The development of industrial processing of hemp I.
As a citizen of Szeged, Nándor Bakay was an indispensable figure in the industrial organization of the city. He established the Szeged-centered, low land base of large-scale hemp processing. It was also decisive in the scale of historical Hungary. He was responsible for establishing the industrial hemp processing units.
Nándor Bakay’s ancestors – certainly up to his great-grandfather – practiced the rope-beating craft one after another, ensuring the quality of the profession is passed down within the family. The first of these was the grandfather of the factory founder who arrived in Szeged as a rope-beating lad from Senta in 1801. Nándor Bakay passed his master exam in 1859. The Great Plain provided favourable conditions for the developing this industry, due to the high demand arising from the need for ropes for fishing, shipping, agriculture and industrial purposes. From the second half of the 18th century, the treasury encouraged mass cultivation of industrial crops. In the middle of the 19th century, with the start of railway transport, the number of hemp processing factories also increased.
In the era of dualism, Szeged’s textile industry became known primarily through hemp processing. The centre of hemp production in Hungary was the southern part of the Great Plain, especially Bács-Bodrog County. In addition to the Saxon towns in Transylvania, rope production flourished mainly in certain settlements in southern Hungary.
In 1863, Nándor Bakay was able to start developing the machinery of the workshop he had taken over from his father, which was still operating within the framework of a guild, and to provide a wider range of products. He introduced the production of several products (fire harness, hose, iron wire rope) in Hungary. In 1872 free trading with industrial hemp became possible for everyone. He immediately developed his workshop into a mechanical rope-beating plant that multiplied its production.
In 1877 he converted his plant using steam power. He equipped it with modern English spinning and weaving machines. From then on, it allowed hemp to be processed on a truly large scale.
After the destruction of Szeged in 1879 following the flood, he managed to rebuild his own factory. Through a group of bankers and crop merchants, the plant operated as a new partnership from 1884 – Bakay’s spinning, weaving, rope factory and hemp redemption co. – and the founder continued to work as technical director until 1886. He was then the second secretary of the Szeged Chamber of Commerce and Industry founded in 1890 until his death in 1902.
The situation of the company stabilized only in 1890, when Szeged Hemp Spinning Factory Co. was founded in Budapest with a share capital of HUF (Hungarian Forints) 350,000 arranged by the Hungarian Industrial and Commercial Bank.
