This is the earliest stone residential building of the Gorokhovets Posad. It was erected at the expense of Semyon Ershov in the seventies of the 17th century on the city square, almost opposite the Annunciation Cathedral, not far from the entrance to the Sretensky Monastery.
His distinguishing feature- huge size. Despite its thirty-meter length, the building has the simplest circuit plan "hut with communication" - with the traditional two chambers, located on the sides of the entrance hall. Window openings are currently, unfortunately, hewn and have rectangular shape. But on the courtyard facade there are several old architraves windows, indicating that the house looked rather elegant.
In the 17th century, there was a courtyard here, which, judging by the documents, was of considerable size. In the 18th century, the house already belonged to the merchants Shiryaevs, and in 1828 it was acquired by the merchants Larina, from whom it passed at the end of the 19th century to the Sudoplatovs.
House of Ershov (Sapozhnikov)
This unique monument of ancient Russian stone residential architecture is located on Nagornaya Street. Its monumental volume rises among the wooden buildings. Stone merchants' chambers are "head and shoulders" taller than ordinary two-story philistine houses made of wood. Even now this "Mohican" of residential architecture Ancient Russia proudly reigns over those around him wooden buildings, showing off against the greenish-bluish background of Puzhalova Mountain and glorifying the wealth and strength of their owners.
House of Oparin
Not a single city has preserved so many vivid memories of ancient Russian life, of merchants and their chambers. When you walk along the sleepy streets of Gorokhovets, reminiscent of the scenery for "Ivan Susanin" or "Boris Godunov", the dry, few lines come to life archival documents. The almost forgotten surname of the Oparins acquires a certain concreteness. This is the house of the “merchant Vasily Fedorov son of Oparin!” No, this is not a fantasy, this is a real house that stands on the banks of the Klyazma. His photographs are placed in almost all textbooks on the history of architecture.
House of the Shiryaevs (Shumilina)
to buildings Sretensky Monastery adjoins the houses of the Shiryaevs - a wonderful example of ancient Russian residential architecture. However, the name, rooted in the literature, accidentally recorded one of the subsequent owners of the house. Its true owners were "merchants and keepers of the Siberian iron works" Shiryaevs.
The Shiryaevs' house is unusual. Its layout has an enfilade character, uncharacteristic of urban residential buildings. The sequential arrangement of reception rooms is typical for the chambers of the palace buildings of the noble age. The townspeople of the Shiryaevs, who in the 18th century became “owners of the Siberian iron factories,” no longer build a house like a “peasant” one.
Caption to the reconstruction: The chambers of these Russian "knights of commercial capital" have changed their appearance a little. In the past, they looked much more spectacular.
House of Kanonnikov
The two-storey house of the Kanonnikovs was built at the end of the 17th century. The merchants Kanonnikovs lived modestly, and this affected the decoration of the house. He is not pretentious in appearance and even ascetic. And the place was chosen well - on the banks of the Klyazma, near the city's cathedral.
The laconic divisions of the facades and a few decorative details expressively emphasize the forms of the strict and even severe architecture of the house. This is further set off by small, deep-set windows framed by simple rectangular niches.
An innovation for Gorokhovets architecture was the built-in front staircase leading from the entrance hall of the first floor to the second. This was already the next step in the development of the old Russian porch, when it began to turn from the outer element of the building into the inner one.
House of Turulov (Rumyantsev)
Built at the end of the 17th century. The builder of the house is unknown, but one of its first owners was a tradesman Sergey Turulov. In the late XIX - early XX, the house belonged to the Rumyantsevs. The house is comfortably located on the picturesque slope of Nikolskaya Mountain. Its front facade faces north, towards the Klyazma River, from which it is very close. By its nature, the building is a simple stone hut.
House of Voronin (Belova)
The construction of the house dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. One of its first owners was the merchant Alexei Voronin, and the last one was Belov. The house is located on the slope of Nikolskaya mountain.
House of Ershov (Sudoplatov)
The earliest stone residential building of the Gorokhovets Posad House of Ershov (Sudoplatov) (Lenin St., 9). It was erected at the expense of Semyon Ershov in the 1670s. on the city square, almost opposite the main Gorokhovets Cathedral.
The Swedish diplomat Johann Philipp Kielburger, who visited Moscow during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, wrote in his book "Brief News of Russian Trade, How It Was Produced Through All Russia in 1674" that all Muscovites "from the most noble to Merchants love the simplest things, which is the reason why there are more trading shops in the city of Moscow than in Amsterdam or at least another whole principality. This is how Kielburger saw Moscow. But it must be said that in the seventeenth -XVIII centuries the concept of "merchants" did not yet represent a certain category of the population. It characterized the type of commercial and industrial activity. Since the 40s of the 18th century, the concept of merchant class has embraced the entire township population of a certain wealth. Access to this state was also widely open to the peasants. This led to the fact that the number of merchants constantly increased, and from the 1750s, the "merchants" demanded a monopoly on trade for themselves, and received it in 1755.
The history of the Moscow merchants proper began in the 17th century, when the merchant class from the category of taxable people stood out in special group urban or townspeople, which in turn began to be divided into guests, living room and cloth fold and settlements. The highest and most honorable place in this trading hierarchy belonged to the guests (there were no more than 30 of them in the 17th century). Merchants received this title personally from the tsar, and only the largest entrepreneurs were awarded it, with a trade turnover of at least 20 thousand a year, which was a huge amount for those times. The guests were close to the king, were exempted from paying duties paid by merchants of a lower rank, occupied the highest financial positions, and also had the right to buy estates into their possession. If we talk about the members of the living room and the cloth hundreds, then in the 17th century there were about 400 of them. They also enjoyed great privileges, occupied a prominent place in the financial hierarchy, but were inferior to guests in "honor". Living rooms and cloth hundreds had self-government, their common affairs were managed by elected heads and foremen. Finally, the lowest rank of the Moscow merchant class was represented by the inhabitants of the Black Hundreds and settlements. These were predominantly handicraft self-governing organizations that themselves produced goods, which they themselves then sold. This category of merchants was in strong competition with professional merchants of the highest ranks, since the "Black Hundreds" traded own products and, therefore, could sell it cheaper. In addition, the townspeople who had the right to trade were divided into the best, middle and young.
