Merchant correspondence as a source for the study of the problems of fur trade development by companies with big capital in northeastern Siberia in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries

This article analyzes the unpublished materials of merchant correspondence, which refers to the epistolary form of sources. The main purpose of the article is to determine the characteristics of the correspondence of representatives of firms with big capital involved in the fur trade in Northeastern Siberia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Merchant correspondence as a source of studying the problem of fur trade organizing by companies with big capital contains extensive quantitative information. Research of the stated problem implies critical analysis of the correspondence. The activities of big firms in the fur trade in Northeastern Siberia involved all sorts of economic risks. It caused the presence of each company's trade secrets. Information on the progress of the fur trade recorded in letters and telegrams was written in an encrypted form. Some companies used the method of digital signage for each type of fur raw materials, others broadcast information on the number of purchased furs in substantially lower values. The correspondence of the clerk of the trading house "M. A. Kokovin and I.A. Basov" with the chief administrators shows peculiarities of development of remote areas of Northeastern Siberia in severe climatic conditions. In addition to organizing the fur trade in the departments of the trading house in Ayan and Nelkan, clerk V.I. Fefelov engaged in the exploration of gold deposits, in finding convenient berths for steamships in the bays of the Okhotsk Sea, in the tea trade. The focus of the letters of N.D. Everstov to I.G. Shipachev, his authorized representative in Moscow, was on the arrangement of deals on the Siberian sable with foreign customers, on the fur trade at big fairs in Nizhny Novgorod and Irbit. N.D. Everstov resolved current affairs in correspondence with his sons, who were engaged in the transportation of teas from the ports of Vladivostok and the Okhotsk Sea, as well as in domestic and foreign wholesale trade in consumer goods and furs. The correspondence of I.D. Perevalov, the accountant of a match and fur factory "N.P. Rylov and F.P. Lesnikov". The correspondence has information on the new company's functioning in the fur trade in Northeastern Siberia. The correspondence of the clerks of the company "G.V. Nikiforov" contains information about the competition in the fur trade between firms with big capital and the dynamics of pricing for the main types of fur raw materials. In conclusion, the authors note that the study of epistolary sources consisting of correspondence of big company representatives shows a wide range of problems in the organization of the fur trade in Northeastern Siberia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. This merchant correspondence, intended for internal use, has a high degree of reliability.

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