RUSSIAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY: PAST AND PRESENT

This article presents a multi-level analysis of key economic indicators of the Russian textile industry performance. The authors focus on the capital-labor ratio analysis describing the production technology. The article suggests calculation of the capital-labor ratio in the textile industry for 2015 and 1900. Research findings show an increase of this indicator during the last 150 years of industry existence by only 1.5 times. Analysis of data on the value structure of fixed capital in 1900 suggests that the cost of foreign equipment employed in textile production is 3 times higher than the cost of domestic equipment. These findings resulted in a hypothesis about the historical trend towards import of equipment and technologies from more technologically developed countries. Further analysis of the materials "On the development of the linen industry based on the Materials for Statistics of the Russian Empire of 1859" confirms this hypothesis. The next phase of the analysis deals with the relationship between the ownership type and the profit rate. Correlation analysis tends to support the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between the state ownership and the profit. The conclusion is made that there is a need for the incentives for attracting investment in the textile industry, with the average profit margin for the industry among the crucial parameters.