Land rental in the landowning farms of the Penza province in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries (by the example of Stolypins’ Tarkhany estate)

Abstract

Background. Leasing land is a widespread phenomenon in the life of a reform village in any region of European Russia in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. By the level of development of rental relations, one can judge the state of the landowner and peasant economy of a particular province, the degree of development of capitalist relations in it. This determines the relevance of the work. The purpose of the work is to characterize rental relations in one of the large landowner farms of the Penza province of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries in the context of the development of the entire region. Materials and methods. Based on the study of a wide range of sources, including archival data of the State Archive of the Penza Region, as well as published documents of state central statistical agencies and primary materials collected by contemporaries, an attempt was made to solve the tasks of the study. In the process of work, comparative historical, statistical methods were used. Results. An analysis of the sources showed that the landowner’s farm in question was one of the large estates of the Chembar district in the Penza province, most of whose land was leased for short and long-term rent, which was the norm for the province under study. The tenants were the local peasantry. On part of the leased territories, the owners, at their own expense, equipped rental farms. Conclusions. Leasing land was an indispensable attribute of the landowner Stolypin in the village of Tarkhany throughout the period under consideration. Over time, rental relations have undergone a noticeable evolution, constantly becoming more complicated, improving and bringing more income to owners. The Tarkhany estate itself is an example of the successful integration of the landowner economy into the development of new agrarian capitalist relations.

Keywords

• landowner’s economy
• estate
• peasant economy
• leases
• land resources
• agrarian relations