The activities of the Moscow merchants were regulated by the New Trade Charter, adopted in 1667. The charter prescribed a clear system of taxation for merchants: instead of the tamga1, a half tax was introduced (with trading activities) and tax (from fishing). The Moscow merchants of the 17th-18th centuries were characterized by the absence of a certain specialization in the trade of any one product. Even large merchants simultaneously traded in a wide variety of goods, and other operations were added to this. So, for example, extracts from customs books collected in 1648 about the goods brought by the merchant - guest Vasily Shorin testify that in 1645 he transported through the Arkhangelsk customs 7 1/2 halves of cloth, 200 arshins of satin, 25 arshins of red velvet , gold spun into tinsel, but also thin copper, red plank copper and 100 thousand needles, and on the other plank there were 16 copper bells weighing 256 pounds and 86o reams of writing paper. From the same books it follows that in another year they brought groceries. Of the export items, Shorin's clerks carried lard, glue, butter, fish, caviar, but also yuft and oars. So the same merchant traded in cloth and velvet, copper, needles, paper, oil, fish, and various other goods. Trade in XVII-XVIII centuries in Moscow it went right on the street or in special shops located within the Gostiny Dvor, which was founded in the middle of the 16th century under Ivan the Terrible. Then, at the behest of the Sovereign, merchants from all over Moscow were resettled in Kitai-Gorod. At first, the shop rows were wooden, but in 1595, after a fire, they were replaced with stone ones. Baron Sigismund Herberstein, an envoy at the court of Ivan the Terrible, wrote about the old Gostiny Dvor in his Notes on Muscovy: "Not far from the Grand Duke's castle stands a huge stone building called Gostiny Dvor, in which merchants live and exhibit their goods."
By the way, not all Moscow merchants had the right to trade in Gostiny Dvor. The fact is that in the 17th century, shopping areas in Moscow were divided into ordinary shopping arcades and the rows of Gostiny Dvor. According to the Code of 1649, retail trade was to be carried out in the ranks, and wholesale trade was to be carried out in the living rooms - "not to sell any goods separately in the gostiny yards."
A typical shop of a Moscow merchant, in the trading rows, in Gostiny Dvor, was a room 2 sazhens wide, 2 1/2 deep. Such a shop was called full. Along with full shops, there were so-called half-shops, quarters of a shop, and even eighths of shops. In 1726, in Moscow Kitai-Gorod, out of 827 trading properties, there were only 307 owners of full shops, while in 76 cases they occupied less than a whole shop, and in 328 cases the trading place was only half a shop.
But there were other cases as well. For example, some Moscow merchants connected several shops, but this was a very rare phenomenon: there were only 32 cases of owning 1 1/2 shops and 15 cases of more than 2 1/2 shops, of which only one was when the merchant occupied 3 3/4 shops. . In 1701, 189 people owned one shop each, while 242 occupied only half a shop, and 77 people 3/4 shops.
The shops were joined by a huge number of trading places, which were only temporary, portable premises. There were 680 such places in Kitai-Gorod, for example, in 1626, of which 47 were huts, 267 benches and the so-called "bench places", and even here the merchant often occupied half a hut or part of a bench place.
So, large-scale trade in Moscow existed alongside small-scale trade. Of course, the big merchants had a clear advantage. For example, in choosing a place for trading, which, moreover, cost a lot. So the Moscow gardener Kondraty the Boastful, the largest distiller in Moscow in the first quarter of the 18th century, bought a shop for 1000 rubles in Kitai-Gorod in the Smolensk cloth row, and V. Shchegolin, one of the first "cloth" manufacturers under Peter, bought a stone shop for 500 rubles . The price of such a shop was equal to the cost of a large yard with good buildings. Its location in a lively place was also appreciated. Shopkeepers paid a solid income to the treasury, which was a benefit for all parties involved: the buyer (more goods - lower price), the merchant himself and the treasury.
The main trading place of Moscow was, of course, Kitay-gorod. There were more than a hundred trading rows here: almost 20 clothing, needle, knife and others, in which they traded metal products; jewelry rows, distinguished by the cleanliness and politeness of the sellers; the quietest icon row; a bleaching row where archery wives and widows traded. Apple, melon and cucumber rows stood separately. Grain trade was carried out mainly on the banks of the Moscow River. On the bridge spanning the moat from the Spassky Gates of the Kremlin, books and manuscripts were sold. They also traded in other areas, for example, in the squares at the gates of the White and Earthen City, but there the bargaining was much less lively. In their daily activities, large and small Moscow merchants sometimes clashed. For example, in the late 1920s In the 18th century, a group of "merchants-companion workers" were at the mercy of the entire vodka trade in Moscow. Having paid a lot of money to the treasury for the ransom, they extremely raised the price of vodka in the city. Seeing this, part of the dissatisfied Moscow small merchants began to buy and bring vodka from the suburbs, selling it at a lower price. The "company workers" did not put up with this and erected in 1731 around all the heavily populated outskirts of the city a low earthen rampart with a wall of wooden poles driven into the ground. Outposts were set up on the main roads, where all the carts were examined, checking whether vodka was brought into the city. However, such a palisade turned out to be not a hindrance for small traders. Soon a lot of loopholes formed in it, and then it was completely taken away for firewood. And again, cheap wine began to be sold in Moscow in large quantities.
It is interesting that even at the beginning of the 18th century, according to the Decree of 1714, all Moscow merchants and artisans were obliged to settle in suburban settlements. Soon, a belt of various suburban settlements quickly began to take shape around Zemlyanoy Val (the old border of Moscow).
