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John Cockerill in Southern Russia, 1885-1905: A Study of Aggressive Foreign Entrepreneurship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

John P. McKay
John P. McKay
Affiliation:
Instructor in History, University of Illinois
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Abstract

A case study of two ventures undertaken by a Belgian company in Russia focuses upon several of the major problems experienced by foreign entrepreneurs under the Czars at the turn of the century.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1967 , pp. 243 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1967

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References

1 See Westwood, J. N., “John Hughes and Russian Metallurgy,” Economic History Review, Ser. 2, XVII (1965), 564–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Crédit Lyonnais, Paris, Etudes Financières, (henceforth abbreviated C.L., E.F.), “La Métallurgie dans le Midi de la Russie,” April 1905. This paper is part of a larger work on foreign entrepreneurship in Russian industry between 1885 and 1914. The archives of the Crédit Lyonnais were a major source for my study, and I wish to express my appreciation to the bank's directors and personnel who extended every courtesy to me.

3 Brandt, B. F., Inostrannye kapitaly; ikh vliianie na ekonomicheskoe razvitie strany (St. Petersburg, 1898–1901), II, 116–18Google Scholar.

4 Lauwick, Marcel, L'Industrie dans la Russie méridionale: sa situation, son avenir (Brussels, 1907), 13Google Scholar.

5 The full name was S. A. belge pour L'Exploitation des Charbonnages du Centre du Donetz à Almaznaia, which was known as Almaznoe Kamennougol'noe Obshchestvo in Russia. Most Russian firms were named after the locality in which they operated. Perhaps this is a reflection of the evanescent character of the private entrepreneur in Russia and the recurring periods of state ownership or control of many enterprises.

6 Société John Cockerill, 110e Anniversaire de la fondation des usines Cockerill, 1817–1927 (Brussels, 1928), 35Google Scholar. Almost all of the archives of the Société Cockerill have been destroyed; only the minutes of the Board of Directors remain. Although I was kindly received by the firm, it was impossible to consult these minutes. Some duplicates are to be found at the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères in Brussels, and they have been used in this study.

7 Ibid., 30.

8 Ibid.

9 Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Brussels, (henceforth abbreviated A. E., Brussels), letter from Adolphe Greiner, managing director of Cockerill, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, November 30, 1886.

10 Ibid., Extrait du procès-verbal de la Société Cockerill, September 27, 1886; Cockerill, 110e Anniversaire, 40.

11 C.L., E.F., Société Métallurgique Dniéprovierme du Midi de la Russie (henceforth cited as Dneprovskoe), Note of December 1898.

12 Cockerill, 110e Anniversaire, 39–40.

13 See Gindin, I. F., Gosudarstvennyi bank i ekonomicheskaia politika tsarskogo pravitel'stva (Moscow, 1960), 254–69, for an excellent discussionGoogle Scholar.

14 A.E., Brussels, 2908, III, Report from St. Petersburg, July 17, 1886.

15 The Warsaw Steel Company, or Praga Company, incorporated in 1880, was the steel making division of Lil'pop, Rau, and Levenstein — an equipment producer of German origins founded in 1873. Gindin, Gosudarstvennyi Bank, 201–202. W. E. Rau, president of Lil'pop, Rau, and Levenstein and Dneprovskoe founder, was a German citizen.

16 See Gindin, Gasudarstvennyi bank, 238–47, for the profitable domination of the bankrupt Putilov Company by the Praga-Briansk syndicate.

17 Archives Nationales, Paris (henceforth abbreviated A.N.), 65 AQ, K 51, Annual Report of Société John Cockerill, 1887.

18 A.E., Brussels, 3646, III, undated note from Baron Macar.

19 Ibid.

20 Gindin, Gosudarstvennyi bank, 259; C.L., E.F., Dneprovskoe, Special Meeting, 1889. The Crédit Lyonnais' engineer often noted in his reports the excellent (and superior) quality of Dneprovskoe's products which initially gave the firm a competitive advantage.

21 Ibid. One pud equals 36.1 lbs.

22 Ibid.

23 C.L., E.F., Dneprovskoe, Study of December 1898.

24 Ibid., Table, Study of August 1903.

25 Ibid., Study of August 1904.

26 Ibid., Study of July 1911.

27 Ibid., Study of December 1898.

28 In 1916 the general director of the French L'Union Minière, a major south Russian steel producer, wrote Halgonet, the commercial attaché of the French mission in St. Petersburg, that “everyone knows that in Polish factories [in south Russia] there is no place for either Russians or French. Dneprovskoe, for example, which is owned by Belgian and French capitalists, does not have a single French, Belgian, or Russian engineer or manager outside of those sitting on the Board of Directors.” A.N., F30, 342, L'Union Minière (Makeevka), letter of June 28, 1916.

29 Ibid., Study of August 1904.

30 Ibid., Study of December 1898.

31 Ibid., Various studies on Dneprovskoe.

32 Ibid., “La Métallurgie dans le Midi de la Russie,” April 1905.

33 Ibid., Dneprovskoe, “Observations de Monsieur le Président,” September 1901.

34 Ibid.

35 A.N., 65 AQ, L 139, Almaznaia: Statutes; Annual Report, 1894–95 (October 23, 1895).

36 Ibid., L'Information, July 27, 1902.

37 Ibid., Almaznaia, Annual Report, 1894–95.

38 Ibid.

39 C.L., E.F., Almaznaia, Study of February 1899.

40 B. F. Brandt, Inostrannye kapitaly, II, 120.

41 A.N., 65 AQ, L 139, Almaznaia, Annual Reports for 1902 and 1908.

42 Ibid., Annual Report for 1902, and Report of Paul Trasenster, director, to the Special Meeting of October 3, 1903. Blanc's studies for the Crédit Lyonnais on the Russo-Belgian Metallurgical Company and the Rykovski Coal Company frequently stress the superior quality of coke obtained from the coal of the Kalmius Basin. Hughes' New Russia Company at Yuzovo was centered on this superior coking coal.

43 A.N., 65 AQ, L 139, L'Information, July 27, 1902.

44 A.N., 65 AQ, L 139, various clippings from 1894 and 1895.

45 C.L., E.F., Société des Chantiers Navals, Ateliers, et Fonderies de Nicolaiev; A.N., 65 AQ M, 332, Chantiers Navals de Nicolaiev, Statutes and Annual Reports.

46 C.L., E.F., Chantiers Navals de Nicolaiev, Study of September 1904.

47 C.L., E.F., Almaznaia, Study of February 1899.

48 Ibid.

49 A.N., 65 AQ, L 139, Almaznaia, Annual Report for 1897–98.

50 C.L., E.F., Almaznaia, Study of February 1899.

51 Ibid., Dneprovskoe, August 1904; A.N., 65 AQ, L 139, Le Globe, November 20, 1902, and L'Information, July 27, 1902.

52 See the complete dossier on Almaznaia, A.N., 65 AQ, L 139.

53 A.N., 65 AQ, K 51, John Cockerill, Annual Reports.

54 Almaznaia shareholders would receive 50 per cent of net profits of Dneprovskoe's Almaznaia division for only twenty years after 6 per cent was paid to Dneprovskoe on its capital invested in the Almaznaia division. This was estimated as a 90 per cent loss on Almaznaia's original capital at the time. A.N., 65 AQ, L 139, Special Meetings of October 28, 1903 and December 5, 1904.

55 A.N., 65 AQ, M 331, M 332, and M 648.