Conflict of Imperial and Regional Interests on the Introduction of Duty-free Trade Regime in the Mouths of Siberian Rivers during the First World War

Abstract

he article deals with the conflict of imperial and regional interests on the issue of the introduction of a duty-free trade regime in the mouths of Siberian rivers. The study is based on archival and published documents, materials of the Siberian pre-revolutionary periodicals. The authors claim that imperial power was based on the tasks of integrating the Siberian region into the all-Russian economic space. The proof of which is the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, projects for the development of the transport network, which united Siberian rivers. However, the implementation of such projects often did not take into account the interests of the local bourgeoisie, which sought to act as an independent player on the Siberian market. The establishment of a duty-free trade regime in the mouths of Siberian rivers promoted the growth of its competitiveness and would allow it to enter world markets, bypassing its intermediaries from central Russia. But the government for a long time in this matter took the side of large financial and industrial circles in the central part of the country. And only under the influence of the events of the First World War, part of the royal bureaucracy came to understand the development of navigation along the Northern Sea Route as one of the necessary conditions for national security. However, the initiative in this matter has already been seized by foreigners in the person of J. Lida, behind whom stood Norwegian, English and American capital, who viewed Siberia as a platform for strengthening in Central and East Asia.