Socio-economic history of Achinsk and local merchantry
The article discusses the process of the foundation, development and formation of a small provincial Siberian city of Achinsk. This part of history is considered by the author as a source for studying the modernization of economic and social life in Siberia throughout the 19th to early 20th centuries and the inception and development of the domestic bourgeoisie there. Using the example of a separate small city, an attempt is made to identify the causes and content of new phenomena of the country's socio-economic life and the role that entrepreneurs played in it. Such conclusions are confirmed by the content of biographies of individual merchants and entrepreneurs, which are colorful and informative historical accounts, worthy of novels and artistic essays. The scientific and unbiased historical and economic study, which explains the formation of the large capital of Achinsk, analyzes the state of affairs in the Yenisei province as a whole, reveals the relations of owners and workers, merchants and their clerks, which illuminates all aspects of the merchants' life in the region. The treasures of the architectural heritage of the Achinsk merchants are of particular note. They did not spare funds to pay for the projects of their buildings and structures, using the lumber of high-quality materials for their construction and strictly monitored the quality of the structural work. Thus, the article concludes that in Achinsk and some other cities of the Yenisei province there was a natural business qualities selection of entrepreneurs, which in the face of strong competition, the absence of credit and state guarantees, led to a constant "rotation" of merchants. Most of the merchants were primarily engaged in trade, and this was the most conservative part of the nascent bourgeoisie, that affected the architecture of Siberian cities and towns. To increase the stability of capital and increase their profitability, merchants began to invest their capital in industrial production and gold mining in the second half of the 19th century, which generated breaking with traditions, both public and national ones, and the incorporation of provincial businessmen in regional and even global cultural processes. Nevertheless, simplicity and lack of education allowed merchants to keep up national character traits, to have a traditional patriarchal family with established traditions and values, and to remain committed to the old faith.