, the situation did not improve, so on 9 January 1930, at a meeting of the woodworkers, they decided to write a letter and send a delegation to the chief and the mayor, asking them to “use their weight and authority to help with the situation”. [50] The chief inquired about the intentions of the Austrian main shareholder of the furniture factory regarding the future of the company, who stated that he would have the semi-finished furniture finished and then cease the factory’s operations. Since the Austrian main shareholders were aware that private banks would not give credit to a furniture factory that was close to bankruptcy, they did not really trust that they would be able to obtain a state loan of several hundred thousand pengő or a significant amount of convertible export credit, but based on the resolution of the last general meeting, they were ready to sell the Győr factory to a professional investor.
The negotiations, involving the city government, first started with Jenő Vágó [51] , who was willing to buy and restart the Győr furniture factory for 150,000 pengő, if the city of Győr also stepped in with 50,000 pengő (Vágó would have invested 100,000 pengő) and if the city granted the new company a $100,000 export credit for a minimum of 3 years. The business was based on the sale of furniture manufactured in Győr abroad, as it was difficult to sell furniture here during the years of the crisis. [52] (At that time, the English market had not yet emerged, and they wanted to sell the furniture manufactured here primarily to German, Austrian, Dutch and Italian buyers, which were the traditional markets for Hungarian furniture exports. They planned to produce crates for sugar factories and fruit exporters for the domestic market.) [53]
Since Jenő Vágó announced his intention to sell the city's interest within 4 years, and since unemployment among woodworkers in Győr had increased dramatically and the livelihood of the 3-400 carpenter families was at stake, the general assembly voted, after a long debate, to take an interest of 50,000 pengő, together with Jenő Vágó, in the purchase of the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. plant and restarting its operations. [54] The municipal committee stipulated that the restarted Győr furniture factory must employ local workers, and furthermore, it cannot compete with local joinery craftsmen or participate in tenders for local public transport. [55] The newspapers believed with excessive optimism that the city's decision would no longer prevent the factory from starting operations at the end of August 1930, or at the latest in mid-September. [56]
Faipari Rt. submitted its loan application to the Industrial Mortgage Credit Institution, which its chairman, János Zichy, supported in principle. [57] Pollack asked the chief minister to help save the Győr company by “involving a new interest group” and to intervene with the Industrial Mortgage Credit Institution and the Financial Center in order to obtain the 7-800 thousand pengő contingent loan required for this. [58] The chief minister was willing to intervene and on January 16, 1930, he wrote to the Minister of Trade and his Secretary of State asking that the Győr furniture factory receive the loan necessary for its survival.
Despite the intervention of the chief minister, the Ministry of Commerce initially rejected the loan application of the people of Győri because Faipari Rt. did not meet the strict requirements for granting loans. The Mortgage Credit Institution could only grant loans to companies that, in addition to the asset cover, could also prove that in the three business years prior to submitting the loan application, they had produced a profit that exceeded the loan repayments due. Faipari Rt. did not meet this criterion, and therefore could only have received a loan if it “secured the loan with a first-class guarantor”. The company did not have such a guarantee, so the negotiations broke down. [59]
A few months after the factory's loan application was rejected, the chieftain personally negotiated with the Minister of Public Welfare, József Vass. Since unemployment in the wood industry in Győr was practically 100% at that time, in order to dampen the social discontent that threatened to explode, the Minister of Public Welfare managed to convince the leaders of the Ministry of Trade to provide a $70,000 export credit to the company being organized to take over the Győr furniture factory (in which the Vágó company would participate with a 2/3 ownership ratio and the city of Győr with a 1/3 ownership ratio) in order to organize the sale of Győr furniture abroad. However, Vágó made the start of the Győr furniture factory conditional on obtaining a $100,000 state export loan, which the ministry rejected, as an export loan of this amount could only be disbursed to an unencumbered company, while Faipari Rt., on the other hand, was full of debts. Vágó therefore withdrew from the partnership and refused to buy Faipari Rt. together with the city. A year had now passed since the mass dismissal of the furniture factory workers and the restart of the factory seemed to fail again. Therefore, on August 28, 1930 (three days before the September 1 demonstration, which was the largest mass demonstration of the interwar period), the chieftain wrote to József Vass asking him to fulfill Vágó's export loan request. His main argument was that not only the workers but also the bourgeoisie “would be immensely relieved if I could receive a favorable answer before September 1 and make it public. Your kind and favorable provisions would also have a deterrent effect on the labor movements that were in the pipeline.” [60] Since the highest unemployment rate in Győr in 1930 was among woodworkers, which was caused by the bankruptcy of the Wood Industry Company in about 80%, on September 22, 1930, the chieftain again turned to the Minister of Commerce and requested that the Industrial Mortgage Institute grant the Győr factory a $100,000 export loan for 3 years instead of $70,000, because this was the condition for alleviating the huge unemployment in the carpentry industry. [61] The chieftain lobbied the Minister of Finance in a similar manner in his submission of October 22, 1930, but to no avail. [62] The opening of the Győr furniture factory was finally resolved when the Cardo Furniture Factory applied, which was willing to buy and restart the furniture factory even if a state export loan of $70,000 [63] was secured for a 2.5-year term and the city became a 1/3 partner. [64]
The Újpest Cardo Faipari és Bútorkereskedelmi rt. was founded on November 17, 1923. This trading company did not have a production plant. However, it cooperated closely with the Szeged furniture factory, exporting its products and those of the Kispest carpenters. Most of the company's managers had interests in the Szeged furniture factory. Cardo was managed by the Szeged Schaffner family until János Jordán bought the majority of the company's shares in 1939. [65] Cardo, with a share capital of only 60 thousand pengő, had no buildings, machines or production equipment until the purchase of the Győr furniture factory. Until the conquest of Győr, it only had a warehouse at 14 Deák Ferenc Street in Újpest. The company's headquarters were located in Klauzál Street in the 7th district, where the offices were also located. The Szegedi Bútorgyár produced approximately 1,500 pieces of bedroom furniture, 400 pieces of dining room furniture and 100 pieces of master bedroom furniture annually, most of which Cardo, as the general representative of the Szegedi Bútorgyár, exported to Italy, Yugoslavia, Romania and Austria. [ 66] Their Budapest showroom was opened in 1928 on the corner of Károly-körút, at 13 Gerlóczy utca, where the products of one of the largest furniture factories in the country, the Szegedi Bútorgyár rt, could be purchased on a installment basis. [67]
The extraordinary municipal assembly of 29 October 1930 repealed the previous agreement with Jenő Vágó and agreed to invest 50,000 pengo in a joint venture with Cardo if the Újpest company would purchase and restart the bankrupt Győr furniture factory, provided that the government provided a $70,000 export credit and that the Minister of the Interior approved the city's transaction. [68] Győr financed the 500 Cardo shares, each with a nominal value of 100 pengo, by taking out a loan of 50,000 pengo, the repayment of which began in 1934 with annual payments of 5,000 pengo. [69]
Only in very exceptional cases did local governments take an active role in rescuing private companies between the two world wars. The Pesti Napló reported on the transaction with the startling headline “Győr city manufactures furniture”. [70] In the capitalist era, even the majority of public services were entrusted to private entrepreneurs and only those were provided by city-owned plants where the service could not depend on profit considerations from a safety or public health perspective, or where the city plants provided the service demonstrably cheaper than private enterprises. We know of only a few cases in the country where local governments would have taken a stake in a private enterprise. [71] However, in Győr, unemployment in the wood industry was so severe and the furniture factory was out of business for so long that the city took on this risk out of necessity.
The chieftain also lobbied the Minister of the Interior vigorously for the government's approval of the new contract. [72] Contrary to popular belief, the autonomy and freedom of decision-making of Hungarian local governments between the two world wars was quite relative. In all major issues – especially if they wanted to use central resources – the approval of the Ministry of the Interior, which exercised general supervision over ministries and local governments, had to be obtained. As a condition of the deal, the city government stipulated that Cardo would primarily employ old workers, preferably from Győr, and that production would start with a minimum of 50 skilled workers within 14 days of the actual disbursement of the export credit, but no earlier than 1 December 1930. [73] Of the above stipulations, only the employment of the Győr woodworkers was met, neither the date of the furniture factory's start-up nor the minimum number of employees at the start could be met. However, no one was interested in this at the time, the most important thing was that the factory was producing again and there were encouraging prospects for a rapid increase in the number of workers.
After the decision of the general assembly, almost all the furniture factories in the country lined up to fight. They tried to prevent the Győr furniture factory from gaining a significant competitive advantage through a “princely” gift (state export credit and city ownership). [74] The Győr joinery craftsmen also protested strongly, as they considered the city’s participation in the reorganization of the Győr Woodworking and Wood Trading Co. to be important from a social point of view, but at the same time they feared a further reduction in the sharply reduced demand in Győr. “The local independent joinery craftsmen,” they wrote in their submission of June 30, 1930, “take note of the city’s decision with fearful concern and, as it were, despairing of their ultimately desperate situation,” because the commissioning of the furniture factory “means the destruction of the entrepreneurial opportunities of the independent joinery craftsmen.” In exchange for the city’s support – protecting their own existence – they demanded that the furniture factory not be allowed to participate in local public transport even “at a fixed price”, that it refrain from “smaller” carpentry orders “as an unworthy pettiness”, that it not serve Győr customers directly at the factory site and that it produce the goods it produces “exclusively for export” and not establish a “local warehouse”. [75] When in the autumn of 1930 a new investor, the Cardo Furniture Factory, appeared as a buyer of the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt., the Győr carpenters, through the Industrial Board and the National Crafts Board, once again protested against the restart of the Győr furniture factory with city assistance. [76] However, their action remained ineffective; the livelihood of 3-400 woodworkers and several hundred family members proved to be more important than the interests of the artisans, so they were unable to prevent or even delay the start-up of the Győr furniture factory.
The factory's launch was delayed not primarily because of such weak protests, but because the Minister of Finance initially insisted that the city guarantee the repayment of the $70,000 export loan, which Győr could not undertake, given that it had little say in the management of the furniture factory due to its minority ownership, meaning that the repayment of the loan did not depend on it. The government also delayed granting the dollar loan because the volume of world trade had fallen to a third of its previous level during the years of the economic crisis. 60-70% of Hungarian exports consisted of agricultural raw materials, which from 1929 onwards were increasingly difficult to sell and under significantly less favourable conditions than before, including significantly deteriorating exchange rates. Financing the debt service of foreign loans taken out in foreign currency in the 1920s from export revenues began to falter, which ultimately led to the depletion of the reserves of the Hungarian National Bank, the introduction of a transfer moratorium and a fixed foreign exchange management regime.
