Shipbuilding in the economic life of the lower Volga region in the XIX - the beginning of XX century
The shipbuilding branch of industry from the stage of its origin in the Lower Volga region, i.e. from fishing to industry. Even very small shipbuilding yards, as well as workshops based solely on manual labor, as well as large enterprises that grew to the level of factories were identified. The development of shipbuilding in the Astrakhan Province on an industrial basis was promoted in 1826 by the transfer of the Admiralty from Kazan to the city of Astrakhan. It remained the base of the Russian navy in the Caspian Sea until moving to Baku. Parallel with the state building of the navy, merchant shipbuilding developed. Shipbuilding, and closely related ship repair, had a significant impact on the economic life of the Lower Volga region, expanding and deepening commodity-money relations. In the forties of the XIX century on the Lower and by 1900 in Astrakhan province there were almost three dozen ship-repairing enterprises, most of which were discovered in the last decade of the XIX century. It was then, when the Caspian and Volga oil fleets received rapid development. The majority of owners of the Middle Volga river started an industrial revolution on river transport, which allowed increasing the marketability of production in this region. The fifties of the XIX century became a boom in the shipping business and the development of construction of steamships on the Volga. The shipping company on the Volga began to develop rapidly with the abolition of serfdom. Along with the equipment of steam engines, the ships began to be built from iron, and then exclusively from steel.