Sergey Mikhailovich Ledrov,
Candidate of Historical Science, Docent, Nizhny Novgorod Institute of the Education Development, Nizhnii Novgorod, Russia; Moscow Witte University. Branch in Nizhnii Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, e‑mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Leather Industry of the Nizhny Novgorod Province at the Turn of the 18th–19th Centuries (According to the Materials of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-5-4
The article deals with the state of tannery production in Nizhny Novgorod province in 1796–1803 on the basis of statistical data, that is, reports submitted by tannery owners to the Manufaktur Collegium. The degree of preservation of such documents of Nizhny Novgorod origin in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts has been determined. The author has discovered 46 archive records for the period of 1797–1803 and also the case with the consolidated allprovincial statement for 1796, compiled according to the non-preserved statements for individual plants and also the case with the consolidated general Gubernian statement for 1796, compiled according to the nonpreserved statements for individual factories or the centers of their concentration. It is noted that these sheets are the earliest surviving similar historical sources on the history of the Nizhny Novgorod leather industry. The information contained in the sheets allows to state that tannery in Nizhny Novgorod region at the turn of 18th–19th centuries was developing both in cities (36,2 % of the registered enterprises and 19,7 % of production in volume terms) and in the countryside (63,8 % and 80,3 % respectively). The owners of the factories were representatives of all the main estates: merchants, burghers, peasants (landowners, economic, palace) and landlords. However, the main centers of leatherworking were the villages of Pavlovo and Bogorodskoye – the Sheremetevs’ estates in Gorbatovsky uyezd, and the town of Arzamas. Tanneries in the Nizhny Novgorod province were mainly small enterprises, including those using the labor of hired workers, as well as with a pronounced market orientation of production. The skins produced by local entrepreneurs of all the main types of farm animals were sold in both capitals and at the leading fairs of the Russian Empire, including those under government contracts.
Publishing: 28/10/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 30/06/2023
How to cite: Ledrov S.M. The Leather Industry of the Nizhny Novgorod Province at the Turn of the 18th–19th Centuries (According to the Materials of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts) // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 5 (31), pp. 71–83. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-5-04.pdf]
Links: Issue 5 2023
Keywords: leather industry; Nizhny Novgorod Province; Manufacture Collegium; industrial statistics; tannery; Arzamas; Pavlovo; Bogorodskoye