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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2009
By abolishing feudalism, the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 helped to create the economic preconditions and the legal-political framework necessary for capitalistic development. This made it possible for Hungary to adapt her economy to the market possibilities offered by the Industrial Revolution in western and central Europe and to share in the agrarian boom of the period between 1850 and 1873. The previously existing division of labor between western and eastern Europe and between the western and eastern parts of the Habsburg monarchy continued on a scale larger than before, with the significant difference, however, that this practice now speeded up rather than retarded the development of preconditions for capitalism. During the first half of the nineteenth century the preconditions for capitalism had come into existence in the Cisleithanian provinces at considerable expense to the Hungarian economy.
1 The editor wishes to thank Iván and Nancy Völgyes, of the University of Nebraska, George Deak, of Columbia University, and the author himself for translating this article from Magyar into English. In editing the copy representing the joint efforts of the abovementioned team, the Yearbook staff made every possible effort to express facts, ideas, and interpretations in the original draft as accurately as possible. Since no member of the editorial staff is familiar with the Magyar tongue, it is quite possible that we may inadvertently have erred in finding the exact English equivalent for this or that nuance in the Magyar original. We hope that we have not; if we have, the editor takes full responsibility.
