Inga Vladimirovna Maslova,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Yelabuga Institute of Kazan Federal University, Yelabuga, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Reflection of the Entrepreneurial Activity of Merchants in the Baikal-Amur Region in the Travel Notes of D.I. Stakheev (Late 1850s – 1860s)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-3-2
The article explores the information potential of travel notes as a phenomenon for the study of social interactions and a source of cultural information about the everyday life and behavioral practices of Russians in the 19th century. The role of water communications of the Baikal-Amur region in the entrepreneurial activity of the merchants is considered on the basis of the analysis of D.I. Stakheev “Beyond Baikal on the Amur”, published in St. Petersburg in 1869. The author of the notes belonged to the merchant environment and was engaged in the tea trade in Kyakhta, representing the interests of the family business, so the history of entrepreneurship became one of the storylines of his story. The author delves into stories about the entrepreneurial activities of the merchant class, provides statistics on commercial transactions, tries to make economic forecasts and estimates, describes the psychology of actions and behavioral practices of Russian merchants in the mid-19th century. Among the entrepreneurial risks of businessmen of the Baikal-Amur region D.I. Stakheev highlights: seasonality and the lack of clear schedules for steamship cargo transportation; frequent force majeure situations caused by cold climates and natural disasters; the prevalence of fraudulent trading schemes, the manufacture of counterfeit products, and smuggling. The subject of D. Stakheev’s description was the difficult period of the formation of shipping companies on Baikal and the rivers of Siberia and the Far East, stories from the life of immigrants, everyday life and customs of local peoples. An analysis of D. Stakheev’s travel notes will expand the understanding of the role and place of travel in the space of everyday life of a Russian in the second half of the 19th century, using the example of trips to Transbaikalia and the Amur region.
Publishing: 28/06/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 29/03/2022
How to cite: Maslova I.V. Reflection of the Entrepreneurial Activity of Merchants in the Baikal-Amur Region in the Travel Notes of D.I. Stakheev (Late 1850s – 1860s) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 3 (23), pp. 24–34. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-3-02.pdf]
Links: Issue 3 2022
Keywords: D.I. Stakheev; travelogue; Baikal; Amur; merchants; business; travel