The Alafuzov Family Firm in the Conditions of Corporatization in the Late 19th — Early 20th Century

Abstract

The article attempts to consider the influence of the family principle on property relations, the management system and the functioning of industrial business in the process of transition of an individual-private enterprise into a joint-stock format. The solution of this problem was carried out on the example of one of the largest joint-stock companies in the Middle Volga region “Commercial and industrial company of Alafuzov factories and plants”. The authors also examines participation of the state in resolving contradictions between representatives of the “founding family” and third-party shareholders is considered separately. The study draws upon scientific literature, published sources, archival materials, which were first introduced into scientific circulation. Conceptually, the study is based on the following provisions. On the one hand, the informal rules developed during the functioning of the family institution had a significant impact on business relations, bringing their own specifics into the organization of Russian business. On the other hand, the new realities of a market economy with a rather pronounced focus on industrialism set their own rules of the game, forcing entrepreneurs who realized their economic interests in the format of a family business to take account of the formal restrictions and laws of a rapidly complicating market. It is shown that the increase in the number of business relations actors observed during the transition to associated forms of entrepreneurship due to the inclusion of third parties in the family business created the need to maintain a balance of individual and group interests, led to the interaction of informal and formal rules, giving rise to a very colorful and mosaic picture of joint-stock companies’ activity.