Abstract

The article examines the efforts of the State Bank of the Russian Empire to expand its branch network in the Crimea in the second half of the ninteenth - early twentieth centuries. The first activities of the State Bank on the peninsula were carried out in Sevastopol as one of the most promising port cities in the post-reform years. A branch was opened there in 1875. This was followed by the establishment of bank branches in Simferopol, Feodosia and Yalta. The author analyzes the bank’s recruitment policy with the focus on the history of the bank officials entering the service in the Sevastopol branch. Particular attention is paid to the difficulties that accompanied the process of opening bank branches. In the process of expanding the banking network, spirit of rivalry arose, which prevented the management of the country’s main credit institution from objectively assessing the need to create a particular branch. Various cities of the Crimea expressed the wish to open a branch of the State Bank. As for the efforts of the city authorities of Yevpatoria, they failed. For a long time, the branches of the Bank in the Crimea experienced difficulties in renting the premises suitable for their activities. Thus, the Sevastopol branch did not have its own building during the first ten years of its history; the Simferopol branch lacked its own premises for five years, and the Yalta branch had to rent new premises every year from 1882 to 1912. The article gives only general analysis of the operational activities of the Crimean branches of the State Bank. This aspect of their work requires deeper and more extensive coverage in a separate work. Nevertheless, the author was able to conclude that the State Bank on the Peninsula failed to provide full support, as regards the development of the region, to its business circles, which felt a lack of affordable and cheap credit. This article was written using archival materials from the funds of the Russian State Historical Archives. The core information contained in it is published for the first time.