Andrey Viktorovich Keller,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Doctor of Philosophy, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“The Bakery Which Belongs to me is Purely a Craft (Corporation) Establishment”: The Transformation of Technological Ways and The Traditional Bread Production of Russian Capitals in 19th Century – from Bakery to Industrial Production?
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-5-11
The issue of providing broad strata of the urban population with bakery products as staple food products has always remained an important factor in the economy of the city providing stability to the urban society. Representatives of this production fit the concept of small and medium-sized enterprises widespread among most social strata of the urban population of the Russian Empire: craftsmen, peasants, burghers, and merchants. Referring to St. Petersburg archives, the author shows a huge variety of assortment offered by St. Petersburg artisans and trends in the development of the bakery industry production in terms of technological and social transformation of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The archival documents involved make it possible to trace aspects of the transition of some bakery enterprises from artisan bakeries to large food industry enterprises. The article considers the question of collecting the topology of urban craft, time and space of urban bakers, confectioners, and makers of Vyborg pretzels. The analysis of the data makes it possible to establish that frequent price hikes and the high cost of flour, which had long been the bane of the population and of the bread market in St. Petersburg, could lead to substantial losses. Information from archival documents shows the logistics of raw material and product delivery, the specifics of interregional economic and transport links, the position, and achievements of the bakery industry of production, the formation of the raw material market, and the range of bakery products. Revealing mechanisms of their internal trade in all‑Russian and regional aspects, the author touches upon issues of management and entrepreneurs’ business strategies.
Publishing: 28/10/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 30/06/2023
How to cite: Кeller А.V. “The Bakery Which Belongs to me is Purely a Craft (Corporation) Establishment”: The Transformation of Technological Ways and The Traditional Bread Production of Russian Capitals in 19th Century – from Bakery to Industrial Production? // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 5 (31), pp. 159–172. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-5-11.pdf]
Links: Issue 5 2023
Keywords: small and medium business; artisans; bakery production; guilds masters; bakers; confectioners; Russian Empire; Moscow; St. Petersburg