„Iparkodjatok eggyek lenni!” Versengő iparegyletek Újvidéken 1860 és 1872 között
“Strive to Unite”: Competing Trade Associations in Újvidék between 1860 and 1872

Summary/Abstract: The study provides an overview and analysis of the attempts to reorganize the industrial society of the free royal town of Újvidék (Novi Sad) in the period between the launch of the 1860 trade regulations and the 1872 enactment of the first Industrial Code. By this time, the craft guild framework was exhausted and the freedom to pursue industry was guaranteed with certain limitations. In the economic situation usually perceived as a period of crisis by the contemporaries, the first rivaling organizations identifying themselves as trade associations were conceived amidst visions of future prosperity. As Senator Béla Peák’s inaugural speech – quoted in the title of the present study – suggests, the Újvidék Trade Association was set up to unite the entire industrial society of the city, even though in practice the membership was dominated by the German- and Hungarian-speaking elites. The Serbian Trade Association (1867–1869) and the Serbian Craftsmen’s Union (1870) were called to life as alternatives to the Gewerbeverein. The rivalry between these organizations was closely intertwined with the bitter political strife between the Serbian liberals and the German and Hungarian elite fighting for the leadership of the town after the Compromise of 1867. Public discourse in Hungary was much preoccupied with the aspirations of Újvidék’s liberal mayor, Svetozar Miletić to make the town into a Serb national center, as well as with his subsequent suspension from office, which was thematized along with the questions of minority rights and the limits of urban autonomy. In this context, the study analyses the attempts at uniting traders and tradesmen in Újvidék, and the contrasting visions of the past and future, which reflect both an idealized image of guilds and national concord and the faith in the imminent prosperity these associations have ahead of them. Concerning the Serbian unions, it is worth to note how their leaders, prominent liberal and socialist intellectuals, argued for the separate unionizing of Serbian tradesmen and to what extent their vision was implemented.

• Details
• Contents