Transportation of Fish and Fish Products along the Volga-Caspian Transit Route in the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries

Annotation

This article examines the challenges of logistics development associated with the modernization of the Volga-Caspian transit route in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, which at that time was the busiest trade artery of the Russian Empire. Fish products from the Volga-Caspian fishing region constituted an important component of the cargo flow along this route. A significant increase in their popularity in the second half of the 19th century was driven by the growing urban population, which actively purchased high-quality and affordable fish products from Astrakhan. It has been proven that sustained demand compelled fishery companies, along with river and railway workers, to seek ways to deliver perishable products to various regions of the country. Successful solutions to this logistical challenge contributed to improving food supplies for the population and easing social tensions in growing urban agglomerations. As the research results demonstrate, this was made possible by two key factors that demonstrated significant progress in the production and transportation of fish and fish products. First, in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the transport capabilities of the Volga-Caspian transit route significantly expanded: steamships replaced sailing vessels, powerful shipping companies emerged, and railway construction was actively underway. These changes significantly accelerated cargo movement and expanded the geographic markets for Astrakhan fish products. Furthermore, the competition for trade flows between railway and shipping companies forced competitors to lower transportation rates and quickly implement technical innovations. Secondly, there was competition between "old" fishing capital and "new" financial capital, represented in the Astrakhan province at the end of the 19th century by the Volga-Kama Commercial Bank, for control over the fishing industry and the transportation of fish products. As a result of the financiers' activities, a system of fish product delivery developed in the Volga-Caspian fishing region, parallel to that of the large fishing firms, through a network of independent, specialized shipping companies.

Keywords

• Volga-Caspian transit route
• fishing industry
• Volga-Caspian region
• Astrakhan
• Volga region
• logistics
• shipping
• delivery
• transport
• bank
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Contribution of the authors

Vinogradov S. V. – research concept, work in archives, justification of the purpose of the article, writing the draft, final conclusions; Dzhagaeva O. A. – processing and presentation of source materials, follow-on revision of the text, final conclusions.

Acknowledgments

the study was supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 25-28-00920 “Organizational and economic mechanism for the transformation of the Volga-Caspian transit route during the first Russian industrialization (mid-19th – early 20th century)”, https://rscf.ru/project/25-28-00920/.

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