The Formation of Land Property Prices in the Northwestern Governorates of the Russian Empire in the Years 1865–1915

Abstract This article analyzes the dynamics of changes in land property prices in the northwestern governorates of the Russian Empire from 1865 to 1915. The scope of the study includes agricultural and macroeconomic factors that had the greatest influence on the differentiation of land property values. The author aims to verify the current state of research on the land property market in the context of properly estimating land prices. The analysis was based on two types of property. The first concerns estates created based on the so-called Instruction of 1865. Instruction estates could only be purchased and inherited by people of Russian origin and Orthodox faith, i.e., Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. The law prohibited the Polish nobility, peasantry, and townsmen of the Catholic faith, as well as Jews, from purchasing or leasing this property. Violating these provisions resulted in the property being repossessed by the State Treasury. The second category included non-instruction properties, but even their trade, especially in the western governorates, was limited. In addition to the Orthodox population, Polish peasants and Roman Catholic townsmen could also participate in transactions, with the exclusion of the Polish peasantry. The primary source material used for the research on land prices was notarial and archival documentation stored in the historical archives of Poland (Białystok) and Lithuania (Vilnius). Based on the analysis of sale-purchase agreements, it was possible to determine the actual market value of agricultural land in the western borderlands of the Russian Empire over a 50-year period (1865–1915). The study allowed for the identification of the most important agricultural (level of debt, quality of agricultural land, location, state of land development) and macroeconomic (economic conditions, international political situation) factors that had a decisive influence on land prices.