Dynamics of operations of the state noble land bank on the territory of the Samara province in the late XIX - early XX century

Introduction. The nobles-landowners were in a difficult situation after the reforms of the middle of the XIX century. They lost the opportunity to use free labor in the form of their serfs, were in dire need of money, both for the purpose of hiring freelance workers and for the modernization of their economies. As a result, many of them used the services of actively created in this period of land credit institutions that issued loans at high interest rates and on unfavorable terms and, as a result, causing the ruin of the nobles-landowners. In connection with the above, the creation of a system of state noble land lending was an important tool to support the noble land ownership, being a powerful deterrent to the process of reducing the noble land ownership and at the same time providing the necessary funds for the modernization of estates. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of statistical information contained in the reports of the Samara branch of the State Noble Land Bank, as well as archival data extracted from the Fund of the credit institution, located in the vaults of the Russian state historical archive. Results. According to the results of the analysis of data on the Samara province, the main indicators of the State Noble Land Bank, their dynamics, as well as the features of the studied processes were demonstrated. Noted and statistically confirmed reduction in lending after the revolution of 1905-1907, which caused a revision of agricultural policy. The uneven distribution of loans in the counties of the considered province was shown, which was primarily due to the different number of noble land ownership in them. It is revealed that the share of the Noble Bank in the studied province was more than 95 % of the total number of loans issued by land credit institutions secured by land ownership. Discussion and Conclusions. The preferential nature of lending allowed the State Noble Land Bank to concentrate in its hands almost the entire amount of debt of the local nobility of the Samara province. The Bank had pledged a large part of the land ownership of the nobility, a large part of the debt of the nobility of the land were in the State Noble Land Bank.