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ББК НО(2)
PROVINCIAL TOWN MARKET OF BUILDING SERVICES IN XIX CENTURY (ON THE TAMBOV)
I.G. Pirozhkova
Department of “History and philosophy ”, TSTU
Represented by a Professor A.A. Slezin and a Member of Editorial Board Professor V.I. Konovalov
Key words and phrases: a building services market; a contract; a provincial construction; a town government; an executor of building services; a building bureau.
Abstract: The conditions, characteristics and stages of the development of the capitalistic elements of the building services market in a provincial town (on the base of the material about Tambov) in the 19-th century are analyzed in the article.
In the documents of the first half of the 19-th century there are no data about the permanent staff of the executors of building contracts from the town or provincial administration, and what is more, about private persons, working on the market professionally. By the end of the century there were a few people, who could provide building services, as for their specialization it left much to be desired.
The professionalism of builders-contractors is understood as an opportunity to provide customers with a level of services, corresponding to the quality of the same services in large towns and to the development of technologies. Besides, a high level of the development of building services is characterized by the appearance on the market of people, dealing only or mostly with the building activity, making money thanks to it, having the corresponding special knowledge and education.
The contractors of 1820-1870 were mostly merchants, those people, who had one yard, less often middle-class persons. It is evident that practically all of them did not have a considerable real estate, as the contracts, concluded by them, were not large ones. In fact there was no case when the construction of some object was carried out by one and the same contractor, contracts were often divided. This can be explained by various reasons, for example, by the fact that the provincial government did not want to take risks and shift all responsibility and means to one person. However, there were cases when one large construction was made by one contractor, though it would have been safer to divide it. Then the provincial administration would have had to coordinate their activity, to send bureaucrats to the building site for every contractor, i.e. to have additional problems. It is more evident that on the building services market at that time there were simply no people, who could pay a pawn, corresponding to even a small construction (usually from 6 up to 10 % of the estimate of the construction).
Contractors did not pawn their real estate except one case. Perhaps because they did not have this real estate. When merchants (mostly merchants of the third guild) took part in the sale of contracts there was always a note in the archives documents that they
had a store besides dealing with trade. Perhaps, in the T ambov province and in T ambov there were no “professional” building contractors who had made money on this or lived mostly due to the building activity.
One of the first famous private builders, who had a high qualification, in the Tambov province was a hereditary nobleman, a titled advisor Ivan Gerasimovich Gerasimov, a Tambov householder. There is an interesting document of 1864 - a published in the private publishing house brochure, dedicated to the jubilee - “a golden wedlock” of I.G. Gerasimov, “a holder of the order of St. Stanislav... .a patriarch” and Ann Egorievna, who had a big family - “4 married sons and 7 married daughters”. The book consists of the biography, written in the third name, and a large “humble prayer” in the verses in the first name and read by the hero of the day at the celebration of his jubilee. There was also a coat of arms of the kin of the Gerasimovs in the book.
Beginning from the 1820-s Gerasimov “bought undeveloped grounds” and built buildings on them for sale. The first building, built and sold by him, was a house in Shazk, bought by governor I.S. Mironov for the town hospital for 8000 roubles. [1, p. 22] The nameless author of the book called the best buildihgs of Gerasimov “ two-storey and three-storey houses, occupied by the Tambov chamber of state properties in 1844, the Tambov government chamber in 1855, the Tambov uezd school, the Tambov seminary, the Tambov parish school, the peasants' school for boys”. It is said in the book that the hero of the day “possessed the best grounds.near the provincial gymnasium, the administration and the building where noblemen met”, he also built houses, which were charged by the social administration, and had 9 stone buildings, Alexandrinsky Institute, the Tambov public library, a stone three-storey house, “decorated a building for the school of children of clerks”.
So I.G. Gerasimov erected considerable for a provincial town buildings which were bought by “the town society”. Meanwhile being a prominent figure on the Tambov building market, “the executor of government orders for the constructions of new buildings of the administration...”,Gerasimov didn’t take part in the sale of contracts officially. While erecting the building of Alexandrinsky Institute, he simultaneously offered his services “without any sale” for the construction of “orphans’ house” [11, d. 70].
