Pál Elek de Malomszeg
Born Pál Engel in 1856 in a family of many children, he had 6 sisters, all local beauties. There were two Engel Páls in the domestic banking world at the turn of the century and in the years that followed, but this did not cause any confusion because one of them changed his name to Elek Pál.
After graduating from commercial school, Pál Elek joined Samu Fleischl's grain business as a trainee, but after a short time he left for Paris to work for Dreyfus & Co.
Pál Elek was most like the person Ferenc Molnár portrayed in his play "One, Two, Three", that is, he could turn a nobody into a bank manager in an hour if he had to. If Pál Elek did not perform such a feat, he had similar manoeuvres that made him look like the protagonist of the play.
Pál Elek, still working as Pál Engel at the Dreyfuss company in Paris, was already known in Hungary, because when Gábor Baross founded the Hungarian Trade Ltd. with the aim of boosting Hungarian trade, Pál Engel, who was working in Paris, was recommended to head the company. Baross invited him home, and after a meeting in Budapest, he appointed the then 34-year-old specialist to head the company.
He married Aranka Garai in 1892, and had two children, Lili in 1893 and Mariska in 1894.
His name was Hungarianized in 1897, and he sent a circular letter to the officials of the Commercial Company asking them to do the same.
In the circular of 13 November 1897 (quoted in the Budapest Gazette, 14 November 1897):
"Now that the success of our endeavours is beginning to show, and now that we can have absolute confidence in the smooth functioning of our organisation, the time seems ripe to demonstrate the Hungarian character of our institution in the external manifestations of our activities. In this respect, one of the indirect means of making an impact would undoubtedly be the Hungarian-sounding names of our officials, which is why I consider it to be in the official interest, and therefore not only patriotic, but also necessary and useful, that all officials who bear surnames with foreign phonetic connotations should have their names Hungarianised. For my part, I wish to submit myself first and foremost to the requirements of this understanding, which is why I have today submitted an application to the competent authority to change my surname to Elek."
Elek set about reforming Hungarian trade with great vigour, first bringing large quantities of coffee into the country, but this was ultimately a failure.
His next big operation seemed to have a similar result, as he bought and brought in a large cargo of oranges, but was unable to sell them to wholesalers, and was effectively stuck with the huge amount of fruit. He then used agents to sell the oranges directly to the kofas in Pest at depressed prices, practically pennies, and Budapest was flooded with cheap oranges, which until then had been considered by the public to be an expensive luxury food.
His gamble worked, as oranges became a common fruit and the next batches could be sold, effectively giving the company a monopoly on the import of tropical fruit. The price of oranges has fallen by a tenth, because before this promotion the price of an orange was 10 kroner, afterwards it was 1 to 2 kroner.
Pál Elek was said to make decisions in a minute, no matter how complicated the business plan he was presented with. He would listen to the idea and then either say "OK, I'll do it" or "no way".
In a similar way, he broke the monopoly on tanning material, which had been supplied by a German company, but Elek found another source, the Smyrna tanning powder, which also made a considerable profit.
It was also significant when he acquired the representation of the Hungarian State Machine Factory's agricultural machines for the Commercial Corporation, thus distributing a huge amount of machines in the Balkans, Asia and Russia, where Hungarian machines were called "vengerka".
In a similar way, he completely reorganised another public sector, namely the salt trade. It took over the old salt chambers and the outdated salt delivery system, and the Trading Company not only delivered salt, but also built up a modern trading network throughout the country and abroad. He used a very peculiar method in the salt business, publishing paid articles in the Balkans that the salt supplied there up to then by French and Italian companies had no iodine in it and therefore caused golyvka.
He also chose an interesting way to break the Italian monopoly. The Italians were distilling large quantities of sea salt in Tunisia, and Elek sent an agent to Tunisia to start building his own salt distillery. His aim was not to distil salt in Tunisia at all, but only to force the Italians to negotiate. And his plan worked.
It also supported cottage industry, building up its commercial system.
Elek had very good relations with the government, which secretly supported the Commercial Corporation, and later the Magyar Bank, which was formed from it, and therefore he was in fierce competition with other bank leaders, some admired, others hated him. For his activities he received the nobility of Malomsk in 1900, and the estate, which gave him the noble name, was bought by his father Pál Elek in 1860.
Magyar Bank has built up a substantial branch network and was the first Hungarian bank to open a branch in Vienna.
In recognition of his achievements in the Hungarian economy and commerce, Franz Joseph conferred the title of Royal Councillor to Pál Elek in 1905.
Elek's downfall and his death at some point was due to a very high-profile case in which he did not actually commit anything. Elek was a strong supporter of the Libertarian Party and István Tisza.
Not only he, but also Magyar Bank, played an active role in the repeated rise to power of the National Workers' Party founded by Tisza.
