Routes and means of communication. – On the one hand, being the country flat and hilly and located right in the central part of the basin, there are favorable conditions, on the other hand the plain lacks materials and therefore the road surface is often muddy and dusty. Having lost the beautiful roads of the peripheral region, which had also been well maintained for military purposes, Hungary still has a network of 22,500 km., Of which 4370 of national roads. There are 14,500 motor vehicles, 8900 motorcycles. Public vehicles serve a network of almost 7,000 km. The railway network has a development of 8670 km. with only 3.5 km. of tunnels, an indication of the limited slope and the few obstacles opposed by the ground. Unlike what happened to the other successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, today’s Hungary has remained the middle part of a well organized network, with its natural center (Budapest). However, it should be borne in mind that in the construction of the network, in addition to the aim of bringing the peripheral regions as close as possible to the capital, the interests of the landowners were sometimes taken into consideration rather than the needs of the villages, which are often a few kilometers away from the stations. The network is, moreover, fairly densely distributed: only a small area to the NE. Baja is more than 20 km away from each railway, while the rest of the country is for the most part less than 10 km away. Less important, but not negligible, is the traffic by water which has at its disposal a network of 1685 km., Of which more than half navigable by boats of at least 650 tons. The artery that by far holds the primacy, also because it is navigable upstream and downstream, is the Danube (500 km.). Air traffic, for which Hungary has a somewhat peripheral position with respect to the narrower mesh network in Central Europe, saw 640,000 km traveled in 1934. in 3400 flight hours; the main lines are the Vienna-Budapest and the Budapest-Belgrade.
Commerce. – Hungary has found itself with an exuberant production of wheat, flour and other agricultural products, with a considerable heritage of meat and working animals, but with scarce raw materials, with very little wood, with a industrial equipment in progressive development, but still insufficient to be able to cover the needs of the country. The adaptation to the new conditions could be carried out fairly quickly, albeit through financial crises and difficulties, initially overcome with the help of other nations. Currently Hungary is one of the few countries in Europe that closes foreign exchanges. For Hungary 2013, please check physicscat.com.
The value of trade in Hungary’s foreign trade has developed in recent years as follows:
The progressive improvement largely depends on the increased export of livestock, on the intensified cultivation and, in part at least, on the strengthening of the industrial structure, factors which have contributed, together with the solid national spirit, to make Hungary one of the most vital among those that arose or renewed after the war. The product for which Hungary is forced to ask for the greatest part of its needs abroad is wood, of which it had to buy in the last three years (1933-35) for an average of 38.8 million pengő. It then buys raw cotton (1935: 6.5% of imports; 250 thousand q.), Paper and paper articles (5.1%), raw hides and skins (4.4%), which Hungary despite its considerable assets cattle and sheep is forced to obtain abroad due to the fact that it mainly sells live cattle, then coal (3.6 million q.), mineral oils (1.7 million q.), metals, machines and appliances, silk and silk yarns. The purchase of cotton yarns and fabrics is decreasing. As far as exports are concerned, cattle for slaughter and work (11.6% of the total value) are in first place (1935), followed by wheat (11.5%; 3.3 million q.), Machinery and electrical appliances (6.8%), pork lard and fat (6.0%), poultry (5.8%), fresh and preserved meat (4.0). The main buyers are (1935) Germany (23.8%), Austria (18.9), Italy (13.2), Great Britain (8.0), Romania (5.4), Czechoslovakia (4.5). Main suppliers Germany (22.6), Austria (19.0), Romania (13.5), Italy (7.3), Yugoslavia (6.2), Great Britain (5.1), United States (4, 9), Czechoslovakia (4.8). L’ the increase in trade with Italy was initially facilitated by the trade and navigation treaty (1929), and more recently by the Rome agreements (March 17, 1934). In 1934 Italy sold to Hungary silk and silk yarn (7.7 million pengő), fruit (5.0), raw hides (4.0), rice (2.4), wool yarn (2.2), cotton yarn (2.2), wool fabrics (1.5), tobacco (1.1) and bought cattle (10.1 million pengö), wheat (10.0), potatoes (2.9), poultry (1.6), machines and appliances.
Merchant marine. – In 1928 there was only one seagoing vessel under the Hungarian flag; a fee of 7500 tons; nevertheless, the Minister of Commerce submitted to parliament a law of assistance to the merchant navy. Thus was born the law of 1929 which granted total or partial tax exemption to national armaments for the first 15 years of service of the related ships; the president and half of the leaders were to be Hungarians. On the basis of these provisions, a modest nucleus of ships has begun to be developed, constituted in 1937, by very few ships: Turul (tonnes 631); Albert (tonn. 631); Kelet (tons 4295); Nyugat(4323 tons), of which the two smaller ones started a Vienna-Genoa line in 1933 with stopovers in Greece and Turkey. A Budapest-Levant-Egypt line was also inaugurated in 1934 by means of the 485-ton motor ships Budapest and Atid. Various projects have been formulated to increase Hungarian maritime activities.
Hungary has a fair amount of Danube shipping; the most important armament is the MFTR company in Budapest. It owns 46 passenger steamers; 32 tugs; 4 motor barges; 212 barges, 15 tanks; works in a pool with the Austrian company “Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts Ges.” of Vienna (controlled by Italy), with the “Bayrischer Lloyd” of Regensburg and the “Süddeutsche Donau”.
