Kecskemét is considered to be one of the most well-known and one of the most interesting examples of development among the Hungarian towns. There have been several typical periods in this development and during these periods the character of the town changed a lot.

The first trace of a human in the surrounding of the town is about five thousand years old. The Sarmatian invaded the surrounding of the town in the first century Before Christ and ever since there have been people living in the surrounding of the town. Some - among others János Hornyik, the first writer of the town's history - supposed that the settlement "Partiskum" of the Sarmatian Jazygian was somewhere here but it is more likely that there was a permanent settlement here only after the conquest. At the beginning of the 1200 years they had been seven villages with a population of 200-300 formed here around the churches, just like all over the country, too but they were all destroyed by the Mongol Invasion. Some of the villages revived at the time of the Cumanian's colonization.

As Kecskemét was situated at an important trading route, it soon distinguished itself among the surrounding settlements as a customhouse and a market-place; one of King Lajos the Great's charters mentioned it as an oppodoim, that is town in 1368. The development of Kecskemét was mainly due to its favourable geographical situation in trading, and as a consequence a market-town was formed here. Later on it was the economic life of the settlement with dense population that attracted trading.

The time of the Turkish invasion meant a new period of development when the inhabitants of the neighbouring settlements escaped from the permanent fights and later on from the oppression of the spahi landlords into the town that was protected by palisades. Kecskemét was protected from the permanent oppression not only by its natural protection but also by the special and exclusive situation of the town as the town paid tax directly for the pasha in Buda and the town enjoyed his protection at the same time.

Kecskemét gradually merged in the lands of those that escaped behind the town walls and the famous grazing way of animal-breeding was formed in these fields. At the beginning of the 1700 years there were almost thirty thousand cattle grazed on an almost two thousand square kilometer field.

At the end of the 18th century animal breeding started to decline and almost one hundred years were needed for another growth that started in the last decade of the previous century when the vine-pest destroyed almost all the wineyards of the country's hilly regions and its damage was less significant on the loose sandy parts. In the 1870-ies large plantations of vine were formed around the town that was the economic basis of wine-fruit growing characteristic of the beginning of the 20th century in Kecskemét. This process, formed on the basis of the previous results established the structure of the cottage-type settlement that is still characteristic of the surrounding of the town and at the same time it also resulted a quick development of food industry and trade. This accumulation of capital caused the spreading of bourgeois customs among peasants and created the financial basis for the fast development of the town. It was the basis for the formation of Kecskemét's main square that is admired by many people even today, being amazed by the complex of buildings in the main square built in the style of Art Nouveau: the Town Hall, that was finished in the year of the millennium, the New College that was built after the turn of the century, the Ornamented Palace, the Luther-Palace, the House of Trade which is the House of Young today, the Gentlemen's Casino which is a cultural house today.

This spectacular development was first broken by the 1929-33 economic world crisis, that was followed by the years of the war and after 1945 a completely new situation was formed by the new social-political system. The development of Kecskemét was blocked at the end of the 1950-ies but there were also new resources found. As a consequence of reorganization in local government Kecskemét lost its big territory that was formed historically; several new villages were formed that were still strongly connected to the town but they started to live their independent way of life at the same time.

The other significant change of that time was that for the first time in the history of Kecskemét the town got a significant administrative role, it became the seat of the country's largest county, Bács-Kiskun in 1950. In the special system of the so called controlled economy it meant political and financial advantages that greatly helped the town distinguish itself from among the towns of the region.

Over and above the changes of administrative character the town underwent significant economic changes as well. The industrialization of the 1960-ies did not let the town remain untouched. Several plants and factories were established, some of them on the basis of the old ones, others without any preliminaries. Instead of the agricultural character the industry became the basic determining factor. Unlike many Hungarian settlements the economic character of Kecskemét was not significantly changed by the often ill-considered industrialization.

Although several new types of activity were introduced in Kecskemét, (precision engineering, metal industry, chemical industry) the aspect was determined by agricultural economy partly due to the processing of agricultural products (canning factory, poultry processing, milling industry) and partly due to the industrial manufacturing connected to them (agricultural machines). Moreover, several good agricultural (mainly horticultural) results were produced in the large state-farms, organized according to the conditions of the time, that were in the close surrounding of the town (in Helvécia, Városföd, Nyárlôrinc).

The higher education and research activity of the town closely connected to the agricultural economy were started in the town those days. In 1952 the Research Institute of Vegetable Growing was established that was followed by the branch of Research Institute of Forestry and the Research Institute of Viti- and Viniculture. One of Kecskemét's colleges also trains production engineers of horticulture. The duality can also be found in the field of education as the College of Mechanization and Automation was established in the town also in the 1960-ies.

As a sign of the centralized politics, the development of Kecskemét was not realized through the industrialization or the collective way of agricultural production but through the formation of the institutional system on the political basis of the county. The first period of this era lasted from the second half of the 60-ies to the end of the 70-ies when the new construction almost ruined the old traditional standards of market town character. One third of the central part of the town was perfectly rebuilt so that they were mostly the political and administrative establishments that were located here as well as the connecting living estate inhabited mainly by the office holders. This process - separated in space - helped the successful reconstruction of the inner city and partly helped to preserve the traditional character of the town that had been formed at the turn of the century.

The other factor began to be effective in the second half of the 80-ies. The central role of Kecskemét was increased - strangely enough - mainly not by the management of the town but by that of the county - due to their good "upper" connections - and they tried to develop the cultural and scientific sphere, "forgetting" about the real economical and infrastructure problems of the town, the industry and the agriculture that were on their way to crisis..

From the 1980-ies on together with the crisis of the political system the economy of Kecskemét also started to decline. The firms produced dumping goods both in quantity and quality that were mostly realized at the eastern markets of the COMECON countries. As a consequence of the increasing amount of governmental deprival there was neither need nor financial possibility for any technological change.

As a result of the economic change due to the collapse of the socialist system Hungary lost its traditional eastern markets that meant the crisis of food-processing industry in our town. The large agricultural farms went bankrupt because of the privatization of the agricultural lands but there was no need for large quantities of basic material for the processing industry either.

The large centralized enterprises went bankrupt, they were disintegrated into small units.

The changes in the economic structure and ownership of the past 5 years significantly determined the situation of the labour market. The enterprises that used to employ large number of staff underwent a transformation, were frittered away, winded up, the unnecessary labour was cut down. This process took place in 1991 but it continued in a slighter degree in 1992, too. The new prosperity started on the basis of the ruined, frittered, winded up economy.

Source: http://www.kecskemet.com/kecskemet/history.html

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