Rothschilds were at origins of the oil industry in pre-revolutionary Russia
By Jewish.ru
04/15/2001
. It is no coincidence that Baku is considered to be a city of the "American fold" - the intensity of its development is as dizzying as the growth of large American cities. From all over Russia, from abroad, people of different nationalities flocked to Baku in search of work and happiness. There were many Jews among them. In just six years from 1897 to 1903, the Jewish population of Baku more than doubled. Jews occupied the fifth place, ahead of them were only Azerbaijani Turks (as Azerbaijanis were then called - ed.), Russians, Persians and Armenians.
It is indicative that even in the darkest pre-revolutionary years, connected with rampant reaction, Baku did not know anti-Semitism. In 1901, there were 64 Jews in the administration of oil companies and societies. It also affected the fact that in Baku the Jews were provided with relatively wide opportunities for industrial and commercial activities, and the fact that the dominant position in the rapidly developing oil industry since the 80s. 19th century on Absheron, he occupied the Parisian banking house with the characteristic name "Br. Rothschild"
On May 16, 1883, the highest approval was signed (that is, consent from the emperor himself - ed.) of a new company in Baku - the Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industrial and Commercial Society. It was wholly owned by the Rothschild barons.
Interest in Baku oil, as well as in oil in general, was shown by the successor of James Rothschild, Alphonse, who headed the Parisian banking house from 1868. He sent Rothschild Jr. to Baku, under whose leadership the first steps of the newly formed Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industrial and Trading Society were taken. Rothschild's capital at that time seemed very tempting to many, since terrible lack of money was felt in Baku.
Indeed, the emergence of the named trading house significantly revived the oil industry in Baku and all of Russia. By opening wide loans to many entrepreneurs in the tens and hundreds of thousands of rubles, the Rothschilds helped local entrepreneurs get out of an extremely difficult situation, and some even saved them from complete bankruptcy.
With 6 million (gold) rubles and 25 million francs of fixed capital in Baku safes, the Rothschilds set to work with their characteristic energy and scope. The touchstone was the flight of the tanker "Fergessen" from Baku to Antwerp. Less than a year later, the first batch of kerosene was sent to London. In a short time, the Rothschild company extended its influence to 135 small and medium-sized oil enterprises in Transcaucasia. Rothschild bought kerosene from them to be sent to the domestic markets of Russia and other countries.
In the power structures of tsarist Russia, the attitude of Rothschild to the penetration of oil Baku, as well as to foreign investment in general, was ambiguous. Yes, and a number of pressed local companies raised a fuss that foreigners, they say, did not allow the original Russian industrialists to breathe. In the capital Petersburg, in the State Council and ministries, anti-Semite sentiments also made themselves felt. The viceroy of the Caucasus, Prince Mikhail Golitsyn, actively spoke out for the freedom of entrepreneurship for foreign firms. Russian Finance Minister Sergei Witte, in solidarity with Golitsyn, advocated the unhindered acquisition of oil-bearing lands by foreign companies.
In the end, common sense prevailed, and under the new rules adopted in June 1892, it was provided that foreign societies and Jews could acquire property and oil-bearing lands for use. True, there was a clause in the law: "but not otherwise than with the special permission of the Ministry of State Property each time, by agreement with the ministries of internal affairs and finance and with the chief civilians in the Caucasus."
However, in the overwhelming majority of cases, these requirements did not prevent the expansion of the activities of private foreign firms and Jewish entrepreneurs.
The Rothschilds quickly set about acquiring and developing oil-bearing lands in the Absheron, leasing them from the state. They bought plots that had not yet been touched by drilling, areas with abandoned, remaining exhausted oil wells, fields that did not justify the hopes of their former owners. The small Batumi kerosene plant, inherited by the Rothschilds, was soon reconstructed, greatly increasing its productivity and raising the quality of the produced kerosene. And on the outskirts of Baku, in the White City, the largest oil refinery was built - a whole industrial complex, consisting of three separate plants. The Rothschilds also built and equipped a gas plant, an electric station, sea water desalters, mechanical workshops with a large number of workers and technicians, in fact, factories that repaired oilfield equipment and pipes,
The production and commercial activities of the Rothschilds in Baku were characterized by scale, inclusiveness, the ability to quickly and purposefully solve key, urgent problems. The Rothschilds made considerable efforts, overcoming bureaucratic-bureaucratic slingshots, and in the end they obtained from the authorities the right of private individuals to purchase tank cars with their own money and provide them for the railway. The Rothschilds took a maximum of 6% per annum from their debtors, their loan was considered the cheapest in Baku. By concentrating the export of petroleum products in their hands, transferring the storage and transportation of goods to an industrial base, they saved many medium-sized and low-capacity companies from additional trouble. Without slowing down the pace of exports, the Rothschilds set about mastering the domestic market of Russia.
The composition of the company's employees was generally international, and at the same time, many Jewish specialists worked in the decisive areas of management and production. Often these were those who, due to discrimination in European Russia, could not put into practice their knowledge, abilities, and ability to work fruitfully.
The Rothschilds understood that the pipeline had a great future, that it was associated with technical progress in the oil industry, and not only in it. They were ready to take a concession for the construction of the Baku-Batumi oil pipeline. In 1907, the oil pipeline along its entire length came into operation.
Its official opening with the government acceptance commission, with words of thanks to Rothschild, took place on July 24 in Tiflis.
Innovative in concept and spirit was the development of oil wealth hidden under the bottom of the Caspian Sea, in the waters of the Bibi-Heybat Bay. This has never been dared anywhere else in the world. In the "Neft" and "Bibi-Heybat Oil Society", which at the beginning of the century were part of the Rothschild group of oil industrial enterprises, the usual awards were replaced by the participation of workers in the profits of the oil fields. The germs of the future "people's capitalism" appeared.
The Rothschild Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industrial and Commercial Society was not stingy in allocating large sums for charitable purposes. Rothschild was generous in helping the Baku Jewish community. At the beginning of the century, the synagogue, located in the city center, had a technical school for men with a four-year course, a women's vocational school, as well as Saturday evening classes. It was not required to pay a fee, moreover, all students were given free tea, and children from poor families were provided with clothes, shoes, teaching aids. Many thousands of volumes were in the library-reading room. A branch of the Jewish Literary Society also functioned in Baku, which set itself the task of promoting the study and development of scientific and fine Jewish literature in Hebrew, Yiddish and other languages,
All of them, as well as the Baku Jewish Charitable Society, regularly received solid financial support from Rothschild firms and its local representatives.
In addition, Rothschild left magnificent buildings in Baku. The main office of the Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industrial and Commercial Society, which now houses the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan, remains the decoration of the city ensemble. On Sadovaya Street in Baku, with the money of Rothschild, the Debur mansion was built, a beautiful palace-type building with amazing interior decoration. Now here, as well as in the neighboring house, acquired and converted by Rothschild, there is a Museum of Art.
In 1918, the Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industrial and Commercial Society were nationalized by decrees of the Baku Commune. But by this time, the Rothschild banking house in Paris was no longer their absolute owner. Rothschild, by the beginning of the First World War, ceded the overwhelming majority of his shares to the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell.