The purpose of this research was to investigate the history of the Mykolaiv Sea Port from the beginning of marine trade in the region of modern Mykolaiv-city to the beginning of the XX cent. in the context of the historical development of Mykolaiv as an industrial and commercial center of the South of Ukraine. In the second part of the XIX cent. and early XX cent. the name of the Port was the Mykolaiv International Commercial (or Trade) Port. The research has based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, comprehensiveness, as well as social and materialistic approaches to understanding history, in which economic aspects has primarily significance. The principles and methods developed by historians of science and technology was importance as well. Methods of source analysis were also useful, since the research was based mainly on archival sources. The principles of commercial navigation in the Black Sea basin were laid in the IX–XIII centuries. In 1788, on the left bank of the Ingul River, the Free Harbor, which is considered the antecedent of the Sea Port in Mykolaiv, was founded. Since the Government of the Russian Empire pursued the aim of creating the Black Sea Navy Center in Mykolaiv and, because of this, imposed various restrictions, the international trade in Mykolaiv was ceased. The Mykolaiv merchants were mainly engaged in providing the Admiralty, the enterprises of the Sea Department and the Black Sea Fleet with the necessary materials and goods. After the Crimean War (1853–1856) and the implementing of restrictive articles of the Paris Treaty (1856) shipbuilding in Mykolaiv was ceased, the Main Administration of the Black Sea Fleet and the Military Port were abolished. The deep economic crisis started in the city. The Mykolaiv military governor M. Arkas initiated founding of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade, but the activity of this company did not have a significant impact on the economy of Mykolaiv. In 1860, the Mykolaiv military governor B. Glazenap proposed to open the Port in Mykolaiv for foreign vessels and export-import operations. The Port was opened on June 1, 1862. The region in which crops were grown geographically tended to Mykolaiv, so the Port immediately became the center of export of wheat, rye, oats, and also iron. Already in the first years of the Port operation the value of exports exceeded the value of imports. Further development of the grain trade was promoted the return of the Jews to Mykolaiv, the opening of the Customs Office and banks, the Crops Exchange, the Exchange Committee, the analytical chamber at it, the railway building. All this generally contributed to the development of the industry in the city, population growth and the transformation of Mykolaiv to the industrial center of the South of Ukraine. However, over time it was found that the Port did not meet the time demands. The question of its reconstruction was raised in the 1870s, and the project of the reconstruction was approved in 1885. The Port Administration began to operate in 1894. It was headed by ‘the Captain over the Port’, who was at the same time the Head of the Port Affairs Bureau – an advisory council whose authority was to solve port problems. The Port was divided into two divisions: foreign and cabotage. During the reconstruction the boundaries of the Port were identified, new embankments, elevators, warehouses were built. The Port was equipped with the latest loading and unloading facilities, grain and ore transporters. Two icebreakers helped the vessels to achieve to the Port in the winter time. Simultaneously, the problem of deepening of the canal in the Dnieper-Bug estuary was solved. It was importance because the vessels with large sediment could not be fully loaded in Mykolaiv and were forced to dock at the port of Ochakov, and transportation of cargo to Ochakov required considerable expenditure. Beacons and warning signs were also installed. All this made it possible to significantly increase the cargo turnover of the Port, which in 1910 reached a record level – more than 151 million poods, including more than 115 million poods of grain (this constituted 14 % of grain exports throughout the Russian Empire). That year Mykolaiv accepted 527 foreign vessels. At the end of the XIX – at the beginning of XX cent. the Port had been functioning on the basis of public-private partnership (by modern definition). The state, city and foreign investors put money into its development. Thus, the history of the Port until 1917 is the example of the Road Map for further development of the Port in the XXI cent., when in fact the Port operates in the same external and internal conditions as in the period studied above.
Read full abstract
May 25, 2020
Іван Артьомов + 1
Open Access
