Merchants

Categories / Population/Social Classes
MERCHANTS, a social group forming a part of the St. Petersburg population, individuals engaged in trade and industrial activities. In the first half of the 18th century merchants came in among the "planted people." Tsar Peter the Great forcibly sent merchants from Arkhangelsk and other cities: decrees of 1712 and 1714 stipulated the resettlement of more than 300 wealthy merchants to St. Petersburg. The so-called "guests" (by 1716 186 merchants were relocated) came to St. Petersburg and traded hemp, skins, flax, canvas. Among the first merchants were I. Isaev (vice-president of the St. Petersburg City Council), I. Miklyaev, A. Bolotin, I. Veselovsky, I. Dmitrov, M. Evreinov. The Petersburg merchants, as they were all over Russia, were organized into guilds and enjoyed the right of self-government. The City Charter in 1785 replaced the merchants’ capitation tax of paying a percent from their declared income and permitted them to pay in place of government service. In 1786 the 10 most eminent citizens in St. Petersburg and province included merchants and bankers, there were 288 merchants in the first guild, 394 in the second guild, 3,555 in the third guild. In the second half of the 19th century the numbers of merchants declined. In 1869 there were about 22,300 people in the merchant class. (3.3% of the population), in 1897 - 17,400 (1.4%). Of the merchants 77.5% and 80.4% were Russian, 15.4% and 12% - German, 4% and 5% Jewish.

References: Семенова Л. Н. Быт и население Санкт-Петербурга (XVIII в.). М.; СПб., 1998. С. 94-134; Петербургское купечество в XIX веке / Вступ. ст., сост., коммент. А. М. Конечного. СПб., 2003.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Bolotin A.
Dmitrov I.
Evreinov Matvey Grigorievich
Isaev Ilya
Miklyaev I.
Peter I, Emperor
Veselovsky I.
Семенова Л. Н. Быт и население Санкт-Петербурга (XVIII в.). М.; СПб., 1998 Townspeople (Posadsky)
Russians
Germans
Jews