The decision to evict merchants from Kitay-gorod was made, among other things, due to the fact that the number of Moscow merchants was constantly increasing. In Kitai-Gorod, there was not only nowhere to live, but even to trade. And therefore, at the end of the 18th century, Empress Catherine II instructed the architect Giacomo Quarenghi to draw up a project for a new Gostiny Dvor within Ilyinka and Varvarka streets, since the old Gostiny Dvor, which by that time had 760 shops, barns, tents, no longer accommodated everyone. And this is not surprising, since by the end of the 18th century more than 12 thousand merchants and members of their families lived in Moscow.
Tamga - since the 13th century in the Russian state, a duty levied for the transport of goods, which was superimposed with a special stamp - tamga.
They received a monopoly right to conduct European trade with Russia through the Moscow Company, in the profits of which the English royal house was also directly interested.
Before the influence of English merchants not only on the economy, but also on the politics of Muscovite Russia was limited under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the British, according to many historians, managed to accept Active participation in the turning points of Russian history at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Ivan the Terrible and the Moscow Company
The beginning of trade contacts between England and Russia was marked by the arrival in Russia of the expedition of Richard Chancellor, who hoped to find a northeastern bypass route to China by sea, but eventually arrived in Severodvinsk. Ivan the Terrible, to whom the Englishman already in Moscow handed a letter from the English King Edward VI, in 1553-1154 allowed the British to organize trade with Russia. As a result of subsequent contacts and agreements between England and Russia, the Moscow Company, organized by English merchants, received the right to monopoly trade through the northern ports on the White Sea and serious privileges for operations within the country. This situation gave enormous benefits to the British, who constantly expanded the size of their enterprise. First, having received the right to duty-free and almost uncontrolled trade, they built gostiny yards in Kholmogory and Vologda, Moscow, and then “yards” in Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Pskov, Kazan, Astrakhan, Kostroma and other cities. English merchants did not leave attempts to establish trade routes to China, and when this did not work out, then to Persia. Trade contacts went hand in hand with the growth of political ties. Ivan the Terrible, at a certain moment, fearing for the outcome of the Livonian War and the internal struggle with the boyars, was ready to marry the English Queen Elizabeth. At that time, England had not yet become the leading world empire, and the main enemy of Russia were the Catholic powers, in particular, the Commonwealth. The policy of rapprochement with London seemed justified. However, many historians believe that the British gained too much influence in Moscow. Representatives of the young colonial empire actively sought to get as many privileges as possible in Russia. British merchants overpriced their substandard goods and engaged in unfair trade. In the 1570s, Ivan the Terrible repeatedly complained about them to the English ambassador, and eventually curtailed a number of privileges. Under Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the Moscow Company could only trade duty-free in bulk. And Boris Godunov left the former privileges to the British, but refused to grant them new benefits.
First Romanovs and England
Around the theme of the accession to the throne of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, there are many versions and many of them indicate the presence of contacts between the first Romanovs and representatives of England. In particular, that the father of the future tsar, Fedor Romanov, before his forced monastic tonsure under Boris Godunov, was responsible at court for interaction with the Moscow Company. In addition, some researchers believe that before the decisive attack on Moscow militia Minin and Pozharsky from Yaroslavl, in addition to the Yaroslavl merchants (whose funds simply would not have been enough to finance the entire army), the liberation of the capital from the Poles was financed by English merchants on behalf of their king, who was not interested in the victory of Poland. Supporters of this version suggest that Mikhail Romanov confirmed the former privileges of English merchants, being indebted to them for help in obtaining power, however, his son Alexei limited their monopoly, not considering himself bound by any obligations. Tsar Mikhail Romanov really retained the former rights of the English merchants, and Zemsky Cathedral In 1613, among the candidates proposed for election as king, the name of the King of England, James I, sounded. Apparently, distant England really had a certain influence through its trade on the political affairs of Russia.
Alexey Mikhailovich
Aggressive English merchants, who became a means of building the British colonial empire in other parts of the world, caused serious irritation on the part of the domestic merchant class. The flow of complaints about English trade from the very beginning of the existence of the "Moscow Company" only intensified. One of the last petitions from Russian merchants with a request to restrict English trade was submitted to the Tsar in 1646. On June 1, 1649, in the year of the execution of King Charles of England, a decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was published, with the telling title “On the expulsion of English merchants from Russia and on their arrival only to Arkhangelsk, for many unfair and harmful deeds for Russian trade, especially for the assassination of King Charles I committed in England. The Moscow Company retained the right to trade only in the port of Arkhangelsk. The formal reason was the monarchist solidarity of Alexei Mikhailovich in relation to the deposed and murdered English monarch, however, the decree also listed numerous tricks, deceptions and lawlessness perpetrated by English merchants in Russia, including tobacco smuggling. After the restoration of the monarchy in England, English trade in Russia was partially restored, however, despite all the efforts of royal diplomats, the former privileges in their in full were not returned to the British. Finally, monopoly rights in a number of trade sectors were lost by the Moscow Company under Peter the Great. The Romanovs came to understand how much the representatives of England had strengthened their influence in the country since the time of Ivan the Terrible. The Russian tsars could not fail to see how much the power of England had grown almost a hundred years after the start of joint trade. One of the secrets to success in building the British Empire was the inseparable combination of trade and exploration. English merchants almost everywhere were conductors of the influence of the British crown, combining the functions of intelligence officers, political agents, and sometimes the military. The need to eliminate this kind of "agencies" and protect their own economy from foreign competition, most likely became the real reason for such a policy of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
The merchant class was Russian semi-privileged XVIII - XX centuries and acted as the "third estate" immediately after the nobility and the clergy. The “Letter of Letters to the Cities” of 1785 determined the estate privileges and rights of the merchant class, in connection with which it was exempted from corporal punishment, poll tax, and some of its representatives from recruitment. Merchants had the right to unhindered movement according to the "passport benefit". Merchants were rewarded with honorary citizenship.
