The structure of information and the sources of the "Trade and Industrial Newspaper" (the 90s of the XIX - early XX century)

Kostrikova Kristina Evgen'evna Postgraduate Student, Department of Sociology, Psychology of Management and History, State University of Management 109542, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Ryazanskii Prospekt, 99s4 cristina.firsova@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The daily "Commercial and Industrial Newspaper", issued by the Ministry of Finance of Imperial Russia, was actually the first domestic professional publication that most fully reflected the situation in commercial and industrial, banking and financial, stock exchange, etc. life both in Russia and abroad.

Its appearance was not accidental, but stemmed from the real needs of the capitalist development of Russia. It has taken its own special, worthy place among other periodicals of the Ministry of Finance, has become to a certain extent a model for the appearance of other similar publications.

The subject of the research in this article is the "Trade and Industrial Newspaper" itself (hereinafter - TPG), the circumstances and process of its appearance, its place and role among other periodicals of the Ministry of Finance itself and similar Russian periodicals of the period under review. The structure of information in the TPG, its content and changes, as well as the sources of obtaining this information are considered as an object of research.  The purpose of the study is to show how the TPG, thanks to the published materials, the information it delivers, contributed to the development of the domestic commercial and industrial sphere, the formation of the Russian entrepreneurial class and its consolidation.

The chronological framework of the article is determined by the time of the appearance of the TPG itself and the time of the active development of the Russian commercial and industrial press, which occurred during the First Russian Revolution, when after the publication of the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, the explosive development of domestic periodicals took place. This is confirmed by a statistical study published in 1911, where it was noted that since 1906, almost 53% of similar publications have appeared, of which only 14 titles can to some extent be compared with the TPG in terms of the breadth and depth of the information provided ^{[1, pp. 14, 17]}. As research methods, the author used methods of a systematic approach, historicism, as well as objectivity and a scientific approach to the consideration of the issues under study.  

Although the TPG is quite well known as one of the most widely read newspapers of its time and even managed to survive and be published after the October Revolution of 1917, naturally, already as a Soviet publication, and not a capitalist one, there are very few historical works about it. Russian Russian literature appears in a number of studies devoted to the Russian periodical press and the Russian bourgeoisie. ^{[2; 3; 4; 5]}, it is used as a historical source, but is not the subject of special study. In the fundamental work of E.G. Kostrikova, devoted to the policy of the Russian government in the field of mass media at the beginning of the twentieth century, there is a special section dedicated to the publishing activities of the Ministry of Finance of Russia, where the history of TPG is also mentioned ^[6]. The only research on the TPG can be called a small article by I.D. Arkhangelskaya "The Goddaughter of Count S.Y. Witte" ^[7], where the history of the newspaper's creation is outlined in basic terms, its content, the main stages of development, popularity, the role of certain officials of the Ministry of Finance in its organization and activities are considered, its further fate is very briefly outlined. The history of TPG, its place and role among similar Russian publications are discussed in more detail in our joint article with Yu.P. Nadekhina ^[8]. The issues raised in this study are obviously new, since they have either been partially touched upon in historiography, or have not been considered at all.

It is known from a number of studies ^{[6; 8]} that the Ministry of Finance in the second half of the XIX century was actively engaged in publishing its own periodicals, because this was an urgent need for the development of domestic trade and industry, which were experiencing a capitalist boom in the post-reform period. According to the established tradition, starting with Count E.F. Kankrin, the Russian Ministry of Finance was headed by serious experts, experts in their field. They were well aware of the need to obtain information for the successful conduct of business both at home and abroad. Therefore, starting in 1869, the Ministry began to publish relevant collections, which reflected official information (government decrees, decisions of the Ministry, etc.) and current information in the field of trade and industry. By the 90s, it became clear that even the weekly economic body, which was the ministerial Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade, alone was not able to meet the needs of the ever-increasing pace of Russian economic life. The editorial offices of the time-based publications of the Ministry of Finance, which since 1891 was headed by an official on special assignments M.M. Fedorov, an educated man who professed liberal views on economics and politics, it was clear that operational information was urgently needed "especially in the commercial and industrial field." Very important information for entrepreneurs was published in the "Bulletin of Finance", but "appeared in it only once a week, unwittingly sometimes turned out to be late." There was an urgent need to create a daily publication that would use the materials provided, including the most advanced means of obtaining information at that time - the telegraph ^{[9, pp. 42-43]}.

