economic change Flashcards
Russian economy 1855- 1914
Population increase = economy increases and pressure increases
Industry specialised in areas
Modernisation of industrial output overall positive
Industrial develop 1908-14 roubles doubled
Foreign investment in 1895 = 280 million roubles
1914 = 2000ka
Railways
1855-1894
Railways
1855-1894 = huge railway expansion encouraged by wittes drive for investment and by Mikhail von return. By 1890s 60% russia railway system In hands of state
Railways 1894-1914
1894-1914 = under witte expansion doubled. Early 20C state controlled 70% russias railways. Opened up russias interior and exploitation for raw materials. Stimulus to iron and coal industries. By 1913 = second largest railway network in world
Trans-siberian railway from west to east = huge industrial stimulus
Heavy industry
1855-94
= after emancipation Mikhail produced reforms to boost economy and gain funds for industrialisation. Industry expanded e.g oil extraction Baku. 1871 BUT economy weak overall . 1/3 gov expenditure went on debt repayment
Vyshnegradksy raised import tariffs – boost home production
Witte committed to modernisation. Foreign investment into mining, metal trades, oil and banking
heavy industry
1894-1914
= coal output 183 million puds to 671 million in 1900
Witte brought from overseas capital investment, skilled workers and managers. New rouble introduced jan 1897 strengthened currency and attracted investors – funded projects. State bought into heavy industry sector . 1903-13 gov received more than 25% of its income from industrial investments – ‘great spurt’
Main areas production = ST P, M , western russia – M overtook as hub of railway network, industrial centre
1908-1913 industrial growth of 8.5% per year. By 1914 = worlds 5 largest power
Agriculture
1855-1894
= peasants worse of under V policies = increased tax BUT did increase grain exports by 18%. 1891-92 famine caused by bad harvests and above policy – thousands died 350000 dismissed. Under Witte little changed. Increase in agric production 1870s/80s due to kulaks an Vs export drive
agriculture
1894-1914
= changes to land took long time and not entirely successful
1914 = 90% peasnt holdings strip farming, 50% land owned by nobility, 1% kulaks
Mikhail von Reutern reforms
- Treasury reformed, new arrangement to collect tax eg publishing budgets- stabilise economy, more efficient tax collection=more money
- Tax farming abolished, tax system reformed = indirect taxation- easy way to raise money
- State bank established 1860 , extended banks and credit facilities, municipal banks 1862 , savings bank 1869 – encourages businesses
- Import duties reduced 1863 = increased trade
- Foreign investment encouraged with gov guanteed annual dividend
BUT RUSSIAN ECONOMY STILL WEAK – 1/3 gov expenditure went on debt repayment, and rouble varied in its value, peasants still poor
Ivan vyshnegradsky takes over
– introduced import tax 30% of value of raw materials to boost home production. Balance budget whilst finance enterprise and negotiate valuable loahns e.g French in 1888 and increased indirect taxes. Increased grain exports 1881-91 by 18% and by 1892 budget was in surplus
- At expense of peasants, paid the taxes and grain requisionted many left with no resevres for winter = famine
- Cholera and typhus also affected the weak population
- Over 350000 dead from starvation or disease
Gov failed to help = volunteer groups helped the peasants
V dismissed largely due to this
Agriculture/land
Avg peasant = less than 4 hectares. High taxes, grain requistion, redemptonh payment, trad farming hindered change
Peasant land banks 1885 -designed to facilitate land purchase but increased debst
Peasant ownership increased 1877-1906 by over 26 million
Overall increase in agric production in 1870/80s due to kulak class , responding to Vs export drive
But famine highlighted – emancipation failed to solve – avg peasang had too little land to be successful
ROLE OF WITTE
V had introduced meausres – cuts in public spending, steeper duties on imports, in crease peasants tax
Witte = hardheaded conservative, saw industrialisation as for strategic and political reasons
Strategic
Believed russias backwardness = vulnerability , industrial strength determined military power. Top priority = establishment of industrial base to produce high quality armaments and improvement in transport networks
Political
Would strengthen tsarist regime. Be able to reduce tax burden on peasantry
Policies :
Gold standard -
rouble convertible on demand into gold in 1897 – to boost confidence in rouble, reassure investors no money loss thru fluctuations in currency exchange rates
Led to sharp increase in flow of foreign investment in russia
policies :
Import duties
- retained the high duties of V = protected russian indsutries from low price foreign competition
policies :
Railways -
Education –
massive programme of state sponspored railway buiding- center = construction oof trans-siberian railway
more than a hundred technical schools, 3 institutes of technology
overall policies:
- Gov more active in developing economy
- Greater emphasis on production coal,iron,steel
- Loans from countries such as France
- Trans siberain ailway – to exploit Siberia economically
