Our Notes & References

Very rare detailed business address book of the Russian capital: we could not trace any copy in WorldCat or Copac, and no other copy on the market in recent decades.

The first commodities exchange in Russia was organised in 1703 in the new city of Saint Petersburg on the order of Peter the Great, who was inspired by an exchange he saw in Amsterdam. The new organisation was aimed at facilitating negotiations between merchants, creating business opportunities and making information on prices, supply and demand more transparent. The exchange was open to all the Russian and foreign merchants.

For almost a century the St. Petersburg exchange remained the only such market officially recognised by the Russian State;only in 1796 an exchange was open in Odessa, and in 1837 in Moscow. Since its establishment the exchange was largely inefficient due to the lack of regulations, until Nicholas I’s Minister of Finance, Count Kankrin, introduced the Exchange Charter and set up the Exchange Council. Around the same time the deals at the exchange started to also involve shares and bonds in addition to commodities.

From 1844 the St. Petersburg Exchange Council started to publish an address book listing all the Russian and foreign merchants and brokers dealing at the exchange, as well as inspectors controlling the quality of commodities at the St Petersburg port. The address book was issued irregularly until 1881.

Bibliography

Dmitriy Kondratiev, Kak v Rossii birzha stroilas (Moskva, 2001).