Trends in Socio-Economic Development in Batumi

(The 1890s to the Early Twentieth Century)

Abstract

This article examines the principal trends in the socio-economic development of Batumi from the 1890s to the early twentieth century. From the 1890s onward, Batumi became a petroleum export centre of global significance. The development of industrial infrastructure associated with petroleum export exerted a decisive influence on the city's economic life. Batumi was transformed into a major industrial and commercial centre not only of Transcaucasia but of the entire Black Sea basin. Drawing upon documentary sources and taking into account the relevant historiography, the study investigates the role of petroleum exports through the port of Batumi in the city's social, economic, and political development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.