Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in the mining industry of the Donetsk basin in the post-reform period (1860s–1890s)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15421/272104

Abstract

The Aim and the Subject of the Study. The purpose of the study is to highlight the features of the development of entrepreneurial activity in the coal industry of Donbass during the second half of the XIX century. Research methods used: historical-genetic, retrospective, diachronic. Scientific novelty: on the basis of a wide range of sources the business practices of the representatives of the business world of the Russian Empire in the mining industry of the Donetsk basin of the post-reform period are characterized. Basic material and Results. It is noted that in the post-reform period in the coal industry of Donbass there were dozens of private enterprises and companies, large fortunes were made. The main features of the mining industry, and above all the representatives of the technical intelligentsia and merchants, were high energy, prudence and perseverance in achieving the goal. At the same time, the lack of capital, as well as special knowledge, led to the fact that many miners in the region (mostly local landowners) in their business practices collapsed, and their businesses operated for a relatively short time. It is emphasized that a significant role in the development of the coal industry of the Donetsk Basin in the 90s of the XIX c. played foreign capital. It is noted that the Russians dominated the Donbass mining industry on a national basis. At the same time, ethnic Ukrainians were actively involved in coal mining in the region. At the same time, most entrepreneurs of Ukrainian origin who were engaged in business in the mining industry, in terms of their profits can be attributed to the middle (annual profit from 2 to 10 thousand rubles) or small (mostly peasants) bourgeoisie. It is noted that the number of large joint-stock companies in the Donetsk Basin, in particular those operating with French, Belgian and British capital, in the late nineteenth century increased to 34. In many respects it was through their efforts that the production of raw materials increased almost sevenfold or by 600% during 1880–1894. At the same time, in the 1890s, there were 155 individual enterprises in the Donbass coal industry. Three of them were among the ten largest coal producers in the Donbass. These were the firms of P.O. Karpova, P.P. Rykovsky and A.V. Markov, whose annual coal production ranged from 8 to 10 million pods. Article type: descriptive.

Published

2021-05-17