Konstantin Alekseevich Abdrakhmanov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Orenburg State Pedagogical University, Orenburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Waterways in the Business Activity of the Orenburg Post-Reform Merchants (the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-3-4
The article analyzes the participation of the Orenburg merchants in the organization of navigation along the rivers of the province in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. This business activity is viewed as an integral part of the everyday work of entrepreneurs, as it was directly related to a wide range of tasks that were solved in the course of their professional activities. Entrepreneurs had to obtain permission from the provincial authorities, prepare the most technically feasible and financially democratic project and survive the competition for the right to implement promising infrastructure solutions. The lack of intraregional railway communication, the low quality of land routes, which did not allow year-round use of animal-drawn transport, made waterways the most effective channels for transporting merchant goods. The main obstacle to the launch of a full-fledged steamship movement was the lack of large deep rivers in the territory of the Orenburg region, which the neighboring regions (Siberia, Kazan and Astrakhan provinces) were famous for. A study of the bottom of the Ural River undertaken by some merchants showed that in some areas after dredging the main river of the Orenburg region could be adapted for the movement of fairly large ships with a steam engine. The solution to this problem required significant investments from businessmen, which could be covered in the shortest possible time only with the support of the local administration. That is why several entrepreneurs asked the Governor-General to grant them a number of privileges that would allow them to recover all costs in a minimal period of time. The organization of steamship traffic on the Ural River was a completely feasible idea, and not only local merchants, but also merchants from other provinces of the empire planned to transport goods and passengers along the river. However the hydrographic parameters of the rivers of the Orenburg region did not allow the business community to make water transport the main means of moving goods and passengers, since only small vessels with small draft could freely move along the local rivers.
Publishing: 28/06/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 11/01/2022
How to cite: Abdrakhmanov K.A. Waterways in the Business Activity of the Orenburg Post-Reform Merchants (the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 3 (23), pp. 49–61. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-3-04.pdf]
Links: Issue 3 2022
Keywords: Orenburg rivers; navigation on the Ural River; water transport; Orenburg merchants; delivery of goods; interaction with the authorities