The History of the Activity of the Bukhara Branch of the Russian-Asian Commercial Bank

Abstract

The article examines the fundamentals of the activity and functions of the Bukhara branch of the Russian-Asian commercial bank (1901–1917) in the Bukhara emirate. In Soviet historiography, banks were understood as instruments of “colonialism”, both Western and Russian. On the basis of archival data the author proves that the financial institutions of the Russian Empire took local specificity into account and encouraged the production of export-oriented products. The author actively uses interbank correspondence, annual reports of the branch manager, as well as audit materials of the Bukhara branch. For the first time in the historiography, active and passive operations of the bank, its expenses and profits, as well as the personnel of the bank have been studied. The author, unlike Soviet and post-Soviet researchers, believes that banks did not become “monopolies” in the economy of Central Asia. The largest Russian bank in the region that had an extensive branch network (12 branches) throughout Central Asia was the Russian-Asian Commercial Bank (until 1910 the Russian-Chinese Bank). It should be noted that the Russian-Asian Bank attempted to take control of cotton production and industrial production. However, in the author’s opinion, it failed to become the driving force of the economic growth of the region, which was due to the adaptation to existing economic relations in Turkestan, Governor-generalship and khanates. From the perspective of the banks, “modernization” of the Central Asian economy involved financing agricultural export and mediating between the metropolis and the periphery. “Colonial” periphery at first glance seemed to be an attractive sphere for investing and receiving super profits, but the speculative nature of the Turkestan economy prevented “the normal” development of the banks. As a result, the economic “modernization” of Central Asia faltered and gave way to the Soviet experiment.