The Participation of Jews in the Tobacco Production of the Grodno Province (Second Half of the 19th to the Early 20th Centuries)

Abstract

In the second half of the 19^th to the early 20^th centuries there was a rapid development of industry and trade on the territory of Belarus. Jews had made a significant contribution to the process. At that time they made up at least 50 percent of the population of cities and towns. Despite the popularity of economic history there have been no attempts to comprehend the development of the tobacco industry as a separate type of production and to identify the place of Jewish entrepreneurs in this process. This led to the relevance of this study, the objectives of which is to characterise the legal framework for the development of the tobacco industry and the analysis of the dynamics of the Jewish tobacco enterprises of Harodnia (Grodno Guberniia).

Historical, logical and classification research methods are based on chronological and event-based approaches to the studied facts, and on the principle of historicism, which makes it possible to consider historical phenomena in the context of the era. The result of the research is the identification and understanding of a wide range of archival sources on the history of the industry of Belarus from the second half of the 19^th to the early 20^th centuries. The legal basis for the development of tobacco production consisted of excise statutes of 1838-1901, which contributed to the process of monopolization and the emergence of numerous illegal small artisanal workshops. Jews formed the majority in the legal and illegal production of tobacco products on the territory of Horadnia (Grodno Guberniia). During the second half of the 19^th in the early 20^th centuries there was progress in tobacco production. Penetration of science into production, establishment of new technologies, modernization of production were carried out. Large enterprises demonstrated the greatest stability due to technological and organizational advantages. Tobacco products of Horadnia (Grodno Guberniia) were competitive in cost and quality, and commercial advertising technologies were used in their implementation. They held a stable and strong position in the market of the Russian Empire.