Minusinsk architecture formation affected by local merchants in the 1920th centuries

Purpose: The aim of this work is to describe the architecture of Minusinsk, a small Siberian town, in line with the interests of the local merchants. The paper is relevant because of the low level of knowledge of the historical and cultural heritage of small towns in Siberia and the problems of preserving their cultural heritage.Methodology/approach: The related literature review, comparative analysis of the architecture and systems structural analysis of information. Theoretical works of scholars, historians and architects and the author’s literature and materials.Practical implications: The obtained results can be used for preparation of lectures and reports on the history of Siberian architecture. Preservation and efficient use of merchant buildings will contribute to the improvement of the city status and the development of its tourist attractiveness.Originality/value: The study of historical and cultural heritage of Minusinsk, a large merchant capital with mansion construction and industrial and commercial buildings.Findings: Minusinsk is of great interest as a historical merchant city. In the old city, there are numerous wooden and brick buildings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They locate in central streets and squares of the old city and have specific appearance.

The impact of COVID-19 on Islamic banks in Bangladesh: a perspective of Marxian “circuit of merchant’s capital”

Purpose This paper aims to assess the probable impact of COVID-19 on the Islamic banking system in Bangladesh. More specifically, it attempts to test the hypothesis that Islamic banks are exposed to increased risk because of their role as a provider of “merchant capital” including financing for trade, commerce and working capital, which are believed to be severely disrupted by the COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws upon the Marxian tradition on the identification of the circuit of “merchant capital” separated from the circuit of “interest-bearing capital.” Moreover, the research adopts the balance sheet approach to trace the sectoral distribution of investment as well as sources of income of Islamic banks. Findings The research supports the hypothesis that the investment pattern of Islamic banks is skewed toward the trade and merchant’s financing. More than two-third of Islamic banks’ investment, and income thereof, is concentrated on working capital and trade finance. As these sectors are largely vulnerable to the economic shock resulting from COVID-19, Islamic banks in Bangladesh are likely to be affected through this channel. Research limitations/implications The research focuses only on Islamic banks in Bangladesh. Further study can assess the impact of COVID-19 on conventional and Islamic banks in other countries to find similarities and differences with the findings of the current research. Practical implications The finding of this research will be useful for bank managers, policymakers and users of financial services. In particular, this study provides important information useful for regulators in devising appropriate policies which aim to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to examine the impact of COVID-19 on Islamic banking system in Bangladesh, a country where Islamic banks occupy one-third of the total banking system’s assets.

EKATERINBURG MERCHANTS: THE PROBLEM OF SUCCESSION (THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH — EARLY 20TH CENTURIES)

The article analyzes the problem of succession in the ranks of Ekaterinburg’s merchant class and the variants of its solution used in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries. Succession is considered as a process of capital transfer by Ekaterinburg merchants to their heirs in order to continue the commercial and industrial affairs of the testator. The article discusses the methods of training merchants’ successors, including their use as employees and their inclusion in family companies as partners. Considerable attention is paid to studying the mechanism of inheritance transfer in emergency situations and conflicts that arose during inheritance process. The author explores the cases when the heirs on a female line (widows, daughters) acted as the successors of commercial and industrial affairs, the examples of involvement of sons-in-law in the management of family capital are also given. The article uses documents from the funds of the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk region (GASO), as well as the periodical press (newspapers “Permskie gubernskie vedomosti”, “Ekaterinburgskaya nedelya” and others). From archival materials, documents from the funds of the Ekaterinburg City Duma and the Ekaterinburg District Court are mainly used. The following conclusions are made. The procedure of transferring the inheritance by Ekaterinburg merchants to their successors was a complex and ambiguous process. Not all Ekaterinburg merchants managed to solve the problem of succession: for this reason, a number of family firms existed only during one generation. At the same time, many representatives of the city merchant class managed to solve the problem of succession by various ways, at least for 2–3 generations. The instability of merchant capital was largely a consequence of state policy, and to a lesser extent, the result of the unresolved problem of succession.

The Lives of Merchant Capital: The Frères Monneron and the Legacy of Old Regime Empire

This article scrutinizes the nineteenth-century legacy of the old regime’s commercial empire through the ambiguous case of the Monneron brothers. Having gained fortune and recognition in Indian Ocean trade, the brothers sat as deputies in the National Assembly, but by the end of the 1790s their affairs and reputations had been destroyed. Their experiences reveal how the politics of commerce fundamentally changed during the Revolution. But the Monnerons also draw our attention to structural developments in French commercial imperialism that preceded and transcended the Revolution. They helped facilitate French investment in the Indian Ocean in the final decades of the old regime, a ‘spatial fix’ in merchant capital that was carried out in anticipation of crisis in the Atlantic, and that was consolidated around the turn of the century through the introduction of sugar cultivation in the Mascarene islands. By reading the biographies of the Monnerons alongside the life of their capital, this article attempts to acknowledge the undeniable ruptures of revolutionary politics without losing sight of broader developments in the global history of capitalism.