Establishment and Operation of Private Land Credit Institutions in Penza Province in the Late 1860s – mid 1880s

Abstract

Introduction. The abolition of public credit institutions in the first half of the 19th century meant that following after the peasant reform, private landowners were forced to rely entirely on their ability to conduct economic activities, they desperately needed the money demanded for the capitalist modernization of their estates. It was important under such circumstances the appearance in the mid-1860s of private land banks that have granted land collateral loans. Materials and Methods. The study of the claimed problem required the involvement of a number of historical and economic methods: historical, statistical and quantitative. At the same time, the question of the amount of debt owed to private land banks was examined on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of statistical data on land credit published by a committee of congresses of representatives of Russian land credit institutions. Results. The article analyzes the main indicators of the activity of the joint-stock land banks in the first two decades of their operation, considers the characteristics of the establishment and development of the private land credit system, the volume of loans issued, the size of the mortgaged land, the amount of the loans are shown by their regional characteristics. Discussion and Conclusions. Set up in mid-nineteenth century the system of equity land credit, which focuses on the granting of land mortgages by private landowners, has played an important role in the processes of land ownership mobilization and the development of capitalism in the agricultural sector. Private credit institutions were one of the most important components of the land credit system, and the activities of these institutions in the territory of the governorate in question resulted in: that almost a quarter of all privately owned land had been deposited in them.