M.M. Fedorov wrote to the Minister of Finance S.Y. Witte a memo "on the publication of a daily supplement in the "Bulletin of Finance" - "Trade and Industrial Newspaper". The main task of the new body was to provide the most complete, "fresh" and extensive information in the commercial and industrial sphere and in the economy in general. A wide range of entrepreneurs were objectively interested in this. But the TPG was not supposed to become a simple appendix to a more solid publication, but also to play an independent role: to represent the interests of the government, to orient consumers of information in the right direction for it, as well as to involve medium and small entrepreneurs in the economic life not only through useful information for them, but also to highlight their needs and needs, organize them ^{[9, p. 43]}.

As we noted in one of the previous articles, "M.M. Fedorov's proposal was discussed at a special meeting of the heads of the main departments of the Ministry of Finance, which approved it" ^{[8, p.28]}. It was attended by the Director of the General Office of the Minister of Finance P.M. Romanov, the Director of the Department of Trade and Industry V.I. Kovalevsky, the governor of the State Bank E.D. Pleske, i.e. high interested persons. On the basis of their conclusion, on September 29, 1892, Finance Minister S.Y. Witte allowed their proposal to be carried out from January 1, 1893 ^{[9, pp. 43-44]}. On November 26, 1892, "a trial issue of the TPG was published, in which the program of the future newspaper was given, it was very extensive and promised the reader information on the most important issues of the economic life of the country and abroad: from official government documents to information on the conditions of individual industries, exchange rates, commodity prices, railway tariffs, freight, etc. pr . Thus, the goals and objectives of the "Bulletin of Finance" changed, which could now deal with larger problems, while the current information was transferred to the pages of the newspaper" ^{[8, p. 28]}.

Officially, the first issue of the TPG was published on January 1 (according to the old style, January 13 – according to the new style), 1893. Initially, its format was ? of a printed sheet, which rather corresponded to the format of the appendix, rather than an independent periodic daily publication. We should immediately note that as the newspaper became saturated with information, the expansion of old headings and the appearance of new ones, four years later this format was abandoned and switched to the format familiar to all major publications from January 1, 1897, the newspaper began to appear on 4-8 pages.

The structure of the information, starting from the first issue in accordance with the declared program, looked like this: "Laws and government orders related to trade and industry. – Official notices and statements. – Trade, exchange and general economic content of the telegram. – Guiding articles on financial, economic and special commercial and industrial issues. – Chronicle, which includes current events, assumptions, rumors, etc. that may interest the commercial and industrial circles. - Internal news, concluding general correspondence from different places in Russia, reports on local needs, desires, the emergence of new enterprises, the liquidation of existing ones, major improvements in production, etc. – Foreign news: Russian Russian and Russian foreign commercial and industrial legislation, administrative and all other orders and measures of importance for Russian trade, practical instructions from Russian and foreign consuls, harvest plans, major technical improvements, expansion of production, etc. - Trade correspondence from all the distribution of the main consumer Russian and foreign markets on the trail. goods: bread, oilseeds and oils, sugar, alcohol, cattle, meat, fish, salt, tea, coffee, colonial goods, leather, flax, hemp, wool, cotton, silk and corresponding manufactories muscatel and dyeing goods, coal, iron and other metals. – New railway tariffs, sea and river freight. – Promissory note rates. – Background information: a list of the main trading enterprises and agents in Russia, translations of foreign weights and measures, closing and opening of navigation, etc. – Announcements" ^{[9, pp. 44-45]}.

Here are examples of the distribution of information in the TPG in the first issue for 1893, where the following publications were placed:

reports "on duties on raw cotton, classification of petroleum oils subject to excise duty, prices for alcohol exported abroad...";

telegrams:

- from Liverpool – "The mood with wheat is unstable, with rye firmly, with corn firmly, with barley quietly, with oats firmly." Then there is information about the shipment of grain and flour from all importing countries, as well as stocks in Europe and America "with the reckoning of floating cargo."

- from Revel: information on the introduction of a new city regulation and the election of city vowels and the mayor and council.

- from Helsingfors: information about the official exchange rate of the Bank of Finland.

