Joseph Szlavy

* Győr, November 23, 1818 – † Zsitvaújfalu, August 8, 1900 / economist, politician, Hungarian Prime Minister between 1872 and 1874, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ; ; He began his higher education at the Theresianum in Vienna, then in 1844 he received a mining engineering diploma from the Selmecbánya Academy and entered the service of the Oravicabánya treasury estate. Between 1846 and 1848 he was the chamber secretary in Buda. In 1848 Kossuth appointed him director of the Oravica factories and then government commissioner, entrusting him with converting the factories to the production of iron and steel materials needed to equip the army. After the suppression of the 1848/49 War of Independence, he was sentenced to five years in prison, but regained his freedom two and a half years later and settled first in Bratislava and then in Álmosd in Bihar County. He farmed his estates until 1861. In 1865, he was the Lord Governor of Bihar County, in 1867, a member of parliament belonging to the conservative group of the Deák Party, from 1867 to 1869, State Secretary for the Interior, from 24 May 1870 to 5 December 1872, Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Trade in the Andrássy and Lónyay governments. From 4 December 1872 to 21 March 1874, Prime Minister, and from 19 December 1873 to 21 March 1874, Minister of Finance. He prevented the state budget deficit from being eliminated by selling state-owned iron and coal mines, as well as iron and steel works. After the merger of the Deák Party and the center-left, he retired for a while, then became the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1879, and from 1880 to 1882, he was the joint Minister of Finance. From 1882, he was a Crown Guard and a member of the House of Lords, from 1885, he was the Vice-President of the House of Lords, and from 1894 to 1896, he was the President of the House of Lords. In 1884, he became a member of the board of directors of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.