Integrating Imperial Space

The Russian Customs System in the 19th Century

Boris Ganichev

• Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9783647302089
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Modern History
• Index: History

In the second half of the 19th century visions of an infrastructurally integrated imperial space captivated the minds of Russian administrators and businessmen. Infrastructural integration promised to unravel the economic and political potential of the Russian Empire but it also revealed its administrative weakness. The book explores the challenges the Tsarist administration faced in harmonizing the multitudinous regional economic regimes in its vast landed empire. It analyzes conflicting logics towards the imperial space and demonstrates how the modern project of an infrastructurally integrated space limited the leeway in resorting to imperial administrative practices and accelerated the "nationalization" of the Russian Empire's economic space.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Body
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Russia’s Trade and Tariff Policies in the 19th Century
• 2. Expansion by Debordering: The Dissolution of the Orenburg Customs Line
• 3. Closing the Gap: Bukhara’s Loss of Trade Autonomy
• 4. Ob’ and Enisei Porto-Franco: A Latecomer’s Frustration
• 5. Insular Administration and the Economic Integration of the Caucasian Viceroyalty
• 6. The Transcaucasian Transit: Stepping Stone to the World or the Empire’s Backyard Market?
• 7. The Finnish Customs Space: Nation-Building within a Nationalizing Empire
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• List of Illustrations
• Index