Features of economic development of the 20th century. Features of the economic development of Russia at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. Economic development of Russia at the end of the 19th

In the last decade of the 19th century. Russia's economic development was characterized by a powerful industrial boom. It was at this time that, along with the old industrial regions (Ural, Central, Northwestern), new ones were formed - the Southern (coal and metallurgical) and Baku (oil). In these areas, industry developed at a particularly rapid pace. Thanks to them, a new powerful fuel base is being created in the country. Heavy industry was also formed on its basis: the production of ferrous metals increased three times compared to the previous decade, which allowed Russia to almost completely abandon the import of metal. The volume of mechanical engineering is increasing threefold. The industrial boom in Russia had a beneficial effect on the lives of all layers of society. The English scientist P. Getrell figuratively remarked: “It is clear that on average in 1914 the tsar’s subjects ate and dressed much better than their immediate predecessors.”

However, despite these noticeable changes, Russia lagged behind the leading bourgeois powers in industrial production. Despite the highest rates of development in the world, low labor productivity remained in Russia. In addition, Russia was poor in capital. Its foreign trade turnover was noticeably inferior to that of the leading powers. The Russian government is faced with the acute problem of attracting foreign capital. In 1895 S.Yu. Witte argued to the ministers and the emperor that “without the assistance of foreign capital, we are not able to use the natural resources with which some areas of our vast homeland are so generously endowed.”

The Empire, with its inexhaustible supplies of raw materials and cheap labor, was extremely attractive to the Western European bourgeoisie. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. In the mining, metalworking and engineering industries, foreign investments exceeded Russian ones.

Russian workers at that time remained the lowest paid in Europe and were more easily swayed by revolutionary agitation than their colleagues in France or Germany.

The Russian bourgeoisie found itself highly dependent on state power. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. special state bodies are created - “Meetings on Shipbuilding”, “Congress on Direct Communications” and others, with the help of which the government, acting in close contact with representatives of large monopolies, regulated production. Through these bodies, government orders were distributed, benefits, cash loans, etc. were provided. At this time, the State Bank also became increasingly important in regulating production, providing powerful financial support to those monopolistic associations in whose activities the government was interested.

As a result, the big bourgeoisie develops an ambivalent attitude towards the monarchical system. On the one hand, the bourgeoisie, increasingly aware of its economic power, began to strive for political power and thus found itself in opposition to the emperor. On the other hand, the government's constant financial support for the bourgeoisie and government orders made this opposition quite weak. And yet, the Russian bourgeoisie was no longer the “servant” of the aristocracy. Even F. M. Dostoevsky in the 70s. of the 19th century, he noted that “the former boundaries of the former merchant are suddenly terribly moving apart in our time. A European speculator, previously unknown in Rus', and a stock exchange player are suddenly related to them... The modern merchant no longer needs to get a “person” for dinner and give her balls; he is already becoming friends and fraternizing with a person on the stock exchange, in a joint stock meeting... he is already a person himself, a person himself.”

In new industrial areas, more and more grandiose industrial enterprises began to appear, employing thousands of workers. This process is called concentration of production. It occurred in Russia in a short time and at a faster pace than in any other country, and opened the way for the formation of monopolies, i.e. such large enterprises, the owners of which have the opportunity to establish control over the market and dictate their terms in certain sectors of production, thereby ensuring maximum profits for themselves. To do this, they only needed to agree among themselves on how much to produce and what price to set for it.

Monopolies appeared in Russia in the 80s and 90s. XIX century One of the first monopolies, for example, was the association of sugar manufacturers. And yet, such processes were most characteristic of heavy industry. The Union of Carriage Works has incorporated almost all the country's large enterprises producing rolling stock for railways. In the oil industry, the “Union of Baku Kerosene Factories” and the “Union of Seven Firms” emerged, which almost monopolized the production and sale of oil. However, according to a modern researcher of the Russian economy at the beginning of the 20th century. V.Ya. Laverychev, “monopoly unions, banking monopolies, and the system of state-monopoly capitalism in pre-revolutionary Russia did not reach the level of maturity that was characteristic of the leading capitalist countries.”