On 9 December 1930, Mayor Ferenc Szauter met with several ministers in Budapest and managed to get the government to waive the city guarantee on the export credit. Minister of Trade János Bud merely asked the mayor that, as a party involved in the deal, the city should keep a constant eye on the company's operations. [77] Direct control was exercised by the city by delegating two officials to the company's board of directors and one to the supervisory board. The general meeting ruled that the members of the board of directors and supervisory board elected by the city "may not accept any remuneration from Cardo Faipari és Bútorkereskedelmi Részvénytársaság, in order to preserve their complete impartiality and objectivity, even if the general meeting of the joint-stock company were to determine remuneration for the members of the board of directors, and if this remuneration were determined, Cardo would be obliged to pay it into the city's treasury." [78]
After this, there was no longer any obstacle to the government approving the loan. [79] The Minister of the Interior soon approved the agreement between the city and the Cardó Furniture Factory, so that after more than a year of downtime, production could start in the Győr furniture factory in January 1931. [80] The contract for the sale of the Győr Woodworking and Wood Trading Co. Ltd. was concluded on 24 January 1931. The new owner, Cardo Woodworking and Wood Trading Co. Ltd., which had produced cheap furniture almost exclusively for export in the 1930s, gradually expanded its production and the number of employees. The factory restarted at the end of January 1931 – with a fraction of its previous number of employees, only 29 people. [81] By mid-February, the number of employed workers had increased to about fifty, and since they had a significant backlog of orders, further growth in the number of employees and output was certain. [82] Thus it happened, in the second half of 1931, 200 people were permanently employed in the furniture factory. In the autumn of that year, the number of employees increased to 400 with seasonal work in the production of fruit crates. Thus, unemployment in the carpentry industry in Győr practically disappeared.
The factory's steam and electricity were produced by two steam engines, which were heated with wood chips and waste wood. The energy produced here powered 83 woodworking machines located in the machine room. Of the factory's two production departments, the furniture factory produced continuously throughout the year, primarily producing bedroom furniture, two-thirds of which was exported to the Austrian and Italian markets by the mid-1930s. The other department operated seasonally in the fall, producing fruit crate elements, which were nailed to the finished product at the picking site. In comparison, packaging for industrial companies was produced in much smaller numbers. [83]
After the start-up of the Cardó factory in Győr, it also tried to sell domestically, so it maintained warehouses in several large cities of the country, but during the years of the economic crisis it was hardly possible to sell furniture at home. Moreover, in line with the national trend, Cardo's exports also declined sharply. [84] The main export market of the Győr furniture factory was Austria until 1932, where about 80% of furniture exports were directed. The volume of 8-10 wagons of finished products delivered to the Austrian market per month fell by half at the height of the crisis. As a result, the number of workers employed in the furniture factory also decreased significantly (in early 1933, only about 100 people were employed instead of the 400 people before the crisis). [85]
They had to look for a new foreign market. A lucky coincidence also played into their hands. The three-day bank blockade in July 1931, the transfer moratorium and fixed exchange rate regime ordered at the end of the year almost sent the furniture industry in Győr to the brink again. In this seemingly hopeless situation, the city's leadership met an English agent named David Gilbert, who had ordered furniture for England in a neighboring country, but the furniture manufacturer there did not fulfill the terms of the contract. Cardo made an offer to Gilbert, who in the fall of 1932 entrusted the Győr factory with the production of 100 pieces of bedroom furniture, with the understanding that if the trial was successful, they could expect further orders. [86] The sample collection was well received by the island's buyers, so in January 1933 the factory's representatives began negotiations on furniture exports in the island. [87] Since the business promised to be profitable, the contract was concluded and from 1933 Cardó supplied thousands of bedroom furniture to Great Britain, in a somewhat conservative, conventional style that suited the local taste, which within a few years brought Cardo (more precisely, due to the fixed exchange rate, the Hungarian international balance of payments) around 50,000 pounds per year in convertible foreign exchange. [88]
After the Italian and German fascist regimes came to power, these two traditional markets largely disappeared due to the autarkic measures introduced there. Although Hungarian furniture factories tried to find new customers (Cardó, for example, tried to break into the Australian market [89] ), the great distances, the isolation due to the crisis, and then from the second half of the 1930s the war preparations and the increase in local armed clashes prevented the conquest of new distant markets. Thus, until the state of war with England in 1941, the English market remained virtually the only market for Hungarian furniture, which, in addition to its large population and solvency, could become the main recipient of Hungarian exports because the extensive dominions and colonial empire of the world empire were largely supplied with sets by the mother country, which could not satisfy this great demand from its own production. In any case, due to the lower productivity of the Hungarian furniture industry compared to Western Europe and the resulting higher production costs, it was only competitive in England through additional exports or with state export subsidies. The importance of Cardó's exports to England was further increased by the fact that it did not conduct trade in clearing, but in convertible currency without a repurchase obligation, which was very necessary for the operation of woodworking companies, since with the Treaty of Trianon the country lost almost all of its natural pine forests and the vast majority of its deciduous forests, so until the partial revision of the Treaty of Trianon the industry was forced to obtain a good part of its raw materials from customs-free countries (primarily from Austria and Romania) and part of its veneer needs from France. [90] Between the two world wars, wood imports constituted the most significant item of Hungarian imports. [91] The country's timber production improved significantly with the re-annexation of Upper Hungary, Transcarpathia, and Northern Transylvania. [92]
The English market was completely new to Hungarian furniture manufacturing. After the export business started, Cardo shipped 250-300 bedroom furniture sets to the island country from the spring of 1933. By the autumn of that year, the furniture factory, including the crate factory, employed 400 people, which renewed its markets with great risk-taking and weathered the Great Depression in an exemplary manner. [93] At the end of 1933, the owners also felt that it was fitting to give a little of the honest profit back to their creators, the workers. The factory's 330 workers received a bonus of 5-15 pengő at Christmas. [94] The success story of the Győr factory also attracted the attention of government officials. When the Minister of Trade, Tihamér Fabinyi, inaugurated the Rába Bridge (now Petőfi Bridge), named after Horthy, he did not fail to visit the Cardó Furniture Factory in addition to the large factories in Győr. He spoke of how the example of Cardo showed that “there is no class antagonism, there is solidarity between the employer and the worker”. If the workers resisted, inciting class struggle, “they would be digging their own graves, but they would also be causing damage to the nation’s university”. A few years after Fabinyi’s speech, one of the longest-lasting strike movements of the interwar period broke out at the Cardó Furniture Factory, eloquently demonstrating the untenability of the claim that there was solidarity and not antagonism between workers and employers. [95]
In the Cardó Furniture Factory, in parallel with the boom in production, the arrival of significant foreign orders, and the increase in the number of employees, members of the woodworkers' union launched a wage movement in early 1934. [96] On February 12, 1934, the secretary general of the Hungarian woodworkers' organizing committee asked the factory management in a letter to raise the average hourly wage of the 165 skilled carpenters who were working for "impossible wages." They argued that when the factory restarted, the union and the management had agreed on an average hourly wage of 50 fils, compared to which the skilled workers were earning an average of 42.2 fils per hour at the beginning of 1934, which was "completely intolerable" and had to be changed. [97] They demanded that hourly wages below 40 fils be increased by 15% and those above by 10%. They also objected to the fact that the previous 8-hour day (48-hour week) had been increased to 60 hours a week, as this was the only way to meet the increased demand. They asked that the factory pay 25% overtime pay for the extra two hours a day. [98] They also sent a letter of their wishes to the city's mayor, Ferenc Szauter, asking him to support their movement, as the state and the city had "made a great sacrifice so that the Cardo woodworks could be reorganized and work with a significant number of workers". According to the union, the factory, with the installation of new machinery and its hardworking workers, had "achieved such a great result that the workers, for their hard work, can at least provide a living for their families". From the current wage, if the rent and fuel are somehow paid, then only enough money remains for bread and “it means a holiday when they can give their children something to eat besides bread and potatoes.” [99]
Two days later, representatives of the factory, the union and the city negotiated the workers' demands in Budapest. Managing director János Jordán acknowledged the low average hourly wage, explaining that it was due to the hiring of around 40 new, young workers. The 10-hour working day must be maintained, otherwise the workers' earnings would decrease. There are no skilled carpenters available in Győr, so the 60-hour working week is necessary to meet delivery deadlines. The director denied that the factory was making a profit, claiming on the contrary that in order to employ the 300 workers, they would undertake export work even at a loss, because there was no demand for furniture domestically and if there were no exports, the factory would have to be shut down. However, he was willing to receive the Budapest leaders of the woodworkers' union in Győr, with whom he would negotiate on site. [100]
We do not know the outcome of this discussion, but the management was unwilling to make any significant concessions because the workers' dissatisfaction could not be dispelled. At the end of 1934, local newspapers reported on a strike atmosphere again at the Cardó Faipari és Bútorkereskedelmi Rt. [101] Most of the approximately 400 workers working at the Teleszky út site wanted to go on strike, as a result of which the factory management reduced the length of working hours and gave an hourly wage increase of 2-4 filér. [102] However, the daily wage increase of 20-30 filér improved the situation of the workers to such an insignificant extent that the dissatisfaction in the factory did not disappear despite the fact that the wages of 60 people were increased in October 1936 and all workers in early February 1937 (at that time by 5%). [103] On 23 August 1937, the Secretary General of the Hungarian Woodworkers' Association requested a 20% wage increase for all workers at the Győr factory. The factory refused to comply with the request, citing the aforementioned wage increase. In June 1937, the decree on the minimum wage established in the carpentry industry was complied with and wages at Cardó increased by another 12%. According to the factory management, a further wage increase would endanger the competitiveness of British exports, without which – based solely on the domestic market – the factory with its then number of employees and capacity “could not operate for a single week”, and therefore it was not fulfilled as an act “against the fundamental interests” of the Győr workers. More precisely, the management promised to increase wages in the uncertain future “ as soon as the need and opportunity arise”. [104] This vague, distant promise did not satisfy the factory workers, who therefore voted by secret ballot on September 4, 1937, 249 to 2, in favor of a strike. [105] Two days later, at the start of the Monday shift, all 465 workers in the factory unanimously walked off the job and went on strike. [106]
The reason for the work stoppage was partly that prices had started to rise as a result of the preparations for World War I, which had significantly reduced the purchasing power of wages. On the other hand, according to the Győri Hírlap – which was not at all sympathetic to the strike – wages at Cardó were the lowest among the domestic furniture factories. [107] Family carpenters earned 22 pengő per week, which after paying the utilities was barely enough for bread, and other food was rarely on the table. [108] The newspaper's claim was hastily refuted by the factory management, who said that family workers earned 30-40 pengő per week and young workers 20-22 pengő per week at the Furniture Factory, which cannot be classified as a "starvation wage" in local terms. [109]
In Győr – but also elsewhere in the country – strikes broke out in many factories after the government set minimum wages, as the minimum wage was treated as a maximum wage in most places, and on the other hand, due to the introduction of the 8-hour working day – despite the increase in hourly wages by a few pennies – wages decreased compared to the previous 10-12-hour working day. At the same time as the strike at the Cardó furniture factory, a work stoppage broke out in four other furniture factories. [110] In Győr, meeting delivery deadlines was vital in order to maintain the English market, so the workers rightly hoped that the management could be forced to make concessions in this situation. Due to the prolonged strike, the factory had to modify its London delivery deadlines shortly. According to the Győri Hírlap, the strike “also endangered national economic and currency interests”. [111]
The strike lasted an unusually long time because the workers' unity and determination could not be broken. Therefore, in the second week of the strike, the factory managers were forced to the negotiating table and showed their willingness to increase the wages of workers with hourly wages below 60 fillér by 6-8% and those of the others by 4-5%. However, the negotiations broke down because the workers insisted on a 20% increase in the average hourly wage for carpenters, which was only 48.8 fillér, which was barely higher than in 1934. [112] The factory management therefore interrupted the negotiations with the workers' representatives and presented the strikers with an ultimatum in a letter: anyone who took up the job by September 21 would receive the promised wage increase of a few percent, and anyone who did not would be dismissed. [113]
The furniture factory strike, which lasted more than three weeks, finally ended on September 29, 1937, with an 8% wage increase. In the negotiations leading to the compromise, the furniture factory workers were represented by Géza Malasits, the Social Democratic Member of Parliament for Győr, and István Udvaros, the leader of the Social Democratic Party for Győr. [114]
The second half of the 1930s was a period of great prosperity in the life of Cardó, when it produced 4,000-4,500 pieces of room furniture annually, mostly for export to England. The factory's furniture department employed 450 workers and its crate department employed about 100. [115] When orders arrived, they also undertook carpentry work, and they also made packaging for industrial companies. [116] The fact that the factory was doing well is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the general meeting voted an honorarium of 2,750 pengő to the two members of the furniture factory's board of directors delegated by the city based on the results of the 1936/37 business year. [117] However, the results had to be worked hard for, and success had to be sacrificed. No dividends were paid between 1932 and 1935, and this was only done for the first time in the 1935/36 business year.
