Crisis phenomena in Central Asian direction development of Russian foreign trade in the Orenburg direction in the 1st quarter of the 19th century

Abstract

The paper contains analysis of development tendencies of the Russian Empire foreign trade with Central Asian khanates in the first quarter of the 19th century. The authors found that the Russian State didnt pay much attention to the Asian customs policy in this direction for a long time. It was due to the fact that the trade with Central Asian khanates was of exchange and caravan character. The author came to the conclusion that the heads of the Orenburg Region - military and civil governors - made great efforts to change that situation and made special rules for the foreign trade development in the Orenburg Region. It promoted commodity turnover increase. The author proved that in the first quarter of the 19th century the most important element of Central Asian trade development crisis in the Orenburg direction was the fact that merchants from Central Asia dominated Russian merchants in the numerical ratio. However, the ministry of finance and E.F. Kankrin refused to forbid Central Asian merchants to trade at internal Russian fairs as it would result in stagnation in trade and would make prices for goods higher. This problem for the first quarter of the 19th century couldnt be solved as it was connected with the geopolitical status quo existing in the region. It only started to get solutions with an active military advance of Russia to Central Asia in the second half of the 19th century.