A városi hitelek és az impériumváltás : Bánsági és szatmári példák = Communal Debts and the Change of Sovereignty in the Banat and Sătmăr Regions

Communal debts and their licensing represented an important intersection of the private sphere, local-communal, and central administrations in post-1867 Hungary. An evergrowing range of tasks delegated by the state, the necessity to invest in city development and schools, health care, social assistance, to establish the conditions of economic growth, all demanded financial commitment from city governments. New loans were taken from banks in Budapest and upon approval from higher organs, ultimately the Ministry of Interior, creating another tie to the central state. The liquidation of these debts after 1918 was meant to resolve an issue inherited from Hungary. While seemingly an opportunity for the new Romania to strengthen its control over territories populated by ethnic minorities, the process was anything but simple and localities were mainly left on their own, in a sense recreating the situation before 1918