The hierarchy of financial centers in the Russian Empire at the end of the nineteenth century: network and geoinformation analysis of interregional bank transfers

Abstract

The article examines the financial system of the Russian Empire as a set of cash flows between the largest centers based on the commercial transfers statistics of commercial transfers of the State Bank in 1898 and network and geoinformation analysis. As a result, the study proves that the national financial system was typically dominated by the highest national level markets (St. Petersburg and Moscow), whereas the interregional markets of the lower level were stronger in the west and southwest (Odessa, Kiev, Warsaw) compared to Riga, Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, and Baku