«Kolyvanskiy discipline» in Nerchinsk factories in 1787-1830

There was the formation of two silver industries in Russia in the XVIIIth century, namely Kolyvano-Voskresensk (further - KV) and Nerchinsk foundries. Nerchinsk authorities established foundry in 1704. After 1745 the mining in Altay (KV) was going to develop quickly. The problem was the Altay ores contained too small quantity of lead. On the opposite side, there was a big abundance of lead on Nerchinsk foundries. Therefore the delivery of Nerchinsk lead to KV foundries began. The imaginations about interrelations between KV and Nerchinsk foundries remained schematic so far. The article details the period from 1787 to 1830. Since 1745 Emperor's Cabinet had appropriated the Kolyvan and Barnaul foundries by a late owner A. Demidov and had developed very big success in silver production that allowed Russia to take a leader place in European silver production. The only disadvantage of KV was the dependence on Nerchinsk lead. Thus, it was an essential premise to take Nerchinsk foundries into Cabinet' department, that happened in 1787. In 1791 Nerchinsk foundries brought problems for the first time. The troubles were permanent and were accompanied with specific Nerchinsk conditions, namely scarcity of people, periodical bad harvest, all-hands output new founded reach ores as well as the disability to concentrate the workers in one or a few main mines and so on. First Cabinet decided to implement its KV management approach to Nerchinsk foundries, but this innovation was not a success. KV's profits added to a series of complications for Nerchinsk foundries. In 1830 Kv and Nerchinsk foundries were leased by the Ministry of Finance. Nerchinsk foundries were proved not to be profitable. This decision entailed the liquidation of Nerchinsk silver and lead smelting.