Cardo produced almost exclusively for export, and until the outbreak of war, it mainly exported furniture to England, but also to the Netherlands, South Africa and France in smaller quantities. It was also planned to organize exports to Bulgaria. [118] The productivity of domestic furniture production was lower than in the developed countries of the world, so production costs were not reimbursable in English prices adjusted to the world market, so Hungarian furniture exports were possible "only through artificial constructions", or in the framework of so-called additional exports [119] or with state subsidies [120] . The most important form of export support was the currency premium paid on top of the official exchange rate of currencies, which amounted to 50% in the case of convertible currencies. [121] The Council of Ministers and the central bank often disagreed on the amount of export subsidies, because the government wanted to increase exports, while the MNB also had to pay attention to the balance of payments. [122] For a country in debt, suspending debt repayments, and at the same time preparing for war, hard currency income was vital. The government granted export bonuses to companies that excelled in their production. The Cardó Furniture Factory also received this every year from the 1933/34 financial year until the cessation of exports to England. [123]
The need to expand foreign sales opportunities became particularly urgent in 1937/38, as exports from England, but especially from Italy and Germany, declined. (The latter, in preparation for war, were implementing increasingly strict autarkic farming and reducing imports of all non-essential consumer goods.)
Great Britain became an enemy of Hungary with the outbreak of World War II, which essentially made it impossible for English furniture exports to continue. [124] The island country declared war on Hungary in 1941, a state of war was established between the two countries, and international trade relations were completely broken off. Switzerland and Slovakia subsequently became the main markets for Hungarian furniture exports. [125]
Finally, let us examine where Cardó was positioned in the Hungarian furniture industry before the outbreak of World War II! In 1938, approximately 21-22 thousand carpenters and 3-4 thousand upholsterers worked in Hungary, mostly in small-scale factories, often in rented workshops and basements. The workers earned little in particularly poor working conditions. Most of the work was done by hand, so productivity was low, but thanks to this, output could be adjusted quickly and flexibly to demand. All this, coupled with modest wages and the beautiful workmanship of the product, made Hungarian furniture competitive in Western European markets. [126]
In the last year of peace before World War II, 9 larger furniture factories emerged from the sea of small-scale joinery and upholstery workshops, the majority of which operated in Budapest and the surrounding area of the capital. Furniture factories with more than 50 employees employed about a fifth of the cabinetmakers, 3,500-4,000 people worked in medium-sized factories with 10-50 employees, and the rest found a living in small-scale industries. Based on the number of employees, Cardo was the 2nd-3rd largest furniture factory in the country with 500 employees. The factories mostly used 20-40 year old, low-equipped universal (combined) machines, which could be used to achieve a diverse production profile with low efficiency. The factories generally did not have drying equipment, but with their large stock of materials they had time to wait for the lengthy natural drying process. Cardó's production equipment was more modern than the industry average, and they also had a wood dryer in Győr.
In 1938, the small and factory industries, using less than half of the theoretical capacity, produced about 42 thousand units in terms of bedroom sets. Together with upholstered reclining and sitting furniture, the Hungarian furniture industry produced a total of 50-55 thousand units in terms of bedroom sets that year. More than 40% of furniture production was exported abroad. The factory industry exported 12,000 bedroom sets in 1938, about a third of which went to the Győr Cardo Furniture Factory. [127]
A significant change in the ownership structure of the factory occurred in 1939. The syndicate agreement of 1930 allowed the other owners of the company to purchase the city's share package on the condition that the buyer also paid interest on the shares in addition to the nominal value. [128] In the summer of 1939, the managing director Dr. János Jordán exercised his option right and purchased the city's shares and the Schaffer family's interest, thus acquiring the majority of Cardó shares, and the city's interest in the factory ceased. [129] János Jordán managed and owned the company until its nationalization in 1948. One of his sons, László Jordán, who had obtained a law degree, also began working in the family company.
Although János Jordán was not born in Győr, his diligence, persistent work, and social sensitivity made him a respected citizen of the city. He already had two diplomas and a bookkeeping qualification when, in his 40s, he obtained a law degree and a doctorate from the University of Szeged. His remarkable studies on the city's economic life were published in the Győri Szemle. Most of his time was spent as a factory manager, and he also held leading positions in numerous professional and social organizations. In the 1930s, he was elected as a referendary of the Győr Grand Priory of the Foederatio Emericana (the local organization of Catholic university and college students who had already graduated). [130] Between the two world wars, he was a member of the Győr city council, the Győr Lloyd board, the chairman of the Private Officers Association, the Győr group of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Roman Catholic parish of the factory town, the Catholic Circle, the Catholic city autonomy, and the executive director of the Győr organization of the Public Health and Occupational Safety Association. [131] It was considered a serious professional recognition when, in the late 1930s, the Transdanubian Group of the National Association of Hungarian Timber Producers, Timber Merchants and Timber Manufacturers elected the director of the Cardo Furniture Factory as its chairman. [132] From March 1940, he became co-chairman of the GYOSZ Wood Industry Department. Dr. János Jordán, as chairman of the Győr organization of GYOSZ, also became a member of the board of directors of the national organization.
Among the descendants of János Jordán we find several famous people. One of his sons, the Benedictine monk Emil Jordán, was sent to Sao Paulo in 1939 by the order to organize the spiritual care and teaching of the Hungarian colony there. The mission, which was originally intended to last three years, resulted in a mission lasting several decades, because first World War II, and later the political changes in Hungary, prevented him from returning home until the mid-1960s. Another son, László, remained a local patriot of Győr even though he was from Budapest. He founded the Circle of Friends of Győr and did a lot to ensure that the College of Transport and Telecommunications was moved to Győr and later raised to university status. Dr. László Jordán's wife is the daughter of the former scientific deputy mayor of Győr, István Valló, and his son Tamás is an actor and theater director who has won the Kossuth and Jászai awards.
The factory became a military plant during World War II, producing ammunition crates and hospital barracks. 90% of Cardó's buildings and equipment were destroyed in the air raids that hit the city at the end of the war. The flammable materials stored in the factory quickly caught fire, so the factory burned for days after the bombing on April 13, 1944. [133] At the end of the war, the Arrow Cross and the Germans transported 40 wagons of machinery, equipment and materials to Germany. [134] Dr. János Jordán had the remaining equipment and machinery transported to Pestlőrinc. [135]
Despite the enormous destruction, the factory was immediately restored in the spring of 1945. The machines that had been rescued from the bombings to Kismegyer were brought back and the equipment that could be restored was dug out from under the ruins. Since most of the machines had been transported to the West, work was largely started with borrowed production equipment. [136] In the hyperinflationary times that followed the war, furniture could only be purchased for gold or dollars. The country imported only a small amount of wood, so domestic forests were exploited. Illegal logging and wood chipping were very widespread. [137] In the summer of 1947, the state was still willing to provide loans and even take a 50% stake in order to restore the factory, as convertible currency was needed to rebuild the country. By reviving old relations, Cardo wanted to export to England again. [138] At this time – despite the signs of conflict – this still had some reality. Hungarian industry could hardly do without textile raw materials, non-ferrous metals, and alloying materials from the English colonies, which England was still willing to supply in exchange for finished products produced on credit or in contract labor. In return, they expected non-discriminatory treatment of their Hungarian interests, recognition of the English loans frozen during the crisis, and a declaration of Hungary’s intention to repay them later. After production started, CEO Jordán was already working on the reorganization of English exports when Cardo went bankrupt, which was nationalized in early 1948 – even before the nationalization of factories employing more than 100 workers.
In our country, before March 25, 1948, certain sectors that played a key role in reparation deliveries and reconstruction (coal mining, the three largest machine factories and their interests exceeding 50%, electric power plants, high-performance transmission lines) were taken over by the state, the government still avoided the general expropriation of domestic private property, and the expropriation of foreign-owned interests generally did not take place until the end of 1949. From the circumstances, we conclude that the “dry-road” capital expropriation method, characterized by the name of Ernő Gerő, was also used in the confiscation of the Cardo Furniture Factory. In this context, the communist party, which rapidly monopolized key political and economic positions from the end of 1947, artificially created financial and economic conditions (withdrawal, material transfer, price, tax, credit conditions) that made the management of privately owned companies impossible in a short time. were made impossible and thus they were expropriated by the state without compensation in return for the accumulating losses.
Cardo – presumably not of its own accord – manufactured 1,500 wooden crates for Magyar Textilművek Rt. in the midst of hyperinflation, for which the customer paid in unvalorized pengó in the weeks before stabilization, when inflation was rising by tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of percent per day (!), which was equivalent to the price of a roll at the time of delivery. The furniture factory suffered a large loss on this deal. Since the restoration of the severely damaged Győr factory required a longer period of time, Dr. János Jordán wanted to transform the former warehouse base of the Hungarian Air Force in Pestszentlőrinc into a furniture factory semi-finished material factory. He requested a state loan of nearly 3 million HUF for the construction of the factory and a loan of 100,000 British pounds for the purchase of foreign machinery, which he received at the suggestion of Gyula Kelemen, State Secretary for Industry. A third of the loan had already been used when it became clear that Cardó would not be granted permission to import the raw materials essential for production, and the loan could not be repaid. The factory went bankrupt, and the owner was forced to lay off all employees on 1 January 1948. [139]
At that time, the so-called economically constructed “sabotage trials” were already underway in the country (the case of the leaders of Nitrokémia Rt., Péti Nitrogénművek Rt., the Ministry of Agriculture), which partly aimed at discrediting and removing the old leading elite, and partly at expropriating the largest, strategically important, largely foreign-owned companies without compensation. The economically conceived trials also served political goals, through which they sought to discredit and expose the Western “sabotaging imperialists” and the domestic “enemy” that was currently in the running, at this time those social democratic leaders who opposed the merger of the SZDP into the MKP, the unilateral Soviet orientation and the Sovietization of the country. [140] The arrest and life imprisonment of Gyula Kelemen, the “right-wing” Social Democratic State Secretary for Industry, also served this political purpose.