The class status of a merchant determined his property qualification. Merchants with late XVIII century consisted of three guilds, belonging to one of them was determined by the size of the capital, from which the merchant had to make annual payments of the guild contribution in the amount of 1% of the total capital. Such an obligation prevented representatives of other segments of the population from gaining access to this class.
The trading privileges of the merchants began to take shape at the beginning of the 18th century. In 1709, all merchants and craftsmen were ordered to be assigned to city posts. In 1722, a class group of “trading peasants” appeared, being in which it provided the opportunity for legal residence in the city using trade rights equal to the township population, which existed until the “Charter to Cities”.
According to official documents, before the guild reform of 1775, the townspeople were often called merchants, who basically did not trade, but worked for hire, were engaged in crafts and agriculture. The customs charter of 1755 allowed trade by persons not related to the merchant class only in products of their own production, and since 1760 the Senate issued a decree prohibiting trade in foreign goods to everyone except the merchant class. In the future, guild fees made it possible for a large number of burghers, peasants, and guilds to enroll in the merchant class.
From January 1, 1807, the manifesto granted the nobles the right to join the first two merchant guilds, and then, from 1827, they were allowed to stay in the third guild. Such trends contributed to the transition to the merchant class of nobles and former officials. There were temporary merchants, in which entrepreneurs of other classes were registered: peasants, philistines, nobles. They acquired trading rights, but continued to be in their estate. Merchants who paid the guild fee received a "Merchant certificate". Such a system lasted until the 1890s and was created for fiscal purposes. According to the “Regulations on the state trade tax”, issued on June 8, 1898, persons without guild certificates are allowed to engage in commerce.
Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the boundaries of the merchant class became blurred, certain part wealthy merchants became owners titles of nobility, and their composition was replenished with some representatives of the peasantry and philistinism. The merchant class became the foundation of the financial, commercial and industrial bourgeoisie. Merchants' capital was invested in industrial production. From the beginning of the 19th century to 1917, the merchant class increased from 125,000 males to 230,000, although about 70-80% belonged to the third guild.
head of house
In the second half of the XVII century. The merchant family of the Koshkins operated in Novgorod. These merchants owned six shops and two barns in the city market. In their gardens they grew vegetables for sale. In addition, they had their own mill, where a hired miller worked. The example of their trading house shows that by the end of the 17th century. in the activities of which large merchants there has been a specialization in the trade of certain goods. From the middle of the XVII century. The Koshkins exported hemp from Russia to Sweden, and iron from Sweden to Russia. A tenth of all the iron that Russian merchants exported from Sweden passed through the hands of the Koshkins. This was the main occupation on which their economic wealth was based. At the same time, they did not leave trade in other goods - flax, lard, etc. In Russia, the Koshkins bought large quantities of goods for export. Almost every year they went to Stockholm on a ship, returned with goods, took them to Moscow and sold them there. Goods exported to Sweden were sold at prices that could be one and a half, two or even three times higher than the prices that were paid for the same goods inside Russia. Thus, the trading profit was high. The cost of a consignment of goods sold as a result of one trip was estimated at 4-5 thousand rubles. The Koshkins invariably sold for more than they bought. They sold their goods in large quantities to the blacksmiths of the capital, Moscow trading people, shop owners in the city market, visiting merchants from southern cities, and they sold goods at retail.
A large merchant often showed greed and stinginess. Usually his wealth was obtained by long and hard work, so he demanded that others take care of his property - he, as he said, "was not found on the street." He was cruel and little inclined to pity in business dealings. He was merciless when it came to profit, ruined and ruined his ill-wishers and debtors. He was difficult in dealing with his subordinates and dependent people, although at the same time he could appreciate the work of a clerk devoted to him.
Sometimes a large merchant showed independence in relation to the authorities, self-confidence. When at the end of the XVII century. the reforms of the young Tsar Peter began, Gavrila Nikitin negatively assessed his activities in the Black Sea region during the campaigns against Azov. “The devil wears him near Tsargrad,” he said about Peter. “It’s a pity that the strength is disappearing, but at least he was gone, a little grief.”
Merchants Koshkins, thanks to their trade in Sweden, to some extent learned some features of Western European culture. They studied Swedish. Their trading books contained a Swedish-Russian dictionary compiled by someone from their family. Even before Peter's reforms, Western European chronology was familiar to them.
other participants in the trade. In the 16th and especially in the 17th century merchants became more and more complex. Not only merchants traded, but also boyars, monasteries, service people, townspeople and peasants. Foreigners who visited Russia considered trade as a national passion of the Muscovites.
In the 17th century was the biggest merchant Tsar. It was at this time that state trade appeared. From the royal economy, the market received the most vodka (at that time it was called wine), as well as such goods as bread, flax, hemp oil, salt, sable furs.
The government tried to send trade people abroad. Usually these were ambassadors who not only carried out diplomatic missions, but also had to sell government goods. Under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, such attempts were unsuccessful. In the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, they become more persistent. The sent merchants had to buy weapons and metals, conclude agreements with foreigners on the supply of goods needed by the government. These attempts did not bring great results. Russian merchants did not know well the conditions of Western markets. Therefore, the Russian government used "Moscow trading foreigners" who lived in Moscow and traded there. The embassy order gave them trade orders from the government. They also bought weapons and military equipment from abroad. For military purposes, they bought books on military and engineering art, spyglasses. For the purpose of barter with Persia, government agents bought small cheap mirrors and fabrics from foreign merchants. Rare things were bought for the needs of the palace - very expensive fabrics, silver, crystal dishes, boxes and caskets, carpets, birds and horses.
Some traded large landowners- boyars. were drawn into the bargain service people, who made up the city garrisons - archers, gunners, etc. A lot of townspeople. Usually the craftsman was the manufacturer and seller of the goods he made. played a significant role in trade peasants. They brought agricultural products and products of peasant crafts to the cities. The main place for the sale of peasant goods was the rural bazaar or fair. Some of these peasants carried on a very large trade and in fact ceased to be peasants in the exact sense of the word, turning into merchants.
