Paper short abstract:

In world historiography, the second half of the XIX century is called the "century of empires", the heyday of globalization and economic convergence. Central Asia has also not remained on the sidelines of globalization.

Paper long abstract:

After the creation of the Turkestan Governor-General (1867), imperial financial institutions began to appear in the region. The history of banks and banking in Central Asia has not been studied in fact, and is covered in fragments in the light of the concept of "monopolistic capitalism" The article examines the Soviet, post-Soviet and foreign historiography of the activities of the Russian-Asiatic Commercial Bank (RAC). Russian Russian-Asian (until 1910, Russian-Chinese) was the largest bank in Central Asia, which had 13 branches. Russian Russian-Asian Commercial Bank was established on the basis of the merger of the Russian-Chinese and Northern banks, opened its operations on October 4, 1910. It should be noted that as an explanatory model, Soviet historiography was based on the hypothesis that the colonial periphery of the Russian Empire was the least modernized in economic terms and monopolized by "international capital" and concerns. According to the author, post-Soviet historiography in most cases repeats the main provisions of Soviet historiography. The main task of commercial banks was to involve Turkestan in the general imperial market. The increase in investment in Turkestan, in particular in Fergana, is not due to the dependence of the Russian Empire on "foreign capital", it was largely determined by the general economic situation in the region and the opinion of authoritative scientific experts. It should be noted that the activities of the RACB in Central Asia can be characterized as an imperial bank that sought to involve the region in world trade and the capitalist system.