The Case of the Baltic Region： The History of the Faculty of Trade and Commerce

In the anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the Riga Technical University (Latvia), some questions have become the objects of historical research. This article is devoted to the beginnings of the Faculty of Trade and Commerce in Latvia. The article reviews the historical situation and documents characterising the establishment of the faculty of the new educational institution; attention has been mostly paid to the history up to 1896 when the school underwent reorganisation. This article deals with the Livonian town of Riga in the middle of the 19th century, with the great economic changes in the economy, with economic growth, with the transition from manufactory to industry, with the shift from hand labour to machinery. With the development of the city and the railway, Riga becomes the junction point between the east and the west, between Europe and Russia. Around the 19th century the Baltic region, especially Riga, started to take a more and more prominent position within what was then the Russian Empire. In Eastern Europe, Riga had once again become a substantial traffic and mediation centre with western Europe and other parts of the world. With the development of the port, Riga became a new influential factor in world trade. Therefore, more serious attention was paid to the land transportation system as well, and large funds were invested in the construction of land traffic routes, especially the railway, to this important centre—Riga. All of this contributed to the development of the local industry. At the beginning of the 19th century, the population of Riga gradually increased. It fell substantially during the war of 1812 and the next decade, but increased quickly during the second half of the 1820s, and especially since the 1860s, mostly because after the liberation of the peasants from their patrons, a huge