Quantitative analysis of the “Journal of Finance, Industry and Trade” for 1913: authors and discussed topics

Abstract

This article conducts historiographical and quantitative analysis of the prime economic media in the Russian Empire of the late XIX – early XX centuries – “Journal of Finance, Industry and Trade”. The journal was issued from 1885 to 1917 being the official publication of the Ministry of Finance. The materials published in the journal contain reference and analytical information. High quality of the analytical articles was ensured by competent authors – prominent national economists of that time. The goal consists in studying the dynamics of reflection of complex economic processes that unfolded in the prewar 1913 in the journal. Characteristic is given to the composition of the team of authors in 1913. Quantitative analysis of the content of all 52 issues is conducted for the first time in accordance with the dynamics of quarterly distribution of the topics of analytical publications. The author suggests possible interpretations of changes in thematic specialty of the journal throughout the year, and formulates a hypothesis on correlation between these changes and the dynamics of industrial stock index developed by L. Borodkin and G. Perelman by analogy with the famous Dow Jones Industrial Average. Decline in journal’s interest to the industrial problems is noticed until the fourth quarter of 1913; then the favorable conjuncture on the oil market explains the frequency of occurrence of the category of “industry” due to the articles dedicated to oil industry.