Historical Geography Journal ISSN 2782-6511 (Print) | ISSN 3034-5286 (Online)

Aleksandr A. Belik
Candidate of Culturology, Independent Researcher
St.-Petersburg, Russia
E-mail: aleksandr.bellik@gmail.com
ORCID: 0009-0000-8506-860X

 Download | Back to the Content № 4. 2024

UDC 94(470.342)«17/18»
DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2024-3-4-36-49

ABSTRACT. The article examines the specifics of communications of the Vyatka merchants in the geocultural and sociocultural contexts. This topic is analyzed within the framework of the synthesis of historical and cultural approaches. The agrarian character of the Vyatka region allowed it to become one of the main grain markets of the Russian Empire already in the second half of the 17th century. It is concluded that in choosing markets, the Vyatka merchants relied on traditions and preferred to deliver their goods to where their fathers and grandfathers had previously traded. So entrepreneurs of the northern and part of the central uyezds (Vyatka, Kotelnichsky, Orlovsky and Slobodsky) focused mainly on the northern and western provinces, entrepreneurs of the southern and part of the central counties (Glazovsky, Yelabuga, Malmyzhsky, Nolinsky and Sarapulsky) — on the southern and eastern ones. The geography of the Vyatka merchants’ trade relations gradually increased. The trading operations of the Vyatka merchants outside the Vyatka region can be divided into two groups: domestic and international. All goods exported by the Vyatka merchants can be divided into three groups. The first included agricultural products (beef, pork, bread), the second – processed raw materials (iron, leather, flax, timber, copper, hemp, potash, lard), the third – industrial goods (paper, leather goods, furs, linen, candles, glass products). The basis of trade between the Vyatka merchants and other provinces was grain, timber and linen. For large deposits, wealthy peasants sometimes helped the merchants in this, traveling around numerous torzhky and fairs and buying goods from rural residents. In general, the period under review was marked by active movements of merchant goods towards the port of Arkhangelsk. Domestic Russian trade through the Arkhangelsk and St. Petersburg ports required from merchants adapting to the situation and finding solutions to the current economic problems. The merchants themselves worked out 3 possible solutions, Catherine II convened a special commission for this, and the local administration tried to maintain the merchants’ business reputation in the foreigners’ eyes.

KEYWORDS: merchants’ everyday life, bread market, wealthy peasants’ help, projects to mitigate the consequences of crises, foreign partners, Catherine II special commission.

For citation: Belik А. А. [Vyatka Merchants’ Trading Operations outside of the Vyatka Region (Late 18th — First Half of the 19th Centuries)]. Istoriko-geograficheskiy zhurnal [Historical Geography Journal], 2024, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 36–49. DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2024-3-4-36-49 (In Russian).

Received 11 September 2024
Accepted 17 December 2024

© 2024 The Author

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