Domestic trade. Although home masters worked in the estates and estates of feudal lords - service people, their products could not always satisfy the needs of a military man, for example, in weapons. These needs increasingly called the service man to the market, especially because in the 16th century. in the armed forces of the Russian state, firearms were distributed, which the patrimonial artisan could not make. This weapon had to be bought. Monasteries turned to the market for various items, in which, by the beginning of the 16th century. developed huge farms. The large number of monks forced the monastic authorities to buy for them clothes, shoes, utensils, work tools, build various premises purchasing building materials for this. In urban and rural markets, a significant amount of goods (household items) were sold, which were bought up by the general population.
Moscow craftsman's shop
The growth of the population and the ever-increasing demand for various goods on the market, especially in large cities, gave rise to a very narrow specialization among artisans: the master usually made only a special type of product. Therefore, among the artisans who produced clothes, in the XVI-XVII centuries. along with tailors, sarafan makers, fur coat makers, caftan makers, cap makers, hat makers, cap makers, etc. worked.
In the first place in the urban craft was the dressing of fabrics. This product has a prominent position in the market. The production of clothes and hats adjoined this craft. A more modest place was occupied by craftsmen who worked in the leather industry. However, in almost every city there was a shoe row in the market. A large branch of the craft was the production of metal products - "iron goods". In the markets in Pskov and Novgorod, copper products were sold in boiler rows, silver items in silver rows. A very important place was occupied by the woodworking craft. Wood was the most common and cheap material from which various household items were made - barrels, basts, sledges, collars, etc. All this was presented at urban and rural auctions. Along with the production of wooden utensils, pottery was widely spread. In addition to finished products, semi-finished products were sold on the markets - torn flax, hemp.
Already in the XVI century. in Russia, a territorial division of labor began to take shape in the form of specialization of different regions of the country in the production of a particular product. On the basis of the territorial division of labor, more or less permanent trade relations were formed and developed between different, sometimes remote regions of the country.
So, in the XVI century. the Tula-Serpukhov region stands out, where iron ore was mined, processed, and from where it was transported for sale to other areas. Processed ore was transported from Serpukhov to Moscow, and there it was bought by residents of northern cities. At the very beginning of the XVII century. the inhabitants of Ustyug brought Serpukhov iron for sale to Siberia. The links between the regions of the country were so strong and regular that in some places (Tver) artisans worked mainly with imported iron.
In the XVI century. Yaroslavl acts as the center from where leather products were brought for sale to the northern regions of the country.
Cloth production over High Quality than in peasant home production, and monastic clothes from it were also established in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. These products were widely sold in Moscow.
The Tver region supplied the country with spoons and dishes. Merchants from the northern counties bought this product in Tver in large quantities, and then sold it to the northern cities and villages. Kaluga dishes were also sold everywhere. In the north, the largest supplier of dishes - spoons, wooden dishes, ladles, bowls - was the Vologda-Belozersky region. The main center of the woodworking craft in the Belozersky region was the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. There was a turning workshop at the monastery, which made spoons (thousands of pieces), staves, “turned vessels”. Cyril spoons were famous throughout the country.
Along with trade links that connected remote areas and urban centers of the country, there were trade links that connected the city and its nearest district with its villages, villages, monasteries. The townspeople bought raw materials from the peasants (skins of wild animals, iron ore and other products of crafts and agriculture), processed it and sold it in the city market. Peasants bought metal products, jewelry, imported goods in the city.
The goods sold were often not intended for the general population, especially those that were valued for their very high quality. Iron products, quite expensive, were not bought by an ordinary resident of Russia every year. Many necessities similar to those sold, but of lesser quality, were produced within subsistence household farming. Therefore, for the XVI century. the regularity and importance of trade relations cannot be overestimated. They often did not affect the life of the broad masses of the population.
In the second half of the XVII century. the development of Russian trade reached new level. Since the end of the 16th century, a rapid and ever deeper penetration of the Russian population into Siberia - North Asia began. First of all, people were attracted here by the rapid enrichment due to the hunting of sables, the fur of which was especially highly valued both in Russia and in other countries. In Western Europe, he came into vogue. Meanwhile, sable could only be obtained in Siberia. In this way. Russia had a natural monopoly on this commodity. Trade with Siberia was in the hands of the largest Russian trading houses of the Fedotovs, Revyakins, Nikitins, Barefoot. Small merchants and clerks of large merchants came to Siberian cities, helped local hunters get ready for the hunting season and waited for their return. After a period of hunting, the merchant received two-thirds of his booty from the hunter. With a consignment of goods - "sable treasury" - the merchant went from Siberia to Arkhangelsk, where foreign ships came and where he could sell his goods. With the proceeds, he bought foreign goods and with them, as well as with a variety of local craft products - household items, he went to Siberia. In Siberian cities at that time there were no artisans yet. These cities were fortresses set up in a newly conquered country and inhabited by military people. Therefore, the Siberian townspeople needed the simplest things - clothes, shoes, dishes, etc. For a long time, Siberia also needed bread, since the local population almost did not know agriculture. While in Siberia, the merchant sold these goods and again entered into an agreement with hunters-traders regarding the extraction of sable furs.
So in the 17th century this trade route was regularly used by Russian trading people: Siberia - Arkhangelsk and Siberia again. These routes were followed by a trade movement that connected internal and external trade. It is noteworthy that this trade promoted not only goods of high value, which is typical for trade in ancient time but also everyday goods.
In developing domestic trade, great importance was trade fairs. All of them were at the crossroads of significant trade routes. Some fairs that operated in the 15th-16th centuries ceased to play their former role, since they probably did not survive after the intervention and devastation of various areas of Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. In the 17th century the scale and influence of several major fairs have grown. At this time, there were five major fairs that had all-Russian significance: Moscow, where goods were brought from different parts of the country, Arkhangelsk during the stay of foreign merchants in Arkhangelsk, Irbitskaya(in the city of Irbit), which was on the way to Siberia, Nizhny Novgorod (Makarievskaya) on the old trade route at the confluence of the Volga and Oka, Svenskaya at the Svensky Monastery near Bryansk, where merchants came along the Desna, a tributary of the Dnieper, from the Polish-Lithuanian state and from Turkey.