- from Berlin: the speech of the Imperial Chancellor Caprivi in the commission for the consideration of the military bill is presented. In it, the Chancellor noted that Germany will have to lead, one way or another, an "offensive", since Germany "will have to fend off the main blows of the opponents of the triple alliance," and it does not have enough forces in comparison with France and Russia. Therefore, the government cannot assume responsibility for the future of the empire ^[10].

It can be immediately noted that among the above information we see not only purely commercial messages, but also information of a political nature. S.Y. Witte and his inner circle were firmly convinced that political events at home and abroad inevitably affect commercial and industrial life, that entrepreneurs should be aware of this and closely monitor follow them. Moreover, the whole world of that time was entering a difficult period of its development, when the process of forming a single world capitalist economy and a single system of world politics was coming to an end, and the imperialist contradictions between the emerging military-political blocs were aggravating due to the impending redistribution of colonial possessions and spheres of influence. All this in one way or another was reflected in the pages of the newspaper.

Next in the issue there is information about the rates of securities on the Berlin Stock Exchange. The courses of Russian securities are particularly noted. Information about the rates on the Paris Stock Exchange, the mood on the bread market in England, the mood on the London Stock Exchange.

The telegram from London noted that at the congress of miners, it was decided to demand the establishment of an eight-hour working day by "legislative procedure". And this is a revealing message. The working issue attracted serious attention of the editorial staff. In the future, a special heading "Working question" will appear in the TPG, where various problems related to working legislation, working conditions, the development of insurance and mutual assistance funds, benefits for diseases and injuries, remuneration, general and vocational education of workers, as well as experience in solving these problems in other countries will be considered.

From New York, the editorial office is informed about the prices of silver bullion, the prices of cotton, wheat, flour, corn, kerosene. From Philadelphia – kerosene prices.

Then there is extensive information about the "state list of income and expenses for 1893" (in modern language – about the country's budget), presented by the Manager of the Ministry of Finance. "A characteristic feature of this painting," the newspaper notes, is the excess of income over expenses, despite all the difficulties of the crop failure and the cholera epidemic. It is indicated that "in the near future" the construction of a "continuous through the whole of Siberia" railway is planned. As emphasized in the publication, this will be of enormous importance not only for Russia, but also for the whole world. The huge economic prospects that this construction opens up will undoubtedly "attract the attention of interested ... readers of the Trade and Industrial Newspaper" ^[10].

In the "Chronicle" section, the issue of privileges raised by the Department of Trade and Manufactures (rules for submitting applications, extending the terms of privileges, the procedure for their announcement, etc.) to inventors and their involvement in cooperation in various industries is noted. Information is provided on the introduction of a new tariff for the transportation of potatoes by rail in "half of the European part of Russia", as well as other products. Information is reported on plague epizootics in the southern regions and on the necessary measures to ensure that cattle in other regions are not affected. The opening of the activities of the First Society of Access Railways in Russia is announced. It is indicated that it will be mainly engaged in the construction of railway tracks from industrial enterprises to the main tracks ^[10].

In the heading "Internal News", the "good state of affairs" of the cotton-printing partnerships of the Central Industrial District was noted. There was also a "strong increase" in the production of wool plush in Lodz, where new workshops for its production are emerging. This is caused by the increased demand for this product. By the decision of the general meeting of manufacturers who present their goods at the permanent exhibition in Warsaw, the position of a permanent agent "for mediation between merchants and exhibitors" is introduced, who will receive special remuneration, keep trade books and is accountable to the control of the exhibition board. Information is given about the opening of a new export office in Novorossiysk ^[10].

The heading "Foreign News" reports that new security measures are being established in Konigsberg on exchange transactions. In India, indigo crops have been increased, approximate "views" for the rice harvest are given. It is reported that the United States Senate has adopted a bill on quarantine measures, according to which all ships coming to America must have a sanitary certificate issued by the American consul of the port from which the ship left.

The section "Trade correspondence" provides extensive information about the harvest, grain stocks, prices for grain and flour of various varieties and types, the state of markets for other goods, traffic on ports and railways, grain grain trade in St. Petersburg, Riga, Warsaw, Chistopol, Odessa, Novorossiysk, Danzig, London.