In the Cardo case, he was held responsible for the alleged misuse of state loans taken out to restore the factory, to the detriment of the national economy. [141] The National Planning Office ordered a criminal investigation into the Cardó case. The inter-ministerial committee appointed to hunt down witches concluded that it was unnecessary to take out a loan and begin construction of the Pestszentlőrinc plant, because the Győr factory had essentially been restored, contrary to the factory managers’ claims. They ordered machinery from abroad, instead of urging the repatriation of Cardo’s equipment that had been smuggled into the American occupation zone of Germany. As if the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, Szabad Nép, was unaware that the Americans had stopped restitution, the return of Hungarian property smuggled to Austria and Germany at the end of the war, because of the Hegyeshalm incident [142] . [143] The inter-ministerial investigation committee claimed that Cardo wanted to export its furniture to the West as sabotage, although this deal would have been unprofitable, they claimed, because the factory would not have received enough foreign currency for the furniture to cover its production costs. [144] However, the committee was also well aware that the export of Hungarian industry – due to lower productivity and the poorer technical standard of the products – had to be subsidized by the state for most products between the two world wars and throughout the socialist system. [145] As a result of the manipulated investigation results, the Economic Council stopped further disbursement of the loan and ordered strict controls to find out how someone without their own assets could have obtained a state loan for an investment that was not in the state's interest. Jordán had previously offered half of the shares to the state in exchange for financing the construction of the factory in the capital. [146] The investigation committee also “discovered” that Jordán actually had no assets, because he had already pledged them to several banks in exchange for various loans, and he had not paid the loans, so the banks no longer had control over the shares.) At the same time as the criminal investigation ordered against the Jordán family, the High Economic Council nationalized Cardó in exchange for the state loan, had the investment in Pestszentlőrinc declared unnecessary, had the woodworking machinery that had arrived there transported to Győr, and liquidated the Pestszentlőrinc plant. [147] Disciplinary and criminal proceedings were initiated against the industrial officials who handled the case, and State Secretary Gyula Kelemen was sentenced to life imprisonment. [148] János Jordán was deported to Jászalsószentgyörgy in Szolnok County in 1951, from where he was released after Imre Nagy came to power in 1953. He worked at the Furniture Sales Company until his death in 1957.[149]
Hungary as a “bad faith author”? The transfer of domestic Austrian (German) property to the Soviet Union. Historical Review, 2013. no. 119-144. pp.
The first workers' director after the nationalization, István Méri [150], was only in charge of the factory for a few months; in the fall of 1948, the company was headed by István Beck. [151] Among the workers of the Cardó Furniture Factory, carpenter Gyula Markó was promoted to a high political position after World War II. After the removal of the Social Democratic mayor, István Udvaros, in 1948, he, who was already serving as the party secretary of the Graboplast factory MKP organization, was appointed mayor of Győr, and after the establishment of the council system, he was appointed city and later county council president. In 1957, he was removed from the position of county council president because he refused to assist in illegal reprisals.
The economic policy, which developed mining, metallurgy, raw material production industries and the military industry at a rate beyond their capacity, allocated development resources to consumption-related industries very sparingly. In addition, the furniture industry was hit by a chronic shortage of raw materials, low wages and poor working conditions, a permanent shortage of labor, and often even a shortage of electricity. [152] In many cases, the main governing authority, the Furniture Industry Directorate of the Ministry of Light Industry, held the company's managers responsible for shutdowns due to objective circumstances and for falling behind in the fulfillment of forced plans, and therefore the directors changed frequently in the first years of the construction of a direct-plan command economy. The situation stabilized with the appointment of László Lovász in the mid-1960s, and then Zoltán Simon a decade and a half later. Both spent many years at the helm of the factory. Despite the objective difficulties of production that were difficult to overcome, the Cardó Furniture Factory became a live factory six times between 1955 and 1969. (The honorary title could be obtained quarterly in 1955-56, semi-annually from 1958, and annually from 1966.) [153]
Cardó Faipari és Bútorkereskedelmi Rt. formally retained its form as a joint-stock company until the summer of 1949. After nationalization, citing the profitability of timber farming, it was first placed under the management of MALLERD [154] , then the government reorganized the factory into a national company on 3 June 1949. [155] After the mergers following the nationalization of the sector, by 1949, 21 furniture factories remained in the ministerial industry (in addition to the small-scale cooperatives). Concentration continued uninterrupted, and in 1958 only 18 ministerial (state) furniture factories operated in the country. At the time of the reorganization of Hungarian industry in 1963, 20 ministerial (state) furniture factories operated in the country, the number of which was reduced to 5 after the mergers. Cardo Bútárgyár – apart from the merger of a small factory in Tata – remained independent. [156]
The nationalized socialist company lost its direct connection with the domestic and foreign markets, lost its independent export and import rights, and from then on, non-production functions were performed for many decades by specialized institutions (domestic and foreign trade, design, market research, development companies and institutes). At the end of the 1940s, similarly to other state-owned companies, the furniture industry was also profiled. For years, the Cardó Furniture Factory only produced bedroom furniture, the Lingel Furniture Factory produced standard furniture, the Újpesti Furniture Factory Plant No. 1 produced two-door wardrobes, the plant No. 2 produced medical treatment tables, etc. [157] This meant that the companies that had lost their independence no longer had the opportunity to determine their production profile themselves, to stand on more legs and thus to avoid difficulties arising from changes in demand. In the 1950s and 1960s, despite the fact that foreign relations were severed and the industry produced exclusively for the domestic market for a long time, furniture was always a scarce commodity and, due to its high price compared to wages, it was considered a particularly burdensome investment for the family budget, where, due to consumer over-demand, customer needs could hardly influence furniture production. Household furniture purchases increased very slowly until 1953, which can be partly attributed to low purchasing power and partly to the slowly expanding supply. Thanks to Imre Nagy's government program, the noticeable increase in real wages and several price reductions, household furniture purchases jumped significantly in 1954. (In this year, the purchase of kitchen furniture increased by 279% compared to 1950, and the purchase of bedroom furniture by 394%.) In 1956/57, due to the increase in living standards under the Kádár regime, furniture purchases continued to increase (in 1957, kitchen furniture increased by 643% compared to 1950, bedroom furniture by 936%, etc.). The fact that furniture imports more than tripled compared to the previous year played a decisive role in the great leap of 1957. [158]
Cardó produced so-called standard furniture using the simplest solution and the cheapest materials. Even in the late 1960s, they produced the C VI type bed, which was very popular throughout the country, and the C XI type bed with a more sophisticated interior design, which cost about a thousand HUF more. [159] The complete standard bedroom furniture consisted of two wardrobes, two beds, two bedside tables and a mirrored dressing table called a dressing table. [160] In the countryside, straw bags were usually placed on the independent, detachable boards of the bed. Mattresses were used more in cities until upholstered beds and sofas replaced traditional beds. These large, space-consuming pieces of furniture were forced out of production with the mass construction of small-sized apartments in housing estates. They were replaced by variable, modular bedroom and living room furniture suitable for multiple functions (Jutka, Rába, Firenze, Főnix, Ravenna, Farád, Osaka, Orsi, etc.). In panel apartments, wardrobes were replaced by built-in wardrobes in the hallways, in order to maximize the use of space in the living room, combined usable, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling wardrobes were manufactured, the beds were already upholstered, as were the armchairs complementing the coffee table. The designers thought of young married couples first and foremost by making this furniture available in several parts. The basic elements already satisfied the most important requirements for furniture. Later, depending on income, the collection could be supplemented with additional elements. [161] The children's room also featured ingenious, usually bunk beds, which were also popular in the West and were often combined with a study table (Lurkó, Domino).
The Hungarian Stakhanovist movement grew out of the competition for the title of “Best Worker of the Profession” on the Soviet model, the culmination of which was the “Stalinist Shift” organized for Stalin’s 70th birthday, December 21, 1949. Although due to technological requirements, it was not possible to achieve a thousand percent apparent performance in the cabinetmaking profession, similar to that of turners, millers, masons, etc., even by creating artificial conditions, Stakhanovists were created in furniture factories. When the results of the competition for the title of “Best Worker of the Profession” were announced in March 1950, the daily newspapers mentioned the furniture factory worker Imre Tóth Cardó among the best in the cabinetmaking profession. [162] The famous Stakhanovite lathe workers produced a fantastic performance exceeding 4000% during the Stalinist shift, in comparison, in the 1951 production competition among polishers, László Horváth, a polisher at the Cardó furniture factory, managed to achieve 2nd place nationally with an average performance of 170%. [163]
Until Imre Nagy came to power in July 1953, the domestic furniture supply was not only extremely limited in supply and choice, but also in quality, leaving much to be desired, while the price placed an enormous burden on the budgets of working-class families. [164] Due to the acute shortage of furniture (to which the destruction of the war contributed greatly), furniture was made from half-raw, not completely dried boards, which cracked and warped. [165]
During the “new phase” introduced in the summer of 1953, surveys aimed at improving the range and quality of furniture and furniture exhibitions aimed at assessing consumer needs competed with each other. [166] In addition to the existing furniture factories, six new woodworking companies were commissioned to produce furniture, which were tasked by their governing authorities to produce tasteful, high-quality and inexpensive furniture for workers. However, the factories were not capable of miracles; Cardó, for example, was unable to produce more than 650 sets of bedroom furniture and 550 sets of two-type wardrobes in 1953, despite the more favorable conditions created by the summer government program that prioritized raising living standards and consumer consumption more than before. [167] (Before the war, 3-4,000 complete bedrooms were produced annually for export.)
Work at Cardó also came to a standstill in the autumn of 1956, partly due to a general strike by workers and partly due to a power outage. [168] Production was not hampered by a shortage of materials, as the managers managed to procure a significant amount of raw materials during the shutdown. [169] A workers' council was also formed at Cardó, but we know nothing about its composition or whether the old director was removed from the factory, as was common at the time. (After János Kádár came to power, most directors removed by the workers' council were reinstated shortly after.)
