S.Yu. Witte's Customs Policy and Regulation of State Import of Industrial Equipment

The article considers state import of industrial equipment in the context of the customs regulation of Russia’s foreign trade under S.Yu. Witte as the Minister of Finance (1892–1903). The analysis of archival data reveals the motives which drove various ministries of the Russian empire when they gave preference to foreign producers rather than domestic ones. In the 1890s the Ministry of Finance, on the one hand, and other ministries, on the other hand, were debating the necessity of orders for foreign industrial equipment made by the Russian governmental bodies. The article studies the course and results of this interdepartmental struggle.

customs policy, state import, industrial equipment, S.Yu. Witte