Virilistes entre les deux guerres mondiales à Pécs

Abstract

The purpose of the study: is to offer an insight into the lives of Pécs city's virilists between the two World Wars. Virilist are defined as the largest taxpayers in Hungary between 1870 and 1945. The study only examines the social composition of the virilist and does not deal with the exercise of their political rights. Applied methods: The study examines the tax registers of 1927 and 1933 of the certifying board of the city of Pécs, which are in the custody of the Hungarian National Archives of Baranya County, then analyses the first 150 virilist listed in these registers. Only these two virilist-registers detail the tax elements, i.e. the land tax, the house tax, and the income tax levied in the city of Pécs, while the virilist-register of 1933 also includes the municipal surtax. The study compares the virilist-registers of 1927 and 1933 with the property inventory of 1933 made by Lajos Sebestyén. Outcomes. It is a common observation that few people belonged to the largest tax bracket. In 1933, only 69 virilist paid taxes of over 2000 pence per year in Pécs. According to the property inventory of 1933 made by Lajos Sebestyén, the city's 1563 property tax-paying citizens had assets of more than 92 million pence. Properties valued over 100,000 pence accounted for 49% of the total, owned by only 176 persons, just 11.3% of the taxpayers. Assets valued below than 100,000 pence accounted for 51% of all assets, which were owned by 1,387 individuals, 88.7% of taxpayers. The most striking data from the virilist-register of 1933 is that 87.2% of the 350,000 pence tax of 150 virilist was levied on houses. The house was therefore clearly the most valuable asset for the virilist.