With the exception of the Angyalföldi and Cardo Furniture Factories, which underwent early reconstruction (1949-51), Hungarian furniture factories had outdated machinery. Cardo's large and largely undeveloped plot of land did not prevent the factory from expanding due to a lack of space (unlike most furniture factories in the capital). [170]
The number of workers at the Cardo Furniture Factory stagnated between 1951 and 1957 (similarly to the furniture industry as a whole), in 1956 it decreased by 27% compared to 1953, partly due to production uncertainty and partly due to the defection of the workers working there, and then it slowly but gradually increased from 1957. [171] Based on the number of workers, Cardo belonged to the medium-sized factories in 1958. At that time, 3,810 workers worked in the 18 state-owned furniture factories. The Debrecen Curved Furniture Factory had the largest number of workers, with 465 people. At that time, Cardo had 207 workers. 8 state-owned furniture factories also employed more workers that year. [172] The total number of employees in the Győr furniture factory was already approaching half a thousand (485 people) in 1963, [173] the number of workers between 1965 and 1970 ranged between 631 and 703, and in 1970 there were 672 workers and 121 employees. Output also grew slowly but steadily, with the total production value rising from 99,367 thousand HUF in 1965 to 132,250 thousand HUF in 1970. [174]
In 1958, Cardo's main profile (similar to the Angyalföld, Budapest, Budapesti Minőségi, Duna, Egri, Otthon and Szeged furniture factories) continued to be the production of varnished home furniture. Upholstered furniture (couches, sofas, armchairs) was not yet produced in Győr at that time. [175]
Due to the forced heavy industrialization economic policy of the 1950s, there was hardly any money available for the development of the furniture industry (and the industries producing consumer goods in general), and the shortage of furniture became permanent and increasingly urgent. The development of the sector only became important in the early years of the Kádár regime. In the second three-year plan (1958–1960), around 65 million HUF were allocated for the development of the furniture industry, partly for the construction of a new factory, mainly for the modernization and expansion of existing ones, with the aim of increasing furniture production by about a fifth. [176] Of this amount, Cardo was able to manage around 7 million HUF, which acquired machinery and built a new factory hall and social facilities (changing room, bath). In order to replace the heavy manual physical work, socialist – primarily East German – furniture manufacturing machinery was initially purchased. For example, a press machine that was able to press veneer cut from a few millimeters thick noble wood into several layers of less valuable furniture wood at the same time. With this single, but important innovation in terms of the production process, instead of 11-12 pieces of bedroom furniture per day, they could produce 14-15 pieces per day. [177] Polishing and varnishing furniture panels was considered a particularly difficult and, due to the evaporation of solvents and resins, a harmful operation to health. This work was made easier and faster by the polyester varnish applied to the furniture panels by machine, which reduced the varnishing time to 1/12 of the previous one compared to manual work, and the drying time from 30 days to 8 hours. In 1959, the Hungarian furniture industry received 7 such machines, one of which was placed in Cardó in Győr. Instead of the expensive and limited availability of natural wood, plastic, beyond varnishing, became increasingly popular in the furniture industry, especially in the manufacture of kitchen and bathroom furniture drawers, which were resistant to moisture and did not warp. [178]
Thanks to the mechanization of manual labor, the operation of high-value machines purchased to solve bottlenecks in two shifts, and the new production hall built in the second three-year plan, the daily production of 10-12 bedroom furniture pieces in 1958 was increased to 38 pieces per day by the end of 1962. In 1957, the production profile was expanded by the production of small pieces of furniture (bar cabinets, record cabinets, small bookcases) made from small waste wood that fell off during the production of room furniture and could no longer be used for anything else, which was also recorded in the official gazette when the Furniture Industry Directorate again designated the profile of the companies under its supervision in 1958. [179] The population quickly became fond of these practical, relatively inexpensive pieces of furniture that also decorated the home, and therefore their range was later expanded further by the production of linen cabinets, decorative chests, etc. [180] Within about 10 years of nationalization, the 25,000th room furniture was completed at the Cardó by early October 1959. [181]
The company's indoor production area had almost doubled by 1962. Working conditions were improved by the delivery of a washroom and changing room building, the installation of dust and odor extraction equipment, and fans. [182] In 1963, eight machines were lined up in a technological sequence. In the "machine alley", the various work operations were performed automatically by the machines on rollers, without human intervention, on the material moving along. This machine line alone freed 80 people from heavy physical labor, and it also accelerated the production process. [183]
Cardó fell behind its production and sales plan by 8-9% in 1963 and by nearly 25% in the first half of 1964. These were general factors that hindered the production of the entire Hungarian industry: the unusually harsh winter of 1963/64, which led to power outages due to the lack of coal and forced restrictions on the industry's energy consumption, frequent transportation difficulties [184] , frequent material shortages, warehouse shortages, limited capacity in the finished product and assembly rooms, and many voluntary departures due to difficult working conditions and low wages. Another factor in the high turnover was that people were first sent on forced leave as a result of the shutdown due to disorganization, which later led to work overload and then to overtime to make up for lost production. Understandably, neither one nor the other caused undivided enthusiasm among the employees. [185]
The commissioning of the modern sheet metal processing line in Győr was delayed, and in addition, the design of the line was not based on systematic thinking, so the capacity of the technology preceding the line proved insufficient to service the modern line, and therefore the performance of the machine system could only be partially utilized. [186]
The leaders of the county party committee regularly reported the factors hindering production to the competent departments of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) and to party leaders visiting the county, such as István Szurdi, the secretary of the Central Committee responsible for industry. [187] The party apparatus forwarded the list of complaints to the ministries, where easily solvable problems were quickly remedied, while in other cases, for objective reasons, often citing irresponsible management of the companies concerned, they either did not help or took organizational measures as a superficial solution. The government's Economic Committee tried to help with the lack of assembly space by attaching the Komárom County Wood Industry Company, which originally specialized in the production of wooden nails and later produced furniture legs, to the Cardó Furniture Factory on 1 January 1964. The real solution, however, was to expand the company's own warehouse and service capacity, which was repeatedly delayed compared to the original plans due to the overloading of the construction industry and the chronic shortage of building materials. The expansion of the assembly plant and warehouse was completed by the end of 1964, greatly facilitating the continuous work. [188]
Upholstered furniture for bedroom sets was not produced in Győr until the second half of the 1960s. For this reason, consumers had difficulty finding a sofa that matched the color of their Cardo furniture. The factory management helped solve the problem by temporarily setting up an upholstery workshop in an old warehouse building – not very ideal in terms of working conditions – where they began producing upholstered sofas in early April 1965. [189] The epeda spring insert of the sofas could be turned over at night, so that the fabric did not wear out while lying down. [190] The upholstery workshop also produced armchairs in a combination of fabric and artificial leather for the Rába and Firenze living rooms from 1967. [191] The practical training workshop for upholstery students was completed in the summer of 1981, where the students could learn the practical skills of the profession in modern conditions. [192] The factory had been providing practical training for apprentice cabinetmakers for almost three decades, and in 1983 they received a new, well-equipped three-story workshop. [193]
In the months leading up to the introduction of the new economic mechanism on 1 January 1968, panic buying began in the country, as rumors spread that the price of furniture classified as free prices would increase by 1.5-2 times. [194] The indirect control system primarily created greater autonomy for companies producing consumer goods, the opportunity and obligation to take greater account of consumer needs, more flexible adaptation to demand, and the wider application of free prices. Cardó was granted independent sales rights on 1 July 1969. From then on, they also sold their products directly in their shop on the factory premises. [195] In the early 1970s, a showroom was established next to the shop, where interested parties could get to know the planned products and express their opinions on the new designs. Potential and actual buyers could go directly from the exhibition hall to the furniture store, where they could purchase the factory's products and countless furniture and home furnishing accessories. Experts from the factory and Butorért Vállalat were happy to give home furnishing advice to those interested. The commercial department and furniture designers were located on the first floor of the furniture store. [196]
The factory was a regular participant in the Budapest International Fair and the Otthon home furnishing exhibition until the end of the 1980s. At the 1969 Budapest International Fair, they presented several new products, such as the Cardo 69 bedroom furniture, which also included two couches with bed linen holders, where polyurethane foam was used instead of a spring for the first time in the country. The factory's dual-function telescopic table, which served as a coffee table in its basic position and as an 8-seater dining table when raised, attracted great interest. [197] The quality of the factory's products was considered good not only by traders but also by consumers; all five of their products entered for the Otthon '74 exhibition received the Excellent Goods Forum award. [198]
The most significant development of the socialist era took place in the early 1970s, when two steel-framed production halls were built simultaneously on the factory premises. These housed the presses, sheet-cutting and other machines, and the space vacated on the floor of the old production hall was used to house Italian-made surface treatment and grain-pressing equipment, which allowed them to shape the patterns of their furniture panels virtually at will. [199]
Due to unsatisfied domestic demand, they could hardly think of exporting for a long time, but from the mid-1960s, furniture exports to the West (Belgian, English, French) and the East (Soviet) resumed on a modest scale. The combined wardrobes supplied to the French were popular with consumers there, so foreign traders also ordered chests of drawers from the Győr factory. A much larger business was hidden in children's and youth furniture, which Cardó produced under long-term production contracts with West German companies. [200] They also found a market in Austria with their children's and youth furniture family with the fancy name Dominó. [201] In 1981, Cardó shipped upholstered furniture to Western Europe for the first time since its establishment. The West German Republic ordered a larger quantity of the Salvador set, consisting of a sofa and two armchairs, from the Győr factory. [202] In the years immediately preceding the change of regime, the Scandinavian countries also became buyers of Cardo furniture. [203] Western exports naturally necessitated the constant development of machinery and equipment, as well as the mechanization of material handling.
They made a name for themselves mainly by supplying hotel furniture to the former Soviet Union. They furnished an 11-story hotel in Baku with furniture from Győr, which was Cardó's first major public delivery after the war. In the hope of further Soviet orders, Cardó became a frequent participant in furniture exhibitions held in the Soviet Union from the early 1970s. [204] The experience gained here also played a role in the fact that Cardó Furniture Factory was asked to manufacture the guest room furnishings of the Hotel Klastrom, built in the former Carmelite monastery building in Győr, based on custom designs. [205]
The Hungarian and Eastern European furniture market situation changed radically in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The real income of the population decreased due to inflation approaching double digits, and demand fell most notably for non-essential items, such as furniture. In 1983, for example, the effective demand for furniture decreased by about 6% compared to two years earlier. The following year, the decline in furniture purchases continued, and as a result, the factory's products could not be sold in full, and an emergency warehouse had to be rented to store the unsold, accumulated finished products. After this was also full, in the first half of 1985, a step unknown since human memory was taken: the factory, with the exception of one unit, had to be shut down for a week. [206] The furniture factories were forced to face the loss of their previously favorable position. The demand market was replaced by a supply market, fewer panel apartments were built, which changed the composition of the demand for furniture. The stagnation of the standard of living, and even its fall in large social groups, pushed back the previous 10-12-year furniture replacement cycle by an average of 2-3 years. All this prompted some members of the First Furniture Industry Association founded in 1968, including Cardó, to unite in a new form of cooperation and create a new association, which aimed to limit competition to a certain extent, operate a joint furniture store in a representative location in the capital, exploit the benefits of cooperation, and increase exports. [207]
Cardó had to adapt to the changed and increasingly polarized demand, to the growing need for cheap furniture. The production structure had to be adjusted to the new circumstances. The Kapri wardrobe line was produced in a Yugoslav cooperation for the demanding consumers with higher incomes. However, the mass demand was represented by the owners of housing estate apartments with an average size of 45-50 square meters. In the difficult economic situation before the change of regime, they did everything they could to popularize their furniture and win the favor of customers. They abandoned the BNV, which had become more of an exhibition and less of a fair, and instead increased the number of furniture fairs, presentations and fairs held in the factory, schools and cultural centers. From the producer's side, adaptation was greatly hampered by the constant rise in costs (raw materials, energy) and the increasing central withdrawal due to the deteriorating state of the state budget, which led to the withdrawal of an ever-increasing part of the profit and thus a decrease in the development fund. [208] This may have also played a role in the fact that in 1985 the Cardó Furniture Factory sold its Tata factory unit and purchased the hardwood products produced there from cooperatives, corporate GMKs, and subsidiary branches of production cooperatives. [209] The approximately fifty workers working there were partly taken over by the parent factory, and partly helped to find work.
