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Article: Henry George and Europe: Hungary began a promising venture in Georgist tax reform but revolutionary turmoil and inflation ended it.
- Article from:
- The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
- Article date:
- January 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I
The Plight of the Hungarian Landless
AT THE END Of the 19th century, Hungary--then a Kingdom united with Austria within the Habsburg Empire--was burdened with an unsolved land problem.(1) The situation was similar to that of Ireland, although stemming from entirely different historical antecendents. In Hungary, serfdom had not been abolished until 1848, and even after that, archaic conditions of land tenure persisted in the country's agricultural sector. More than half of the arable land belonged (incidentally until after World War II, 1945) to huge estates, so-called latifundia.(2) The management of these estates was, in most instances, outdated; technology ...