The Makariev Fair took place annually in July at the monastery of Macarius Zheltovodsky. In the first half of the XVI century. she was transferred here from Kazan. Its significance was determined by the fact that it served as an intermediary point, firstly, in the trade of the northern and central cities with the southern ones, and secondly, in the European part of Russia with Siberia. The Irbit fair was legalized by the government only in the first half of the 17th century. In the second half of the century, trading shops and other trading places were set up here, a guest yard was built. The fair took place in January, when trading people from the European part of Russia came here. At the end of the century, a connection was established between the Irbit fair and the Makariev fair.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. in each county of Russia there were many different in size, often small and tiny, rural markets and markets. During the 17th century their number decreased as they were absorbed by the regional markets.
Trade in cities. Moscow as a center of trade inXVIin. The unification of the country and the transformation of Moscow into the capital of everything Russian state affected its trade value. Land and river trade routes led to Moscow. Tverskaya Street, leaving the city, turned into a road that led to Tver, and then to Novgorod the Great. Sretenskaya Street continued along the Yaroslavl road and led to Yaroslavl, then to Vologda and Ustyug, from where the path opened along the Northern Dvina to White Sea. To the east, to Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan, the overland road lay through Vladimir. The waterway connected Moscow through the Moscow River and the Oka with the Volga, that is, with Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Astrakhan. From Moscow through Mozhaisk to Smolensk there was a road to the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian state.
In the second half of the 15th - early 16th century. from the lands annexed to Moscow, Ivan III and his son Vasily III transferred to their capital to live in droves the richest non-resident merchants, which increased the commercial importance of Moscow. Later, in the XVI-XVII centuries. only individual merchants, and not large groups of merchants, continued to be transferred from the province to the capital.
Under Ivan III, in Moscow, for the first time, gostiny yards were opened, in which visiting merchants were supposed to live and trade. In the 17th century in the capital there were two living yards - old and new. They had large scales for weighing goods of large volume and weight. Along the perimeter of the courtyard, two rows of small vaulted shops stretched in two tiers, one above the other. The shops in the gostiny yards and in the markets were rather cramped, the merchant could hardly turn in a shop full of goods. In the second half of the XVII century. in Moscow there were several institutions that dealt with customs duties. Moscow customs collected duties on jewelry, fabrics, furs, metals and other goods. Mytnaya hut - from meat, poultry, eggs, cheese ... Measured hut - from grain, berries, mushrooms. Ambassadorial New Customs - from various goods that were brought by foreign merchants.
Any product could be purchased on the Moscow market. The main market of the capital was located on Red Square. There were numerous trading places - booths, shops, huts. In addition to the permanent (stationary) trade, there was also a peddling trade. Along with the main market, numerous small markets were scattered around the city. Some of them were specialized in the trade of a certain commodity. So, on one of them it was possible to buy a finished wooden house, a gate. They were made outside the city, then dismantled, taken in the winter on a sleigh to Moscow and sold there.
As a large consuming urban center of the country, Moscow was supplied with food and handicraft raw materials from its immediate surroundings. Some of the products were brought from afar: fish was brought from the Volga centers, oil came from Vologda, salt came from the northern areas, honey and wax, wooden utensils were brought from the forest regions of the Upper and Middle Volga, and vegetable oil from Smolensk. Moscow received a lot of bread from Ryazan. From Ustyuzhna-Zhelezopolskaya they brought iron products, from Novgorod - copper, tin, lead, from Yaroslavl - leather, from Ustyug and Perm - furs. From the end of the 16th century Moscow merchants began to travel for furs to Siberia. They brought with them Moscow goods, which were in dire need of the Russian population of the developed Siberian region.
A huge amount of Russian and foreign goods was brought to Moscow. Some of them - fabrics, handicrafts, spices, wine, salt, furs, clothing, weapons and other goods of the "Moscow purchase" - were taken for sale to other cities and fairs.
In the XVII century, merchants from all more or less significant cities and shopping centers of the Russian state were represented on the capital's market.
Iron weights (XVIIin.)
Trade in other cities. The development of trade stimulated the life of provincial Russian cities as well. The merchants who came to them needed food, lodging, premises for storing goods, and sufficient trading premises in the city market. This need forced the construction of specialized buildings in the city - gostiny yards. IN Big city artisans from different regions of Russia were especially willing to move, finding work orders here. The city market - bargaining - was located on the central square of the city, near the administrative center, the fortress. It represented a greater or lesser number of trading rows. The row consisted of commercial premises - usually wooden benches. They were placed with facades facing each other so that the buyer walked along the row and examined the goods that were in the shops. The more shops there were, the longer the row turned out to be. Only local residents traded in the shops. For the convenience of trade, the rows had a specialization - cake, bread, meat. In the middle of the XVI century. stone shops were built in such a large shopping mall as Novgorod. In addition to shops, barns and cellars, cages, huts, closets, sheds, barrel and jug places were used in trade. There were several markets in big cities. Trading shops also stood outside the markets, on the streets, near the house of a merchant. In smaller cities, retail space was not lined up in rows.
IN Novgorod there were about 4 dozen rows. At the beginning of the 17th century, new rows were built at the Novgorod market, which were not there before - iron, saddle, candle, mitten, book, etc. Wealthy merchants who traded in foreign goods formed the Great Row. Novgorod merchants exported foreign goods to other cities. With the money of these merchants, the church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, the patroness of trade, was kept at the auction. Wealthy merchants still traded in the cloth row. The remaining rows were intended for the sale of less valuable goods - products of local artisans. In the 17th century there were several large living yards. There were several foreign guest houses and offices. All the same, the church of Ivan-on-Opoka stood at the market. In it, they collected payment from trading people for weighing goods, but not in favor of the temple, as in the days of Novgorod independence, but for the “great sovereign” - the Moscow prince, tsar.
