The form of manufacturing with serf labor, which is characteristic of Russia, was most fully developed in the Urals. Therefore, the peculiarities of the formation of capitalism in the industry of serf Russia were most deeply and comprehensively manifested in the Urals. However, the period when feudal - serfdom and capitalist relations were intensively destroyed in the mining industry, when the contradictions of the feudal-serf system reached their greatest acuteness (the last decades before the abolition of serfdom), is almost not covered by monographic studies. Works on the history of production cover the 17th, 18th and some events of the early 19th century1 . In the fundamental work of S. G. Strumilin, only two of the 15 chapters of the second section 2 are devoted to the problems of the first half of the XIX century . The articles, which are mostly discussion articles, cannot reveal the full depth of the problems of this transition period. S. G. Strumilin, V. K. Yadunsky, F. S. Gorovoy, V. Ya. Krivonogov and others addressed directly the issues of the industrial revolution and the growth of capitalist phenomena in the mining industry of the Urals. As the main (and practically the only) criterion of industrial revolution, their works put forward the development of technology and technology, in particular the introduction of a more progressive method of iron production - puddling and the growth of the use of steam engines .3 An increase in the use of hired labor is considered as evidence of the growth of capitalist phenomena in metallurgical enterprises .4 It is these two processes in the history of the mining Urals of the pre-reform decades that are given the greatest attention in historiography. However, the researchers have not yet addressed the economic analysis of production - they have not considered the composition and dynamics of production costs, changes in the ratio of prices and production costs, and breeders ' profits. Meanwhile, such an analysis will a ... Читать далее