Cosmetic production in the context of modernization processes in the late Russian Empire.

The subject of the research is the socio-economic development of the Russian Empire during the modernization era of Witte and Stolypin, with a focus on the first component. The object of the study is the establishment and development of the cosmetics industry in European and Polish provinces within the context of modernization—primarily examining changes not in production but in consumption—during the last third of the 19th to the early 20th century through the lens of three basic indicators: the number of factories, the total annual output, and the number of employed workers. The source corpus of the work is based on the directories of factories and plants of the Russian Empire and industrial censuses, supplemented by appendices to gubernatorial reports on the analyzed provinces and a number of other materials, primarily literary works from the late 19th to the first decade of the 20th century. The work employs historical-genetic, comparative, predominantly diachronic, systemic, and quantitative methods, including the use of computer technologies. The main conclusion of the conducted research is the overly predictable placement of production points. The demand for consumption was not limited to large industrial centers; it is also not always appropriate to speak of a determining link to the resource base, and it seems that cosmetics could serve as a good example of an industry whose rise is conditioned by the social changes of the modernization era and is recorded everywhere—but this does not happen. Not least, from our perspective, this is due to the entrepreneurs whose names are associated with the establishment of the "golden age" of Russian perfumery—Brokara, Ralle, and others—who effectively turned the market into an oligopoly, blocking opportunities for the establishment (although the emergence can still be traced) of new points, including regional ones. It can be suggested that the logistical component of modernization—the development of railroads and the final formation of a unified commodity market in the empire—has a rather negative effect on local productions in the cosmetics industry.

Russian empire, Modernization in the late Russian empire, Urbanization, Alltagsgeschichte, Chemical industry, History of cosmetics, History of Perfumes, History of Hygiene, Brocard, Rallet