In the first half of the XVII century. as a major shopping center advanced Yaroslavl. It was located at the crossroads of important trade routes between Moscow and the northern cities, the Volga trade route passed by it. Merchants traveling from Siberia reached Yaroslavl, and from there they moved to the center of the country. Yaroslavl filled the markets of Pomorye and Siberia with its leather goods, cloth, canvases, clothes. Yaroslavl merchants carried on a large trade with foreigners. In the city there were living quarters of English, Dutch and German merchants.
The country had a large number of medium and small cities in terms of trade. An example of an average mall was Tikhvin Posad in the northwest of the country. In the 17th century there were 6 trading rows on the market here. The bulk of the traders were townspeople, surrounding peasants, buyers and visiting merchants from more than 40 cities. Tikhvin goods were dispersed throughout the rural district with a radius of 200-400 miles.
International trade. Import of goods to Arkhangelsk. In the 17th century, especially in the second half of the century, mainly luxury items, things for home furnishings, for the needs of the army were imported to Russia from abroad. The main place for the import of foreign goods was Arkhangelsk, which stood on the Northern Dvina. Because of the long winter, it was only open to foreign ships for six months of the year. IN winter time this city, remote from the center of the country, was, as it were, in hibernation with boarded-up shops, empty taverns and workshops, deserted streets. As soon as the river opened up, along the right bank of which the houses and streets of Arkhangelsk stretched, the city woke up. The governor moved here from the neighboring city of Kholmogor with his office. A guest came from Moscow with his assistants to collect customs duties. By the beginning of the fair, merchants gathered. They brought "Russian goods" - lard, leather, butter, honey, wax, hemp, potash, tar. Wood was floated to the mouth of the river, intended for sale to foreigners. In the summer, foreign ships came to Arkhangelsk through the White Sea and the Dvina. The term of the fair was set for three months - from June 1 to September 1, in October the Dvina was already freezing. Therefore, in September, the Arkhangelsk fair ended its activities.
During the first half of the century, the number of foreign ships that came to Arkhangelsk more than tripled - from 29 to 80. Then their number decreased due to the policy of the government, which began to patronize Russian merchants, putting foreign merchants in a disadvantageous position for them. By the end of the century, the number of foreign ships rose again to 70. Most of the ships belonged to the Dutch. Usually the ship carried the goods of several merchants.
With the help of a Russian pilot, a foreign ship passed from the mouth of the Dvina to Arkhangelsk. Here, the goods were either transferred to the shore, or remained on the ship, where Russian buyers were. The goods transferred to the shore arrived only at the Gostiny Dvor. At the gates of two gostiny yards - Russian and "German" - there were guards who made sure that no one left these yards without paying duties.
The main buyer in Arkhangelsk was the treasury. Usually the guest, who was appointed to Arkhangelsk to collect duties, was given a list of those goods that needed to be purchased for the treasury. The guest paid for the purchased goods in kind - potash, hemp and tar, the warehouses of which were located in Arkhangelsk. For the royal court, foreigners bought a large amount of silk fabric, non-ferrous metals (gold, silver, tin, copper), writing paper, wine and vinegar, spices and fruits. Most of the matter went to the salaries of service people. The paper came in orders. Spices and wines were also spent on awards.
In accordance with the Novotorgovy charter, foreigners had to sell their goods to Russian merchants in large quantities. However, this order was often violated, and in their barns, foreign merchants sold goods at retail. Trade was largely barter in nature. Russian raw materials were exchanged for foreign goods.
In addition to the government, large wholesale buyers from the upper layer of the Moscow merchant class operated on the Arkhangelsk market. Almost all trade with foreigners in this city was in their hands. Such merchants had their own ships on the Dvina, on which imported goods were loaded. The ships went up the river and went to the city of Ustyug. It was the largest center on the road from Arkhangelsk to Moscow. There was a big market in the city. Foreign goods and fish were brought from Arkhangelsk to Ustyug. From Siberia and Kazan - Asian silk, Persian and Chinese fabrics and specially processed leather, from northern Russian cities - lard, butter, leather, hops, which were bought up by Russian merchants and taken to the Arkhangelsk fair. Large merchants sold foreign goods in Ustyug. Smaller merchants did the same. Their area of operation was small. There were also those who, having bought foreign goods, went with a body to the nearest settlements, to peasant volosts.
Local residents brought surplus subsistence products to Arkhangelsk to be exchanged for foreign goods. They were hired on ships that sailed along the Northern Dvina, worked as cabbies transporting goods, pilots on foreign ships, and loaders. To transport goods from ships to shore to the city, barrels were needed. This stimulated the cooper trade in Arkhangelsk. The Dvina-Belomorsky route was perhaps the busiest trade route in Russia in the 17th century.
Trade on the western border. In the west of Russia, overland trade was carried out through Novgorod and Pskov. From the 16th century due to the opening of a trade route through the White Sea, long wars and the oprichnina pogrom that Ivan the Terrible staged in Novgorod and Novgorod land, the importance of these ancient shopping centers declined. In the second half of the XVII century. both of these cities played the role of trading centers for the local district. As before, trade with the German city of Lübeck developed in Novgorod and Pskov. However, from the middle of the fifteenth century The Hansa entered a period of decline. This decline made itself especially clear in the 16th century, when world trade routes shifted to Atlantic Ocean with the discovery of America. Sweden, England, and the Netherlands began to play a significant role in Novgorod trade.
Many Swedes lived in Novgorod. Their goods were mainly glass and metals (iron, copper, lead and tin). Unlike trade in Arkhangelsk, Novgorod merchants often traveled to Sweden, to Stockholm. Russian ships that sailed the Baltic Sea were small. They usually accommodated about ten people or more. Trips to the “Svei Germans” for trade were so common that the inhabitants of the city of Olonets from
Novgorod land, only thanks to their trade with the Swedes had money to pay taxes. Fish and meat went from Olonets to Sweden. Often, not having significant money, many Russian merchants borrowed money from the Swedes, bought goods in Russia with them, and then sold them in Sweden at a low price, making a very small profit. This greatly interfered with Russian trade, as it brought down the prices of Russian goods on the Swedish market.