The bank, through Elek, transferred 4,800,000 kronor to the party's coffers, with the amount being given to him as a kind of deposit to be managed at his discretion as bank manager. A similar procedure was somewhat common to the managers of the larger banks, the management of such confidential, private funds and accounts, which was based on personal relationships. However, contrary to convention, Elek asked two supervisors to work alongside him, the deputy CEO, Imre Vajda, and the director Béla Szala. However, Vajda noticed something, namely that after the transfer of the 4,8 million, Elek had paid 800 000 kroons in cash into his own account. Vajda launched an investigation into his own beard, suspecting that this money had come from the 4.8 million fund, which Elek had simply embezzled.
The affair caused a huge stir within the bank, the two supervisors turned against each other, libel suits were brought, and Elek's position was shaken, so he left the bank in 1911.
In addition, since the case was made public, some members of the public also assumed that the 4.8 million was paid as a bribe by the bank in return for monopolies from the government, such as the salt transport, which the previous coalition government did not extend, but the Labour government did.
So there were several strands to the case. Elek admitted that the 4.8 million was given to the party by the bank with the aim of getting the party into power, because, he claimed, it was in the economic interest of the bank and the country for the Labour Party to come to power. He denied, of course, that the money was a bribe.
He was cleared of embezzlement by a "court of honour", even of the charges that were subsequently brought against him. In connection with a payment of 350,000 kronor, it turned out that these sums did not come from the fund, but from Elek's other personal and legitimate business activity, the sale of shares.
Elek was then recalled by the bank, because the bank's results had deteriorated dramatically - but by the time he returned in 1913 he was very ill, with atherosclerosis and a bad heart. His death, however, was caused by pneumonia. He died in Baden on 15 April 1914, aged 56.
Interesting facts
In connection with the machinery export of agriculture, Elek saw the need to somehow keep the name of Miklós Fehér at the bank (Miklós Fehér was the head of the State Machine Factory, his name was well known to the partners). Elek was afraid that someone else - taking advantage of the name of Miklós Fehér - would form a company with the name of Miklós Fehér, so he stepped in instead. So he needed someone called Miklós Fehér to form a company. But all the people who were approached were unsuitable, so a man called Miklós Weisz was paid 1,000 crowns to explain the company and set it up, which was immediately bought by the Hungarian Trading Company.
Literature:
Imre Balassa: Pál Elek's novel : an economic epic from the 19th century Budapest : Pesti Tőzsde, 1925
Born: 12 September 1856.
Place of birth: Ondrohó, Nitra county
Date of death: 15 April 1914.
Place of death: Baden bei Wien
Occupation: bank manager
Parents:
Spouses: Aranka Gorán
Children: Lili Elek Luczenbacher Pálné; Mariska Elek wife of Ferenc Rudnyánszky, a Hungarian Hussar Major
Author: by Domonkos Csaba
Born: 12 September 1856.
Place of birth: Ondrohó, Nitra county
Date of death: 15 April 1914.
Place of death: Baden bei Wien
Occupation: bank manager
Parents:
Spouses: Aranka Gorán
Children: Lili Elek Luczenbacher Pálné; Mariska Elek wife of Ferenc Rudnyánszky, a Hungarian Hussar Major
Author: by Domonkos Csaba
Pál Elek de Malomszeg
Born Pál Engel in 1856 in a family of many children, he had 6 sisters, all local beauties. There were two Engel Páls in the domestic banking world at the turn of the century and in the years that followed, but this did not cause any confusion because one of them changed his name to Elek Pál.
After graduating from commercial school, Pál Elek joined Samu Fleischl's grain business as a trainee, but after a short time he left for Paris to work for Dreyfus & Co.
Pál Elek was most like the person Ferenc Molnár portrayed in his play "One, Two, Three", that is, he could turn a nobody into a bank manager in an hour if he had to. If Pál Elek did not perform such a feat, he had similar manoeuvres that made him look like the protagonist of the play.
Pál Elek, still working as Pál Engel at the Dreyfuss company in Paris, was already known in Hungary, because when Gábor Baross founded the Hungarian Trade Ltd. with the aim of boosting Hungarian trade, Pál Engel, who was working in Paris, was recommended to head the company. Baross invited him home, and after a meeting in Budapest, he appointed the then 34-year-old specialist to head the company.
He married Aranka Garai in 1892, and had two children, Lili in 1893 and Mariska in 1894.
His name was Hungarianized in 1897, and he sent a circular letter to the officials of the Commercial Company asking them to do the same.
In the circular of 13 November 1897 (quoted in the Budapest Gazette, 14 November 1897):
"Now that the success of our endeavours is beginning to show, and now that we can have absolute confidence in the smooth functioning of our organisation, the time seems ripe to demonstrate the Hungarian character of our institution in the external manifestations of our activities. In this respect, one of the indirect means of making an impact would undoubtedly be the Hungarian-sounding names of our officials, which is why I consider it to be in the official interest, and therefore not only patriotic, but also necessary and useful, that all officials who bear surnames with foreign phonetic connotations should have their names Hungarianised. For my part, I wish to submit myself first and foremost to the requirements of this understanding, which is why I have today submitted an application to the competent authority to change my surname to Elek."
Elek set about reforming Hungarian trade with great vigour, first bringing large quantities of coffee into the country, but this was ultimately a failure.