In parallel with the concentration of industrial production in Russia, as well as throughout the world, there was a concentration of banking capital. During the fierce struggle for dominance in this area, which cost many small provincial banks their independence, by the beginning of the 20th century. The so-called “Big Five” stand out - a group of St. Petersburg banks, which accounted for almost half of all monetary resources.

90s of the XIX century. - a time of intensive railway construction. Along with the construction of new railway lines in industrial areas, during this period the expansion of the railway network on the outskirts of the empire became increasingly important: in Belarus and the Baltic states, in the Russian North, in Transcaucasia and Central Asia. In the 90s. XIX century construction begins on the world's largest Trans-Siberian Railway, 7 thousand miles long.

Russia entered the 20th century with the second longest railway network (after the United States), and almost half of it was built in the 90s. previous century. The initiator of railway construction in the country was the government itself, which realized the need for railways for Russia. “During the reign of Emperor Alexander III,” wrote the Minister of Finance and Railways of that time, S.Yu. Witte, “a firm idea was established about the national importance of railways... a complete revolution was made in the railway business, both from a practical and theoretical point of view.”

Railway construction, which established uninterrupted transport connections between different regions, greatly contributed to the industrial development of the country as a whole.

Response Plan:
1. General characteristics of economic processes.
2. The role of the state in the economy.
3. Development of industry and finance.
4. Development of agriculture.

Answer:

1. By the end of the 19th century. The system of Russian capitalism took shape. The period from the mid-80s to the mid-90s. entered the history of the country as the “golden decade” in economic development. The state actively patronized the development of domestic industry, banking, transport, and communications. Significant foreign investment began to flow into the country. But the development of the Russian economy was negatively affected by the following factors:

multi-structured nature of the economy - along with private capitalist, monopoly and state-monopoly, small-scale commodity (handicraft industry), semi-serfdom and natural-patriarchal (community) structures were preserved;
unevenness and deep disproportions in the development of individual industries;
dependence on external grain markets and foreign investment, as a result of which Russia suffered greatly from the crises of 1898-1904 and 1907-1910;
high rates of economic development were combined with low labor productivity (2-3 times lower than in Europe), a lag in production per capita and technical equipment of labor;
The Russian bourgeoisie did not have access to power and was not free to make decisions; it never left the class framework of the guild merchants.

2. One of the most important features of Russia’s economic development was state intervention in economic life, which was expressed:

in the creation of state-owned factories (military production), which were excluded from the sphere of free competition;
in state control over railway transport and the construction of new roads (2/3 of the railway network belonged to the state);
the fact that the state owned a significant part of the land;
the existence of a significant public sector in the economy;
in the establishment of protective tariffs by the state, the provision of government loans and orders;
in the state creating conditions for attracting foreign investment (in 1897, a monetary reform was carried out that eliminated bimetallism and established the gold backing of the ruble and its convertibility).

3. Shocked at the end of the 19th century. The leading countries of the world, the economic crisis led to the creation of powerful monopolistic associations. The first of them appeared in Russia in the 1880s. The predominant form of monopolies in Russia has become cartels and syndicates, dividing product markets among themselves and establishing uniform prices. Large associations were created in various industries. Thus, the Prodamet syndicate united 12 metallurgical plants in the south of Russia in 1902 (60% of metal sales in the country). The Produgol syndicate controlled almost all coal sales.
Features of Russian monopolies:

high concentration of production and labor;
dependence on government orders and government loans;
attracting foreign investment (these investments accounted for up to 40% of all investments in the economy).

The process of monopolization also captured the banking sector. 5 large banks were formed, controlling more than half of financial transactions:

St. Petersburg International Bank
Russian-Asian Bank
Azov-Donskoy and others.

Features of banking:

high concentration of capital;
close ties between banks and the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank;
competition between domestic and foreign capital in the country's domestic market.

One of the features of Russia's industrial development is that entire layers of economic life found themselves outside the zone of modernization. Crafts and handicraft industries retained significant weight in the economy. It was this industry that had the widest market.