In general, foreign trade that went through Novgorod and Pskov was not particularly significant. The Swedish government would like Russia's foreign trade to be reoriented from the White Sea to the Baltic. It even deliberately lowered duties on Russian goods in order to stimulate their import into their country. However, the Russian government did not agree to such a change in the foreign trade system, since it did not have the Baltic territories and access to the Baltic Sea.
On the western border of Russia, an important trading point through which foreign trade went was Smolensk. Through this city there were connections with Poland and Lithuania. Since with the Commonwealth in Russia in the XVII century. were most often hostile relations, trade in this direction has not received much development.
Southern and southeastern directions of trade. Through the southern city Putivl Greek merchants came to Russia. They also traded in Putivl, but most often moved with their goods to Moscow. In the eyes of the Russian government, the Greeks were fellow believers, persecuted in their land by the conquering Turks. They played the role of ambassadors from the Patriarch of Constantinople, were informants about foreign events. Thanks to these circumstances, the Greeks enjoyed special advantages.
compared to other foreign merchants. From the border, their goods were transported on special carts with escorts. They received free maintenance from the government for the duration of their stay in Russia. Every year between 50 and 199 Greek merchants came to the country. They carried things that went to the needs of the palace: precious materials and stones, pearls, jewelry, expensive weapons, horse harness.
Astrakhan was like a gateway to Russia for Asian goods. Goods were brought here along the Caspian Sea and along the Volga from Persia, the Central Asian states - Bukhara and Khiva, as well as from India, trade with which was only in its infancy in the 17th century. There was a vast caravanserai in the city, surrounded by a stone wall with several gates. A two-story building was built here for Armenian merchants. Here was a wooden living quarters for Indian merchants. Nearby was a stone building, which played the role of a warehouse and a trading shop. The main commodity was raw silk of various varieties, in particular, expensive “white silk” and cheaper “yellow silk”. It went mainly for export to Western European countries. Foreign merchants also brought to Astrakhan oriental fabrics, as well as finished products - tablecloths, towels, scarves, sheets, carpets, hats, jewelry, faience dishes, dried fruits, spices. These were all high value items. Foreign merchants exported sables and cheaper furs, walrus ivory, Western European silk fabrics, a huge number of small-sized mirrors brought to Russia from abroad to Asian countries from Russia.
In the second half of the XVII century. quite a lot of merchants went to Persia for trading purposes. Therefore, in Astrakhan, in a special yard, ships were made for trade trips through the Caspian Sea. They were called beads and were equipped with cannons to protect them from robbers. . Twice a year, in spring and autumn, a bus with merchants went on a trip. Upon arrival in Persia, the goods were sold. Going back, the ship took on board merchants - immigrants from Central Asia who wanted to get to Russia with their goods.
In the 17th century Russia began to trade with China through Siberia. In the middle of the century, an embassy was sent to this country to find out what goods could be bought there and to establish trade relations. From the 70s. government trade with China began. Furs bought from Siberian fishermen with caravans were sent to China, where these goods were exchanged for Chinese ones. Private trade also began to develop. In the 90s. There was already a Russian colony in Beijing. Materials were mainly brought from China.
Moscow is the center of foreign trade. Arriving in Moscow, foreign merchants had to present their goods at the Great Customs, where these goods were inspected and a duty was collected from the merchants. Before the adoption of the trade charter, customs taxation was diverse and had a heavy impact on trade. In addition to the main duty, there were many small fees in favor of the treasury and customs personnel - clerks who kept documentation, porters, janitors, Cossacks - hired people who performed various services, and others. When registering goods at customs, a merchant was charged a "note", when transporting goods to the scales for weighing - "business", when unloading goods - a "landfill duty", a special fee was charged for weighing.
After paying duties, foreign goods were taken to the Gostiny Dvor, where they were wholesaled. There were several such trading yards in Moscow: in the very center - Old, New, Persian, at a distance from the center - Swedish, Lithuanian, Armenian, Greek.
Moscow had rather lively trade relations with Lithuania after Vasily III included Smolensk in the Russian state. Lithuanian merchants brought materials to Moscow, especially jewelry and jewelry, and bought wax here. Russian merchants brought sables to Lithuania.
Of all Western European merchants, the British played a special role in Moscow trade. From the 16th century in England, an association of local merchants was organized - the Moscow Company - which traded with Russia. An English Gostiny Dvor was arranged in Moscow. English merchants brought to Moscow mainly fabrics, as well as metals, especially tin, lace, pearls, and jewelry.
At the end of the 16th and especially in the 17th century. along with the British, Dutch merchants launched active activities in Moscow.
In Moscow trade, the southern direction remained important - contacts with Persia, the countries of Central Asia, the Crimea, and Turkey. From different countries, as before, they carried fine fabrics, ceremonial weapons, and luxury items. Cheaper goods were items of Tatar crafts exported from the Crimea - shoes, saddles, clothing. Horses were the main import item from the steppes. They were driven to Moscow for sale in huge herds - thousands of heads.
In the XVI century. the commercial importance of Moscow grew, it overtook Novgorod in its importance. At the beginning of the XVII century. in connection with the internal war in the country, Moscow as a center of foreign trade experienced a decline. Later, her position was strengthened and grew significantly. In the second half of the XVII century. trade links stretched to Moscow from different regions of Russia.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. as well as foreign trade, which retained its significance, the role of internal trade gradually grew. This indicated that the country's trade development was rising to a new level: the ratio of the importance of foreign and domestic trade was changing. Internal trade gradually began to prevail. In the total mass of goods that merchants brought to the market, along with precious items, household items, everyday items, play an increasingly important role.
