“Cotton” discussion about Problems of Private Capital in Central Asia (Based on the Materials of the Central Periodical Press of the 1880–1890s)

Abstract. The article attempts to consider the sides of the public discussion on the cotton issue, which took place on the pages of the Russian periodical press in the 1880s–1890s. The purpose of the article is to analyze the range of problems and their solutions in the field of private cotton growing in Central Asia, which were raised in the publications of periodicals in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but remain on the periphery of researchers' attention. Articles in such magazines as “Russkiy Vestnik”, “Vestnik Evropy”, newspapers “Moskovskiye Vedomosti”, “Novoye Vremya”, “Golos”, “Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti”, “Pravitelstvenny Vestnik”, “Torgovo-Promyshlennaya Gazeta”. The author outlined the main debatable issues of the development of Central Asian cotton growing and the participation of private capital in it, which were discussed during the “cotton” discussion in the press. Among them, it is necessary to single out the problems of lending to private entrepreneurs, the creation and development of large cotton plantations, the introduction and limitation of the cotton duty, the fight against “cotton fever”, the organization of agricultural exhibitions and the role of foreign capital. The author comes to the conclusion that the variety of problems and their solutions came down to one conclusion: the strengthening of private capital in cotton growing is necessary, since this is the basis for the well-being of the textile industry in Russia, and hence the well-being of the country as a whole.

Keywords: cotton, cotton growing, Kokand, Turkestan, Bukhara, private capital, journalism, public discussion.