Opening the section "Questions and Answers", the editorial board writes that "this department will work both with the involvement of the editorial board and with the involvement of the readers themselves. Questions corresponding to the newspaper's directions and answers to them prepared by the editorial board or by the readers themselves will be placed" ^[10]. In the section "Letter to the editor" there is a letter from the reader about the plight of the lace industry in the Yelets district of the Oryol province with a request to provide assistance from those who sympathize and patronize handicrafts ^[10].

The information of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange Bulletin with information on the price rates for precious metals and securities is provided. Everything ends with the headings "Background information" and "Announcements".

The above information structure shows that an interested reader can find information in the newspaper on the most diverse areas of trade, industry, finance, stock exchanges, etc., as well as on political and other issues. At the same time, this information was relevant, allowing you to quickly navigate the issues of interest to business readers, concerned the economic and political situation both in Russia and abroad.

This structure was generally maintained in the TPG throughout its existence until the October Revolution. Naturally, changes in economic and political life, the experience of the newspaper itself, the proposals of subscribers, etc. could not but make their own adjustments. For the convenience of readers, the editorial board began to place a summary of the issue with a summary of the most important publications on the front page. In addition, subheadings appear after the headings of articles, generally revealing the most important points of publications. While preserving as much information as possible about commercial and industrial, banking and financial, stock exchange life and other purely economic problems, the newspaper increasingly paid attention to political issues, socio-political information. Thus, the advertisement for a subscription to the newspaper for 1901 says that the newspaper will be published "according to the previous broad program, embracing, in addition to special commercial and industrial, also all general information that may interest every reader from political, social and economic, both Russian and foreign life" ^[11]. t.E. the newspaper, unfolding its publication material, wants to secure the attention of readers so that they receive other information besides professional information, so that they do not use information on issues of socio-political life from other newspapers and magazines. At the same time, let's not forget that the TPG expressed, first of all, the opinion of the Ministry of Finance, other government departments, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is further noted that the newspaper has introduced "new departments on trade and economic issues and increased the circle of its correspondents. The Trade and Industrial Newspaper is the only true and complete source of such information (highlighted in the text. - K.K.), providing the material necessary for every farmer, merchant and financial figure. The newspaper gives a complete and detailed picture of the trade movement every day (highlighted in the text. – K.K.) and price fluctuations in all subjects of our holiday and domestic bargaining, notes fluctuations in the stock and money markets, gives the only completely complete set of information about auctions and deliveries in Russia (highlighted in the text. – K.K.) according to the quartermaster and in general to all government departments, public, railway and private enterprises and monitors all changes in the field of joint-stock and private commercial and industrial affairs, informing in a timely manner about the activities, organization, establishment, opening, dividends, time and place of general meetings of shareholders of enterprises" ^[11]. Note that these statements were not "bragging", but reflected the actual position of the TPG among other newspapers and magazines ^{[1, pp. 14-17]}.

In the short period of 1900-1901, the newspaper published a literary and artistic supplement, like many other periodicals of that time. But later it was abandoned, because it was considered not fully meeting the main goals and objectives of the publication. Applications that reflected professional issues were much more in line with the newspaper's profile. So, in 1903, the "Systematic index of articles and the main notes printed during 1902" was published. Other appendices and bulletins on various areas of commercial and industrial life were published at different times.

Russian Russian-Japanese War and the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 brought about major changes in the structure of information in the TPG. Telegrams from the war fronts, relevant articles, as well as reports on revolutionary events were added to the already existing structure. This material is so extensive and interesting that it is worthy of separate consideration. Let's focus only on the event, which was considered by the liberal editorial board of the newspaper as epoch-making.

We are talking about the elections to the first State Duma and the beginning of its work. The TPG followed all the twists and turns of the difficult electoral process very closely. The results of the elections in different provinces of the country were printed in the form of tables indicating the names, class, nationality, and occupation of each elected member of the Duma. The newspaper analyzes these results, notes the political mood in society. Publishes interviews with elected members representing different political views. When the Duma opens its work, the TPG makes a special statement, where, in particular, it writes: "... the dawn of its rapprochement with the European West, the dawn of European enlightenment, the dawn of the radical transformation of the entire Moscow way of life into a new system of the Russian state has taken hold over Moscow Rus. Today, the sun of freedom has finally risen over the Russian Land and the bright day of our political renewal will light up. The Russian people, represented by their representatives, are called to participate in the affairs of state legislation, are called to a truthful, open discussion of their needs. A new era of cooperation between the people and the Tsar in state affairs has begun" ^[12]. In these words, the political preferences of the editorial board are clearly visible, which quite fit into the framework of the views of the Constitutional Democrats (Cadets) party. M.M. Fedorov, who in 1906 was appointed minister of the newly formed Ministry of Trade and Industry, later became one of the prominent figures of this party.

