Crimean port-cities and their hinterland connections: The dynamics of change, 1800–1917

Abstract

This article examines the relationships between the three Crimean port-cities of Sevastopol, Theodosia and Evpatoria and their hinterlands, which were defined by the grain export trade. The second half of the nineteenth century was marked by the transformation of the southern region of the Russian Empire into the granary of Europe. Port-cities became dynamic nodes, connecting cereal production in the hinterland of southern Russian and the Mediterranean maritime distribution networks in the Mediterranean. Based mainly on primary Russian and Ukrainian archival sources, this article shows and examines how the development of the Crimean port-cities was determined by connections between ports and their respective hinterlands, the types of commodities exchanged and a variety of internal and external political and economic factors.