Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2017 number

Tomsk province transport infrastructure at the XX century included many river crossings which were located on important routes and supported by the provincial taxes. The owners of these ferries concluded a three-year contract with the county administration and received a fixed fee for servicing transportation. The article objective is to study the practice of carrying out contract auctions to maintain ferries. The author considers the mechanism of interaction of power structures at the provincial and district levels with contractors and keepers of river crossings on postal routes. Office materials of the provincial and district levels were used in research. Archival materials analysis made it possible to reveal the costs dynamics of maintaining crossings. The author pointed to a number of measures taken by the administration to conclude more profitable contracts to maintain ferry transports. The author concludes that contract tendering, as a rule, was not arranged according to a standard scheme. On the one hand, the official authorities tried to maintain the existing level of contract prices, thereby making them “profitable for Zemstvo cashbox”. On the other hand, potential contractors sought to increase them in various ways. It should be noted that the efforts of the latter sometimes paid off. The transportation costs permanent increase was exploded not only by self-interest of their keepers, but also by the real economic situation. The usual river crossings could be supported by provincial zemsky tax, if located on the postal tract. The mechanism for changing the facility status was very complicated and associated with formulating relevant documents, carrying out contract auctions, creating a material base. Under the conditions of limited provincial budget, the process of organizing a new zemsky crossing was rather difficult.