Since the beginning of economic relations, performance has always constituted the preferred final stage in the lifecycle of an obligation arising from the conclusion of a transaction in any form, namely, the point at which an obligation based on performance and counter-performance reaches its ultimate purpose. The same holds true, in substantive terms, for the general rules on the performance of obligations, which, after centuries of development under customary law, had become ripe for positive legal regulation and, from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, became the subject of several partial codifications and attempted codifications.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate how Hungarian regulations concerning the performance of obligations moved beyond its customary-law phase and became an integral part of the written system of private law norms. Within the necessary limits of the analysis, the study also examines how these rules, along the axis of Act XXXVII of 1875 on the Commercial Code, the Draft Hungarian General Civil Code, and the Private Law Bill, shaped the dogmatic foundation and direction which, by the middle of the Horthy era, had matured into a bill professionally suitable for entry into force, and upon which socialist codification could confidently build its general provisions on performance.