The organisation and financing of Russian foreign trade before 1914
By focussing on the role of individual trading companies active in Russia's pre-1914 foreign commerce, this thesis deals with an aspect of Russia's economic history that is relatively unexplored. It also makes a contribution to the debate on the relative importance of government action in Russia's process of economic modernisat ion. As the world of international commerce became increasingly globalised the major turning points in the conduct of Russia's foreign trade were decided beyond her frontiers with the result that the periodisation of Russia's trading history put forward in this study differs fundamentally from that traditionally used by economic historians. Through stressing the international dimension to this process of change and the pivotal position of the City of London in financing Russia's trade, an opportunity is presented to test some of the recent speculations on 19th century international mercantile enterprise. Important in this respect are: the nature of the expatriate trading community in Russia and the extent to which it became a cosmopolitan bourgeoisie; and the contribution of expatriate mercantile enterprise both to the development of Russia's commercial infrastructure and to its manufacturing
Thompstone, Stuart Ross
History
The organisation and financing of Russian foreign trade before 1914. By focussing on the role of individual trading companies active in Russia's pre-1914 foreign commerce, this thesis deals with an aspect of Russia's economic history that is relatively unexplored. It also makes a contribution to the debate on the relative importance of government action in Russia's process of economic modernisat ion. As the world of international commerce became increasingly globalised the major turning points in the conduct of Russia's foreign trade were decided beyond her frontiers with the result that the periodisation of Russia's trading history put forward in this study differs fundamentally from that traditionally used by economic historians. Through stressing the international dimension to this process of change and the pivotal position of the City of London in financing Russia's trade, an opportunity is presented to test some of the recent speculations on 19th century international mercantile enterprise. Important in this respect are: the nature of the expatriate trading community in Russia and the extent to which it became a cosmopolitan bourgeoisie; and the contribution of expatriate mercantile enterprise both to the development of Russia's commercial infrastructure and to its manufacturing
organisation finance russian foreign_trade focussing role individual trading company active russia pre foreign commerce deal aspect russia economic_history relatively_unexplored also_make debate relative_importance government action russia process economic ion world international commerce become_increasingly globalise major turn_point conduct russia foreign_trade decide beyond frontier periodisation russia trading history put_forward study differs fundamentally traditionally used economic_historian stress international_dimension process_change pivotal position city_london financing russia trade opportunity_present test recent speculation international mercantile enterprise important respect nature expatriate trading community russia extent become cosmopolitan bourgeoisie expatriate mercantile enterprise development russia commercial infrastructure manufacture