Pest millers and bakers steam mill ltd

The history of the steam mills is intertwined with the history of the capital: although the steam mills were established before the unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda in 1873, their development was influenced by the development of the capital and its economic role. The establishment of the steam mills was made possible by the favourable transport conditions created by the Danube steamship and the agricultural boom in the middle of the century, which resulted from the urbanisation of European cities. Population growth led to a greater demand for grain, which meant that there was also an adequate outlet for it. The succession of steam mills had the advantage of being steam-driven, allowing them to be sited freely, as they did not need water or wind to operate. However, the steam engine required a considerable amount of water to operate the steam mills, which is why they were built close to the Danube.

The so-called "high milling" method, which was widespread in Hungary, was as follows: the grain was first taken from the warehouse to the mill, where it was cleaned of major impurities and the husk in the milling machine. The task of the 'tarar' was to clean the wheat grain before it went to the wheat classifier, which was able to sift out the defective grains. The thresher was responsible for filtering out the kernels and the brushing machine for removing the dust. The last operation before milling was conditioning, during which water equivalent to 2-3% of the weight of the wheat grains was added to the wheat. This was followed by a resting period and then the cleaned wheat was subjected to repeated crushing to obtain a fine flour. To obtain a larger grain size, it was milled into flour using roller mills or roller pairs.

The mill was built on a plot of land on the corner of Soroksári Street and Liliom Street, near today's Boráros Square. The joint-stock company set up to manage the mill was founded in 1868 by the Haggenmacher family.

Like the other mills in the capital (and in the countryside), the steam-mill and baking cooperative of the Pest millers and bakers also experienced difficulties in the early 1880s due to the high cost of raw materials. This can be seen from the diagram showing the production of grist in the milling plant.

At the turn of the century, the Budapest mills, in agreement with the rural mills, were again faced with the problem of reducing their operations. This was caused by the unfavourable consumption conditions and the accumulation of flour stocks. In 1903, the mill converted one of its wings because its technical equipment had become obsolete. A new flour store was also built. The development of the milling industry was probably also influenced by the fact that the Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest was gaining a growing foothold in the milling industry at the turn of the century.

However, as the problems persisted, the mills operated at reduced capacity from November 1904 to September 1905. This was partly due to the fact that strikes made it difficult to resume production in late summer 1905 and May 1906. The mills were slow to recover from these difficulties. Its profits, measured in crowns, varied as follows between 1903 and 1907:

• 1903: 18982 K
• 1904: 24911 K
• 1905: 28172 K
• 1906: 40822 K
• 1907: 209618 K

The First World War led to major shortages of raw materials and finished products. One of the problems was that the means of transport had been requisitioned by the warlords, making the supply of raw materials impossible. The military authorities placed the company under military supervision, forced it to continue operations and appointed a military labour force to replace the workforce. The company's officials and workers were given expensive allowances and family allowances to cope with the rising inflation.

After the First World War, a number of factors reduced the possibilities for competitive production. This was partly due to the loss of mills in the territories lost under the Treaty of Trianon and partly to the dramatic decline in the market for their absorption. Hungarian mills lost their remaining advantage over foreign competitors. The domestic absorption market has also shrunk significantly, and the lack of modernisation has led to a sharp decline in flour quality.

By the middle of the 1920s, the mill was accumulating increasing losses, and this led to the liquidation of the company's independence: it was absorbed by the First Budapest Steam Mill Joint Stock Company on 24 April 1926. After that, the mill functioned more as a warehouse and less as a grist mill.

The decision to demolish the mill building was taken in 1932 in connection with the urban planning of Budapest. In 1933, demolition and redevelopment began: the owners tried to sell the equipment and iron in the press. After the parcelling out of the land, a public space was created, which was named Grain Street after the mill.

Sources

Ambrus Gönczi: Residential buildings on the site of a factory - The Molnár and Sütők Malma in Pesti, near Boráros tér, was demolished 90 years ago. 30 August 2023.

Erzsébet Juhász (1992):The Budapest Right Coast Circular Railway is (would be) one hundred years old. It would have been a hundred years ago. 32(4-6). 232-233.

Judit Klement (2010). The Budapest mill industry in the 19th-20th centuries. Budapest.

Klement, Judit (2012): domestic entrepreneurs in the golden age. Entrepreneurs of the Budapest Steam Mill Industry in the Second Half of the 19th Century. Budapest.

Klement, Judit (2023) Budapest and the mills, 1841-2008.Történelmi Szemle 65. 1. 155-167.

Ágnes Pogány (2003) The collapse of the Victoria Steam Mill in Pest. Coral 14. 98-116.

Ernő Szűcs (1981):The quarter-century crisis of the Hungarian milling industry. In István Szendrey (ed.): Hungarian Historical Studies 14.

Great Hungarian Compass 1875-1926.

Press material 1875-1926.

Date of foundation: 1868

Date of cessation: 1926

Founders: the Haggenmacher family

Securities issued:

Decisive leaders:

Main activity: wheat and rye flour

Main products are not set

Seats:

Locations are not set

Main milestones are not set

Author: Róbert Szabó