Franklin Society

The history of the Franklin Society dates back to the early 19th century, when Otto Wigand founded the Pesti bookshop in 1827. In 1932, Wigand handed over the management of the bookshop to his brother-in-law Gustáv Heckenast, who, together with Lajos Landerer, founded one of the most famous publishing companies of the reform era. They were responsible for the publication of the political newspapers of the time (such as the Pesti Hírlap), but they also printed the 12 Points of the April Youth on 15 March 1848. After the War of Independence, they launched the Vasárnapi Újság in 1854. In addition, they played an important role in engaging all sections of the emerging society in reading, and were open to women and children from an early age. They were also responsible for the publication of the works of the greats of Hungarian literature, although the authors were not satisfied with the payment they received for their writings, and Kossuth, Jókai, Arany, Kisfaludy and Vajda complained about them.

Finally, in 1873, Heckenast transformed his publishing house at 4 Egyetem Street into a joint-stock company, thus founding the Franklin Society, or more precisely the Franklin Hungarian Literary Institute and Book Printing Company, named after Benjamin Franklin. The board of directors included Dr. Mór Ballagi, Miksa Beck, Baron Lóránd Eötvös, Henrik Glatz, Imre Halász, A. Immendörfer, K. Jurenak, Gyula Kautz, Henrik Mandello and Ignác Trebitsch. The share capital became HUF 800 000.

The Franklin Society was thus a market leader as one of the oldest and best-known book publishers in the country, as the 1875 Board of Directors' report pointed out. In the 1970s, the general economic depression had an impact on the book market, so Franklin operated with modest profits, which led to a reduction in capital to HUF 600 000 in 1877, but after that the company settled down to a stable profit of around HUF 40 000, which rose to HUF 55 000 in 1878 and to HUF 65 000 in 1882. The general meeting of the company held on 2 April 1884 voted to build a new complex of buildings on the new site, as the company had outgrown its existing premises. Thus, the land at 4 Károlyi Street was purchased for "38 000 forints and 50 pieces of gold", and the general assembly voted 50 000 forints for the construction costs. Despite this, the company made a profit of over HUF 73 000 by the end of the year.

In 1895 the capital stock increased to 720 000 forints, while the annual profit remained stable at the previous level, but from then on it increased again, reaching 80 000 forints in 1896 and 90 000 forints in 1897. With the introduction of the koruna in 1900, the company's share capital (K1 440 000) and profit (K190 000) increased only nominally, and if we look at the company's stock market value up to the First World War, we can also observe a stable, slow but predictable growth (in 1873 the closing price of the shares in December was 152 forints, while in 1913 it was 620 koruna).

After the turn of the century, the book market began to intensify, with Pallas and Révai competing more and more intensively. Franklin, with the Hitelbank behind it, responded by buying up and squeezing out other competitors, and in 1901 they bought the Werbőczi printing house, and in 1903 they bought the Lampel R. The company's share capital increased to 2 442 000 crowns and its profit to 314 567 crowns, which again proved to be a lasting profit for the following years, and in 1908 it exceeded 400 000 crowns and in 1910 it exceeded that figure. In 1911, the company, together with the Hitelbank, founded the Dávid Károly and Sons Box and Wooden Plates Factory Ltd. in Bikás, Zólyom County, with a share capital of KD 2 400 000, and in 1916 bought the Hungarian Geographical Institute Ltd., which produced globes and maps (with a capital of KD 400 000).

The year 1912 is also linked to the famous Révai-Franklin trial, a typical consequence of Franklin's aggressive market policy. Révai, which had become a major bookseller and printer after leaving Pallas, began to publish encyclopaedias and fiction on a professional basis, and Franklin, seeing serious competition, immediately launched a campaign of slander against Révai by publishing fast, low-quality, hasty publications. Although the cultural scene was divided by the lawsuit, the growth rate of Franklin's profits did not slow down as a result. In fact, Franklin was successful because, although it was unable to destroy Révai, it was able to maintain its market share.

During the war, the company acquired one more company, the Molnár Printing Institute and Patented Writing Factory Ltd. in Szekszárd, and during the crown inflation of the 1920s, it bought into other companies. Thus, he acquired interests in Afra Buchforgalmi Rt. in Budapest, Est Lapkiadó Rt., Hegedűs Sándor Irodalmi és Nyomdai Rt., Calderoni mű- és tanszervállalat Rt. Due to inflation and market contraction, Franklin entered into a community of interest with Athenaeum Literary and Printing Company Ltd. in 1924, and the group took over the Hungarian Book Distribution Company Ltd, the Graphic Institute and Account Books Factory Ltd., the Rigler József Ede Paper Linen Factory Ltd., the Newspaper Factory Ltd. and the Modiano S. D. cigar paper factory in Fiume, the Kultúra Buchkiadó Rt., the Thalia Druckda Rt. and the National Central Public Company Ltd. The share capital of the Franklin Society was fixed at P2,000,000 on 1 July 1925, which enabled the group to make a profit of P313,509 in 1926, P630,808 in 1927, and P786,556 in 1928 on a capital of P1,500,000.

The 1929 crisis had no direct impact on the company's results, and in the same year the share price was increased to 3 000 000 pence, with a profit of 592 785 pence, and in 1930 to 3 360 000 pence, with a profit of 460 555 pence. However, in 1931 the profit was "only" P346,755, in 1934 P333,741 and in 1935 P344,292. Although the company did indeed start on the road of ever-increasing profits again, it still only made a profit of P75,132 in 1938, which fell to P61,405 in 1939 and then maintained the P62,244 level in 1940. From there, profits began to rise again to P89 905 in 1941 and P179 303 in 1942, but the war and subsequent nationalisation caught up with the Franklin Company on 25 March 1948. The company was subsequently merged with the Stephaneum printing house, owned by the St Stephen's Society, in 1949 and taken over by the Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó in 1950. It was spun off on 31 December 1992 as Franklin Printing and Publishing House Ltd.

Sources:

https://adt.arcanum.com/hu/collection/MagyarCompass/

Dorottya Lipták, editor, Entrepreneur and culture: the legendary publisher Gusztáv Heckenast (1811-1878) (Budapest-Eger: Kossuth Könyvkiadó-Esterházy Károly College, 2012).

http://real.mtak.hu/13962/1/Korall_55_Cieger_A.pdf

Rózsafalvi, Zsuzsanna: The Révai Brothers and the "capitalist book literature". In András, Csaba; Hites, Sándor (eds.) Capitalism and the History of Literature. Budapest, Hungary : Reciti Kiadó (2022) 169-184.

Date of foundation: 1873

Date of cessation: 1948

Founders: Gusztáv Heckenast

Securities issued:

Decisive leaders:

Main activity not set

Main products are not set

Seats are not configured

Locations are not set

Main milestones are not set

Author: by Dr. Márton Pelles