4. Russia is a country dominated by agriculture; 82% of its population was employed in this industry. It ranked first in the world in terms of production volume: it accounted for 50% of the world rye harvest and 25% of world wheat exports. Features of agriculture:

grain specialization of agriculture, which led to agricultural overpopulation and land depletion;
dependence on grain prices on the foreign market in the face of increased competition from the USA, Argentina, and Australia;
low capacity of the bulk of peasant farms, an increase in production was noted only in landowner farms and farms of wealthy peasants (no more than 15-20% of all peasants);
Russia is a “zone of risky farming”, which, with low agricultural technology, led to chronic crop failures and famine;
preservation of semi-serfdom and patriarchal remnants in the countryside (landownership, communal system of land ownership and land use).
The agricultural sector was only partially included in the modernization process. It was the problems of agriculture that became the main core of the economic, social and political life of the country at the beginning of the century.

Russia has embarked on the path of modernization lagging behind Western Europe. The contradictions in the development of the Russian economy were associated precisely with the insufficient involvement of its individual sectors in modernization. A serious obstacle to economic development was the autocracy and the political dominance of the nobility. All this caused instability in the development of other spheres of social activity.

In the 80-90s of the 19th century (just after democratic reforms, the assassination of Alexander II and the launch of counter-reforms), the economy of the empire experienced a period of growth. Capitalism began to take shape. Cities and villages began to be affected modernization process, comprehensive reforms were carried out. Russia's rapid economic development at the beginning of the 20th century stemmed, in particular, from these two decades.

In contact with

Early 20th century modernization

In the economy of our country in the initial period of the last century the following were noted:

development of entrepreneurial activity;
increase in capital (internal, external) included in the economy;
increasing the number of hired forces at enterprises of various types.

In just two decades, the empire transformed from an agrarian to an agrarian-industrial state (still, more than 80% of the population was involved in the agricultural industry).

This is the main feature of Russian modernization – its accelerated course. Russian capitalism developed at the highest rates.

The path that England traversed in several centuries, Russia “traversed” in several decades. In terms of basic indicators, the country gradually caught up with such economic leaders as England, Germany, France and, taking a tight place in the 2nd echelon of modernization.

Attention! Political scientists, sociologists and economists identify the following echelons of economic modernization: the first (completion of the stage of formation of the capitalist system) - the British Empire, the United States of America, Germany, the French Republic; the second (states of developing capitalism) - the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, Japan; third (weak growth of capitalism) – Latin American states.

Cyclicality of the economy

Our state, integrating into the world economy, adopted its characteristic cyclical nature (a feature of Russian modernization at the beginning of the century). Periods recession and rise The economy of the first years of the century can be presented as follows (table):

The economy began to respond to all political processes taking place in the world: wars, revolutions, changes of governments and rulers.

Monopoly capitalism

In the Russian economic system of the first decades of the 20th century (following other countries), monopoly capitalism began to take shape.

It was a special phenomenon, as a result of which the c was formed white global conglomerate leading associations of industry and banking.

These trends occurred throughout the world, but at different time intervals. Depending on the mentality of nationalities, historically established cultural values, and so on.

Signs and features

The signs of monopoly capitalism are:

formation of large industrial groups - monopolies;
dominance of money exports over goods(opportunities for attracting cheap labor, cheap raw materials in third world countries and colonies);
economic redistribution (territorial division) of the world between the largest monopolies (Russian companies took an active part in this redistribution, which rather resembled political, colonial expansion);
the severity of colonial wars;
the formation of imperialism.

Businessmen began to actively influence foreign policy, defending their own commercial interests.

The Russian economy also had special characteristics of this type capitalist relations:

It was formed against the backdrop of the preservation of autocratic power and landownership, class inequality and the absence of social rights.
The Russian Empire was a huge multinational power, where different regions and different peoples existed in different socio-economic conditions.
Capitalist monopoly was formed in a special order solely because the Russian Empire made the transition to the capitalist system later than a number of other European states.

