The “Kerch Matter” of Bryansk Factory Joint Stock Company (1899–1903)

Abstract

The tsarist government and foreign businessmen had a great influence on the economic development of the Russian Empire. In the early 20th century, the position of Western capital in Russia became stronger, but how significant was this increase? Could foreign business have been able to take over the functions of managing and regulating the national economy from the Russian government? The author attempts to answer this question by examining it on a specific example: the “Kerch matter” of 1899–1903. This is the name contemporaries gave to the conflict between the Russian government and French capitalists close to the Company of Bryansk Factory, which arose because of metallurgical facilities on the Kerch Peninsula. The analysis of the case and its results is conducted on the basis of published sources and documentary materials from Russian archives. The results of work done have shown that the imperial state machine represented by the then Minister of Finance Sergei Witte managed to emerge victorious from the “Kerch matter”. Having succeeded in stopping production at the Kerch factory and preventing the bankruptcy of the Bryansk Company, the Russian authorities were able to contain the infiltration of financial groups such as the Société Générale into the metallurgical market of the South of Russia, which, in the conditions of the industrial recession of 1900–1903, threatened to cause a massive collapse in prices. The “Kerch matter” was the last attempt of Western European capital to intervene in the issues of control over the economy, which were subordinated to the Russian state.