Bakharev Dmitry S.,
Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Perm Province’s Economy in the Beginning of 20th Century: Subregional Commercial and Manufacturing Development
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2019-6-2
The article focuses on spatial analysis of Perm province’s commercial and manufacturing development in the early 20th century. Perm province, the biggest and most eastern province in European Russia, occupied a vast territory of 332.000 sq km and had a population of almost 3 mln people according to the 1897 census. In administrative terms, it was composed of 12 uezds (sub-subprovinces), which spread along both slopes of the Ural Mountains and differed by size, population and economy. While the metal production and mining industry in the region attracted many scholars, commercial and manufacturing development in the early 20th century and its spatial characteristics are understudied. On the basis of local statistics the article analyzes the uyezds’ commercial and manufacturing development using the number of its businesses per 1.000 citizens as the main indicator. Economy theory and spatial analysis helped to study and visualize Perm province’s commercial and manufacturing development on sub-provincial level, finding and interpreting regional differences. In the course of the study it was found out that: in terms of commerce and manufacturing Perm and Verkhotur’e sub-provinces turned out to be more developed than Ekaterinburg sub-province, which was considered the strongest in the province. All the sub-provinces experienced significant growth in 1905, in contrast to the rest of Russia experiencing severe crisis. Commerce and manufacturing stagnation in Perm province after 1905 developed along with the business’ concentration in just few sub-provinces. The high harvest of 1904 led to a rapid growth of the economy in the Kungur sub-province despite the general decrease of agrarian sub-provinces. The author assumes that its location on the Trans-Siberian railway made Kungur the province’s grain trade center. In contrast, Irbit and Shadrinsk sub-provinces, that hosted the biggest fairs, experienced decrease of its local commerce and manufacturing development, likely being suppressed by the big annual trade events.
Publishing: 30/12/2019
How to cite: Bakharev D.S. Perm Province’s Economy in the Beginning of 20th Century: Subregional Commercial and Manufacturing Development // Historical Courier, 2019, No 6 (8). P. 26–37. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2019/ISTKURIER-2019-6-02.pdf
Links: Issue 6 2019
Keywords: economic history; Perm province; Ural around 1900; economic area; economy of Russian empire; factory sector