The Alienation of State-owned Mining Plants of the Kingdom of Poland in the Second Half of the 19th – early 20th Century

Abstract

An important part of the implementation of the mining reform in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century became the eminent domain of state-owned mining plants located in the Kingdom of Poland. This process was prepared in the 1860s and began with the sale of Starachowice factories in 1870. Later it was integrated into the general imperial process, which also covered the Urals, the Caucasus and the Donbass, where the state had its own enterprises. The company for the eminent domain of state-owned mining plants was intermittent and lasted until the beginning of the First World War. During its first phase (1870–1880), when privatization was recognized as the main way of eminent domain, in the Kingdom of Poland, except for the Starachowice plant, the Dabrowa (Huta-Bankowa) and Serock plants were sold. Prevalent in the government circles in the early 1880s, a more cautious approach to the eminent domain of state property led to the approval of the rental method. Since the 1890s the remaining iron and zinc enterprises were leased out. As a result, the state no longer returned to the management of mining plants in the Kingdom of Poland, transferred to private entrepreneurs.