History of russian-asian trade and the role of eastern merchantry in it in russian sources (the end of XVIII-beginning of the XX centuries)

Abstract

The article presents the analysis of sources on the history of Russian-Asian trade, the role of Eastern merchantry in it, published in the Russian press in the end of XVIII-beg. of XX centuries. Works on Economics and Statistics, memories of travelers and diplomats, history of Russian-Asian relations are valuable sources on the issue of justifying the political presence of the Russian Empire in the Asian region. That is especially important for the modern Russian statehood, as its geopolitical interests are also concentrated in this region. Statistical data (in particular, collection of “State Foreign Trade in Its Different Types”) and studies of contemporaries, published in the pre-revolutionary period, constitute a complex of historical sources and help to recreate an objective historical picture of the Russian-Asian trade relations. That is the purpose of our research. For its implementation we used general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, special historical ideographic and historical comparative research methods. When using them, we considered the principles of historicism and objectivism. As a result, we’ve come to the conclusion that the published Russian-language sources of the end of the XVIII-early XX centuries represent a very significant set of documents allowing to determine the rather significant role of Asian merchants in Russian-Asian trade and, as a result, determine the factors of Russian economic and political influence in the states of the East.

Keywords

• исторический источник
• опубликованный источник
• русско-азиатская торговля
• статистика
• азиатское купечество
• историография
• буржуазия
• промышленный переворот
• historical source
• published source
• russian-asian trade
• statistics
• asian merchantry
• historiography
• bourgeoisie
• industrial revolution