ACTA HISTORICA - A MTA TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNYI FOLYÓIRATA TOM. 26 (1980)

26. kötet / 1-2. sz. - ETUDES - V. BÁCSKAI-L. NAGY: Market Areas, Market Centres and Towns in Hungary in 1828

3» Market Areas irt Hungary 3 them, yielded such surprising results that we were motivated to explore and analyse in detail the factors that influenced the nature, formation and strength of functioning as a market centre, and also to formulate the required research techniques and apply mathematical methods and computers. From the conscription replies it emerged that 282 settlements out of the 743 listed at that time as market places were declared by their inhabitants to be places for buying and selling. Of these about half— 138 — were declared by the inhabitants of varying sized areas to be their sole selling or buying locality. These 138 settlements can therefore he taken as the sole market centres for varying sized areas, able through their commercial and other func­tions to establish spheres of influence, to have regular, intensive contacts with the population of them and to fulfil their several requirements on a regular basis. That sphere of influence of a market place within which the influence of no other market place is exerted is a given settlement's absolute sphere, as distinct from what we have termed the shared spheres, where the influences of several market places are exerted to varying extents. The 138 market centres possessing absolute spheres of influence, with five exceptions, extended their influence to further larger or smaller spheres shared with other market places, i.e. their spheres of influence are divisible into two parts: absolute and shared. The other 144 market places did not have a strong enough influence for that: peasants claimed them as their places for buying and selling only in conjunction with other market places, which means that in the hierarchy of settlements possessing the function of market centres they come lower down and have a subordinate (complementary) role. These set­tlements we have termed sub-centres, to distinguish them from market centres with absolute spheres, and we have only concerned ourselves with their posi­tion from the point of view of exploring the role and functions of market centres proper. So our study has focussed upon the 138 market centres with absolute spheres of influence, and upon the spheres of influence of them, because we feel that the prerequisite for functioning as a market centre is possession of a sphere of influence free from the direct influence of other centres, where regu­lar, intensive economic ties able to influence the production, demand and way of life of the sphere's population can be formed. 3. Apart from the natural conditions and communication links, the formation, efficacy and range of function as a market centre were affected by the historical antecedents of the market centre network and also by a large number of economic and social factors. These factors had different effects and interacted in different ways in the various parts of the country. Clearly, settle­ments with a role as centres cannot be grouped or ranked on the basis of a single indicator — the size of the population in their sphere of influence. To compare, group and rank settlements with the function of market centres Acta Historien Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 26, 1980

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