Hogyan lett Michael Mandukából báró Horváth Mihály?
How did Michael Manduka become Baron Mihály Horváth?

An 18th century Greek trader among the new aristocrats of Hungary

Summary/Abstract: In our study, we are attempting to place a lesser-known member of the 18th century Hungarian societal elite, Mihály Horváth, a trader from Gyöngyös, in the social, political, and economic environment in which he could become the first Orthodox trader to join the ranks of the Hungarian barons in 1794. Our study does not only aim to provide a biographical outline, but we also attempted to use the relevant material of the National Archives of Hungary, the Ráday Archives, the National Archives of Austria, and the Budapest City Archives to find out which factors made it possible for the subject of our study to have a career path atypical among the era's new aristocrats and Greek traders alike. During our research we partially discovered how the family originally known as Manduka, that most likely moved to the Habsburg Empire during the first half of the 18th century in order to leverage the benefits presented by the commercial treaties related to the Treaty of Passarowitz, accumulated its wealth and its relationships, as well as their movements within Hungary. We attempted to form questions about the strategy our subject had in his rise to prominence, and we also tried to answer these questions to the extent permitted by our incomplete source material. We could not form a full picture of Mihály Horváth's life due to our limited resources and the fragmental and unreliable nature of our sources. However, we could shed light on a prominent member of the late 18th century elite, whose career could have served as an example for the Greek traders who rose during the 19th century.

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