Dynamics of social and economic development of the Yelets district of the Oryol province at the end of the XVIII – first half of the XIX centuries

Abstract

Introduction. The article discusses the features of economic development and economic development, as well as an analysis of socio-demographic changes in the Yelets district of the Oryol province in the chronological period under consideration. This county was part of the historical region of the former Belgorod line and was for a long time in the zone of the southern Russian frontier.Materials and methods. This work is the result of a study of statistical sources relating to the last quarter of the 18th – the first half of the 19th centuries. As the main sources, materials were taken from the “Economic Notes to the General Land Survey Plans” of the late 1780s and mid-1790s, “Economic cameral description of the Yelets district in 1832”, as well as information on the land statistics of the Yelets district for 1828-29 The methods of mathematical analysis and statistical processing have become the main ones when working with these sources.Results. The materials of the “Economic Notes to the General Land Survey Plans” and “Economic Cameral Description of the Yelets Uyezd” had a similar form, which made it possible to consider the dynamics of the economic development of the county in a unified way, as well as to catch the sociodemographic trends of the period under review. First of all, this concerned changes in the ratio of arable land, forest, pasture and meadow spaces in the region. In addition, the sources recorded the number of households and the population for certain categories of residents (odnodvortsy, owning and single-dwelling peasants, etc.) both for individual settlements and for the county as a whole.Conclusion. Economic development of the historical region of the Belgorod line within the territorial framework of the studied Yelets district of the Oryol province at the end of the 18th century. has not yet reached its logical conclusion. Enclaves of virgin land continued to be preserved, which were introduced into agricultural circulation only in the first third of the 19th century. During the period under study, a significant increase in the population was recorded, especially the share of the owner-owning peasantry increased. This contributed to the acceleration of the development of the local economy and the final transformation of the once frontier zone into the granary of the Russian Empire.