There are no documents about contractual relations between Gerasimov and the town government, though several agreements were concluded between them concerning mostly property relations. I.G. Gerasimov owned at least 3 estates in the richest and most prestigious part of the town. According to the documents of 1838 two of them were evaluated in 25000roubles, and 1 estate in 15000roubles [2, d. 5].
In 1858 there was a controversial case due to the complaint of Gerasimov’s neighbour in the 27-th quarter merchant Kukushkin dealing with the fact that he “was digging ditches near his, Kukushkin’s fence, and was making windows facing his house.” In return to the neighbour’s complaints he showed a full packet of documents with the signatures of governor Danzas, a provincial architect Sokolovsky and architect Sudovsky: a plan, a facade, a document, allowing to buy the grounds; the copy of the plan of the town, and he justified himself’ [10, d. 328]. I.G. Gerasimov expresses confidence, training and legal literacy in all relations with the authorities.
He didn’t look like a typical executor of building orders being a hereditary nobleman, living according to his stable property and class position, being equal with bureaucrats and quite educated, with some sentimentality and “noble patriarchality” unlike contractors, who were often ill-literal. For example, in the extant book, with signatures of contracts for the paving of streets and bridges of Tambov in 1867, it was difficult for 19 people from 25 people to write their surnames, 6 people wrote a cross instead of a signature [3, d. 27].
The social appearance of executors of building services during the last years of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century is characterized by the strengthening of features, formed before. Their class belonging is merchants, middle-class men are met less often, though there are frequently no references to the class belonging in the documents of that time. This isn’t important any more. There are still no persons among them dealing with something which concerned only a building specialty, though their building contractual activity was specialized inwardly. For example, contractors the Zamyatins brothers, the Ilyins brothers, I.F. Tolmachyov, merchant Malin were both house holders, granted their real estate on lease, invested money in various enterprises and dealt with building. There are some data about merchants’ dynasties, investing money into building. In 1879 year E. Volgin fulfilled a contract to decorate the house of Kondoidy, given to the town, and in 1892 his son E.Ya. Volgin, owning a shop, delivered nails, wire and such like things for the town government, what is proved by an extant receipt, written by him on the form of his own shop. [5, d. 52].
The most differentiated and qualified building services were provided in Tambov by several people. Brothers, merchant Zamyatin’s sons, who owned 2 brick factories at the beginning of the 20th century, dealt with a large contractual activity. Besides a known contract for the building of the Ecclesiastical Seminary in 1908, they in cooperation with architect V.I. Framan built a seminary in Dubovoy street and so on.
In 1901 there appeared the first building office of V.S. Vichrov, an agent of the second Russian insurance against fire society with an add: “asphalt, concrete and ferroconcrete constructions, planking and tiling of floors, paneling and walls with a fagade tile”. The warehouse of the office was situated in “his own house” in Bibikovsky street, the office was located in Pervaya Dolevaya street. V.S. Vichrov was among those who concluded an agreement with the Tambov town society in order to have “a building contract” in 1912 [4, d. 14].
In 1913 in the local press there appeared an advertisement of “the building bureau of A.Yu. Koknevich”, situated in Tambov, Dolgaya street, “opposite the building where noblemen met”. The following facts prove the prosperity of the enterprise: the location of the office, a telephone available there, a nice and considerable add, a wide sphere of services, provided by the firm. The bureau of Andrew Yurievich Koknevich existed from 1910 up to 1914. Specialists, working in the firm, made up projects and estimates for the construction of civil houses for various purposes (dwelling houses, mansions, profitable houses, churches, schools, theatres, dams, gutters and so on), offered a full engineering improvement of civil buildings according to “the last word of technics: the design of kitchens, cast-iron and ceramically tiled ovens, tiled stoves, including stoves of their own system, the provision of telephone communication, an alarm system, a sewage system and a water-supply system”. Besides, the firm evaluated houses, measured them and made drawings, insured buildings. There is information about the participation of Koknevich in the competition for the project of stone dams on the Tzna in 1910 [12, l, the back side]. One of the most considerable achievements of Koknevich's building bureau was a general “plan of Tambov with neighbourhoods”, made with a high qualification and in colour. Koknevich was not a contractor of the town government, he worked only with private persons.
