Galina Nikolaevna Ulianova,
Doctor of Historical Science, Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Grain and Flour Trade in Moscow in the First Half of the 19th Century: a Water Transportation of Grain, Flour and Cereals
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-3-1
In Russia of the 18th – 19th centuries, especially before the development of the railway network, the water transportation of goods and commodities played a huge role in inner trade. For Moscow trade, the river waterways were accessible for about half a year. At this time, the city received a significant amount of food supplies intended to feed the Muscovites. In a region where Moscow as megapolis was the main center of trade and consumption (its population grew rapidly in the first half of the nineteenth century, in 1811, it was 275,000; in 1825 – 312,000 and 350,000 in 1847), the shipping mostly was carried out on the Oka and Moskva rivers, and Kolomna was an important trading hub in this system. The sacked grain, flour and cereals were delivered from noble landlords’ estates and other rural farms to the piers on the Oka and its tributaries, and there they were loaded onto ships for further transportation to Moscow. The article considers the issues of the delivery of grain crops (grain, flour and cereals) to Moscow such as: from which localities these production came, what products were delivered, the statistics of the turnover of grain products, and who were the grain traders shipping grain and flour to Moscow on their own or rented boats. Data were collected from the archival register on grain and flour water transportation to Moscow (1813–1814), official statistics surveys from the reports of the Moscow Police Chief, statistical reviews (by V. Androssov and K. Arseniev), analytical articles from the magazines such as “Zhurnal Ministerstva vnutrennikh del”, “Otechestvennye zapiski”, etc. The study of the hydrographic characteristics of the water system and the features of commercial shipping show that overcoming the summer shallow waters and creating a system for delivering ships with cargo against the river’s current were important issues. Statistical data analysis reveals that in the 1830s and 1840s, from 5 to 88 percent of the volume of wheat grain and from 21 to 36 percent of the volume of rye grain, from 12 to 47 percent of wheat flour and from 45 to 53 percent of rye flour were shipped by waterways. The information from the archival register on grain and flour water transportation to Moscow (1813–1814) indicates a wide geography of supplies of grain and flour. Many provincial merchants, nobles, peasants and meshchane of several Central Russian provinces (including Tambov, Ryazan provinces, etc.) were involved in this trade. The substantial infrastructure, including delivery of products to specially equipped piers, temporary storage in warehouses, loading of ships, and transportation to the destination, existed across the Oka and the Moscow rivers water area within the territories of the Moscow and several neighbouring provinces.
Publishing: 28/06/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 01/03/2022
How to cite: Ulianova G.N. The Grain and Flour Trade in Moscow in the First Half of the 19th Century: a Water Transportation of Grain, Flour and Cereals // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 3 (23), pp. 11–23. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-3-01.pdf]
Links: Issue 3 2022
Keywords: entrepreneurship; merchants; trade; grain trade; water transportation; Imperial Russia; Moscow