After the law allowing the transformation of state-owned companies was issued, Cardo Furniture Factory was transformed into a limited liability company (Kft) in June 1992 (Cardo Furniture Manufacturing and Trading Limited Liability Company), the share capital of which was shared by the state (93.2%), the Győr Municipality (6.7%) and the Tata Municipality (0.1%). In the first years after the change of regime, Cardo's management did everything in its power to find a market for their increasingly difficult-to-sell furniture. Western exports accounted for only a small portion of the output, and the furniture and beds had to be placed here. Therefore, they tried to sell the products in about 300 furniture stores in Hungary and employed 6 salespeople who traveled the country to find a market for the furniture. [210] Their short-term campaign, in which they gave away two annual theater passes to anyone who purchased furniture worth more than 100,000 HUF in the factory's flagship store, served primarily to raise awareness. [211]
On behalf of the State Property Agency, Dunaholdin Rt. announced the sale of the state-owned share of the limited liability company at the end of 1992. [212] The company's employees and the two local governments did not exercise their pre-emptive right, so the Győr furniture factory was purchased by an Israeli professional investor. [213] The privatization tender, by the way, preferred a professional investor who would preserve the company's basic profile and continue to operate the enterprise. According to press reports, the 93.2% state-owned share of the Cardo Furniture Factory was acquired by the Israeli furniture factory Aminach Holdin Ltd. for HUF 80 million (essentially in land rent). The proportions were a repeat of the case that occurred during the Great Depression, when the wood industry joint-stock company was acquired by the Cardo and Győr city governments for a fraction of the share capital. The low purchase price was placed in one pan of the balance sheet, and the promise of the buyer, Israel's largest upholstery company, to invest several times the purchase price in the Győr factory in a short time, was placed in the other. [214] Aminach brought a world-class mattress license, capital, modern machinery and, above all, international market connections and knowledge to the marriage. The foreign investor retained and at the same time supplemented Cardo's production profile with the production of world-class mattresses and new types of reclining furniture. Today, the output ratios have shifted in favor of upholstered furniture and mattresses manufactured under the American license, in accordance with market demand. [215] The production profile was expanded in 1995 to include the production of office furniture. [216] The immediate painful consequence of privatization was a reduction in the factory's workforce by a fifth and a radical reduction in social responsibility not directly related to production. [217]
Unlike a number of old companies in Győr, Cardo Furniture Factory, despite changing its name and partly its profile, at least survived the change of regime and has remained on the market to this day.
[1] Bedy Vince: Additions to the history of Győr industry. Győri Szemle, vol. 12, 1941, pp. 116-117.
[2] Counties and cities of Hungary. Győr County. Edited by Borovszky Ambrus, Budapest é. n. (1908) pp. 124-130.
[3] The operation of the joint machine shop of the Győr Industrial Association was supported by the Minister of Trade, Ferenc Kossuth, with state aid of 20,000 crowns. (Czipész Szaklap, June 1, 1909, No. 11)
[4] Originally, they wanted to install iron industry machinery, but in the end, they only purchased leather and wood industry machinery. (Győri Vasárnapi Újság, April 1, 1906)
[5] Magyar Ipar, February 4, 1923, No. 2.
[6] Counties and cities of Hungary. Győr County. Edited by Borovszky Ambrus, Budapest é. n. (1908) p. 217.
[7] Transdanubia Newspaper, April 8, 1916, April 24, 1917.
[8] These three companies are the Győr Distillery, Graboplast and Cardo. There are also a few other factories that have survived the centenary, but either do not operate in their original location, such as the wagon factory, or only some of the buildings remain, in which they perform tasks completely different from their original function, such as the Silk Factory, the Hungarian Cannon Factory and the Richards Fine Powder Factory.
[9] Hungarian National Archives Győr-Moson-Sopron County Archives (hereinafter: MNL GyMSMGyL). Commercial court documents. Documents of the Győr Timber Industry and Timber Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the founding general meeting of the Győr Timber Industry and Timber Trading Co. on July 17, 1916.
[10] Great Hungarian Compass 48/2. 1920. p. 477.
[11] Central Bulletin, No. 83, October 15, 1916, p. 1420. Győr Court, archive number 214.
[12] Győri Hírlap, August 17, 1918.
[13] Győr factories and companies. Historical summaries. Manuscript, Győr 1971. p. 159.
[14] Hatschek's Ede carpentry shop went bankrupt in the spring of 1914, the bankruptcy estate was estimated at 50,000 crowns. (Győri Hírlap, May 26, 1914)
[15] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration Documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the first ordinary general meeting of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. on June 22, 1918.
[16] Győri Hírlap, August 17, 1918.
[17] Győr factories and companies. Historical summaries. Manuscript, Győr 1971. p. 159.
[18] Győri Hírlap, April 27, 1920.
[19] Fejér County Archives. Documents of the Government Commissioner of the Transdanubian District 10 761/1919. Published: Selected documents for the history of the Győr-Sopron county workers' movement 1919-1928. Győr, 1979. pp. 95-96.
[20] Győri Hírlap, April 27, 1920.
[21] Fejér County Archives. Documents of the Government Commissioner of the Transdanubian District 10 761/1919. Published: Selected documents for the history of the Győr-Sopron county workers' movement 1919-1928. Győr, 1979. pp. 95-96. See also: MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registry documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the ordinary general meeting of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1920. April 1.
[22] Great Hungarian Compass 48/2. 1920. p. 477.
[23] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. 1916-1932. Minutes of the ordinary general meeting of the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. of August 25, 1922. Report of the board of directors of August 10, 1922.
[24] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Decision of the board of directors of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. of June 26, 1922.
[25] Győri Hírlap, April 27, 1920.
[26] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the general meeting of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. of July 17, 1921.
[27] Győri Hírlap, January 18, 1919.
[28] The loss was 22,039.19 crowns. (MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration Documents. Documents of the Győr Timber Industry and Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the general meeting of the Győr Timber Industry and Trading Co. of February 15, 1920.)
[29] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the ordinary general meeting of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. of April 1, 1920.
[30] The share capital, which had been reduced by 15%, was immediately increased to its original value by issuing new shares. (MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. 1916-1932. Minutes of the general meeting of the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. of July 17, 1921.)
[31] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration Documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Report of the board of directors of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. dated June 30, 1925.
[32] Great Hungarian Compass 1928. 52/2. p. 282.
[33] Contemporary sources classified Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt as part of the Hungarian Discount and Exchange Bank. The Győri Hírlap, for example, writes that the Hungarian Discount and Exchange Bank and the Hungarian General Real Estate Bank expanded their interests in the furniture industry and “also included the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. in their sphere of interest.” (Győri Hírlap, April 27, 1920) However, this did not mean that the bank sought to acquire a majority stake in the company and control its daily operations. This was a relationship based on mutual benefits and trust, in which the bank handled the financial affairs of the companies in its sphere of interest, granted loans, settled bills of exchange, managed their deposits, and safeguarded their shares, in return for which it expected, and even demanded, that the company maintain its current account with the given bank, which could thus be aware of the liquidity and financial stability of the company taking out the loan on a daily basis. It was also not uncommon for the bank to delegate its trusted financial experts to the company in its sphere of interest in order to obtain first-hand information about the company's management and financial situation. (MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registry Documents. Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. Documents 1916-1932. Minutes of the extraordinary general meeting of Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Részvénytársaság on April 21, 1920.)
[34] In the spring of 1925, 60,000 of the 75,000 shares were owned by the two Viennese entrepreneurs, Sajeg, Sorel and Herczog, and Oppenheimer Co. Pollack was an Austrian textile manufacturer, the identities of the other major investors are unknown at this time. We suspect that, like Pollack, they were not professional, but rather financial investors. (MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration Documents. Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. Documents 1916-1932. Minutes of the extraordinary general meeting of Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. on April 15, 1925.)
[35] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration Documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the extraordinary general meeting of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. of April 11, 1928.
[36] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the ordinary general meeting of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. on April 30, 1925.
[37] Gyula Szeghalmy: Transdanubian Counties. Villages of Győr County. Budapest, 1938. p. 744. See also: Hungarian Financial Compass 1923/24. Part II. Budapest, Apollló 1924. p. 198.
[38] Jenő Vágó, a wholesaler of coal and firewood, had warehouses in all the major cities of the country. The entrepreneur, who employed 350 people in his nationwide commercial network, made enormous profits.
[39] The Evening, July 2, 1929.
[40] The Evening, July 4, 1929.
[41] Győri Hírlap, July 13, 1929.
[42] The real purchasing value of dividends paid in the increasingly depreciating crown between 1923 and 1925 was low. After the transition to accounting and settlement in pengó, dividends of 1.50-1.50 pengó were paid to shareholders in 1926 and 1927. (Nagy Magyar Compass 52/2 (1928) p. 282.
[43] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győr Woodworking and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the general meeting of the Győr Woodworking and Wood Trading Co. of October 11, 1929.
[44] They owned 14,831 of the company's 15,000 shares at that time, meaning their two votes were decisive.
[45] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the general meeting of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. of July 25, 1930.
[46] Great Hungarian Compass 54/2. 1930. p. 244.
[47] Central Bulletin, September 11, 1930, No. 37, p. 692.
[48] MNL GyMSMGyL Court of Registration Documents. Documents of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. 1916-1932. Minutes of the general meetings of the Győr Wood Industry and Wood Trading Co. of August 28, 1931, December 13, 1932 and March 3, 1934.
[49] Győri Hírlap, July 15, 1929.
[50] Népszava, 1930, January 16.
[51] The Budapest coal and firewood merchant and veneer manufacturer Jenő Vágó was one of the richest men in the country, regularly ranking high on the list of the highest taxpayers. In 1935, he earned 102,000 pengő from fuel trading, and thus his name is found among the virile men of the capital. His assets invested in securities alone were estimated at 1.8 million pengő. (Újság, 3 August 1935. See also: Magyar Hírlap, 2 February 2009.)
[52] Népszava, July 2, 1930.
[53] Győri Hírlap, June 28, 1930.
[54] Archives of the City of Győr with County Rights (hereinafter: GyMJVL) Meeting of the General Assembly of the City of Győr with County Rights of June 30, 1930. Agenda No. 122. pp. 113-116. Assumption of an interest in the industrial site of Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt. for the purpose of taking over the plant. Győri Hírlap, July 1, 1930.
[55] Honi Ipar, July 15, 1930.
[56] Győri Hírlap, July 2, 1930, Győri Hírlap, August 9, 1930, Dunántúli Hírlap, August 21, 1930.
[57] The National Hungarian Industrial Mortgage Institution was established as a 100% state-owned institution by Act XXI of 1928, with the sole task of providing mortgage loans to industrial companies.
[58] MNL GyMSMGyL Records of the Grand Duke, No. 37/1930.
[59] Letter of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Trade to the Governor of Hungary, February 10, 1930. (MNL GyMSMGyL Governor's Documents, No. 37/1930)
[60] MNL GyMSMGyL Governor's Documents No. 579/1930. Letter from the Governor to Minister of Public Welfare Vass, dated August 28, 1930.
