6 - ‘Proper Values’ in Agriculture: The Role of Agricultural Associations in Knowledge Dissemination in Hungary, 1830–1880

Summary

Since the time of the Renaissance, attempts to disseminate agricultural knowledge have been made throughout Europe. Agricultural texts and scientific observations on the ideal way to farm were circulated throughout the literate population. From the mid-eighteenth century onwards, meetings of educated and progressive landowners and their agents (as well as farmers to some extent) occurred from time to time to popularize agricultural innovations. It was not until the nineteenth century, however, that such initiatives became systematic and organized in the form of permanent associations that were intended to be the means by which farmers could be directly given information, advice and encouragement about their day-to-day farming activities. This chapter investigates how agricultural associations worked as disseminators of the new values that informed agriculture in nineteenth-century Hungary.

As a part of the Austrian Empire, and subsequently of Austria-Hungary, Hungary was often called the ‘pantry of the empire’. Approximately a third to a half of the empire's total arable land was to be found within Hungary, while Hungary was a major exporter of agricultural goods both inside and outside the empire. The government's agricultural policy encouraged agricultural improvements from the late eighteenth century onwards. By that time, the increasing domestic demand for agricultural goods – due, on the one hand, to the growth of the population and, on the other, to the expectations of a mercantilist economic policy – led to the increasing recognition of the agricultural sector as an important part of the empire's economy. Consequently, various forms of governmental intervention were introduced following the logic of Cameralism in order to enhance agricultural production.

The pursuit of the growth of agricultural production was furthered by such means as the managed settlement of farmers in lightly populated regions and the colonization of uncultivated lands, by encouraging the production of specific products (e.g. root crops, corn or potatoes) or by subsidizing new forms of production (pre-eminently the introduction of rotational cropping). The Habsburg state also encouraged the creation of agricultural associations from the mid-eighteenth century onwards as a concrete way of introducing, disseminating and realizing its endeavours in order to improve agricultural practice.