ACTA HISTORICA - A MTA TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNYI FOLYÓIRATA TOM. 26 (1980)

26. kötet / 1-2. sz. - ETUDES - V. BÁCSKAI-L. NAGY: Market Areas, Market Centres and Towns in Hungary in 1828

Market Areas, Market Centres and Towns in Hungary in 1828 by V. BÁCSKAI and L. NAGY Urban history does not correspond with the history of single towns, still less with the history of settlements identified as towns on the basis of their legal status. This statement has been the starting point of our study, the purpose of which has been to delineate the urban network of Hungary at the beginning of the 19th century.1 1. The aim of the study was, from the functional point of view, to define the network of settlements which, having a centred-place role at the beginning of the 19th century, can he considered as towns by virtue of their function as real central places and the strength and range of their function as markets. This we have done because previous definitions of a town used by Hungarian historians were based upon the settlement's legal status, the size of its popula­tion, and the proportion of its population engaged in trade and industry. Such definitions have proved inadequate. Those of scholars researching into towns from the functional point of view2 can be faulted for inconsistency: by and large they accept as towns all settlements legally incorporated as such; the functional principle is only applied in identifying certain other settlements as towns, and even then candidates are restricted to places with a population above a certain figure (2,000 or 10,000), without regard for the features and regional varia­tions of Hungary's settlement pattern in setting those limits. However, the weakest point of these lists of towns is that the settlements' fulfilment of the central-place role — or more precisely, their ability to fulfil it — is assessed only from their internal features (e.g., population, proportion of artisans, or administrative or cultural institutions). No attempt is made to gauge or de­scribe how these functions act upon a town's sphere of influence. 1 The territory we have called Hungary excludes the Principality of Transylvania, the Partium, Croatia-Slavonia, the Military Border Region, Fiume (Rijeka) and the Hungarian Adriatic Coast. 2 DÁVID, Zoltán: A városi népesség nagysága Magyarországon 1785-ben és 1828-ban (The size of Hungary's urban population in 1785 and 1828).Történeti Statisztikai Közlemények (Historico-statistical Publications), 1963/64, pp. 110—127; GYIMESI, Sándor: A városok a feudalizmusból a kapitalizmusba való átmenet időszakában (Towns in the period of transition from feudalism to capitalism), Budapest, 1975. Acta Hictorica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 26, 1980

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