[61] MNL GyMSMGyL Governor's Documents No. 630/1930. Letter from the Governor to the Minister of Trade dated September 22, 1930.
[62] MNL GyMSMGyL Governor's Documents No. 717/1930. Letter from the Governor to the Minister of Finance dated 22 October 1930.
[63] At the official dollar/pengő exchange rate, this amount was equivalent to approximately 400,000 pengő. (Kis Újság, November 1, 1930)
[64] Népszava, October 31, 1930. This price was extremely advantageous even if Faipari Rt was carrying a burden of 1.6 million pengő. The factory's land alone was more than 6 acres, and its assets were estimated at 2,250,000 pengő at the time of bankruptcy. (Dunántúli Hírlap, September 4, 1931.)
[65] Hungarian Financial Compass, Volume 1, 1923-1924. Supplement. Budapest, 1924. p. 1035.
[66] Economic, financial and stock exchange compass 1925-1926 p. 586, ibid. 1927-1929 p. 372 and ibid. 1930-1931. Volumes 3-4 p. 161.
[67] Pesti Hírlap, April 15, 1928.
[68] Those members of the municipal council who agreed with Dr. Lajos Drobni's argument disputed the usefulness of the proposal. They argued that the number of workers employed by the restarted factory was not nearly so high as to make it worth taking on the risk inherent in the venture. However, the majority of the municipal council members voted for the city's participation in the revival of the furniture factory. (Esti Kurir, November 9, 1930)
[69] GyMJVL Győr City Council General Assembly meeting of November 5, 1934, agenda no. 172. Proposal for setting a new deadline for repaying the loan taken out of the capital to purchase Cardo shares. pp. 195-196.
[70] Pesti Napló, October 31, 1930.
[71] In Miskolc, the city gave a loan of 50,000 pengő to restart the Aczél woodworking factory, provided that the company employed at least 60 workers. However, this was not a partnership, but a loan. (Honi Ipar, January 1, 1932)
[72] MNL GyMSMGyL Governor's Documents No. 376/1930. Letter from the Governor to the Minister of the Interior dated 30 October 1930.
[73] GyMJVL Extraordinary meeting of the general assembly of the city of Győr, October 29, 1930. Resolution No. 186 on the establishment of the Győri Faipari és Faértékesítő Rt., pp. 184-187.
[74] Evening Kurir, November 9, 1930.
[75] MNL GyMSMGyL Győr Industrial Association documents, 1930. 7th batch. No. 802/1930. Request of the Győr Carpenters' Section in the case of the Győr furniture factory, June 30, 1930.
[76] MNL GyMSMGyL Győr Industrial Council documents, 1930. 9. lot 1283/1930. No. Letter of the carpentry department of the Industrial Council to the Industrial Council dated 22 October 1930, whose chairman forwarded it to the mayor of the city, Ferenc Szauter, on 23 October 1930. They argued that the long-standing unemployment among carpenters and the misery of a hopeless winter “can really give rise to such despair, the effects and consequences of which are almost incalculable”. See also: MNL GyMSMGyL Győr Industrial Council documents, 1930. 9. lot 1349/1930. 3 November. Letter of the National Handicraft Council to the Industrial Council.
[77] City Newspaper, December 15, 1930.
[78] On March 26, 1931, the city assembly delegated Géza Éberth and Ferenc Mézáros to the board of directors of Cardó, and István Leitner to the supervisory board. (GyMJVL Győr szab. kir. city assembly meeting of March 26, 1931, agenda 29. pp. 31-32.
[79] Győri Hírlap, December 10, 1930.
[80] Győri Hírlap, December 17, 1930.
[81] Honi Ipar, February 1, 1930. A little more than two dozen workers prepared the factory for restart. (Győri Hírlap, January 14, 1931.)
[82] Győri Hírlap, February 20, 1930. Honi Ipar, March 1, 1930.
[83] Transdanubia Newspaper, September 4, 1931.
[84] Hungarian furniture factories exported 5.3 million pengő worth of furniture in 1930, which fell to 830 thousand pengő by 1932. Within this, exports to Austria decreased from 1.2 million pengő in 1931 to half a million in 1932. (Honi Ipar, December 15, 1932)
[85] Transdanubia Newspaper, January 8, 1933.
[86] Városok Lapja, December 1, 1932. Győri Hírlap, November 19, 1932.
[87] Transdanubian Monday Newspaper, January 2, 1933.
[88] Budapest Newspaper, January 30, 1936.
[89] Economic and Transport Correspondent, June 30, 1937.
[90] Report on the economic conditions of the Győr Chamber of Commerce District in 1937. Published by the Győr Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Győr é. n. pp. 29-30.
[91] Report and Statistical Yearbook on the operation of the Hungarian Government in 1928 and the public conditions of the country. Budapest, Athenaeum 1930. p. 142.
[92] Iván T. Berend – György Ránki: Hungary's manufacturing industry before and during World War II, 1933–1944. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1958. pp. 505-506.
[93] Honi Ipar, October 15, 1933.
[94] Honi Ipar, January 1, 1934.
[95] Budapest Newspaper, December 11, 1934.
[96] Népszava, January 25, 1934.
[97] Within this, excluding the eight group leaders, the average hourly wage of carpenters was 48.7 fillér, that of machine workers was 42 fillér, and that of paint workers was 26 fillér. Let us not forget that these were mostly extremely difficult, accident-prone, and unhealthy jobs requiring great expertise and experience. (Népszava, September 12, 1937)
[98] At that time, working hours and wages were freely negotiated between the worker and the employer. The length of working hours and minimum wages were only regulated by law and government decree in the second half of the 1930s.
[99] GyMJVL Győr City Hall Administrative Documents, 1934-VII. 151. cs. 1831/1934. no.
[100] GyMJVL Győr City Administrative Records, Mayor's Office, 1934-VII. 151. cs. 1831/1934. No. Memoranda of the hearing of February 14, 1934.
[101] Transdanubia Newspaper, November 4, 1934.
[102] Trade Union Bulletin, 1935. No. 1. New Generation, August 13, 1935.
[103] Archives of the Institute of Political History, (hereinafter: PIL) 651. f. 2/1937. 7-569 főispáni 7/res. Strictly confidential report of 1 March 1937. Labor policy situation, submission to the Minister of the Interior.
[104] Győri Hírlap, September 25, 1937.
[105] Népszava, September 7, 1937.
[106] PIL 651. f. 6/1937-III-295/133-202., Győri Hírlap, September 7, 1937, Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, September 8, 1937.
[107] This claim was also confirmed by Népszava. (See Népszava, September 7, 1937.)
[108] Győri Hírlap, September 21, 1937.
[109] Győri Hírlap, September 25, 1937.
[110] Népszava, September 12, 1937.
[111] Győri Hírlap, September 21, 1937.
[112] Based on the proposal of the board, the wages of about 350 workers would have increased by 6-8%, and those of 103 workers by 4-5%. (PIL 651. f. 6/1937-III-295/203-295, report of October 1, 1937.) See also: Győri Hírlap, September 19, 1937.
[113] Népszava, September 23, 1937.
[114] PIL 651. f. 6/1937.IV-295/203.295, report of October 15, 1937. See also: PIL Hg-55 Recollections of Kálmán Dugár.
[115] Győr National Newspaper, January 23, 1937.
[116] Dr. Géza Újlaki: What is being prepared in Győr? In: Győri Kalendárium for the leap year 1940. Published by: József Szép. Győr, é. n. p. 114.
[117] GyMJVL Győr száb. kir. city assembly meeting of June 9, 1938, mayoral announcement no. 86. pp. 57-58. Two members of the Cardó board of directors delegated by the city, mayor Gyula Späth and technical advisor Imre Farkas, waived the honorarium for their membership of the furniture factory board of directors.
[118] Hungarian Wings, April 1, 1939.
[119] From 1937 onwards, the country's international balance of payments allowed the repayment of foreign loans, frozen in 1931, to be partially resumed in convertible currency. However, this was often conditional on foreign creditors purchasing Hungarian goods for part of the repayments. This was referred to in contemporary economic literature as additional exports.
[120] Report on the economic conditions of the Győr Chamber District in 1937. Published by the Győr Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Győr, é. n. p. 29.
[121] The usual form of export support was the devaluation of the national currency. A debtor country (and Hungary was one of them) could not use the open devaluation of its own currency, because this would have increased the value of its foreign currency debt in national currency. Therefore, debtor countries – including Hungary – encouraged exports by implicitly devaluation of their own currency, by paying currency premiums while leaving the official exchange rate unchanged.
[122] Hungarian Wood Trader, August 4, 1938.
[123] Győr National Newspaper, May 26, 1938.
[124] Due to the cessation of exports to England, Cardo was forced to reduce its production. (Ferenc Völgyi: The economic life of Győr from 1867 to the present. Győr, 1940. p. 56.
[125] Similar to the organization of the English market, sample furniture was first delivered to Switzerland, and when this was liked by the customers there, a larger order was subsequently received. (Honi Ipar, 15 March, 15 May 1943)
[126] MNL OL XIX-A-16-i 13. d. Some questions of the development and situation of the furniture industry. Prepared by: Zoltán Botka and Gyula Rimóci. Reviewed by: István Bódogh, Károly Vargha. Closed: November 1958.
[127] MNL OL XIX-A-16-i 13. d. Some questions of the development and situation of the furniture industry. Prepared by: Zoltán Botka and Gyula Rimóci. Reviewed by: István Bódogh, Károly Vargha. Closed: November 1958.
[128] Hungarian Economy, July 6, 1939.
[129] Honi Ipar, August 15, 1939.
[130] National Newspaper, July 1, 1933.
[131] Győr Biographical Encyclopedia https://www.gyorikonyvtar.hu/gyel/index.php/Kezd%C5%91lap
[132] Hungarian Economy, 1939. No. 1.
[133] Kisalföld, May 7, 1992.
[134] Camilló Gallyas: Győr, the ruined city, wants to live! Győregyházmegyei Alap Nyomda, Győr, 1948.
[135] Győr plants and companies. Historical summaries. Manuscript, Győr 1971. p. 160.
[136] Independent Smallholder, February 4, 1947.
[137] In 1946, the authorities permitted the extraction of 1.5 million cubic meters of wood, compared to an estimated 4 million cubic meters of extraction, of which at least 1.5 million cubic meters was illegal logging or logging.
[138] The June 4, 1947 issue of the newspaper Világ reported that the state wanted to contribute to the reorganization and reconstruction of Cardo by assuming a 50% stake and providing loans, and to starting the export of 4,000 bedroom furniture units per year to England.
[139] Győri Újság, January 9, 1948, 22.
[140] The victim of this witch hunt was the Social Democratic State Secretary for Industry, Gyula Kelemen, who was also a member of parliament and was accused primarily in the cases surrounding Péti Nitrogénművek and Nitrokémia. Klement himself was called upon by the SZDP Political Committee to resign from his position as State Secretary and his parliamentary mandate. (Friss Újság, January 23, 1948)
[141] Népszava, January 15, 1948.
