RUSSIAN-FRENCH ECONOMIC COOPERATION AT THE END OF THE XIX CENTURY: AGENTS AND NETWORKS OF TRUST OF BUSINESS ELITES

Abstract

The article considers Russian-French economic cooperation in the late 19th century through the prism of studying trust networks of business elites. The aim is to find out to what extent representatives of the largest banking structures and businesses influenced the dynamics of the financial and economic side of the Franco-Russian political alliance. The author reveals a circle of agents and contacters who interacted not only among financiers and entrepreneurs, but who had connections in power structures. Based on the study of the correspondence between representatives of the Russian and French business elites, the paper allows to make conclusions about the positions, which these people occupied in the implementation of joint financial operations, and to which extent the foreign policy environment was important in making commercial and investment decisions. It seems that for professional bankers the first priority was the issue of profit. Acting in general cooperation with the ruling elites, financiers did not always share the opinions of politicians on the methods of achieving diplomatic goals through the use of banking institutions, since such paths sometimes led to a decrease in the income of credit organizations. Bankers, on the other hand, sought, above all, to obtain benefits. At the same time, among the representatives of the business world there were people involved in the diplomatic service, for whom both the political and economic aspects of cooperation, as well as the scientific study of the ally country, were important.

Keywords

• franco-russian alliance
• networks of trust
• economic cooperation
• business elites
• russia and france in the late 19th century