Stages of formation

The formation of monopoly capitalism in the Russian state is divided into 3 main stages:

1880-90 – appearance p first cartels, coordinating sales markets and prices;
1900-08 – the emergence of syndicates, banking monopolies, the beginning of the merging of industrial and banking capital;
1909-13 – formation of syndicates, financial capital.

Forms of monopolies

There were two main forms of monopolies in the economy of the Russian Empire:

sales – cartels and syndicates;
production - trusts and concerns.

The fundamental differences between different forms of monopolies and the periods of their formation in the Russian Empire are presented in the table:

Industrial development

Russian industry of the early 20th century was going through a period of transformation: New branches of production appeared, achievements of technology and science began to be used.

Russian industry during this period of time was formed and developed with the active participation of foreign and state capital.

Agricultural development

Despite the accelerated pace of industrial development, Russia remained an agricultural country. But despite the fact that it was a leader in the export of agricultural products, the situation in this sector of the economy was quite difficult:

grain specialization led to agricultural overpopulation and depletion of the lands of the South and South-East of Russia;
Basically, the farms were of low capacity (this applied to both peasant and landowner farms);
non-use of technology led to frequent crop failures and famine;
Semi-feudal patriarchal remnants remained in the village; modernization in this sector proceeded very slowly.

In addition, Russia is in the “risky farming” zone. Due to climatic conditions (floods, drought, frost), crop failures often occurred.

Important! During this period, competition in the global agricultural market of the Russian Empire began to include the United States, Latin American countries and Australia.

Reforms of P. A. Stolypin

The reforms of P. A. Stolypin, carried out by him in 1906-1910, were aimed at accelerating modernization processes in agriculture. According to these reforms:

peasants received the right to leave the community;
peasants could get a loan from the Peasant Bank for farm development;
the state provided assistance to peasants who wanted to move abroad.

All these measures led to the accelerated formation rural and increase the profitability of agriculture, its marketability and

connections with, but they did not relieve the social tension that existed in the Russian village.

The fact is that Stolypin never decided to take the most important step - the elimination of landownership, which would lead to land

redistribution and would solve the issue of land shortage among peasant farms. In this way he would get rid of strong class inequality and boost the economy.

Transport

In Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the transport system did not undergo significant changes. The leading role in the transportation of goods and logistics was played by railways, as well as by water transport (there were many private shipping companies in Russia). Highways there was very little. Equipped roads were laid between the cities.

Financial system

The Russian financial system of the early 20th century was dominated by state and private capital:

The Russian financial system of the early 20th century was not in the best condition. Firstly, the international crisis of 1900-1903 had a serious impact on it. Secondly, the revolution of 1905-1907. actually emptied the Russian treasury. Thirdly, the constant appeal to foreign capital has led to an increase in public debt.

Reforms of S. Yu. Witte

The reforms of the Minister of Internal Affairs S. Yu. Witte were an attempt stabilize the financial system. He carried out a whole range of measures aimed at improving the economy:

regulation of the tariff system;
reorganization of the taxation system;
state regulation of foreign and domestic trade (protectionism);
revitalization of the State Bank and the monetary reform of 1897, aimed at strengthening the national currency;
combating the budget deficit.

In general, the reforms were positive, but S. Yu. Witte was not allowed to complete them, blocking his agrarian program.

Features of economic development

Thus, the Russian economy of the early 20th century was characterized by:

a combination of a developed industrial and financial system with a backward agricultural one;
the weakness of the bourgeoisie, which has only just begun to emerge in conditions of social inequality;
high concentration of foreign capital with low domestic exports.

Briefly about the Russian economy at the beginning of the 20th century

Development of the Russian economy in the 20th century

Conclusion

On the one hand, the Russian economy rapidly evolved and developed, on the other, autocracy, landownership, remnants of serfdom and social inequality hampered modernization processes. But, in any case, during this period the level of economic development of Russia increased and its lag behind the leading capitalist powers decreased significantly.

Russia at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. remained an agricultural country, but its industry was experiencing rapid growth.

