摘要：The article examines the history of entrepreneurial activity in the livestock industry, specifically the origin and development of market relations in the late 19th to early 20th centuries in the Steppe region. Based on archival documents, statistical collections, and works of Russian pre-revolutionary researchers, the features of transformation and adaptation of farms of nomadic pastoralists to new commodity-money principles have been analyzed. Moreover, this article examines the basic directions of the livestock breeding business at different stages of the development of Kazakh society and their causality. The scientific novelty of the article lies in a comprehensive study of entrepreneurial activity in the sphere of commodity livestock breeding in a specific macro-region at the stage of its involvement in the all-Russian market. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the Kazakhs were at the origins of the livestock industry in the Steppe region, because of having a number of competitive advantages. First of all, it was their better knowledge of livestock breeding, as from ancient times it was their only occupation due to the arid natural conditions. An important factor of entrepreneurial activity was a sufficiently high adaptive potential of nomads, who quickly adapted their economy to the needs of the market.One manifestation of this was a flexible reorientation of the livestock breeding business from sheep breeding to cattle breeding, which had greater market demand and sufficiently high profitability. In the process of analyzing the profitability of agricultural budget items at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the features of the development of commercial pastoralism were identified in the following areas: sheep breeding, horse breeding, and cattle breeding. Finally, this research studies the specific mechanism of pricing policy in specific-historical conditions, the innovation potential of entrepreneurship, as well as the influence of state policy on the development of regional livestock breeding businesses.