His next big operation seemed to have a similar result, as he bought and brought in a large cargo of oranges, but was unable to sell them to wholesalers, and was effectively stuck with the huge amount of fruit. He then used agents to sell the oranges directly to the kofas in Pest at depressed prices, practically pennies, and Budapest was flooded with cheap oranges, which until then had been considered by the public to be an expensive luxury food.
His gamble worked, as oranges became a common fruit and the next batches could be sold, effectively giving the company a monopoly on the import of tropical fruit. The price of oranges has fallen by a tenth, because before this promotion the price of an orange was 10 kroner, afterwards it was 1 to 2 kroner.
Pál Elek was said to make decisions in a minute, no matter how complicated the business plan he was presented with. He would listen to the idea and then either say "OK, I'll do it" or "no way".
In a similar way, he broke the monopoly on tanning material, which had been supplied by a German company, but Elek found another source, the Smyrna tanning powder, which also made a considerable profit.
It was also significant when he acquired the representation of the Hungarian State Machine Factory's agricultural machines for the Commercial Corporation, thus distributing a huge amount of machines in the Balkans, Asia and Russia, where Hungarian machines were called "vengerka".
In a similar way, he completely reorganised another public sector, namely the salt trade. It took over the old salt chambers and the outdated salt delivery system, and the Trading Company not only delivered salt, but also built up a modern trading network throughout the country and abroad. He used a very peculiar method in the salt business, publishing paid articles in the Balkans that the salt supplied there up to then by French and Italian companies had no iodine in it and therefore caused golyvka.
He also chose an interesting way to break the Italian monopoly. The Italians were distilling large quantities of sea salt in Tunisia, and Elek sent an agent to Tunisia to start building his own salt distillery. His aim was not to distil salt in Tunisia at all, but only to force the Italians to negotiate. And his plan worked.
It also supported cottage industry, building up its commercial system.
Elek had very good relations with the government, which secretly supported the Commercial Corporation, and later the Magyar Bank, which was formed from it, and therefore he was in fierce competition with other bank leaders, some admired, others hated him. For his activities he received the nobility of Malomsk in 1900, and the estate, which gave him the noble name, was bought by his father Pál Elek in 1860.
Magyar Bank has built up a substantial branch network and was the first Hungarian bank to open a branch in Vienna.
In recognition of his achievements in the Hungarian economy and commerce, Franz Joseph conferred the title of Royal Councillor to Pál Elek in 1905.
Elek's downfall and his death at some point was due to a very high-profile case in which he did not actually commit anything. Elek was a strong supporter of the Libertarian Party and István Tisza.
Not only he, but also Magyar Bank, played an active role in the repeated rise to power of the National Workers' Party founded by Tisza.
The bank, through Elek, transferred 4,800,000 kronor to the party's coffers, with the amount being given to him as a kind of deposit to be managed at his discretion as bank manager. A similar procedure was somewhat common to the managers of the larger banks, the management of such confidential, private funds and accounts, which was based on personal relationships. However, contrary to convention, Elek asked two supervisors to work alongside him, the deputy CEO, Imre Vajda, and the director Béla Szala. However, Vajda noticed something, namely that after the transfer of the 4,8 million, Elek had paid 800 000 kroons in cash into his own account. Vajda launched an investigation into his own beard, suspecting that this money had come from the 4.8 million fund, which Elek had simply embezzled.
The affair caused a huge stir within the bank, the two supervisors turned against each other, libel suits were brought, and Elek's position was shaken, so he left the bank in 1911.
In addition, since the case was made public, some members of the public also assumed that the 4.8 million was paid as a bribe by the bank in return for monopolies from the government, such as the salt transport, which the previous coalition government did not extend, but the Labour government did.
So there were several strands to the case. Elek admitted that the 4.8 million was given to the party by the bank with the aim of getting the party into power, because, he claimed, it was in the economic interest of the bank and the country for the Labour Party to come to power. He denied, of course, that the money was a bribe.
He was cleared of embezzlement by a "court of honour", even of the charges that were subsequently brought against him. In connection with a payment of 350,000 kronor, it turned out that these sums did not come from the fund, but from Elek's other personal and legitimate business activity, the sale of shares.
Elek was then recalled by the bank, because the bank's results had deteriorated dramatically - but by the time he returned in 1913 he was very ill, with atherosclerosis and a bad heart. His death, however, was caused by pneumonia. He died in Baden on 15 April 1914, aged 56.
Interesting facts
In connection with the machinery export of agriculture, Elek saw the need to somehow keep the name of Miklós Fehér at the bank (Miklós Fehér was the head of the State Machine Factory, his name was well known to the partners). Elek was afraid that someone else - taking advantage of the name of Miklós Fehér - would form a company with the name of Miklós Fehér, so he stepped in instead. So he needed someone called Miklós Fehér to form a company. But all the people who were approached were unsuitable, so a man called Miklós Weisz was paid 1,000 crowns to explain the company and set it up, which was immediately bought by the Hungarian Trading Company.
Literature:
Imre Balassa: Pál Elek's novel : an economic epic from the 19th century Budapest : Pesti Tőzsde, 1925