Consular Reports as a Source of Information for Periodicals of the Ministry of Finance of Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The author examines the reports of Russian consular services located in different countries, which served as important sources of various commercial and political information for periodicals issued by the Ministry of Finance of Imperial Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. The subject of the study is the information policy of one of the leading government departments, which was one of the first to deploy a wide correspondent network around the world in order to obtain information about the most important events in the world economy and politics, analyze them and bring them to the main consumer – the domestic business class, who was extremely interested in promptly obtaining this information. The scientific novelty of the publication lies in the fact that the reports of the Russian consuls, revealed during the analysis of archival documents containing correspondence between the Trade Department of the Ministry of Finance and the Editorial Office of the time-based publications of this ministry, have not yet been reflected in the scientific literature. Meanwhile, market, industrial, stock exchange, banking, socio-political information, which regularly appeared in the "Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade" and the daily "Trade and Industrial Newspaper", played an important role for the orientation of business circles not only in the processes on world markets, but also for the political development of the domestic bourgeoisie, understanding its role in the socio-economic and political life of Russia during the period under review. And the correspondent network of these publications, the use of technological innovations became the basis for the creation of first a Trade and Telegraph Agency under the Ministry of Finance, and then a government agency.The St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency, which initiated the formation of the state information policy.