[142] For the Hegyeshalm incident and the expulsion of the Hungarian restitution committee operating in the American occupation zone, see: János Honvári: Hungary as a “bad-faith author”? The transfer of domestic Austrian (German) property to the Soviet Union. Historical Review, 2013. No. 1. pp. 119-144.
[143] Of the assets exported by Cardo, 12 wagons of woodworking machines, 31 electric motors and a certain amount of raw materials were returned to the Győr factory in the summer of 1951 in connection with the Vogeler case. (MNL OL M-KS 276. f. 65/284. ö. e. Minister of Finance Károly Olt's submission to Mátyás Rákosi on 16 August 1951 on the report of the committee sent to restitution of Hungarian assets exported to the FRG.) For the Vogeler case, see: János Honvári: The Vofeler case. Valóság 2010. 7. no. 20-52. pp.
[144] The inter-ministerial investigation committee complained that Cardó was pushing for unprofitable Western exports, while Eastern European states, including the Soviet Union, were ready to buy large quantities of furniture. (Szabad Nép, January 16, 1948)
[145] The country absolutely needed a certain amount of convertible currency from Western exports, almost regardless of the cost of production.
[146] We do not know whether this transaction actually took place, but in any case, the newspaper A Világ reported in the summer of 1947 that the Cardó would be rebuilt with a 50% state interest and loans and put back into the service of British exports. (Világ, June 4, 1947)
[147] It is not yet clear when the Pestszentlőrinc site came into the ownership or lease of Cardo. In any case, after Cardó was taken over by the state, the Győmrői Road warehouse was given to the BSZKRT, where a bus repair workshop was set up. (Autó, 15 March 1948, No. 2)
[148] Free People, January 22, 1948.
[149] Győr Biographical Encyclopedia on-line.
[150] Győr factories and companies. Historical summaries. Manuscript, Győr 1971. p. 160.
[151] Magyar Ipar, October 10, 1948, No. 18. Its location remained unchanged in Gyárváros, but its address changed because the street named after János Teleszky, the former finance minister of the dualist Hungarian state, was renamed Fehér György Street after the war.
[152] It is characteristic that after the nationalization, it took more than a decade for the factory workers' changing room and bath to be built. In this dusty, smelly factory, the only place to wash was at the tap in the yard, and the changing room was a dilapidated wooden barrack, which the officer's doctor considered unsuitable for its purpose. The factory washroom and changing room were finally completed only by the end of 1958. (Kisalföld, October 6, 1957, November 12, 1958.) The small diameter water pipe in the factory town caused a constant water shortage, the factories literally stole water from each other, and the population stocked up when there was pressure. Cardó was only able to use the workers' washroom that had just been built by building a water tank, collecting water in it when the system was suitable for this, and providing water pressure for washing from the tank. (Kisalföld, June 6, 1959)
[153] Győr factories and companies. Historical summaries. Manuscript, Győr 1971. p. 163.
[154] Fa, March 20, 1948, No. 5-6. MALLERD is the abbreviation of the Hungarian State Forestry Enterprises.
[155] Based on the government's resolution No. 422/1949, the Cardó Furniture Factory, founded from the Cardó Wood Industry and Furniture Trading Co. Ltd. and under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry, had the profile of wood products and furniture manufacturing. (Magyar Közlöny – Hivatalos Lap, 3 June 1949, No. 117, p. 2.
[156] Light Industry Bulletin, August 24, 1963, No. 34, p. 351.
[157] Free People, January 7, 1950.
[158] MNL OL XIX-A-16-i 13. d. Some questions of the development and situation of the furniture industry. Prepared by: Zoltán Botka and Gyula Rimóci. Reviewed by: István Bódogh, Károly Vargha. Closed: November 1948.
[159] In 1957, the C VI bedroom furniture cost 5836 HUF, and the C XI 6990 HUF. (Kisalföld, December 6, 1957)
[160] Népszava, September 9, 1950.
[161] In the early 1970s, fully furnishing a one-and-a-half-room apartment in a housing estate for 3 people cost about 25-28 thousand HUF, and for 4 people it cost 30-33 thousand HUF. Few could afford to spend such a large sum on furnishing their home while starting a family, starting a career, and buying a home.
[162] Friss Újság, March 2, 1950, Népszava, March 2, 1950.
[163] Light Industry Bulletin, January 27, 1952, No. 4, p. 38.
[164] In the Eastern European satellite countries, after the Soviet-sponsored economic policy reversal called the “new phase” introduced after Stalin’s death, consumer price cuts were implemented several times, which also affected furniture. Despite this, two types of combination wardrobes manufactured by Cardó at this time cost 2922 and 3858 HUF, and a complete bedroom set consisting of two wardrobes, a bed, a bedside table and a dressing table cost 5831 HUF. In 1950, skilled metalworkers in a privileged position in terms of income earned 8-900 HUF, carpenters 650-700 HUF, primary school teachers and kindergarten teachers 550-600 HUF, and midwives 320-350 HUF per month. Let us add that the average income at that time had hardly any savings, as 50-60% of wages were consumed by food, and the rest by fuel, housing maintenance, etc. (Szabad Nép, October 4, 1953)
[165] MNL OL XIX-A-16-i 13. d. Some questions of the development and situation of the furniture industry. Prepared by: Zoltán Botka and Gyula Rimóci. Reviewed by: István Bódogh, Károly Vargha. Closed: November 1948.
[166] See, for example, Esti Budapest, October 3, 1953.
[167] Népszava, October 17, 1953.
[168] Kisalföld, February 9, 1957.
[169] Kisalföld, January 19, 1957.
[170] The 18 state (ministerial) furniture factories had a total of 251,103 square meters of factory space in 1958. Of this, Győr Cardo had 28,202 square meters (only the Debrecen Curved Furniture Factory had a larger area, 34,355 square meters). Only 12.5% of Cardo's premises were built on that year (3,512 square meters), leaving plenty of room for further development. (MNL OL XIX-A-16-i 13. d. Some questions of the development and situation of the furniture industry. Prepared by: Zoltán Botka and Gyula Rimóci. Reviewed by: István Bódogh, Károly Vargha. Closed: November 1948.)
[171] The number of workers at Cardo between 1951 and 1958 was as follows: 222, 233, 261, 226, 195, 190, 205, 207.
[172] MNL OL XIX-A-16-i 13. d. Some questions of the development and situation of the furniture industry. Prepared by: Zoltán Botka and Gyula Rimóci. Reviewed by: István Bódogh, Károly Vargha. Closed: November 1948.
[173] Dr. Imre Göcsei: The commuting of industrial workers in Győr. Geographical Bulletin, 1966. p. 70.
[174] Győr plants and companies. Historical summaries. Manuscript, Győr 1971. p. 160.
[175] MNL OL XIX-A-16-i 13. d. Some questions of the development and situation of the furniture industry. Prepared by: Zoltán Botka and Gyula Rimóci. Reviewed by: István Bódogh, Károly Vargha. Closed: November 1948.
[176] Népszabadság, June 13, 1958, Magyar Nemzet, June 13, 1958.
[177] Kisalföld, December 5, 1958.
[178] Népszabadság, August 2, 1959.
[179] Light Industry Bulletin, January 31, 1958, 3-4, no. 19, p.
[180] Kisalföld, July 20, 1958.
[181] Kisalföld, October 2, 1959.
[182] Kisalföld, May 15, 1962.
[183] Kisalföld, November 28, 1962.
[184] During the decades of socialism – especially during the peak autumn transport – wagon shortages were common. In the autumn of 1965, for example, instead of the 10 wagons ordered on time from MÁV per day, they received only 1 wagon per day for several weeks. As a result, the finished furniture occupied all the rooms of the factory (from the yard to the warehouses to the offices and the dining room). (Kisalföld, 25 September 1965.
[185] Kisalföld, January 30, 1964.
[186] Kisalföld, January 26, 1964.
[187] MNL OL M-KS 288. f. 26/1964. 75. s. e. Memoir to Comrade Szurdi on his visit to Győr County, 10 April 1964. Ibid. 77. s. e. Letter of the county first secretary Ferenc Lombos to the Industrial Department of the Central Committee of the MSZMP dated 28 September 1964. Ibid. 15. s. e. Letter of the Győr-Sopron County Committee of the MSZMP to the Industrial Department of the Central Committee of the MSZMP dated 1 February 1965.
[188] Kisalföld, November 28, 1964.
[189] Kisalföld, September 7, 1965.
[190] Kisalföld, May 9, 1965.
[191] Kisalföld, March 23, 1967.
[192] Kisalföld, June 30, 1981.
[193] Esti Hírlap, January 18, 1982. Kisalföld, March 6, 1983.
[194] Kisalföld, April 18, 1968,
[195] The first customers of the factory shop were primarily its own employees. (Kisalföld, August 14, 1969)
[196] Technical Life, February 28, 1975, No. 5. Kisalföld, May 14, 1971.
[197] Hungarian Newspaper, May 24, 1969.
[198] Kisalföld, September 8, 1973.
[199] Kisalföld, April 27, 1971,
[200] Due to the foreign trade monopoly, these cooperation contracts were concluded by the foreign trade company ARTEX with Western partners, which provided machines and production processes to Hungarian manufacturers, including Cardó. The Hungarian side paid by cutting 5-10% of the value of the furniture delivered. (Világgazdaság, May 20, 1977)
[201] Népszava, December 8, 1977.
[202] World Economy, March 3, 1981.
[203] Kisalföld, October 4, 1990.
[204] Népszava, May 17, 1973.
[205] Kisalföld, November 28, 1987.
[206] Kisalföld, July 11, 1985,
[207] The Association had a joint furniture store at 65 Rákóczi Street, District VII. (Figyelő, September 30, 1981)
[208] They saved costs in every possible way, for example in 1985 they put a long-unused mixed-fuel boiler back into operation, which was heated with wood chips and waste wood, thus producing 70-80% of the necessary steam themselves. (Esti Hírlap, March 28, 1985)
[209] World Economy, March 8, 1985.
[210] Kisalföld, February 27, 1995.
[211] Kisalföld, August 29, 1997.
[212] New Hungary, December 1, 1992.
[213] At the beginning of the privatization in Győr, Israeli investors (compared to German, American, etc. entrepreneurs) were hardly active. In addition to the purchase of the Cardo Furniture Factory, Israeli investors, the Engel Group, participated in the construction of a shopping center and a residential park on the former central site of the wagon factory. But this is typical of the entire foreign investment portfolio in Hungary, as Israelis rarely participated in the privatization of Hungarian property. In addition to the Cardo Furniture Factory, the Zalaegerszegi Hűtőipari Vállalat, the International Medical Center and some construction projects came into Israeli hands. (Figyelő, February 24, 1994.) Later, Israeli investors became important participants in tourism, large commercial shopping centers, plazas, and real estate businesses, and today they are considered the third largest foreign investors in Hungary.
[214] Kisalföld, April 27, 1993.
[215] Hungarian Newspaper, April 30, 1993.
[216] The 25-piece furniture family with the fancy name Gránit is designed specifically for office furniture. (Magyar Hírlap, May 2, 1995)
[217] Cardó's staff of 7-800 was reduced to 180 by 1995. However, the wages of those who remained increased by 70% in two years. (Kisalföld, February 27, 1995)
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