Economic Modernization of Russia in the late 19th century: Strategic Guidelines and Internal Contradictions

The presented research is devoted to the study of strategic guidelines for economic modernization of Russia in the late 19th century in the context of choosing the directions of reforms and internal contradictions in their implementation. The methodology of the work is built by combining elements of synchronous, diachronic and structural analysis. The source base of the work includes a set of personal sources and previously unpublished office materials of the central institutions of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire in the field of trade and industry. The author comes to the conclusion that at the end of the 19th century, the strategy of economic modernization of Russia was built in accordance with the goal of forming a system for regulating the economic activities of commercial structures based on the principle of expanded public-private partnership. The authorities, on the one hand, formed the institutional environment and infrastructural foundations for the development of private business initiatives, and on the other hand, took direct part in the implementation of flagship projects, including in the order of attracting foreign investment. The main results of the implementation of the strategic guidelines for the modernization of the economy include the formation of a system of national commercial banks, expanded access of manufacturers to long-term loans, partial optimization of the tax system, stabilization of the national currency by introducing the gold ruble, the creation of a tariff system to protect producers from foreign competitors, the formation of favorable conditions for the creation of monopolistic structures and the beginning of capital exports to neighboring states. All this contributed to the implementation of plans for the accelerated industrialization of the Russian economy. However, the internal contradictions of the reform strategy contributed to an increase in the scale of stock exchange speculation (including Grunder projects), a significant increase in the volume of Russia's external debt, a significant increase in consumer prices for industrial products, the displacement of small and medium-sized companies from the market by large businesses, which created new obstacles to the completion of Russia's economic modernization.