The impetus for production growth was railway construction. It resumed in 1893. The railway network expanded from 1895 to 1899. on average by more than 3 thousand km per year, in the next five years - by more than 2 thousand km per year. The construction of the Great Siberian Railway (Trans-Siberian) was of great importance for the development of industry and agriculture. The construction of railways contributed to an increase in the production of metal, heavy engineering products, coal, timber and other materials.

The sectors of the national economy associated with new types of fuel - coal and oil, the production of which increased by 3 times, developed at a particularly rapid pace. In general, the output of heavy industry products increased 2.3 times. The rate of industrial growth in Russia was the highest in the world - up to 8.1% per year.

Despite the high rates of development of industrial production, Russia lagged significantly behind the world powers in terms of qualitative indicators of the economy: industrial production per capita, labor productivity, and technical equipment of enterprises. In terms of the level of socio-economic development, it was a moderately developed agrarian-industrial country with significant potential.

Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. was a country with a diverse economy. Along with the latest capitalist production, small-scale (craft, handicraft) and even subsistence farming occupied a significant place in its economy.

The role of the state in the economy.

An important feature of Russia was the presence of a large public sector of the economy. Its core was state-owned factories that met the military needs of the state. They belonged to the state and were financed by it. The only customer and buyer of their products was the state, and they were managed by government officials. At the beginning of the 20th century. There were about 30 largest state-owned factories: Tula, Izhevsk, Sestroretsk, Obukhovsk, Izhora, etc. In addition, the state owned over 2/3 of the railway
networks, vast land and forest lands, postal and telegraph communications.

The role of the state in the Russian economy did not end there. The government influenced the economic activities of private enterprises: regulated prices; protecting Russian industry, it introduced high customs duties; distributed government orders to private companies and firms; provided them with loans through the State Bank.

Foreign capital.

The state created favorable conditions for attracting foreign capital. An important role was played by the 1897 on the initiative of the Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte monetary reform. She introduced gold backing of the ruble and the free exchange of paper money for gold.

At the beginning of the 20th century. foreign investment in the Russian economy accounted for almost 40% of all capital investments. Active attraction of foreign capital did not lead to the creation
foreign zones of influence, to complete or even partial dependence of Russia on foreign companies and states. Foreign companies and banks did not pursue independent economic policies and did not have the opportunity to influence political decisions. Coming to Russia, foreign capital merged with domestic capital, and the opportunities for Russia's inclusion in the world economic system expanded.

The participation of foreign capital in the Russian economy also had its drawbacks: part of the profit, which could have increased the country’s national wealth, expanded investment, and increased the living standards of the population, went abroad.

Russian monopoly capitalism.

In 1900-1903 European countries were rocked by a powerful economic crisis. It also hit the Russian economy. Heavy industry was hit the hardest, especially
industries such as metallurgy, metalworking, mechanical engineering, oil production and refining. The crisis caused the death of many enterprises that were weak financially, organizationally or technically. Over three years, over 3 thousand enterprises were closed, employing 112 thousand workers. These enterprises could not withstand the competition. Railway construction has decreased significantly.

The response of the capitalist economy to the crisis was the increased concentration of production and the creation of monopolies. Let us recall that when creating monopolies, the owners of individual enterprises agreed on production volumes, prices, markets for raw materials and other issues.
The forms of monopolies were different. Cartels, syndicates, trusts were created, and later concerns appeared.

Syndicates became the main form of monopolies in Russia. They fought for the complete subjugation of the leading sectors of the economy. Thus, the Prodameta syndicate (1901), which at the time of its inception united 12 metallurgical plants in the south of Russia, in 1904 controlled the sales of 60%, and in 1912 - about 80% of the country's metallurgical products. The Produgol, Prodvagon, and Gvozd syndicates controlled the corresponding industries. The Nobel-Mazut cartel reigned supreme in the oil industry.

Monopolies also emerged in the banking system. The five largest banks controlled almost half of the country's financial transactions. Gradually they began to squeeze out foreign capital, becoming the main investors in domestic industry.

Agriculture.

By the beginning of the 20th century. Russia ranked first in the world in terms of total agricultural production. It accounted for 50% of the world's rye harvest, about 20% of wheat and 25% of world grain exports. The production of sugar beets, flax, and industrial crops increased rapidly. Livestock numbers and productivity increased.