In 1914 F.N .Pickulin was “a contractor of the building, concrete and asphalt, work on the construction of houses and bridges” who cooperated with the Tambov town public government at the end of the 1914 -the beginning of the 20thcentury. He won the sale organized by the town administration for the construction of the building of town parish schools No. 7 and 8 and a Tambov provincial zemskoy administration, he had orders for the improvement of Tambov in 1913-1914 fulfilled contracts for the construction of a hydroelectric station, delivered ferro-concrete tubes and so on. Together with the building activity F.N.Pickulin owned profitable houses: by the 1910-s
there had been 2 such houses in T ambov in Znamensky and Kozlovsky streets, he also ran an electric theatre, “The mirror of life”, in Znamensky street [7, d.47, L.48]. It’s interesting that during the construction A.F. Mirolybov controlled it and ran it; this proves the probable lack of special knowledge on the part of F.N. Pickulin [8, d.81]. So F.N. Pickulin was such an entrepreneur, who invested money into various enterprises, first of all in the construction and profitable houses.
At that time there was also Sucharev’s bureau (electric lightning, engines, it was situated in Dvoryanskaya street in Matveev’s house); a contractor of the Tambov town society I.S. Ivanov, who lived “in Studenezkaya street, No.9 in his own house”, advertised his building services.
These people provided various services, including related services, for example, insurance. This fact as well as the lack of a good specialization, different quality, the problem with the construction of buildings, prices and the wish of most persons building their own houses to do it themselves as it was 100-50 years ago proves that the building firms in Tambov didn’t have means, experience and reputation as independent organizations yet, and single large orders were fulfilled by specialists from other towns. All this gives a reason to think that by the end of the examined period there hadn’t been sufficient market in a province.
The direct executors of the building contractual work are workers. When a building season began the biggest part of peasants migrated to nearby towns, comprising artels (40-50 people), they were hired by contractors [15]. They also lived in artels to save money. There were local workers of building specialties in Tambov, they had a rather high qualification as there were several educational institutions in the town, which taught building specialties. The most considerable institutions were model trade schools opened in 1870 by a Tambov merchant Nosov. A cheap working force -prisoners were used at the work financed from means, for example in the construction, which took place in the 1860-s and were organized by the committee on the improvement of the town [13].
Private architects are also met among executors at the definite stage of the construction - its planning. They were sometimes used by contractors as “producers of the work”. In Tambov there were former town and provincial retired architects among them. There is indirect information a private practice of Ts.N. Sadovsky (1830-?), who retired in 1874, G.L. Gross (1839-?), who retired in 1869, V.M. Lemke (1856-?), who retired in the 1900-s, P.F. Vachrushev (1856-?), who had worked as a town architect up to 1892. [6, d.43, ll. 46-47]. There are no data about their after retirement work except some information, learned from the documents for construction, given by people (signatures on facades of as a rule, typical buildings). The legislation didn’t require the authorship of facades and plans of ordinary buildings. Evidently the biggest part of such a construction was made by those who built their houses themselves due to its traditionality, one and the same type, a relative simplicity. The formation of the building services market is the sign of a big differentiation of elements of the building process, a feature which was not typical for the building practice of Tambov at the end of the 19-th -the beginning of the 20th century, as well as for many provincial towns. Private architects did not embrace such a large sphere of activity as contactors - builders did. Provincial persons, building their own houses, were not interested in architectural innovations, they were not ready to pay separately for the project-fagade and the plan of the building to an architect as well as for the technical work and control over it to the contractor. This second market remained primitive. There was no add, price-lists, competitions for the projects among local specialists, orders were awarded with the help of acquaintances at work. The town government took the initiative of the provision of some services from private architects. In 1897 a fixed rate payment was introduced to the profits of the town “ for the execution of duties, placed on the town government
such as the examination of plans of the construction of “dwelling houses and those houses which were not lived-in”, “stone, wooden, mixed” “for the repair and capital improvement”, “the surveying of grounds ”.
