State Regulation of Fishing in Russia in the 19th – Early 20th Centurу

Abstract

The article, mainly based on Siberian material, examines the problem of regulation of fishing in the Russian Empire in the late 19th – early 20th century, when serious consequences of predatory, unrestricted use of natural resources became apparent to the public and local officials. There is an awareness of the need for restrictive measures at the level of regional administration and the inattention of the general imperial power structures to this issue in relation to Asian Russia. Fishermen actively opposed any regulation of the time and methods of fishing in Siberia. Fishing in Asian Russia had no restrictions until the Soviet era. The officials found justification for this primarily in the rights of the foreign population to use traditional fishing grounds. All the lands of Siberia remained officially state-owned and during the XIX century, fishing grounds were gradually transferred to tax articles. Attempts to regulate the rental relations of the aboriginal population and fishermen, undertaken by local authorities, have not yielded great results. Somewhat more important were the measures to regulate the relations of fishermen and hired workers at capitalist fishing enterprises – strezhevye sands. The resolutions of the Tobolsk provincial administration obliged fishermen to give workers special clothes and shoes, improve nutrition, meat, fish, bread, porridge, butter, kvass and tea were to be included in the workers' diet. The working day was limited to 15 hours a day. The resolutions ordered to arrange separate rooms for workers to rest, imputed polite treatment of workers and an increase in wages to 30 rubles. per season. District police officers were appointed responsible for the execution of the resolution. This kind of control made the regulations practically useless. The fishing industry of Siberia remained throughout the 19th – early 20th century a field of spontaneous regulation based on the economic traditions of the Russian and aboriginal population.