There were successes, but the situation in Russian agriculture as a whole was not determined by them. Contemporaries talked about the impoverishment of the center. In the provinces of Central Russia, semi-middle peasant and poor peasant farms predominated. They did not produce commercial (specially intended for sale) products. The fields were cultivated using old methods - plows and wooden harrows. Lack of livestock and money prevented the application of sufficient fertilizers. Productivity was low, and even if peasants sold bread on the market, it was at the expense of their own nutrition. The catastrophic consequence was mass starvation in lean years. The peasants were convinced that the situation could change only when they received at their disposal part of the landowner's land, which was used extremely inefficiently.

There were 130 thousand landowner estates on more than 20 million peasant farms. According to experts, for the normal existence of a family of 6 people in the black earth zone, 10.5 dessiatines were required. In fact, there were about 7 dessiatines per peasant farm. The impoverishment of the center was complemented by agrarian overpopulation - historians talk about 20 million “extra mouths” that had no use in the countryside. The situation was complicated by the preservation of the community. At the beginning of the 20th century. 4/5 of allotment peasant land was in communal use.

The community carried out regular redistribution of land among its members, vigilantly ensuring that everyone got the land equally. Meanwhile, the population of the Russian Empire increased annually by 2.5 million people, mainly due to the peasantry. With the next redistribution, each peasant farm had less and less land left.

The shortcomings of communal land ownership became more and more obvious: the community, which saved the weak, hindered the activities of strong, economic peasants; she strove for relative equality, but prevented the improvement of the general welfare of the village.

So, Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. In terms of economic development, it was a moderately developed agrarian-industrial country with a multi-structured economy. The priority task was to modernize agriculture.

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multi-structured nature of the economy - along with private capitalist, monopoly and state-monopoly, small-scale commodity (handicraft industry), semi-serfdom and natural-patriarchal (community) structures were preserved;

unevenness and deep disproportions in the development of individual industries;

dependence on external grain markets and foreign investment, as a result of which Russia suffered greatly from the crises of 1898-1904 and 1907-1910;

high rates of economic development were combined with low labor productivity (2-3 times lower than in Europe), a lag in production per capita and technical equipment of labor;

The Russian bourgeoisie did not have access to power and was not free to make decisions; it never left the class framework of the guild merchants.

2. One of the most important features of Russia’s economic development was state intervention in economic life, which was expressed:

in the creation of state-owned factories (military production), which were excluded from the sphere of free competition;

in state control over railway transport and the construction of new roads (2/3 of the railway network belonged to the state);

the fact that the state owned a significant part of the land;

the existence of a significant public sector in the economy;

in the establishment of protective tariffs by the state, the provision of government loans and orders;

in the state creating conditions for attracting foreign investment (in 1897, a monetary reform was carried out that eliminated bimetallism and established the gold backing of the ruble and its convertibility).

Features of Russian monopolies:

high concentration of production and labor;

dependence on government orders and government loans;

attracting foreign investment (these investments accounted for up to 40% of all investments in the economy).

The process of monopolization also captured the banking sector. 5 large banks were formed, controlling more than half of financial transactions:

St. Petersburg International Bank

Russian-Asian Bank

Azov-Donskoy and others.

Features of banking:

high concentration of capital;

close ties between banks and the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank;

competition between domestic and foreign capital in the country's domestic market.

grain specialization of agriculture, which led to agricultural overpopulation and land depletion;

dependence on grain prices on the foreign market in the face of increased competition from the USA, Argentina, and Australia;

low capacity of the bulk of peasant farms, an increase in production was noted only in landowner farms and farms of wealthy peasants (no more than 15-20% of all peasants);

Russia is a “zone of risky farming”, which, with low agricultural technology, led to chronic crop failures and famine;

preservation of semi-serfdom and patriarchal remnants in the countryside (landownership, communal system of land ownership and land use).

The agricultural sector was only partially included in the modernization process. It was the problems of agriculture that became the main core of the economic, social and political life of the country at the beginning of the century.