Anglo-American Historiography on the Legal Basis of the Activities of British Companies in Russia in 1892-1914

The article is an attempt to demonstrate a number of viewpoints held by British and American scholars on Russian legislation that governed British companies operating in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th - early 20thcentury. The article identifies the main aspects of the problem that academics tend to focus on. Predominantly experts seek to establish the extent and severity of arbitrariness of the Russian legal system, the scale of discrimination and injustice faced by British subjects and British companies. It is apparent today that this approach is unproductive due to its inability to aid in understanding of the legal differences between the Russian companies and British companies operating in the Russian Empire - they are still considered as identical. Moreover, it is underestimated that the vast country at the time presented a conglomerate of contrasting in juridical terms zones. Each one often had its own legal system under which companies and workers exercised significantly different rights. Latest attempts of the scholars to shed light on economic history of the Russian Empire of its latest decades of existence seem to suggest a sign of an emergence of a more constructive approach in investigation of British companies and the legal basis for their work in Russia.

British capital, British investments, British companies, Russian Empire, Russian industrialization, S.Y. Witte, corporate legislation, capitalism in the Urals, capitalism in Siberia