The merchants’ role in the construction industry in Tomsk in the second half of XIX - early XX centuries

The article analyzes the merchants’ role in the construction industry in Tomsk in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. The merchants’ activities directly or indirectly related to the construction branch and urban improvement. The merchant class was involved in the construction process, by investing in real estate as a means of implementing entrepreneurship and philanthropy. Realizing their requirements, they stimulated the labor market, creating not only an opportunity to construction workers to earn a living, but also forming a demand for qualified workers, including masons, locksmiths, foremen. Representatives of merchants acted not only as customers of architectural constructions but also in the role of construction contractor. Large contractors had several construction crews, they were at once owners of construction companies, organizers and producers of the work. According to the Statute on Contracts and Deliveries of the Code of the Russian Empire every building contractor had to provide collaterals in the amount of the intended contract, in cash or equivalent property. The article deals with archival materials containing contracts for construction works where merchants were direct contractors. One of the merchants’ business areas were hardware stores. In the 1890s there was a change in the scale of contracting activities. Contractors of the post-reform period, operating with relatively small sums, were replaced by major building entrepreneurs. And by the end of the XIX century engineers and technicians who had appropriate education and represented the interests of leading European companies and enterprises in Siberia, became competitors to merchants in the construction business. After the construction of the Siberian railway any building material could be purchased in Tomsk. Merchants’ charity also played a significant role in the development of technical education in Tomsk. Their charitable contributions to the development of handicraft education of Tomsk Province was important for the development of the construction industry which was in need of highly qualified technical personnel. From the middle of the XIX century to 1914 traditional construction products were being replaced with new, more progressive, efficient types of wall, finishing, roofing and many other materials. However, the mechanization of production which could facilitate builders’ hard work did not attract the appropriate attention. Most contractors preferred cheap hand skills to mechanized ones. At the beginning of the XX century merchants’ architectural orders were largely replaced with the orders of the state, public organizations and wealthy individuals as since 1898 the merchant’s status was no longer an obligatory requirement of business.

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