- 1897 laws to restrict working hours to 11.5 a day
Impacts
- Econ growth high but production levels still low – coal production 1/10 of britains steel and iron output half of britains
- Contributed to urbanisation, expansion middle class, growth of industrial working class – growth of working class weakened tsarism – low wages, 12hour days, harsh discipline = workers resentment
successes
- Coal and iron prod increase 8% a year
- 1897-1900, 144 mill roubles in foreign investment
- 1903, trans siberian almost complete
- Large factories in cities
- Resources in Siberia exploited
- Armed forces better weaponry = compete as world great power
Failures
- Living conditions for working class v poor
- More politic opposition against tsarist gov system
- Strikes more common
- Increased tax on peasant = anger
- Didn’t overtale countries economicallu e.g Germany
- By 1913 industry only contributed 20% national income, only 18% Russians lived in towns
- More in debt than any other country . 1914- owes 8 bill roubles
- Political system didn’t modernise , education opportunites remiand limited for majority
Opposition
- Strongly opposed by ministerial colleagues, arch enemy = conservative Plekh
- Gov circles widely disliked- social origins, abrasive personality, marriage to jewish background
- Landowng class affected by import duties = strongly against
In 1903 , dip in econ growth and peasant disorder = enemies persuaded nicholas to dismiss him
Industrial development 1908-14
+
Production at rate 6% per annum until 1914. By 1914 worlds 4 largest producer of coal, iron and steel
5 largest industrial power
Russia = late to industrialise so production carried out – large sale modern works, employed over 1000 workers , some tens of thousands
Latest tech used – industry advanced?
Aircraft designer Igor Sikorksy claimed Russians would soon overtake their ‘foreign teachers’
State led but becoming less dependent on foreign investment
In 3 year lead up to 1913, Russian entrepreneurs invested in new factories, paper mills, mines and power plants
Started 774 joint-stock companies x3 as many as Germany in the last 5 years
Growing internal market and production of consumer goods rose
Proportion of total industrial prod , share of consumer goods fell 52% to 45%
Still structural problems – focus on rearment = plan for development of sectors not organised = not balanced economy
Focus on military requirements meant couldn’t meet demands for agricultural tools and machinery SO goods still brought from abroad
Food processing = disproportionate 50% of total indust production
Huge No small scale workshops but they only produced 33% total indust output
Agriculture 1880-1914
Trad view = failed to make real progress, continue low yields along with increasing pop = pressure on land , impov of peasants
Production stagnant 1860-80s
New methods – diff crop rotations, varities of crops, fertilisers, iron ploughs
Nobles started to build commericla farming operations
Reforms – 1891-91 famine prompted gov to look at agriculture lack of progress closely. Gov concerned about ‘dark masses’
Stolypin PM 1906
Stolypin PM 1906 = peasant prosperity as key to political stability and thought his land reforms would transform Russia into stable, prosperous country
Reforms aimed to :
- Allow peasnats leave mir
- Redcue mir power
- Redistrubte land of some nobles
Called a ‘wager on the strong’
Financial assistant from peasant land bank = help independent peasant buy land. Making peasants into property owners, giving full civil rights = stake in country and lead them to become supporters of the regime
Slow process
response to reforms
Peasantry response mixed = some relished chance escape mir , other saw those who left ‘stolypin separators’ as traitors
1914 – 10% households had set up farms separate from commune land
Reform most successful – west , Ukraine and Belorussia
Agriculture in crisis
-Produced low yields + Increasing pop 50-79 mill = pressure on land
- Stagnant 1860-80s
- Land for each peasant after emancipation = less than before
- Production drops 1889-92 and 1905-07
- Communes = conservative and used backwards methods ( strips) = old fashioned and inefficient
- Peasant poverty at its worst ‘ dark masses’ of peasants = drunk,violent,illiterate,rebellious
- By 1914 only 10% had taken Stolypin’s reforms , needed decades to work, slow process
Successes of agriculture
- Peasants can buy and sell land
- 1877-1905 land owned by peasants grew from 6 to 21.6 mill
- Grain production grew by 2.1% annually 1883 to 1914 (1.1 mill tonnes a year)
- Western Ukraine = huge Sugar beat farms
- Parts of Baltic = capitalistic farms
- Potato productions grew by 43% betw 1880-1913
- Peasants increased income – growing fruit/veg for market
- Burgeoning co-operative movement
- Stolypins reform 1906-11
- New methods of farming – iron ploughs, new fertilisers
Main weaknesses/problems in agricultural policies 1861-1914
- Quantity land decreased
- Taxes on everyday goods eg vodka sugar matches
- Land captains increasing force on local justice
- Redemption payments continued
- Trad farming practices
1906 – 1914 - Stolypins policies needed 20 years to have effect
- 50% land still. Nobility
- 90% still strip arming method
