Nobility land ownership and land use in the Tsarskoye Selo district of the St. Petersburg province in the late 18th - the early 20th century

The article deals with the evolution of nobility land ownership in the Tsarskoye Selo district from the late 18th to the early 20th century. The author pays special attention to the land use and economic activities of the landlords of the district. On the example of some noble estates, the author examines both the methods of land exploitation by the nobles and the ways of selling individual plots of land on the land market. He argues that the ways of farming were basically typical of most of the estates in this district, and the ways of selling land were also similar. Although the author has refrained from evaluating the reasons why the nobles sold their lands, it seems quite likely that the main reason was their inability to efficiently manage the economy. The economic data provided in the article prove that the agriculture of the St. Petersburg province in the late 18th - the early 20th century experienced major changes associated with a change in the composition of landowners. It is obvious that the process of ousting the nobles from this sector of the economy had assumed an irreversible character.