Budapest is the only city I know where Gresham’s Law takes pride of place. On the Pest side of the Danube opposite the Iron Bridge, in a niche on the front of what is now the Four Seasons Hotel, stands a statue of the propounder of ‘Bad Money Drives Out Good’. His presence is a reminder that this old Eastern European city was a hub of capitalism before it became the drab communist capital that it was throughout most of my life. The hotel used to be the European headquarters of the London-based Gresham Life Assurance Company.
Apart from Gresham, my sense of Budapest as a place to do business derives largely from Brian Maclean, author of a guide to Hungarian customs and etiquette (published by Culture Smart) and a convivial companion on the rickety train out to the palace at Gödöllö, where the Emperor Franz Josef’s tragic wife Sissy spent much of her life. A literally Bohemian figure alongside the new Hungarian suits of our emergent European colleagues, Brian has lived in Budapest for 30 years and is the translator of — among many other books — the definitive history of the Herend porcelain factory, which has long been a highly visible jewel in Budapest’s economic crown.
His view of local business practice is that communism left only personal relationships intact, so that it is still emphatically who, not what, you know that counts. Old-world courtesy is expected and the structure of firms is still intensely hierarchical. Even if relatively junior figures speak the best English, you must still maintain eye contact and friendship with the senior person — who is nearly always male in this still-traditional country. ‘Decision-making,’ says Brian, ‘takes time.’ If your main contact is away, nothing gets done and you have to get used to agreements being negated by a distant superior you’ve never met.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in