Societies of the Mutual Credit of Siberia at the Beginning of the XX Century: Number, Structure of Management and Composition

The article based on the Siberian materials explores the number, the system of organization, number and social composition of mutual loan societies. These societies were usually small banks that served the small and middle bourgeoisie, urban and rural entrepreneurs; different from other credit institutions by two main features: 1) the owners of the enterprise are not lenders and borrowers themselves, and 2) the members of societies were linked by mutual responsibility. The article was written with the assistance of new archival materials that allow conclusions on the later of the beginning of mutual credit societies in the Siberian province, a relatively democratic system of governance based on personal acquaintance and mutual trust among participants; the predominance in their composition representatives of trade and industrial estates, and slight differences from the social structure of mutual credit societies in European Russia.