TPG not only became a model for many publications of its direction, but also contributed to the creation of the telegraph information service of tsarist Russia. When developing its publishing activities, the Ministry of Finance took care of who would extract the necessary data for its publications. For this purpose, "the collection of regular periodic information on the course of trade in the most important goods in Russian life, both in Russia and abroad, as well as on the current conditions of various industries," began. For this purpose, the editorial board "at first used abundant materials, in the form of numerous special bodies of the foreign press, reports of chambers of commerce, circulars of large firms and, finally, consular reports" ^{[9, p. 36]}. Over time, the editorial board "began to establish direct relations with local figures abroad and involve them in reporting various information from foreign countries to her." Regarding the collection of information within the country, it was deemed necessary to "form a contingent of its own correspondents from persons and institutions directly interested in trade and agriculture." To this end, the editorial board "turned to the assistance of exchange committees, banks and tax inspectors, as the best informed in this regard, and, at the same time, gradually began to recruit correspondents among the most commercial and industrial class of different cities and localities of the empire" ^{[9, p. 37]}.

The created correspondent network worked successfully until the decision to publish a daily newspaper. The need to obtain operational information required the expansion of the use of telegraphic messages. In the collection dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the publishing activity of the Ministry of Finance, the authors wrote: "Realizing that telegraphic awareness is a necessary condition for any trade body, the editorial board has directed all its efforts to ensure that its telegraphic and commercial-industrial departments are placed at the proper height. Thanks to the hard work, as well as the hard work of its correspondents, who, together with the readers of TPG, pointed out shortcomings and gaps both in the registration of commodity prices and in telegraphic awareness, the editorial office finally achieved its goal and then, meeting the wishes of merchants and rural owners, organized a transfer, for a special fee, according to a special abbreviated code, for those wishing from among the subscribers to the "TPG" of their trade telegrams" ^{[9, pp. 47-48]}. This was a step towards the formation of a new information body – the telegraph agency.

Based on the experience of the TPG, on subordinate institutions scattered throughout the country and having representative offices in the most important world economic centers, on the expanded network of correspondents in the Ministry of Finance, it was decided to create a Trade and Telegraph Agency (TTA). By the nominal Supreme Decree of February 20, 1903, M.M. Fedorov was appointed to the post of editor of the "Bulletin of Finance" and TPG, as well as director of the TTA. On February 14 of the same year, he was appointed assistant editor, an official of special assignments of the Ministry of Finance, acting State Councilor P.I. Miller, who took part in the editorial work since 1885 and entered it has been a part of it since 1888 ^{[9, p. 60]}.

This is how the first official telegraph agency appeared in Russia. Such agencies have already been actively working around the world – Reuters (England), Havas (France), Wolf (Germany), etc. - dividing it into information spheres of influence. Russia was part of Wolf's sphere. The private Russian Telegraph Agency (RTA), created by a number of publishers of influential Russian newspapers, which had existed intermittently since 1866, had an agreement with Wolf to obtain information. This meant that all telegraphic reports about events in the world and even in Russia were interpreted by the German agency. This circumstance carried a certain political burden not in our favor and especially affected during the Russian-Japanese war, when Russia was defeated, including in one of the first information wars, unable to withstand competition from Western agencies and the media. Therefore, already in 1904, it was decided to create a new St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency (SPA) on the basis of the TTA, which was subordinate to the government. P.I. Miller became its director ^{[6, pp.65-73]}.

Thus, the "Trade and Industrial Newspaper", which emerged as a publication with a professional bias, over time turned out to be one of the most innovative, energetic, knowledgeable, in-demand mass media bodies, which had a great influence not only on the similar publications that were being formed, but also on the information policy of the state. This, of course, is a great merit of the outstanding statesman of the era S.Y. Witte, who managed to create a talented team of highly qualified specialists and important information tools to influence the process of ideological, class development and consolidation of the domestic bourgeoisie.