The prices for the services concerning the examination of plans (with the guarantee of the exact decision if they would be passed or not) changed from
10 copecks up to 1 rouble, for the surveying of the grounds - from 2 to 7 roubles. It is evident that the use of these services was practically compulsory for potential persons who built their own houses. This conclusion can be made from “planned” for this examination “230 new buildings” (an average number of applications for the construction and repair of customers' houses in a year at this period).It’s natural that with the introduction of such services private architects missed an opportunity to earn money for the examination and preparation of building documentation. And such was a situation in other provinces as “many towns put in applications” to the Ministry of internal affairs for the right to take fees for these services [9, d. 74, l. 3].
So the building services market with some level of competition begins to form not earlier than the 1870-s, the improvement of the legal process, connected with the building process also began at that time. Its peculiarity during the 19th century which prevented its development was little demand on the part of private people for building contractual (coordinating in their way) services. This concerned especially the architectural and planning stage of the construction and this led to some disproportion in the relations between builders and customers.
The social appearance of the executors of building services during the examined periled is characterized by a process of democratization. In the first half of the 19th century these are, first of all, merchants who fulfill large orders of the state at this time, less often middle-classmen, those who had one yard, and peasants carrying out the trifle work, which doesn’t require a high professional qualification. At this time one can also observe the participation of contractors, builders “from noblemen” in the process; the class staff of the elite of the executors of the building order (local architects on official positions) was fully based on the nobility, who had no real estate. The social appearance of most contractors who were not noblemen, includes legal poor training and often simple illiteracy, the lack of extraordinary demands, concerning their own houses, the lack of the opportunity (both economical and professional) to realize them.
The last third part of the 19th century is characterized by the smoothing of this class and professional differentiation of the executors of the construction. The leading position among them is taken by merchants, though the representatives of other classes demonstrate a professional training, equal to theirs.
This is a typical portrait of a contractor-builder of the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century - a merchant, a Tambov resident, a householder, having profits from granting houses on lease and having his own house of a high quality, fulfilling difficult financial deals with assets. At this time the contractual activity passes to a new level - the first professional contractors, having their own building bureaus, firms, appear and provide a wide spectre of services, though their number remains small. However the capitalistic features in the building production showed themselves partially and a level of competition on the building services market was very low.
References
1 Address-calendar for 1913. Tambov, 1913.
2 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F. 16. File 20
3 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F.16. File 43.
4 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F. 17. File 13
5 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F. 17. File 23
6 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F. 17. File 36.
7 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F.17. File 37.
8 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F. 17. File 43.
9 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F.17. File 47.
10 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F. 46. File 1.
11 State archives of the Tambov region (SATR). F.46. File 2.
12 Koknevich A.Yu. Plan of the provincial town of Tambov with neighbourhoods. Tambov, 1914.
13 About measures, taken in Tambov due to the town improvement and about the work, done in 1869. Tambov, 1870. Resolutions of the committee about the improvement of the town. Tambov, 1870.
14 Patriarchal holiday or a golden wedlock. Tambov, 1864.
15 Collection of statistical data about the Tambov region. Tambov. 1882.
Провинциальный городской рынок строительных услуг в XIX в. (на материале Тамбова)
И.Г. Пирожкова
Кафедра «История и философия», ТГТУ
Ключевые слова и фразы: городское управление; исполнитель строительных услуг; подряд; провинциальное строительство; рынок строительных услуг; строительное бюро.
Аннотация: Анализируются условия, признаки и этапы сформированности капиталистических элементов рынка строительных услуг в провинциальном губернском городе (на материалах Тамбова) в XIX в.
Stadtiche Provinzmarkt der Bauservices im XIX. Jahrhundert (auf Grund des Materials tiber Tambow)
Zusammenfassung: Im Artikel werden die Bedingungen, die Merkmale und die Etappen der Formierung der kapitalistischen Elemente des Marktes der Bauservices in der Provinzstadt (auf Grund des Materials uber Tambow) im XIX. Jahrhundert analysiert.
Marche urbain provential aux services du batiment au XIX-eme siecle (a la base du materiel de Tambov)
Resume: Dans l’article sont analises les conditions, les indices et les etapes de la formation des elements capitalistiques du marche aux services du batiment dans une ville proventiale de gouvernement (a la base du materiel de Tambov) au XIX-eme siecle.
